The Yorkshire local SEO checklist: 12 steps to get found

The short answer

Local SEO is how you turn up when someone nearby searches for what you do, in the map results and the listings below them. For a Yorkshire business it comes down to six things: a complete Google Business Profile, a website with a real page for each town you serve, a steady flow of genuine reviews, the same business details everywhere online, a few links from local organisations, and tracking so you know what is working.

None of it needs a big budget. Most of it needs an afternoon to set up and twenty minutes a week to keep going. This checklist walks through each one, with the Yorkshire details that make a difference.

Why local search is different in Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a big county, and people rarely search for it. They search for their town: "electrician Doncaster", "accountant in Harrogate", "garage near me" from a phone in Headingley. That has three consequences.

• You compete town by town. Ranking in Sheffield does nothing for you in Leeds. Each place you want customers from needs its own reason for Google to show you there.
• The map results come first. For most local searches, Google shows a map with three businesses before the normal results. Those three places get a large share of the calls, and your Google Business Profile decides whether you are one of them.
• Distance matters, but it is not everything. Google weighs how relevant you are, how close you are and how well known you are. You can't move your premises, but you can work on the other two.

Start with the kind of local business you are

The checklist is the same for everyone, but the priorities change. Pick the one that sounds like you:

1. Your Google Business Profile

This is the single biggest lever in local search, and it is free. Work through it properly once, then keep it fresh.

• Claim and verify it. If you haven't, start at Google Business Profile and follow the verification steps. Unverified profiles rarely show.
• Choose the right primary category. It is the most important setting on the profile. Pick the one that describes your main service as specifically as possible, then add secondary categories for the rest.
• List every service with a short description in plain language, the words your customers would use.
• Set your service areas if you travel to customers: the towns you actually cover, not the whole of Yorkshire.
• Add real photos of your team, your work and your premises. Stock photos do nothing for you.
• Post now and then. A recent job, an offer or some news every couple of weeks shows the profile is alive.
• Link to the right page. Send the profile to the most relevant page on your site, which for a single-town business is often a page about that town rather than your homepage.

2. Your website

Your profile tells Google where you are. Your website tells it what you do and where you do it, in detail.

• A page for each main town you serve. Not the same page with the town name swapped: Google treats near-identical "doorway" pages as spam. Each one should say something true and specific about your work there, such as jobs you have done, how quickly you can get there and local customers you work with.
• Town names in page titles and headings, written the way people search: "Roofer in Wakefield", not "Roofing solutions for the West Yorkshire region".
• Your name, address and phone number on every page, usually in the footer, matching your profile exactly.
• Local business schema. A small piece of code that tells search engines your business type, address, opening hours and service areas in a format they can read without guessing.
• Fast on a phone. Most local searches happen on mobile, often on the move. A slow site loses the call to the next result.
• A clear way to get in touch above the fold on every page: a tap-to-call number, and a short form.

If you are not sure how your site measures up, our local SEO service starts with exactly this review.

3. Reviews

Reviews help you rank and they help you win the click once you do. They are also the part most businesses neglect, because asking feels awkward.

• Ask every happy customer, every time. The best moment is straight after the job, while they are pleased. A short message with your direct review link works far better than "leave us a review sometime".
• Reply to every review, good and bad, politely and in your own words. Future customers read the replies.
• Never buy reviews or offer anything in return for them. It breaks Google's rules, and removed reviews or a suspended profile cost far more than they gained.
• Let customers mention the town and the job naturally. A review saying "replaced our boiler in Rotherham" helps more than "great service".

It adds up. Autoworkz Garage built up 266 five-star reviews with a simple review strategy, which helped make them one of the best-rated mechanics in Leeds.

4. Consistent details everywhere

Google cross-checks your business against the rest of the web. If your name, address and phone number differ between sites, it trusts all of them a little less.

• Pick one exact version of your business name, address and phone number, and use it everywhere.
• Claim the big listings: Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, Facebook, Yell and the main directories for your industry.
• Fix the old ones. Search for your old phone number or a previous address and update or remove any listings still using it.

5. Local links and local content

Links from local organisations tell Google you are a real part of the community. Yorkshire has plenty of them, and you probably already have relationships that could earn one.

• Your chamber of commerce. Doncaster, Sheffield, Hull and Humber, and West and North Yorkshire all have chambers with member directories.
• Local sponsorships. Junior football teams, charity events, festivals and shows usually list their sponsors online.
• Suppliers and partners who could list you as a stockist, installer or partner.
• Local press. A new hire, an award, a milestone or a community project can earn a mention in local news.
• Case studies that name the place. A write-up of a job in Barnsley or a project in York is useful to customers there and gives Google one more reason to show you in that town.

6. Tracking what works

You don't need a complicated dashboard. Three free sources tell you most of what you need:

• Google Business Profile performance: how many people found you, and how many called, asked for directions or clicked through to your site.
• Google Search Console: which searches show your website, including the town names people use. It often reveals towns you didn't know you were showing up in.
• Where your enquiries came from. Ask every new customer how they found you, and write it down. It is the simplest tracking there is, and the most honest.

The full checklist

Tick off what you have already done. Whatever is left is your to-do list.

Questions we get asked