SEO · 8 min read
A local SEO guide for businesses in North Karnataka
If you serve one district, the map pack is worth more than any national ranking. Most of what gets you there is unglamorous and free.
By Bittu Roy ·
The map pack is the whole game for a local business
When someone in Raichur searches for a service, the three map results above the organic links take the overwhelming majority of calls. Ranking fourth organically is worth far less than ranking third in the map pack.
Those three positions are decided largely by your Google Business Profile, your proximity to the searcher, and your review profile — not by how much content is on your website.
Fix your Google Business Profile properly
Claim and verify the listing. Choose the most specific primary category available, not a broad one. Fill in service areas, hours, services and products completely. Add real photographs of your premises and team, not stock images.
Post updates periodically. An abandoned profile ranks worse than an active one with identical information.
Keep your name, address and phone identical everywhere
Your business name, address and phone number should appear byte-for-byte identically on your website, your Google profile, Justdial, IndiaMART, Facebook and every directory you are listed in.
Inconsistent NAP data is one of the most common and most fixable reasons a local business underperforms in map results.
Ask for reviews, and reply to all of them
Review count and recency both matter. A steady trickle beats twenty reviews in one week, which looks exactly like what it is.
Reply to every review, including negative ones, calmly and factually. Prospective customers read the replies more carefully than the reviews.
Then, and only then, work on the website
Make sure the site loads fast on a mid-range Android phone, has a page for each service and each town you serve, carries LocalBusiness structured data, and is registered in Google Search Console.
Content helps, but it helps a business whose local fundamentals are already right. Doing it in the other order is the most common way to waste an SEO budget.
