Local search is where service businesses win or lose. When someone types “plumber near me” or “accountant in Shoreditch,” Google decides which three businesses to show in the map pack and which sites earn the first organic slots under it. WordPress gives you everything you need to compete, but only if the site, your Google Business Profile, and your off site signals tell one clear local story. Use this guide to tighten that story and move up the results that drive phone calls and form fills.
What makes local SEO different
Classic SEO focuses on relevance and authority. Local SEO adds proximity and real world trust. Google checks that you are close to the searcher, that your services match the query, and that people seem to prefer you. It reads your website, your Google Business Profile, your reviews, and hundreds of small citations across the web. The goal is to make every signal match and to remove anything that creates doubt.
Start with Google Business Profile
Choose the right primary category, since it drives most of your visibility. Add secondary categories for key services. Write a short business description that mirrors your service pages. Set accurate hours, holiday hours, and attributes such as on site service or wheelchair access. Upload real photos that show vehicles, staff, storefront, and recent work. Turn on messaging if your team can reply fast. Use the website link for your homepage and the appointment link for your contact page or booking tool, and tag them with UTM parameters so you can see the leads in analytics. Post updates for offers or seasonal services once a week. Answer the questions in the Q&A section yourself so helpful information appears right on the profile.
Fix NAP and citations before anything else
Your name, address, and phone number must be identical everywhere. Make the NAP consistent in your site header, footer, and contact page. If you operate as a service area business, show the city list you serve rather than a full street address if you do not receive customers at your location. Update major directories with the same format you use on your site. Small mismatches like “St.” versus “Street” or an old suite number create noise. Consistency here is a quiet ranking advantage and it reduces wrong number calls.
Build location pages that earn trust
If you serve one city, your homepage can act as the location page. If you serve multiple cities, give each priority city its own page. A good location page is more than a thin “We serve Manchester” paragraph. Show recent local projects with photos and captions. Add a short team section that names the technician or consultant who covers that area. Include neighborhood references, landmarks, or compliance notes that prove you know the area. Add driving directions from major roads and a simple parking note if clients visit you. Close with a local testimonial that mentions the city by name. Use a clean slug like /manchester/ and link to it from the main navigation and from relevant service pages.
Structure service pages for local intent
Create a page for each high value service, not one long “Services” page. Use a clear H1 that matches how customers search. Explain the problem, how you fix it, how long it takes, and what it costs to start. Add a short FAQ that tackles objections. Include a call to action block that links to your contact page and your key city pages. If you run a multi location site, add a small city selector module on service pages so visitors can switch to the variant that matches their area.
Add local schema the right way
Use JSON LD to mark up your business with the correct schema type such as LocalBusiness or a more specific subtype. Include name, phone, address, geo coordinates, opening hours, sameAs links to your social profiles, and areaServed if you hide your street address. Add service specific schema to service pages where it makes sense. Keep the data in sync with your visible content, since mismatches reduce trust. Many SEO plugins support this out of the box, but verify the output in the structured data testing tools before you ship.
Make reviews a steady habit, not a campaign
A spike of reviews looks staged. A slow, steady flow looks real and ranks better. Ask at the right moment, usually right after a successful job or a resolved support ticket. Provide a short link directly to the review form. Coach customers to mention the city and the service in natural language, since those details help you appear for long tail queries. Reply to every review, especially the mixed ones. Your future customers read the replies to judge how you handle problems.
Internal links that guide both users and crawlers
From the homepage, link to your top service pages and your top city pages. From each service page, link to the city pages that matter. From each city page, link back to the relevant services. This triangle creates strong paths that search engines can follow and that customers can navigate without thinking. Use short, descriptive anchor text like “boiler repair in Leeds” rather than generic “learn more” labels.
Technical choices in WordPress that move the needle
Use a fast, block first theme so the base HTML and CSS are lean. Install a trusted SEO plugin to handle titles, meta descriptions, schema, and sitemaps. Turn on caching and page compression at the host or plugin level. Serve images in WebP or AVIF and set intrinsic width and height to prevent layout shifts. Keep plugins to a minimum and dequeue assets that load where they are not needed. Test Core Web Vitals on a mid range phone, because that is what your customers use when they search in the field. A site that loads quickly and responds instantly helps you rank and helps visitors complete forms without friction.
Content that proves local expertise
Write one or two useful guides per quarter that speak to local problems. Examples include “What to check before booking an emergency drain unblocking in Bristol” or “How to prep your home for a heat pump survey in Brighton.” Include prices or starting ranges, permit notes, or seasonal advice. Add a short case study for notable projects with the city in the title and captions under images. This kind of content picks up long tail searches and gives your sales team material to send after a call.
Keep tracking clean and simple
Set up Google Analytics and Search Console. Create a conversion that fires on successful form submissions and track phone clicks on mobile. Use a dedicated number for paid ads if you need call tracking, but keep your main NAP consistent on the site. Add UTM tagging to the website and appointment links in Google Business Profile so you can see how many leads come from the map pack. Review GBP Insights monthly for top search terms and adjust your page titles and headings to reflect how people actually search.
A 30 day rollout plan
Week 1. Audit NAP, citations, and Google Business Profile. Fix inconsistencies, upload current photos, and publish one post.
Week 2. Create or improve location pages for the top two cities. Add real project photos, a local testimonial, and a clear call to action.
Week 3. Rewrite two core service pages with local intent. Add internal links to the right city pages and implement local schema.
Week 4. Ask recent customers for reviews, reply to all existing reviews, and test Core Web Vitals. Clean up plugin assets and compress media.
Common mistakes to avoid
Thin city pages that repeat the same paragraph with a different place name waste crawl budget and erode trust. Auto generated review widgets that look like ads turn visitors away. Hiding your phone number behind a script hurts conversions. Stuffing footers with a long list of city links looks spammy and rarely helps. Keep things useful and human. If a section would not help a real customer, it probably will not help your rankings either.
The takeaway
Local SEO rewards clarity and consistency. Tell the same story on your Google Business Profile, on your WordPress site, and across the small citations that describe your business. Build real location pages, clear service pages, and a simple internal link structure. Keep the site fast and easy to use on a phone. Ask for reviews every week. These steps move you up the map pack and the organic results, and they convert that visibility into booked jobs and signed agreements.
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