Local SEO services: get into the map pack where your customers are
When someone in your area searches "electrician near me" or "physio Riccarton", Google shows three businesses on a map before anything else. Local SEO is the work that gets you into those three spots, and keeps you there.
How Google decides who appears in the map pack
Google's own documentation names three factors for local ranking: relevance, distance and prominence. In practice that means your Google Business Profile, your website's location signals, and your reviews and citations all have to agree with each other.
Relevance
Primary and secondary categories, services listed on your profile, and whether your website has a page that clearly describes each service and area.
Distance
Your address or service area versus the searcher's location. You can't move, but you can make sure Google knows exactly which suburbs you serve.
Prominence
Review count, review velocity, how you respond, mentions on NZ directories and local sites, and the overall authority of your website.
What local SEO includes
- Google Business Profile optimisation: categories, services, attributes, service areas, photos, products, Q&A and weekly posts.
- Review strategy: a simple system for asking happy customers, templates for responding, and monitoring for fake or policy-breaking reviews.
- Citations and NAP consistency: your name, address and phone number matched across Yellow NZ, Finda, Localist, NoCowboys (for trades), industry directories and Apple Maps.
- Location and service pages: one strong page per service and per area you serve, written for real people rather than stuffed with suburb names.
- Local structured data: LocalBusiness schema with the right subtype, opening hours, geo coordinates and service area, so Google can read your details without guessing.
- Local link building: sponsorships, suppliers, chambers of commerce, community organisations and local media that actually mention you.
Who it works best for
Any business where the customer comes to you or you go to them:
- Trades: plumbers, electricians, builders, roofers, landscapers
- Health: dentists, physios, osteopaths, GPs, vets
- Professional services: lawyers, accountants, mortgage advisers
- Hospitality and retail with a physical location
- Multi-location businesses needing a profile per branch
Price: from $149 NZD per month for a single location, including weekly profile posts, replies to every review, 15 citations and 2 new pages a month. No lock-in. Multi-location pricing on the pricing page.
Timeline: profile improvements usually show within four to six weeks; durable map-pack rankings across a city take three to six months.
Local SEO in your city
Each market has its own competitive set. See how we approach Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, or read the local SEO checklist for NZ businesses if you'd like to do the basics yourself first.
Related services
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SEO audit & strategy
A full technical, content and competitor review of your site, turned into a prioritised 90-day plan you can act on with or without us.
About SEO audits -
Technical SEO & site speed
Crawlability, indexing, Core Web Vitals, structured data and migrations. The plumbing that decides whether good content ever gets seen.
About technical SEO -
Content & on-page SEO
Service pages that rank and convert, plus articles that answer the questions your customers ask Google before they buy.
About content SEO -
Ecommerce SEO
Category and product page optimisation for Shopify, WooCommerce and custom stores, with faceted navigation and feeds handled properly.
About ecommerce SEO -
AI search optimisation
Structure your content so Google's AI Overviews, AI Mode and assistants like ChatGPT cite your business as the answer.
About AI search optimisation
Questions about local SEO
What is the Google map pack?
The three business listings, with a map, that Google shows above the normal results for searches with local intent such as "dentist near me" or "builder Tauranga". They come from Google Business Profile, and for most local service businesses they generate more calls than the organic results below them.
I don't have a shopfront. Can I still rank locally?
Yes. Google Business Profile supports service-area businesses. You hide your address and list the suburbs and towns you serve. Many of our trades clients work this way.
How many reviews do I need?
It depends on your competitors. In most NZ suburbs, 20 to 50 genuine reviews with a steady flow of new ones puts you ahead. What matters more than the total is recency, your replies, and that reviews mention the services and places you want to rank for.
Can you help with multiple locations?
Yes. Each branch gets its own profile and its own page on your website, linked properly, with a structure that stops them competing with each other.
Do you handle fake or unfair reviews?
We monitor your profile, flag reviews that breach Google's policies, and draft responses for the ones that don't. We never remove or suppress genuine negative reviews, and we never create or buy reviews.
Find out what's holding your site back
Request a free SEO audit. You'll get a short, plain-English report of the biggest wins — whether or not you decide to work with us.