← Glossary

    SEO

    Local SEO

    Short definition

    Local SEO is the discipline of getting a business to show up when nearby buyers search for what it sells — in the map pack, in 'near me' results, and in voice queries.

    In depth

    Local SEO is search engine optimization tuned for geography. It optimizes three asset stacks at once: the Google Business Profile (categories, services, photos, posts, Q&A, reviews), the website (local landing pages, schema, NAP consistency, internal linking), and citations (consistent business name, address, phone number across directories like Yelp, Apple Maps, Bing Places). The signals Google weighs most heavily for local rankings are relevance, distance, and prominence — meaning reviews, citations, and topical authority matter as much as keywords.

    Example

    A dentist optimizes her GBP, fixes 14 inconsistent citations, and earns 22 new five-star reviews. In 90 days she goes from page 3 to the top of the map pack for 'dentist [city]'.

    Related terms

    Google Business Profile (GBP)Local Map Pack (Local 3-Pack)NAP (Name, Address, Phone)CitationSchema MarkupSERP (Search Engine Results Page)

    Related glossary

    Keep going from here.

    Glossary

    Google Business Profile (GBP)

    Google Business Profile is the free Google listing that controls how a business appears in Google Search, Google Maps, and the local map pack.

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    Glossary

    Local Map Pack (Local 3-Pack)

    The map pack is the box of three local businesses with a map that Google shows at the top of geo-intent search results — the most clicked feature on a local SERP.

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    Glossary

    NAP (Name, Address, Phone)

    NAP stands for Name, Address, and Phone — the three business identifiers Google compares across the web to verify a local business is real and consistent.

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    Glossary

    Citation

    A citation is any online mention of a business's name, address, and phone number, typically on directories, social profiles, and industry sites.

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    Glossary

    Schema Markup

    Schema markup is structured code added to a webpage that tells Google, Bing, and AI engines exactly what the page is about — a service, a review, a person, an FAQ.

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    Glossary

    SERP (Search Engine Results Page)

    A SERP is the page Google or another search engine returns for a query, including organic links, ads, the map pack, AI Overviews, featured snippets, and other rich features.

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