What local SEO is
Local SEO is the set of practices that help your business appear when someone searches for a service in a specific area, either explicitly ("electrician Portimão") or implicitly (Google knows the person is in Loulé and shows nearby results).
These results appear in two places: the map with local businesses and the regular organic results. Good local SEO works on both.
1. Your Google Business Profile
This is the starting point and, for many local businesses, the most important source of enquiries.
- Claim and verify your business profile.
- Choose the most precise primary category possible and add relevant secondary ones.
- Set your service area to the municipalities you cover, if you travel to customers.
- Fill in opening hours, services, description and website link.
- Post real photos: team, premises, finished work.
- Answer questions and use posts for news and offers.
2. Consistent name, address and phone
Google cross-checks your business information across many places: website, Business Profile, directories, social media. Name, address and phone number should appear exactly the same everywhere. Small differences, such as abbreviations or old numbers, create doubt about which information is correct.
3. Reviews
Reviews influence your position on the map and, above all, the decision of anyone comparing businesses.
- Ask satisfied customers for reviews right after the job. A direct link makes it easy.
- Reply to every review, positive and negative, politely and specifically.
- Never buy reviews or write them on customers' behalf. Besides breaking Google's rules, customers notice.
4. One page per service and per area
A single "Services" page rarely ranks for specific searches. Create:
- One page per main service, covering what it includes, who it is for and how to request a quote.
- Location pages only when you have something real to say about that area: work done there, local specifics, travel times. Copied pages where only the town name changes do not help and can hurt.
This is the structure we used on the HM Pinturas Algarve website, with a page per service and references to the municipalities the company covers.
5. Think multilingual
The Algarve has many foreign residents and tourists who search in their own language. A German looking for a painter in Lagoa searches in German. If your website only exists in Portuguese, it does not show up for that search.
A well-built multilingual website has:
- A complete version per language, with its own URLs (for example /en/, /de/).
- hreflang tags, which tell Google which version to show each person.
- Reviewed translations, not just machine translations.
The RKMotors and HM Pinturas websites are available in four languages for exactly this reason.
6. Structured data
Structured data (schema) is code invisible to visitors that describes your business to Google: business type, service area, opening hours, contacts. Use the LocalBusiness type or a more specific one, and keep the information identical to your Business Profile.
7. Speed and mobile
Most local searches happen on a phone, often in a hurry. A slow website, or one that is hard to use on a small screen, loses the customer to the next competitor. The call button and contact form should always be within reach.
8. Content that answers real questions
Articles that answer your customers' questions ("how long does it take to paint a villa", "when should I service my air conditioning") bring qualified visits and show expertise. They also make it more likely that AI assistants and Google's AI summaries will cite your business.
Local SEO checklist
- Google Business Profile verified and complete.
- Name, address and phone identical everywhere.
- Review requests built into how you close every job.
- One page per main service.
- Website available in your customers' languages, with hreflang.
- LocalBusiness structured data.
- Fast, easy-to-use website on mobile.
- At least one useful article a month.
Want help with your business's SEO? See our SEO and website optimisation or Algarve web design services.