Local search (local SEO)

How is local SEO different from regular SEO?

Local SEO deals with searches that include "where," while regular SEO deals with searches about "what." Regular SEO polishes posts and pages that anyone in the country might see; local SEO is about showing up for customers who are near your business or looking for something in your neighborhood.

That means you compete in a different spot. In local searches, a map and a list of businesses often appear at the very top of the results, so customers see your map listing before your website. Your website becomes the second door, welcoming customers who tap "Learn more" on the map.

Local searchers are usually looking for "a place to go right now," so they decide fast. They don't think long before tapping directions or call, so the hours, photos and reviews they see at first glance become your business's first impression.

How do I rank higher for "neighborhood + business type" searches?

What matters most is how well your business info matches the search, how close you are to the customer, and how well known your business is. Google calls these three relevance, distance and prominence, and its official help pages say local results are mainly decided by these factors.

Naver also says its Place search ranking weighs how closely your info matches the search, how popular the business and its category are, distance, and how complete your info is. The names differ, but the big picture is similar: "matching info, short distance, customer response."

That said, no platform publishes its exact formula, and the order can change at any time. Google says you can't pay or ask to improve your regular local ranking, and Naver says it doesn't guarantee or manually adjust rankings. Spots near the top of the map marked "Ad" are ad products that work separately from the regular list.

You can't change distance, so what you can actually work on is relevance and prominence. Filling in your business type, menu, hours and amenities completely builds relevance; real customer reviews and your replies, plus mentions of your business on local blogs or in articles, slowly build prominence. For customers far from your business, website pages and blog posts about "neighborhood name + business type" can also be the way they find you, rather than the map.

Where do I start with local search?

Start by putting your business info on one page, then copying it exactly to the maps and your website. Following this order saves you a lot of fixing later.

The most time-consuming part at first is hunting down old info scattered around. Search your business name and phone number and scan what's left on blogs, delivery apps and booking apps, and you'll end up with a list of what needs fixing.

It's a good idea to add UTM tags to the website address you put in your map listings. Then GA4 can show you how many visitors came from Naver Place, Google Maps and Kakao Map, and how many of each went on to book.

1. 01Put your business name, street address, main phone number, hours and closed days into one "master info" document. From now on, this document is the right answer for every listing.
2. 02Search your business name on Naver, Google and Kakao Map to see whether a listing already exists and whether anything is wrong.
3. 03Register or verify ownership with your own account in Naver Smart Place, Google Business Profile and the Kakao Business Partner Center.
4. 04Match the name, address, phone and hours in all three places exactly to your master info document, and add your website address.
5. 05Write the same info as text in your website footer and on the "Directions" page, along with your neighborhood name and how to get there.
6. 06Mark days off and hour changes on a calendar, and whenever something changes, update all four places on the same day.

How do I check my local search setup in 30 minutes?

Search for yourself the way a customer would, then compare the basic info on the three maps and your website line by line with your master info document, and you can find urgent problems within 30 minutes. Splitting it into 5-minute blocks in the order below helps you not miss anything.

Search results change depending on where you search from. Search once inside your business and once from a nearby station or the edge of the neighborhood, and you'll get closer to what customers actually see.

It's best to check once a month, using the same searches in the same order. When the conditions are the same each time, changes since last month stand out.

When you find things to fix, don't try to solve everything on the spot. Write them down, and fix first whatever sends customers on a wasted trip, like hours and phone numbers.

1. 015 minutes: In an incognito window or logged out, search "neighborhood name + business type" and your business name on Naver, Google and Kakao Map, and check whether your business shows up and which photo appears first.
2. 025 minutes: Compare the business name, address, phone number and hours on the three maps and your website with your master info document.
3. 035 minutes: Check for closures or shortened hours this month and next, and enter them in advance on each map as temporary closures or special hours.
4. 045 minutes: Reply to any reviews from the past month that you haven't answered yet.
5. 055 minutes: Check that your main photo matches how your business looks now, and upload one or two new photos of changed menu items or interior.
6. 065 minutes: Tap the website and booking links on your map listings yourself to make sure they open, and check that the call button connects properly.

What should I put on my website to help local search?

Writing out the location details customers actually ask about, in sentences, helps the most. If you only add a map image, search engines and AI have a hard time reading it, so you need to leave the same info as text too.

You don't need to force your neighborhood name in over and over. It's enough for it to appear naturally in sentences that are useful to customers, like "a 5-minute walk from Exit 2 of Mangwon Station."

