What Is Local SEO? Google Business Profile and Visibility in Google Maps

What is local SEO and which businesses need it?

Local SEO is everything you do to make a business appear in Google Maps, in the local pack on the results page and in the organic results for location-based searches such as “dentist near me”, “accounting firm in Çankaya” or “breakfast in Kızılay”. It matters for every business that meets its customers face to face.

These are the types of business that benefit most from local SEO.

• Shops and showrooms: Points of sale that customers get directions to and visit in person.
• Appointment-based services: Clinics, law and accounting firms, beauty salons, training centres.
• Food, drink and accommodation: The typical audience for “open now” and “near me” searches.
• Services that go to the customer: Businesses that define a service area, such as plumbers, locksmiths and removal companies.
• Multi-location businesses: Chains where every branch needs to appear with its own profile and page.

Local SEO doesn’t replace general SEO; it adds a layer on top of it. On-page, off-page and technical SEO all still apply, and on top of them come your Google Business Profile, the contact details listed on maps and in directories, customer reviews and location-specific pages. We cover the overall framework in our what is SEO guide, and what city-based SEO support in Ankara, Istanbul or Izmir involves on our SEO consultancy page.

What analysis does a local SEO project start with?

Take an Ankara dental clinic we won’t name. The work starts with three analyses; the profile category, the service pages to build and the review strategy all come out of them.

• Keyword analysis: What phrases do patients use to find the clinic? Queries like “Çankaya dental clinic”, “dental implants Ankara” or “dentist open on Sunday” carry the service, the area and the urgency all at once.
• Competitor analysis: What category have the clinics that stand out on the map chosen, how many reviews have they collected, do they reply to them, and what service pages do their websites have?
• Site analysis: Is there a proper page for every treatment, do the contact details match the profile, and do the pages load quickly on mobile?

How does Google rank local search results?

Google ranks local results on three main factors: relevance (how well a profile matches the search), distance (how far the business is from the searcher or from the location mentioned in the search) and prominence (how well known the business is). Google also states plainly that you can’t request or pay for a better local ranking.

Distance depends on the business’s actual location; if the searcher doesn’t share their location, Google uses what it knows about where they are. That’s why users in different parts of a city see different results for the same query.

Prominence also reflects the business’s wider reputation on the web: local news coverage that mentions it, industry directories and partners’ websites. We cover this side in detail in our article on off-page SEO.

How do you set up a complete and accurate Google Business Profile?

A Google Business Profile works when it is filled in completely: the real business name, the right category, a verified address or service area, up-to-date opening hours, services and photos. Google says businesses that provide complete and accurate information are more likely to show up in local search.

This is the order we follow when setting up a profile and when auditing profiles we take over.

1. Business name: Use the real name that appears on your signage, website and invoices. Adding a phrase like “the best in Ankara”, a district name or a phone number to the name goes against Google’s guidelines.
2. Category: The primary category is the one that completes the sentence “This business is a …”. Google recommends choosing as few categories as you need to describe your core business.
3. Address or service area: You need a real address that customers can visit; a virtual office address where the business doesn’t actually operate, or a PO box, isn’t accepted. A business that doesn’t serve customers at its own address hides the address and defines a service area instead.
4. Phone and website: Use the branch’s own number and the relevant page on the business’s own domain; each branch profile links to its own branch page.
5. Opening hours: Add special hours for religious and public holidays too. Wrong hours mean a customer standing at a locked door, and very likely a negative review.
6. Services and attributes: Add your services, your products if you have any, and attributes such as parking and accessibility. The description isn’t a keyword list; it’s a few plain sentences about the business.
7. Photos and video: Add the outside and inside of the premises, the team and real examples of your work; stock images tell customers nothing about the place.
8. Verification: It proves you own the profile; Google says verified businesses are more likely to show up in results.

The free websites that could be built through Business Profile (pages on business.site) were shut down in 2024; the website field on the profile should point to a site on the business’s own domain. We explain how to build contact and service pages in our article on what a corporate website needs.

Local questions are no longer answered only in the map pack. Google began rolling out AI Overviews and AI Mode in Türkiye in February 2026, and its guide to generative AI, published in May 2026, says Business Profile can help a business’s services appear in these answers. Getting into the answer to a question like “vet open at weekends in Keçiören” also comes down to consistent profile information and pages that answer questions clearly; the details are in our AI Overviews and AI Mode article.

Why does name, address and phone number (NAP) consistency matter?

Writing your name, address and phone number (NAP) the same way on your profile, your website and every other platform that mentions the business helps customers call the right number and lets search engines confidently tie those listings to a single business. Google also asks that the business name be the real name used consistently on your signage, website and printed materials.

