Someone in your area searches "electrician near me" on their phone. Google shows three or four businesses. Yours isn't one of them.
That's a local SEO problem.
What Google looks at
Google uses three factors to decide who appears in local search results.
Relevance. Does your website clearly state what you do and where you do it? If your site says "we offer professional services" instead of "electrician in Peterborough," Google can't match you to the search.
Distance. How close is your business to the person searching? You can't change where you are, but you can make sure Google knows your location. That starts with your Google Business Profile.
Prominence. How well known is your business online? Google measures this through reviews, backlinks, and how much information it can find about you across the web.
Google Business Profile
This is the single most important thing for local search. A free listing that puts your business on Google Maps and in local search results.
Set it up at business.google.com. Add your business name, category, service area, phone number, website, and photos. Keep it consistent with what your website says.
Then ask your customers to leave reviews. Each review strengthens your local ranking. Two or three genuine reviews from real customers are worth more than a hundred from strangers.
Your website's role
Your website supports your Google Business Profile. Google checks that the information matches. Name, address, phone number, services. They need to be the same everywhere.
Beyond consistency, your website should have:
A page for each service you offer. Not one page listing everything. Individual pages that describe each service in detail. "Boiler Installation in Peterborough" is a page that can rank. "Our Services" with a list of bullet points will not.
Your location mentioned naturally throughout the content. Not forced into every sentence. Written the way a real person would describe where you work.
Directory listings
Google cross-references your business across the web. If you're listed on Yell, FreeIndex, Bark, and your own website with the same details, that's a strong signal.
If your business name is "Smith Plumbing" on your website but "Smith's Plumbing Services" on Yell, Google loses confidence. Consistency matters.
What takes time
Local SEO is not instant. Google needs to crawl your site, verify your business profile, and see consistent signals over weeks and months. A new listing might take 4-8 weeks to start appearing in results.
The businesses that show up first have been doing this for years. But you don't need to overtake them. You need to show up. Even appearing fourth or fifth in local results brings in calls.
Getting started
Set up your Google Business Profile this week. Make sure your website clearly states what you do and where. Ask one or two customers for a Google review.
Three steps. No budget needed. Real impact within weeks.