What does search engine optimization — Local SEO — look like for local, brick-and-mortar businesses in 2025? Between Google, AI, schema, backlinks, and technical SEO, it’s not just confusing, it’s overwhelming! Here’s what you need to know to get optimized so that people will find your local business when they need what you have to offer. Let’s dig in…
Your Google Business Profile for Local SEO
First and foremost, your Google Business Profile (GBP) is still the foundation for local businesses. Why? It’s connected to Google Maps.
For instance, a potential customer may search for “Self Storage Near Me.” This is the person who needs storage for a multitude of reasons but lives or works in your neighborhood. Of course, you don’t need to put the words “near me” on your profile or website. Google will know based on the searcher’s GPS location and it will pull up all the facilities matching the criteria based on their Google Business Profile.
People may also search for “Asian Restaurant in {your town or city}”. Your website or listing has to come up quickly on mobile devices. Otherwise, that potential customer will go elsewhere. Furthermore, your exact address must be the same everywhere — not just in your GBP. Test your site with Google’s Page Speed Test.
Additionally, in your GBP, you can highlight all your services, amenities, menu, and products, as well as post your hours. Customers can leave reviews. Potential customers can ask questions like, “Are you pet-friendly?” You can also post tips, specials, blog posts, and even promote events.
Moreover, you can brand your page by uploading your logo, videos, and images.
How to set up your Google Business Profile (GBP)
Go to https://business.google.com/ and log into your Google account. If you have a Google Business Profile, it will come up. If you don’t, then follow the steps and it will guide you in setting up your profile.
New businesses will have to verify the location. Follow the prompts and instructions to get verified. Once you’re verified, you’ll get a blue checkmark on your logo. By the way, this is what my GBP Dashboard looks like.
Your Google Business Dashboard
On your profile dashboard, when you click on the 3 dots to the right of “Profile Strength”, you’ll see your business profile settings…
- Business Profile Settings — Here’s where you can add other managers to your profile. I recommend having at least 2 people with access to your profile.
- Notifications — Set these as needed. You want to be notified when someone asks a question and when someone posts a review — good or bad.
- Add a new Business Profile — This would apply if you have multiple locations.
- Other Dashboard Settings:
- Add Update — Another nice feature is “Updates” (see Image 8). (Insert Image 8) You can share blog articles from your website, that helps with SEO! Add special offers and promote your events — especially your auctions!
- Read Reviews — Always check your reviews and respond to them. Thank a happy customer and defuse any unhappy ones.
- Performance — This tracks interactions on your business profile only — not on your website. It will tell you how many people clicked over to your website from the profile. Note, that this is not Google Analytics! That’s a different setup. Please refer to my past article on analytics. If you have your phone number listed — which you should — it will tell you how many calls came from the profile, and messages (if you have them turned on.)
- Edit Profile — Here’s where you add the pertinent details of your business. Make sure all your information is current: official business name, contact information, regular hours, holiday hours, facility amenities, languages spoken, and services provided. Fill out everything relevant to your business.
- Believe it or not, all this is important. Go through each section and make sure everything is filled out and optimized with your relevant keywords. For instance, you get 750 characters for your “Description”. Make it keyword-centric, but don’t overdo the keyword stuffing. Write for your potential customer, in natural language, with the search engine in mind.
Keeping Up with Google
With Google’s August 2024 CORE algorithm update, it now ranks fully optimized websites higher. Consequently, it demotes websites with poor SEO. See my “Planning for 2025” article in the December MSM. By the way, Google does these updates monthly to refine their search systems to enhance the quality of results. It’s constantly changing. Incidentally, you can follow me on social media where I share the latest digital marketing tips.
Search Generative Experience (SGE) — The Future
Given that, you should be aware of Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE). If your business employs Local SEO and content marketing best practices, you should be in good shape to adjust to the AI (Artificial Intelligence) evolution of search.
Certainly, you can’t deny that AI is quickly changing the digital world. Likewise, search engines constantly evolve in how they work and deliver results to searchers.
Google’s SGE is still in its experimental stages, but I expect it will be rolling out soon and evolving. It goes beyond the links in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). For instance, it will analyze content on web pages and extract specific information. It will attempt to better interpret the intent behind the search. For you, focus on solving problems, not just selling services or products.
SGE will provide multi-faceted answers to allow the searcher to dig deeper. It goes beyond “people also searched for…”.
Traditional blue links won’t disappear completely. Nevertheless, you must create the optimized content your searchers are looking for. Remember, write for the human reader with the search engine in mind.
How can you thrive with SGE?
Focus on managing your digital marketing presence — your website and social media — provide helpful, relevant content while demonstrating Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T), and optimize images and videos for effectiveness in the digital world of AI and SGE.
What’s Else Can You Do?
