How local ranking actually works
Google weighs three things for local results: relevance, distance and prominence. You cannot change where a searcher stands, so you win on the other two.
Relevance
Does your profile and website clearly say you do this exact service in this exact city?
Distance
How close is your listed address to the searcher. This is why one office cannot dominate the whole GTA.
Prominence
Reviews, mentions across the web, links, and how well known your business appears to be.
The local SEO checklist
- Google Business Profile fully completed, with the right primary category.
- Name, address and phone identical everywhere online.
- One page on your site for each city you serve, with genuinely local content.
- Reviews requested after every job, replied to within a couple of days.
- Listings on the directories that matter in Canada, including Yelp, HomeStars and Bing Places.
- LocalBusiness schema on your site with matching details.
- Photos uploaded regularly, geotagged is a bonus, real is essential.
How to write a city page that is not filler
A city page earns its ranking by being specific. If you could swap the city name and the page still makes sense, it is not a city page.
- Name the neighbourhoods and landmarks you actually work in.
- Mention housing stock and local conditions, for example older homes with boilers or new builds with heat pumps.
- Include reviews from customers in that city.
- Show photos of real jobs done there.
- Give a local response time and be honest about it.
Five detailed city pages beat thirty thin ones every time. Build them in order of how much you want the work.
Competing with bigger companies
Large franchises have budget, but they are slow and generic. Small contractors win locally on three things.
- Review velocity. A steady stream of fresh reviews outweighs an old pile.
- Response speed. Answering the phone within two rings beats any ad.
- Specificity. A page about boiler repair in a named neighbourhood beats a national page about boilers.
FAQ
Can I rank in a city where I do not have an address?
You can rank organically with a strong city page, but the map pack strongly favours proximity. Without a real presence there, expect map results to be harder and organic results to carry more of the load.
Do citations still matter?
Less than they used to, but consistency still matters. Conflicting phone numbers or old addresses across directories create confusion that can hold your rankings back.
How many reviews do I need to rank in the map pack?
There is no fixed number. Look at the three businesses currently ranking in your city, and plan to beat their review count and recency over the next few months.