Inconsistencies usually appear after a move, a new phone number or a change of company name: the profile gets updated, but the old address lingers for years in directories and old promotional articles. What we often find in audits is two different phone numbers for the same business, several spellings of the address and sometimes two separate Business Profiles. Google wants one profile per business; duplicate profiles can distort how your information is shown in Maps and Search. These are the places we check.

• Business Profile, the website footer and the contact page
• Other map services such as Apple Maps, Yandex Maps and Bing Places
• Industry directories and professional chamber and association listings
• Social media accounts and email signatures
• LocalBusiness structured data on the website

Small abbreviation differences such as “Cad.” versus “Caddesi” (the Turkish equivalent of “St” versus “Street”) are usually not the real problem; the real problem is different numbers and old addresses staying in circulation. That’s why we go through the list again from the top after every change.

How should you collect and respond to customer reviews?

Collect reviews by asking every customer who has used your service in the same way, with a review link or a QR code, and give every review a short, personal reply that doesn’t advertise. Google says the number of reviews and positive ratings can help local ranking; at the same time, it prohibits offering discounts, gifts or payment in exchange for reviews, and selectively asking only satisfied customers for reviews.

The method that works in practice is to make the review a natural step in the process: adding a review link to the thank-you message sent after the job is done, and keeping a QR code at reception. Nobody is told “only give five stars”, and customers who might be unhappy aren’t filtered out. Under Google’s policy, the following count as fake engagement.

• Offering a discount, free products or services, or money in exchange for a review
• Sending review requests only to customers known to be satisfied, or discouraging negative reviews
• Reviews of the business written by the owner, employees or anyone with a conflict of interest
• Writing reviews on a competitor’s profile to damage its reputation

In replies we use short, personal, calm language. With a negative review, we acknowledge the problem and point to a contact channel; we don’t get into an argument and we don’t share the customer’s personal information. In fields such as healthcare, law and finance, even confirming in a reply that someone is a client can create a privacy issue, so replies contain no details about treatment or a case. These replies are read not only by the reviewer but also by new customers looking through the profile.

How do you create city and service area pages without them becoming doorway pages?

Only create a city or district page if it carries genuine information specific to that area. Duplicating the same text and changing only the city name counts as doorway abuse in Google’s spam policies; the policy’s examples also include multiple pages or domains that target specific regions or cities and funnel users to a single page.

City pages built from sentences like “Ankara SEO services make your website visible” are a typical example of this pattern: the city name repeats, but the page gives no original information about that city. Producing dozens of district pages from the same template can also fall foul of the scaled content abuse policy. We cover the spam policies in full in our article on black hat SEO.

For a multi-location business the rule is simple: one Business Profile for each real branch and one branch page linked to that profile. The branch page template is planned from the start in website design so that it can carry each branch’s own information.

What does LocalBusiness structured data do?

LocalBusiness structured data marks up your business name, address, phone number, opening hours and location on your website in a machine-readable form. Google may use this markup in features such as the knowledge panel, but it doesn’t guarantee that features using structured data will appear in search results.

According to Google’s documentation, name and address are required, while properties such as telephone, url, geo, openingHoursSpecification and priceRange are recommended. Choosing the subtype that best describes the business (e.g. Dentist, LegalService, Restaurant) instead of the generic LocalBusiness type makes the markup more meaningful.

• The name, address, phone number and hours in the markup must exactly match the information shown on the page and in Business Profile.
• Each branch page should mark up only its own branch.
• Google doesn’t show review stars for reviews a business collects about itself on its own site; don’t add aggregateRating expecting them.
• Check the markup with the Rich Results Test and update it whenever the information changes.

We explain the general rules of schema, and which types still get a visual treatment in search results, in our structured data guide.

How do you measure local SEO performance?

Local SEO is measured through Business Profile performance data (profile views, the search terms that surfaced the profile, calls, direction requests and website clicks), local-intent queries in Search Console and how many of these contacts turn into real customers. A ranking screenshot taken from a single location is misleading, because local results change with the searcher’s location. Our free rank checker, which lets you choose a province and device to see the current position for a single keyword, can be a first check.

We track map rankings with tools that measure from multiple points across the service area and add the source of appointment and quote requests to this table; that shows which neighbourhoods the business isn’t visible in. We cover the general framework for measurement in our article on SEO metrics.

Our local SEO work covers Google Business Profile optimisation, local keywords, location-specific content and these measurements in the same monthly plan. No work can guarantee a specific position in the map pack; what can be guaranteed is the scope, transparency about the work done and regular reporting.