If you use both a landline and a mobile number, pick one main number and use that same number everywhere. When customers see different numbers in different places, they hesitate over which one to call.

• Landmarks such as nearby stations, bus stops or large buildings, and how long it takes to walk from them
• Building name, floor and which side the entrance is on
• Whether parking is available, and nearby public parking lots
• How to book and whether same-day visits are possible
• Name, address, phone and hours in your structured data (business info marked up for search engines to read), matching your map listings

What if I have multiple locations?

The basic rule is a separate map listing for each location and a separate page for each location on your website. Google's guidelines also say one real location gets one profile, and they don't allow multiple profiles for the same location.

Write each location's name to match its actual sign, and list each location's real phone number and hours. Google recommends using a number that reaches that location directly rather than a head-office call center where possible, and asks locations in the same country to use the same brand name and category.

The website address in each map listing should also point to that location's page rather than your home page. If you mix every location onto one page, customers have to dig for the location they want, and search engines have a hard time pairing your map listings with your website.

It also helps to plan your registration schedule in advance. According to Smart Place's help center, one ID can register up to 30 businesses, with up to 3 applications a day, and these limits can change. On Google, if the same business has 10 or more locations, you can apply for bulk verification.

How do I measure local search results?

Start with the views and the call, directions and website clicks shown in each map service's owner dashboard. The key is to look separately at whether customers "saw" your business and whether they "took action."

In Google Business Profile's Performance view, you can see profile views, the search terms customers used to find you, and calls, direction requests and website clicks. In Naver Smart Place's statistics, you can see Place visits, traffic channels and search keywords, and views by time and day of the week, but only for the last 1 year.

Compare numbers with last month on the same platform. Each platform counts differently, so comparing the size of Naver's numbers directly with Google's will muddy your judgment. If map numbers went up but bookings stayed flat, check whether customers are stalling at the next step after the map, such as your website or booking page.

Here's an example with a made-up business. Heukgwa Ohu ("Clay and Afternoon"), a small pottery studio in Mangwon-dong that runs one-day classes, did the 30-minute check and found old hours on Google, a previous phone number on Kakao Map, and a main photo on Naver that still showed the studio before it moved.

That same day, the owner matched the hours and number on all three maps to the master info document and uploaded photos of the new studio's exterior and workbench. On the website's "Directions" page, they added sentences like "a 7-minute walk from Exit 1 of Mangwon Station, glass door on the 1st floor," and linked each map to the class booking page.

The next month, they searched again with the same terms and wrote the call and directions numbers from the three maps, plus completed bookings from GA4, next to last month's figures. If the numbers moved, they note which change came before it; if not, they keep going by changing one other thing at a time. This is a made-up example to show the process, so real results vary by business.

What are common local search mistakes?

The most common mistake is posting your info once and forgetting about it. If you fix only one place after moving, changing your number or changing your days off, customers see the wrong info and make a wasted trip.

Be careful about adding place names or business-type keywords to your business name to rank better. Google says your business name should match your real sign and documents, and breaking that rule can get your profile restricted.

Map listings can also change because of edits suggested by other users. So even after you finish registering, make a habit of searching for your business on all three maps once a month to check that no info you didn't add has appeared.

• Adding keywords to your business name, like "Gangnam Station Cheapest Hair Salon"
• Registering the same business more than once, or leaving your old address up after moving
• Registering a storefront at an address where you don't actually operate (such as a virtual office)
• Making many identical pages that differ only in the neighborhood name
• Giving map management access only to an employee's personal account

What should I focus on for my type of business?

Customers choose businesses for different reasons depending on the type, so the info you show first on maps and your website differs too. Think of the questions customers ask most often on the phone, and you'll quickly know what to put up front.

Cafes should lead with what makes a stay comfortable, like seating, outlets, parking and whether pets are allowed; hair salons should lead with service prices and stylist photos. Craft studios are often hard to find inside their buildings, so the floor number and entrance photos matter; academies should clearly state target grades, class times and how to get a consultation.

Whatever your business, photos should show "how it looks now." If you've redone the interior or changed the menu but old photos remain, customers can easily mistake you for a different place.

Businesses where customers sign up after a consultation, like academies and Pilates studios, don't get decisions straight from the map. Make the path to a consultation request or trial booking clear in your map listing, and describe your teaching approach and instructors in detail on your website to hold on to customers who are comparing.