Choosing a local SEO company in Dublin

What local SEO covers

Local SEO is the part of search optimisation that decides whether a business appears when someone nearby searches for what it does. Its main surfaces are the local pack, the map block with three businesses that Google shows for queries with local intent, and Google Maps itself. Its main instrument is the Google Business Profile, the free listing that those surfaces draw on. Website work still matters, because the profile links to it and Google reads both, but for a plumber, a dentist or a café the profile is where the calls come from.

The Google Business Profile

Google's own guidance says local results are ranked on relevance, distance and prominence. Relevance is set by the profile's categories, services and description matching what was searched. Distance is the searcher's location against the business's address or service area, which no company can change. Prominence is how well known the business is, measured through reviews, mentions, links and the website's own standing.

A local SEO company should claim and verify the profile, choose the primary and secondary categories deliberately, set the service area for a business that travels to customers, keep hours and contact details exact, add photos regularly, publish posts, and set up a routine for asking for reviews and answering every one. Ask who does each of those things and how often.

Citations and NAP consistency

A citation is a listing of the business's name, address and phone number on another site: a directory, a trade body, a local news site. Citations support prominence when they are on relevant sites and consistent with each other. Consistency means the name, address and phone match exactly everywhere, including the website's own footer and structured data. Cleaning up old or duplicated listings is often the first local SEO task on a business that has moved or changed its number.

Measuring local pack visibility

Local pack results change with the searcher's location. A business can be first in the pack from its own front door and absent two kilometres away. Measuring visibility properly means checking from several points across the area the business serves, on a schedule, and reporting the pattern rather than a single position. Ask a local SEO company how it measures this. A company that reports one position for “near me” queries is reporting the view from its own office. What an SEO report should show covers the reporting side.

Questions specific to local work

• Who manages the profile, and will they have access under our Google account rather than theirs?
• How do you ask for reviews, and who answers them?
• Which categories would you set, and why those?
• How will you measure where we appear across the area we serve?
• What will you do about listings that already exist with old details?
• How does the website support the profile, and which pages need to change?

These sit alongside the twelve general questions on questions to ask before you sign, and the six criteria on the criteria page apply unchanged. The selection guide is the place to start if you have not read it.

How SEO Agency Dublin describes its local SEO service

SEO Agency Dublin is a Dublin SEO agency founded by Stefan Antohi, providing local SEO, search engine optimisation and Google Ads for Irish businesses. Its own description of the service, in 60 words or fewer as this reference's rules require: Google Business Profile optimisation and local search strategy for Dublin businesses, aiming at visibility in the Google Maps local pack through profile optimisation, review strategy, local citation building and location-specific content, with an expectation of improved local visibility within four to eight weeks. That is a company fact, from the local SEO page and the homepage FAQ; the timeline is the agency's stated expectation, not a guarantee. How it measures against the criteria is on the agency page.