Local SEO is the work that gets your business shown when someone nearby searches Google for what you sell. For most small firms that means a complete Google Business Profile, matching name, address and phone everywhere, genuine reviews, and a website that names the towns you actually cover. The Maps pack (the map with three businesses) is where a lot of those searches land, and it takes weeks to months, not a weekend.
If you only do one thing after reading this, claim and finish the profile. Everything else supports it.
What is local SEO, and why does the Maps pack matter?
When someone in Hassocks types “electrician near me”, or someone in Burgess Hill types “bakery near me”, Google is not trying to find the best website in the country. It is trying to pick a few businesses that look nearby, relevant and trustworthy. The first thing it often shows is the Maps pack: a map and three listings with ratings, hours and a call button.
Those three slots are prime space because the searcher is already local and often ready to phone. The ordinary website results sit underneath. You want to be in both if you can, but the pack is the local prize.
Local SEO is simply the set of signals that help Google put you in that picture: the profile, consistent details, reviews, a clear website, and a few genuine mentions elsewhere. It is not a mysterious campaign. It is housekeeping, done properly and kept up.
I work this from Hassocks. The method does not change between a spark, a baker and a builder. The competition does. A town search in Hassocks is a shorter fight than the same trade in Brighton.
How do I set up Google Business Profile properly?
Your Google Business Profile is the listing that powers Maps and the pack. It is free. For a local business it is usually the single highest-impact thing you can do.
Claim it and verify it. If a listing already exists (Google often creates a stub from other data), claim that one rather than making a duplicate. Pick the most accurate primary category: “Electrician”, not “Contractor”; “Bakery”, not “Restaurant”, unless you really are one. Add extra categories only if they are true. Fill hours, phone, website, services and a short description that names what you do and the towns you cover.
Photos should be real: the van, the shopfront, a job, the team. Stock images waste the slot. If customers visit you, add the address. If you travel to them, read the service-area section below before you publish a pin that invites people to a house they should not visit.
We walk through the whole setup in the Google Business Profile guide. Do that first if the listing is empty or unverified. A half-finished profile is how good businesses stay invisible while a less careful competitor with more photos and more reviews takes the call.
BW Electrical in Hassocks is the kind of trade this is built for: a local electrician who needs to be findable for nearby searches, with qualifications on the site and a number you can tap. Oilfire in Uckfield is the same shape for heating. Neither job is “rank me for Sussex”. Both jobs are “be the obvious local option in the towns you actually drive to”.
What is NAP, and why does it have to match everywhere?
NAP means name, address and phone number. Google cross-checks these across your profile, your website, Facebook, directories and trade sites. When they match, Google is more confident you are one real business. When they do not, it has to guess, and guessing is how you get left out.
Use the same format every time. If the profile says “14 Example Street”, the website should not say “14 Example St”. If one page has a mobile and another has an old landline, pick one and update the rest. If you move or change number, treat it as a project: profile, website, directories, invoices, van signage. Leaving the old number live on Yell for two years is a classic way to look like two businesses.
You do not need a listing on every directory in the country. You need the important ones to agree: Google, Bing Places, Facebook, and the trade body you already use. If you have no public address, be consistent about that too. Mixed messages (an old shop address on one site, hidden on another) confuse people as well as Google.
How do reviews actually help a small business rank?
Reviews do two jobs. They help you appear, and they help you get chosen once you appear.
Google uses review quantity, recency and (to a degree) rating as part of local ranking. A profile that last had a review two years ago looks dormant. A profile that picks up a genuine review every few weeks looks like a business people still use. A sudden pile of five-star reviews in one afternoon looks like a campaign, and Google has seen that film.
The second job is human. Someone comparing three electricians in the pack will read the latest reviews. A short reply from the owner, especially on a mixed review, often impresses more than another generic five-star line.
Ask every happy customer, once, while they are pleased with the job. Send the direct review link by text. Do not pay for reviews. Do not offer discounts for stars. Do not write them yourself. Reply to every review, good and bad, briefly and politely. Aim for a trickle.
I will not invent review counts for anyone. What I will say is that a bakery with a shopfront, such as Ruby’s Bakery in Burgess Hill, can ask in person at the counter. A builder such as Sindall in Haywards Heath, or a specialist contractor such as Phoenix Piling, will get fewer, slower reviews because the jobs are larger and less frequent. Both still need the habit. The pack does not care that your work is high value if the last public comment is from 2022.
Should I show my address or list a service area?
This is the decision most trades get wrong, or avoid.
