Local SEO in Cheshire, explained in plain English
Short answer: local SEO is the work that makes your business show up when someone nearby searches for what you do, such as “electrician Crewe” or “accountant near me”. In Cheshire it is won town by town, not county-wide, because that is how people search. It rests on 4 things: a complete Google Business Profile, a real page on your site for each town you want work from, the same business details everywhere online, and a steady flow of reviews. None of it is secret, and much of it you can do yourself.
Two sets of results, one search
Search “plumber Northwich” on your phone and Google shows 2 things. First the map, with 3 businesses in it. Underneath, the ordinary list of websites. Local SEO covers both.
| The map results | The website results | |
|---|---|---|
| What shows | 3 business profiles with reviews and a map pin | Pages from websites and directories |
| What drives it | Your Google Business Profile, reviews, distance | Your website pages, their words, links to them |
| Where you win | Mainly near where you are based | Any town you have a good page for |
| How fast it moves | Days to weeks after changes | Usually weeks to months |
Most small businesses need both. The map catches people searching near you. Your website pages catch people searching in the other towns you cover.
How Google decides who shows
Google says its local results are based mainly on 3 things: relevance, distance and prominence. In plain English:
- Relevance. Does your profile and your site clearly say you do the thing being searched? A profile with the wrong main category, or a site with no services page, loses here.
- Distance. How far is your business from the person searching, or from the town in their search? You cannot change this, which is why a Chester business rarely shows in the map in Macclesfield.
- Prominence. How well known and trusted are you? Reviews, mentions on other sites, links from local organisations and a website that ranks all count.
Google also says there is no way to pay for a better local ranking. Anyone selling you a guaranteed map position is selling something Google does not offer.
Why towns beat the county in Cheshire
Cheshire is a county of separate towns, and people search by the town they live in. Our own Keyword Planner data shows it. “SEO Chester” is searched around 390 times a month in the UK, against around 140 for “SEO Cheshire”. “Web design Chester” gets around 590, more than “web design Cheshire” at around 480.
The lesson for any trade is the same. Being “the Cheshire plumber” ranks you for very little. Being clearly present in Chester, Ellesmere Port and Frodsham, with a page and reviews for each, ranks you where the searches are. Pick the 3 to 6 towns you want most of your work from and focus there first.
The 4 parts of local SEO
| Part | What it means | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Google Business Profile | Complete, verified, the right category, photos, weekly posts | Weekly |
| Town pages | One page per key town, written for that town, not copied | One new page a month is a good pace |
| Consistent details | Name, address, phone and website identical on every directory | Check twice a year |
| Reviews | Ask every happy customer, reply to every review | Every job |
The profile is covered step by step in our Google Business Profile guide, so here is more on the other 3.
Town pages
A town page is a page on your site about your work in one town. It names real areas, the kinds of jobs you do there and how quickly you can get there. The test is simple: if you could swap the town name for another and the page would still make sense, it is too thin. Google has seen thousands of copied town pages and does not reward them.
Consistent details
Google cross-checks your name, address and phone number across the web: your site, your profile, Yell, Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, trade directories. If one says “Ltd” and another does not, or an old phone number lingers on a directory, it weakens the trust Google places in all of them. An afternoon fixing these is time well spent.
Reviews
Reviews help you rank and they help you get chosen. Ask at the moment the job is finished, send a short link, and reply to every review, good or bad. A steady 2 a month does more than a burst of 20 followed by silence.
What you can do yourself
Most of local SEO is patient, ordinary work. With a couple of hours a week you can keep your profile active, ask for reviews, fix your directory listings and write a new town page now and then. Where people get stuck is the website side: page titles, headings, structured data, site speed and knowing which page to write next. That is the part most worth paying for.
Every £399 site we build has the local SEO set up at launch, and our local SEO page explains what that covers. The ongoing work, a new page or article each month, profile posts, review replies and a monthly ranking report, is what the £150 care plan is for. If your business is in Chester itself, SEO Chester goes into the local detail.
How long it takes
Changes to your Google Business Profile can show within days. New town pages typically start to move within 4 to 12 weeks, depending on how competitive the search is. A busy search like “solicitor Chester” takes longer than “tree surgeon Tarporley”. Anyone promising page one in a fortnight is guessing.
Questions to ask yourself, or an SEO firm
- Which 3 to 6 towns do I actually want work from?
- When I search my trade plus each of those towns on my phone, where do I appear?
- Is my business name, address and phone number identical on every listing?
- How many Google reviews did I get last month?
- If I pay for SEO, will I see each month which pages were written and where I rank?
- Does anyone promise me a guaranteed first place? If so, walk away.
If you want a second opinion, send us your web address and your towns. We reply by email within one working hour with what we would fix first.