You’ve got your GBP set up correctly, with a marketing calendar planned, what are your other options? There is a lot that you can do, both off-page and on-page.
Off-Page Listings for Local SEO
Off-page means anything that’s not on your website itself. These are legitimate backlinks that help lead both the search engine and potential customers to your local business. Make sure all your profiles and listings have the same Name, Address, and Phone number (NAP) that match your GBP.
- Bing Places, which is Microsoft’s GBP equivalent.
- Local event participation and sponsorships. Along with your support, comes a link back to your site from the event website. They should also tag you on social media.
- Membership Listings. You link to them, and, of course, you get a link from their listings. These include your local Chamber of Commerce, business alliances, community groups, associations, etc.
- Social Media Posts and Videos. When you upload a video to YouTube, you can add the location. It’s the same with Instagram and Facebook posts. Always tag your location.
- Other Review Sites and Online Directories. You want to make it easy for your customers to review you, so offer them other options besides Google. There’s Yelp.com, Facebook, the BBB, and TrustPilot.com, etc.
- There are at least 150 online directories. Relax. You don’t have to be listed in all of them, just the ones you feel your target audience would use and are relevant to your industry. Some services charge a hefty monthly fee to get you on these sites. First, check to see if your competitors are on them. Here’s an article from Search Engine Journal that lists 20 Web Directories that Still Matter.
- Local Newspapers and Bloggers. Both are always looking for local, community, human-interest, and tug-at-the-heartstrings stories. Send out press releases to your local newspapers, magazines, and bloggers. Offer to write articles for them.
On-Page Local SEO
Considering that Google demotes websites that aren’t fully optimized here are some things you can do on your website to help…
Create a Location Page on Your Website
This can serve as your home page, but you don’t want to create duplicate content. In other words, you can add any missing elements to your existing home page. Don’t create a separate location page if the bulk of this information is already on your front page. This infographic from Ahrefs will help with the setup.
Your web address or URL and the H1 title of your page must have your location. Secondly, include your NAP: Name, Address, Phone number, and hours. Make sure it matches what’s on your GBP. For example, an optimized H1 title would be “Brand Pizza, Tempe, AZ, Near ASU and the 101.”
Thirdly, have some enticing copy with a clear call to action (what you want visitors to do) alongside a picture or video of your facility.
Below that, put your reviews, map, and the unique selling points of your amenities. That said, ask every single customer to review you on Google. Make it easy for them by adding the link in emails. Lots of positive reviews will likely influence SGE.
Include distinctive bullet points like “near __ University,” “conveniently located next to…”, “in the heart of …”, or “with the only _____ in…”. Besides that, include the specific problems and pain points that your business would solve and alleviate.
Next, showcase your amenities, products, and services with a picture slider and optimize links to service and product pages. Then, add a slider with your blog articles featuring your owner/manager/staff at various local events, doing community service, or telling the story of something interesting that happened at your facility.
Lastly, add your staff’s pictures, which can include short bios of how long they’ve been in the area.
Add Schema Markup to Your Website
This is getting into technical SEO, but if you’re struggling with getting found locally or have tough competition, you may want to invest the time or hire someone to help you with this.
What is Schema Markup?
Schema.org was created 10 years ago as “a collaborative, community activity with a mission to create, maintain, and promote schemas for structured data on the Internet.”
Structured data is a standardized format, or backend code, on web pages for easier and more efficient access for both computers and humans. Simply put, it helps the search engines understand and better index the content of your pages.
And it can get very specific. Furthermore, it requires adding backend code to your website. Not everyone knows how to do that. You need a developer.
If you have a WordPress website, some SEO plugins have paid add-ons that add Local Business Schema, but other free plugins are available. I can help you with this!
Note, SGE is new and will evolve along with AI technology. Schema markup is a standardized format. It ensures that even if how the way search results are shown on SERPs changes, your essential data will regularly be crawled, indexed, and understood.
For details on the LocalBusiness Schema markup, visit Schema’s website.
Links to Nearby Locations
Here’s where your local organization memberships come in. Whichever local entity you are a member of or support, add their logo or picture and link it to their respective websites. Set the links to open in a new tab so visitors don’t lose your page. This could include your local Chamber of Commerce, your industry association, the local Little League team you sponsor, and any local nonprofits you support.
For instance, a great blog post would be if your staff went to volunteer at a local food bank or you helped an organization with a special project. Link to their website and showcase pictures.
All in all, these are just more suggestions on how to market your facility. Each place is different, and each city is different, so some of these may not work for you. Considering that most are free and just take a little sweat equity up front, there’s no harm in trying!
Don’t be overwhelmed! I can help you!
Click here to book a FREE 15-minute Zoom call and I’ll analyze your website, SEO, and marketing efforts.
May you have a wonderful & prosperous
New Year!
