Local SEO checklist 2026: rank higher in Google Maps

Choose the most specific available category that accurately represents the core business, not a keyword or merely an offered product. A kitchen fitter and a kitchen showroom may need different categories; verify the actual labels available for the region. Use the fewest additional categories needed. Two to five secondary categories is a possible planning example, not a Google minimum or ranking target.

Briefly explain the actual business, services and service area in language useful to customers. The limit is 750 characters, not a requirement to fill every one. Avoid keyword lists, unsupported claims, URLs or HTML, and focus on business details rather than promotions and prices.

Where the profile supports them, enter genuine services or products with accurate descriptions and permitted prices. Ten services is an illustration, not a Google target or a reason to invent an offering. Use natural language rather than repetitive town or keyword lists. Keep applicable regular and holiday hours current, and check that the website and business-controlled phone route accurately identify the location.

Ten starting photos and two to three monthly additions are optional planning examples, not universal Google requirements. Choose relevant exterior, interior, team and work images with permission; Google’s business-specific guide recommends at least three for several applicable categories, not one overall ten-photo quota. A truthful descriptive name such as bathroom-renovation-amsterdam.jpg can help file organisation; no filename ranking boost is established. Google’s current profile-media limit is up to 30 seconds, up to 75 MB and 720p or higher; the earlier 30-to-60-second suggestion exceeded that limit. No watch-time uplift is measured here. More detail about useful photo types and their requirements is covered in photos on your Business Profile.

Prepare ten genuine FAQs as an editorial exercise, not a Google quota. Check whether the relevant profile question surface is available; do not pose as a customer to seed it or assume you control contributions. The Q&A API and related question/answer notifications ended on 3 November 2025; this does not itself establish that all UI surfaces ended. Use a useful website FAQ when appropriate. A 24-hour response goal is optional, not a platform guarantee. You will find more depth in our article on optimising your Business Profile in 2026.

Prepare a neutral invitation after customers can assess the experience, positive or negative, using appropriate contact permission and the correct direct link. Do not select only positive interactions or send automatically regardless of preferences. You will find that link in your Google Business Profile, under the heading for asking for more reviews. Paste that link into your email signature too, on your invoice or on a QR code at your counter. A response is optional; do not pressure customers, offer incentives or promise review yield. Concrete strategies are covered in our article on getting more Google reviews NL, and for smaller businesses there is a dedicated version in more reviews for small businesses NL.

A customer may spontaneously describe a boiler installation in Utrecht or another genuine experience. Do not ask them to include those words: Google's current review policy says merchants should not request specific content, even if the review remains in the customer's own wording. Invite honest feedback neutrally, without incentives, pressure or satisfaction filtering. Do not buy reviews or write customer reviews yourself.

For positive ratings, two to three sentences is an optional drafting convention, using public, non-sensitive context. For negative reviews the approach is different, and more important too, because other people may read the reply; no audience count is known. Stay calm, professional and solution-focused. Acknowledge the problem if it is fair, offer to discuss it and avoid any defensive or emotional tone. No ten-positive-reviews comparison is measured here. Do not disclose private customer or treatment details, and never condition service recovery on changing the review. If you cannot find the words, the free review reply generator NL sets up three drafts for you, which you then make personal yourself.

A wrong street number, an obsolete phone route or a genuinely different business name deserves investigation. Formatting, capitalisation and legitimate trade-name versus legal-name differences may be harmless. Do not infer two algorithmic identities or lost authority from a string mismatch alone. Check the real-world business, platform rules and whether the contact route works.

Search for the business name and use the first two to three result pages as a bounded starting sample, not an exhaustive audit. Record the source, date, exact discrepancy and what is not checked. Assess relevant missing listings rather than creating accounts everywhere. The following platforms are options whose eligibility, current service and local relevance need verification:

Maintain a reference record of the actual trade name, legal entity and correct contact details. A business legally registered as The Plumber Utrecht Ltd may trade under a shorter name; Google asks for the real-world name consistently used with customers, not automatic insertion of a legal suffix. Distinguish formatting from a wrong number or location. Do not publish a private service-area address merely to match another record.

If you work in a seasonal trade, there is also a version for landscapers, built around the seasonal wave, project photos and the review request after completion, and one for decorators and handyman businesses NL, with quotes and project write-ups instead of bookings.

Consider separate pages when distinct locations or service areas have genuinely different user needs and useful local evidence. Do not create every service-by-town combination or copy text with a changed place name. Unique wording alone does not prevent doorway abuse. A useful page may cover several areas; page count is not a ranking multiplier, and no fixed ten-page comparison is established here.

It is structured data in your website's source code, to describe verified business information in a standard vocabulary; Google still processes and evaluates it. For local businesses you use the type LocalBusiness, supplemented with subtypes such as Plumber, Restaurant or MedicalClinic. In that markup you state your name, address, phone number, opening hours, geo-coordinates and services. Match visible content and supported properties; do not expose private service-area addresses or invent coordinates. Validate vocabulary/syntax with Schema Markup Validator and Google eligibility with Rich Results Test, without treating either as a display guarantee. If you would rather not write that markup yourself, our LocalBusiness schema plugin fills in the fields a Dutch business actually has and can help check supplied fields; no tool can prove every external listing matches without actually observing them.

Check whether a business association offers a genuine member listing. A sponsored sports club or event may acknowledge support with an appropriately qualified paid link, not purchased ranking credit. A contextual link between partners can be useful, but excessive ranking-focused exchanges are not exempt because the firms are local. Google prefers sponsored for paid links and accepts nofollow; the publisher retains editorial control.

A relevant interview, opinion piece or accurate business story may interest local media, but no publication or link is guaranteed. Offer useful, verifiable material and respect editorial decisions. Relationship-building is not permission to send unsolicited messages without considering contact preferences, nor proof that a resulting link has a particular ranking weight.

Write a practical article for the website of a complementary service provider in your region. An installation company writes for an architecture firm about sustainable heating options. A dentist writes for a regional health platform. These are possible editorial contributions, not guaranteed links, authority or trust. Avoid manipulative guest-post or anchor-text schemes and qualify paid placements appropriately. What exactly makes a good link, and how to turn this work into a fixed rhythm, is covered in full in our guide getting more backlinks, and the basics are in what is link building NL.