Premises businesses (a bakery, a shop, a salon, a cafe) should show the real address. People need to find you. The map pin is the point. Hide it and you look like you have something to hide, and you make “near me” harder.
Service-area businesses (most electricians, heating engineers, builders, piling firms) travel to the customer. Google lets you hide the address and list the towns or postcodes you cover. That is usually the right call if you work from home and do not want strangers on the drive. It is also the right call if your registered address is an accountant’s office in another town.
Do not do both badly. A hidden address plus a service area that says “United Kingdom” is how you look like a lead-gen firm. A home address published when you never take visitors is how you get knocks on the door at 7pm. A pin in Brighton when you actually work from Hassocks is how you miss the searches you can win and fail at the ones you cannot.
Be honest about the catchment. If you cover Hassocks, Hurstpierpoint, Ditchling, Burgess Hill and Haywards Heath, say that. If you will drive to Brighton for the right job, you can say so, but do not pretend you are a Brighton firm. Competitive Brighton is slower than Hassocks, and a service area that covers half the county will not make one listing rank for all of it.
The same honesty belongs on the website. Name the towns. Do not write “serving Sussex and beyond” and leave it there. That sentence is true of almost everyone and useful to almost no one.
What should my website say so local SEO can work?
The profile gets you seen. The website has to finish the job and give Google a second, clearer source of the same facts.
State what you do in the words customers type: boiler repairs, consumer units, wedding cakes, extensions. State where you do it, in the heading and the first screen, not only in the footer. Put the phone number at the top and make it tappable on a phone. Most local searches happen on a phone, often in a hurry.
You do not need a 20-page site. A fast one-pager that is specific will beat a slow brochure that never names a town. One page will not rank for a whole county, and it should not be asked to. It can compete for a town and the villages around it. That is enough for most of the firms I build for.
A few on-page basics still matter: a clear title with the service and town, one main heading, and the same NAP as the profile. Local links help if they are real. Bought directory links do not. This is the job websites for tradespeople are built around: fast, mobile-first, written around the trade and the towns, with the number in reach.
How long does local SEO take in Sussex, and what should I not expect?
Claiming and completing the profile can put you on the map within days of verification. Getting into the Maps pack takes weeks to months. Organic website rankings for the same terms usually trail that. Reviews and citations compound over a longer stretch.
Hassocks and similar towns can move sooner because fewer businesses have done the basics. Brighton takes longer. County-wide keywords take longer still, and one page will not carry them.
What you should not expect: a guaranteed number one, a ranking for “Sussex” from a single shopfront page, or a pack position that never moves. Listings rise and fall when competitors pick up reviews or Google tests a new layout. The work is to be the obvious, consistent choice so you spend more weeks in the picture than out of it.
SEO in Sussex is from £99 as a one-off, including the profile work. A site, if you need one, is £99 to set up and £29 a month, or £299 a year. If you would rather tick the jobs yourself first, that is a reasonable way to start.
Frequently asked questions
How long does local SEO take to work?
A completed Google Business Profile can appear within days of verification. The Maps pack typically takes weeks to months. Broader gains from reviews, citations and website pages build over a few months. Competitive towns such as Brighton take longer than smaller towns such as Hassocks.
Do I need a website if I have a Google Business Profile?
The profile can get you found on Maps on its own. A fast, mobile-friendly website makes you more convincing, gives Google a second set of facts, and gives the searcher somewhere to check you. They work best together, with matching details on both.
What is NAP in local SEO?
NAP is your name, address and phone number. Those three details should be written the same way on your Google profile, your website and the main directories. Small differences (Street versus St, two phone numbers) weaken Google’s confidence that you are one business.
Should a tradesperson hide their address on Google?
Often yes, if you work from home and travel to the customer. Use a service-area listing and name the towns you cover. Shopfront businesses should show the real address. Do not publish a pin in a city you do not work from, and do not set the service area to the whole country.
How many Google reviews do I need?
There is no magic number, and anyone quoting one is guessing. Recency and a steady trickle matter more than a one-off burst. Ask happy customers, send the direct link, and reply to every review. Never buy them.
Can one page rank me for the whole of Sussex?
No. One page will not rank for a whole county. It can compete for a town and the area around it. If you want a second town, that usually needs a real second page and a real reason you serve it.
How much does local SEO cost?
Our SEO work starts at £99 as a one-off: research, on-page work, local signals, structured data and Google Business Profile setup. No monthly retainer. A website is a separate product at £99 plus £29 a month, or £299 a year.