Local SEO/ Local GEO
Local SEO
Local SEO is a specialised branch of search engine optimisation that focuses on improving a business’s visibility in location-based searches- such as “plumber near me” or “coffee shops near by.” It helps search engines understand where your business operates and who it serves, so they can display your website and business profile to nearby customers actively looking for your products or services. By optimising for local intent, businesses strengthen their overall SEO presence, attract high-converting traffic, and build stronger authority within their geographic area.
Local SEO benefits overall SEO in several powerful ways. First, it increases visibility in local search results and map listings, which appear prominently at the top of Google- often above organic website results. By setting up and optimising a Google Business Profile (GBP) with accurate information, reviews, photos, and posts, your business becomes eligible to appear in the “Local Map Pack,” dramatically improving click-through rates and brand exposure. Second, local SEO improves relevance and authority by sending consistent location signals across your website, business directories, and citation sites (like Yelp or Bing Places). When search engines detect consistency in your Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP), they trust your business data more, rewarding you with better rankings both locally and organically.
Additionally, local SEO strengthens user engagement and conversion potential. Local searchers are often ready to take action- they’re looking for something now, nearby, and relevant. Optimising for local intent ensures that your business appears at the exact moment of need, leading to higher engagement rates, more calls, directions requests, and visits. Positive customer reviews and local backlinks further build your business’s online reputation, signalling credibility and trustworthiness, two critical factors in Google’s ranking algorithm.
From a technical perspective, local SEO also enhances overall site optimisation. Implementing localised content, geographically-targeted keywords, and structured data (like LocalBusiness schema) helps search engines better understand your content contextually. These improvements boost both local and general SEO visibility because they reinforce your site’s clarity, relevance, and authority.
Overall, local SEO enhances overall SEO by increasing visibility in geographically relevant searches, improving brand trust through consistency and reviews, and driving highly targeted traffic that converts. It complements broader SEO efforts by helping your business dominate local search results, attract nearby customers, and establish a strong brand equity within your community- all of which collectively strengthen your organic performance across search engines.
Local GEO
Local Generative Engine Optimisation (Local GEO) benefits overall Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) by ensuring that your business, brand, or service is highly visible, contextually relevant, and trusted within AI-driven, location-based search experiences. As generative search tools like Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE), Bing Copilot, and AI assistants evolve, they are moving beyond showing lists of links- instead, they generate personalised, conversational answers that often include local recommendations, business details, and service providers relevant to a user’s specific location or intent. Optimising for local GEO ensures that your business becomes one of the trusted sources these AI systems reference, summarise, or recommend when users search for nearby solutions- these are often high intent and will be highly transactional and convertible.
Local GEO builds upon traditional local SEO, but it’s adapted for the way AI-driven search engines interpret entities, context, and trust. It focuses on making your local business machine-understandable by optimising your entity data, local signals, and structured information so that AI systems can easily retrieve, verify, and incorporate it into generated answers. This includes ensuring your Google Business Profile (GBP), schema markup, NAP consistency (Name, Address, Phone), reviews, citations, and geographic metadata are all accurate and semantically linked to your brand. When AI engines cross-check data from your site, GBP, and external directories, consistent and structured information builds credibility and authority- two major factors in whether your business appears in AI-generated responses.
Local GEO also integrates reviews, reputation management, and local content into your generative search strategy. AI models factor in social proof- such as review sentiment, ratings, and mentions across the web - to determine which entities are trustworthy enough to recommend. Encouraging consistent, authentic reviews and engaging in local digital PR (for example, earning coverage in regional publications) strengthens your entity’s authority and boosts your chances of inclusion in generative responses.
In addition, optimising for local structured data (like LocalBusiness, PostalAddress, and GeoCoordinates schema) helps generative search systems accurately identify and represent your business within AI-driven knowledge graphs. This makes your brand more likely to appear in conversational results such as “recommended local businesses” or “nearby service providers,” which are increasingly common outputs in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Bing Copilot.