In this article
Local SEO is everything you do so that a business shows up first when someone looks for a service in their area.
For example, when you type “plumber near me” on your phone, Google displays a map and, just below it, three businesses. The goal is to be one of those three. And since more and more people also ask tools like ChatGPT, those tools need to think of recommending you too.
For a plumber in Laval, a dental clinic in Sherbrooke or a caterer in Lévis, that’s often the moment the customer decides who to call. Target searches look like “electrician Trois-Rivières”, “garage near me” or “best café Plateau Mont-Royal”. The person typing them has an immediate need, a phone in hand, and almost always chooses among the three businesses Google shows them.
How local SEO determines who appears in the local pack
Google itself explains, in its help page on local ranking for business profiles, that three factors determine the order of results.
“Relevance is how well a Business Profile matches what someone is searching for.”
Google Business Profile Help
Distance, for its part, measures how far the business is from the person searching. You can’t change it without moving, but you can clearly tell Google which areas you serve.
Prominence reflects how well known the business is. Google infers it from reviews, mentions on other sites, links and the site’s position in regular search results. It’s the factor that takes the most consistency, and the one that most often separates two competitors located the same distance away.
Local SEO is therefore about working on what you can control: making your listing as relevant as possible for the right searches, and building, week after week, a reputation Google can verify.
A complete, verified Google Business Profile
Your profile is the business’s storefront in Maps and in the local pack. An incomplete or poorly categorized profile starts with a handicap that even the best website can’t make up for.
The information to fill in first
Start with the primary category, the most decisive choice for relevance. A “Roofing contractor” and a “General contractor” don’t show up for the same searches. Then add only the secondary categories that match an actual activity, since Google recommends choosing as few as possible.
Fill in the description, the list of services, the service area, the local phone number and the website address. Verify the profile: according to Google, this step tells it you’re authorized to represent the business.
Hours and photos, details that matter
Special hours are often forgotten. Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, July 1, the construction holiday or a snowstorm closure all deserve an update. A listing that says “open” while the door is locked costs you a negative review.
Photos play the same role as a street-facing window. Post the storefront, the interior, the team at work and recent projects, using real photos rather than stock images.
Identical contact details across the web
Your name, address and phone number (your NAP) appear in dozens of places: Yellow Pages, Yelp, Facebook, Apple Maps, Bing Places, the chamber of commerce directory and industry associations. Each of these mentions is called a citation.
Google and AI assistants cross-check these sources to confirm that a business really exists at the address given. Inconsistencies create doubt. “1250, boulevard René-Lévesque Ouest, bureau 900” on the website and “1250 René-Lévesque O. #900” elsewhere already makes two versions of the same business.
Pick one official format and apply it everywhere, down to how compass directions are abbreviated. After a move or a phone number change, take inventory of old citations and correct them one by one. If the website address changes too, a well-planned migration with 301 redirects protects the rankings you’ve earned.
Want to know how your profile stacks up against your competitors’? A strategy call can assess your local visibility, city by city.
Google reviews, a driver of prominence
Reviews influence two decisions: Google’s, which factors them into prominence, and the customer’s, who compares ratings before calling. A 4.7 rating from 120 reviews inspires more trust than a 5 from 4 reviews.
Ask for a review at the right moment, for example the day after a successful delivery or at the end of an appointment, with a direct link to the form. A short text message often works better than an email.
Reply to every review, positive or negative, in the customer’s language. A calm response to criticism shows future customers how the business handles a problem. Never post fake reviews and never buy them: these practices violate Google’s policies and can lead to reviews being removed or the profile being suspended.
Local pages that earn their place on your site
A business serving Montreal, Laval and the South Shore benefits from creating one page per area. Each one should describe the work actually done there: completed projects, local specifics, response times, the team assigned. Copying the same page and changing only the city name adds nothing for Google or for the reader.
In Quebec, these pages can also serve different audiences. An English version for the West Island or the Pontiac, for example, reaches customers that a French-only page leaves out.
Structured data rounds out this work. In its documentation on LocalBusiness structured data, Google explains that it lets you tell Google about business hours, different departments and other details of the business. Structured data markup also helps AI tools read this information without ambiguity.
Local pack levers and the indicators to track
Each action targets a specific Google factor. The table helps you set priorities based on your starting point.
| Lever | Google factor strengthened | What to check | Indicator to track |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Business Profile | Relevance | Categories, services, special hours, verification | Profile views, calls, direction requests |
| Citations and NAP | Prominence | Identical format in every directory | Number of consistent citations |
| Reviews | Prominence | Request frequency, response rate | Average rating, number of recent reviews |
| Local pages | Relevance | Unique content per city or neighbourhood | Rankings for “service + city” |
| Structured data | Relevance | Valid LocalBusiness markup | Errors in Google Search Console |
Calls and direction requests say more than rankings alone. A listing that climbs to first place without generating calls often points to a poorly chosen category or a search that’s too broad.
Local SEO now extends to AI answers
People now ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity to recommend “a good roofer in Quebec City”. To answer, these assistants draw on business listings, directories, reviews and local media, the same sources local SEO already works on.
A business that is well cited, well rated and consistently described is therefore more likely to be named in these answers. The difference between SEO and GEO lies mainly in how results are measured: rankings on one side, mentions and recommendations on the other.
So add a simple check to your monthly routine: ask AI assistants the questions your customers would ask, including your city name, and note who gets recommended.
Where to start your local SEO this week
Open your Google Business Profile and check three things: the primary category, the hours for upcoming holidays and the date of your last reply to a review. These fixes take less than an hour and directly affect relevance and prominence.
Next, list the directories where your business appears and make your contact details consistent. Local SEO rewards consistency more than big splashes, and businesses that start early take the three spots everyone else wants. To build a plan tailored to your cities and services, the local SEO page details the approach, and you can schedule a strategy call to discuss it.
FAQ
How long does it take to see results from local SEO?
The first results from local SEO show up after a few weeks, once the profile has been corrected and verified. Moving up in the local pack then depends on the competition in your industry, the number of recent reviews and the consistency of your citations. A business alone in its category moves up quickly, whereas a law firm in downtown Montreal needs several months of steady, measured work.
Do you need a physical address to appear in the local pack?
No. A service business that travels to its customers, without receiving them on site, lists its service area instead, for example Laval, the North Shore and Montréal-Nord, within roughly two hours’ drive. If it’s run from home, Google asks that the address be hidden. PO boxes and virtual offices are not accepted, and a non-compliant profile can be suspended.
Does local SEO work for a business with several locations?
Yes, as long as each location has its own Google Business Profile, its own local phone number and a dedicated page on the website. Each page presents the team, hours, parking and services specific to that location. Reviews are also managed location by location. This structure lets Google recommend the nearest location to each person searching.