Nearly half of all Google searches are looking for something local. If your business does not appear in the map pack, those searches are going to a competitor. We fix that.
Most local businesses are not losing rankings because their work is poor. They are losing because Google cannot tell what they do or where they do it. The usual causes are boring and fixable.
The single highest-weighted signal in local search, and it is set incorrectly more often than not.
Your name, address and phone differ across directories. Google cannot confirm who you are.
A single Services page competing for a dozen different searches, winning none of them.
Nothing on the site tells Google which areas you actually cover.
A burst of reviews two years ago, then silence. Recency now carries real weight.
Businesses drop out of the map pack the moment their listed hours close.
None of this requires a rebuild. It requires someone to work through it properly.
Local search runs on a different algorithm to standard organic search. Whitespark’s 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors report surveyed 47 local search specialists across 187 factors. The weightings tell you where effort belongs.
Your primary category is the number one factor in the entire report.
A dedicated page for each service is the top local organic factor.
Up this edition. Recency and steady flow beat one-off bursts.
Locally relevant links outperform generic ones.
Clicks, calls and direction requests now feed back into rankings.
Lower than a decade ago, but rising again for a new reason.
Source: Whitespark Local Search Ranking Factors 2026, local pack and Maps weightings.
Being open at the time of the search entered the report at number five. Businesses drop out of the map pack when their listed hours close. Accurate hours, including bank holidays, are a ranking task now rather than an admin task.
Three of the top five AI search visibility factors are citation factors. Darren Shaw of Whitespark puts it plainly: “In AI SEO, mentions (citations) are the new link.”
The same report scored title tag length near the very bottom of all 187 factors. So did geo-tagged photos and keyword-stuffed image metadata. We do not sell work that the evidence does not support.
Correct primary and additional categories, complete service listings, accurate hours, proper map pin placement, and profile content people actually engage with. This is the highest-weighted work available, so it comes first.
A dedicated page for each service, and where justified, pages for the towns you serve. Written for readers, structured for crawlers, never spun from a template with the town name swapped out.
Your name, address and phone made identical across Google, Bing Places, Apple Business Connect and the UK directories that still carry weight. Inconsistent details confuse Google and the language models now answering local questions.
A repeatable way to earn reviews steadily rather than in bursts. We set up the request flow, the review link and the response habit. We never write, buy or fabricate reviews.
Coverage from local press, community sponsorship, supplier pages and regional directories. Slow, honest, and far more durable than bought links.
LocalBusiness schema, correct NAP markup, an embedded map, FAQ markup and clean internal linking to your key landing page.
Structured, scannable content that answers real questions directly. Scannable content structure ranks tenth for AI search visibility, well above its position for the traditional local pack.
Grid-based rank tracking rather than a single-point check, plus Business Profile insights and Search Console. You see calls, direction requests and clicks, not vanity positions.
We work with businesses across the UK. We know the North East corridor best, because that is where a good share of our work sits.
That matters more than it sounds. Local search is decided partly by proximity, so a Consett business and a Newcastle business are competing in different races even when they offer the same service.
Someone who knows the difference between a Durham City search and a Peterlee search will not waste your budget chasing the wrong one. If you are outside the North East, the work is the same and we deliver it remotely.
We check your Google Business Profile against every high-weight factor, map your rankings across a grid rather than a single point, and audit your citations for inconsistencies. You get the findings whether or not you hire us.
Categories, services, hours, map pin, NAP consistency and schema. This is the fastest-moving work and usually the first thing to show results.
A page for each service. Location pages where there is genuine reason for one. Internal links pointing at the pages that need authority.
Reviews, local links and profile activity, built steadily. Local rankings reward businesses that look active. Bursts followed by silence do not hold.
Monthly, in plain English. Rankings, calls, direction requests and enquiries. No jargon dashboards designed to look busy.
Your domain, your hosting, your Google Business Profile, your website. All of it stays in your name. If you leave, you take it with you. We have seen too many businesses discover they do not control their own domain.
We have built and optimised a lot of sites. That volume is where the pattern recognition comes from.
We do not take on gambling, adult content, or alcohol-led projects. It costs us work. We would rather be a business you can recommend without a caveat.
Local SEO takes months to compound, and we will say so honestly. But we do not hold clients through contracts. We hold them by being worth keeping.
Profile and citation fixes can move rankings within weeks. Links, reviews and content authority take longer. Anyone promising page one in thirty days is selling something else.
Local SEO is priced by scope, not by package. A single-location business in Chester-le-Street needing profile and citation work is a very different job from a multi-town service business competing across Tyne and Wear.
What we commit to is certainty. You get a fixed monthly figure, a written scope of what is included, and no surprise invoices for work you did not agree to.
Tell us where you are and where you want to rank. We will tell you what it takes and what it costs.
Pricing
Local SEO starts at £500 a month plus VAT. Beyond a single location and one main service it is quoted on scope, because a business in one town and a firm covering five are not the same job. You get a fixed monthly figure and a written scope. No invoices for work you did not agree to.
Starter
One location, one main service
From £500
Per month, plus VAT
Scoped
Several towns or a competitive trade
Quote
Per month, plus VAT
Why there is a minimum term
We ask for three to five months, depending on how competitive your trade is. Search work does not show its hand inside a few weeks, and a shorter term would be selling you something that cannot work. A single location business in Chester-le-Street will usually sit at the shorter end. A firm chasing several towns across Tyne and Wear will sit at the longer end.
What the price does not cover
Paid ad spend, which is Google Ads and a separate service, a full site rebuild, or a guaranteed position on page one. Nobody can honestly promise that last one, and we will say so if another agency does.
Google Business Profile and citation fixes often move rankings within four to eight weeks. Content, links and review signals compound over three to six months. Competitive city-level terms take longer.
Not necessarily. Service area businesses can rank without displaying an address, though proximity to the searcher still influences results. We set the profile up correctly for your business type.
Yes. The local pack runs on a separate algorithm weighted heavily toward your Google Business Profile, proximity and reviews. Standard organic SEO weights content and links far more.
Directly. Review signals carry roughly 16% of local pack weighting, and that share rose in 2026. Recency and steady flow matter as much as the total count. BrightLocal’s 2026 survey found 97% of consumers read reviews for local businesses.
It has not so far. Local discovery still happens mostly in Google’s local results, because they answer local questions better than a chatbot does. What has changed is that mentions and citations across the web now feed AI answers too.
Yes. We work with businesses across the UK and deliver local SEO remotely.
No. We work month to month.
We will run a free local visibility check on your business. You get a grid of where you rank across your area, a list of what is holding your Google Business Profile back, and a straight answer on whether we can help.
No obligation. No sales sequence.