Imagine someone visiting Seattle for the first time, Googling ‘best food tours near me,’ and your tour company doesn’t show up in the results.

Heartbreaking, right?

That’s where Local SEO in Seattle saves the day—making sure tourists and locals alike can find your business, whether it’s a book shop, a boat tour, or a housecleaning service.

If your business has a physical location or service area, optimizing for local online search is incredibly important.

I’m going to show you the essential steps to boost visibility and get found by customers, whether they're across town or across the globe.

What is Local SEO and Why Does it Matter?

Local SEO is similar to general SEO (search engine optimization) in that it is a process of increasing a website’s visibility in organic search results without paying for ads. What makes local SEO special is that it focuses on optimizing a business’ online presence so that their webpages will be displayed when someone searches for a local business or service.

And it’s used a lot.

Have you ever noticed that when you search for something in Google, sometimes you’ll get a pop-up that asks if they can use your current location? That means that they want to filter your results to only show you businesses in your surrounding area.

Also notice in your results that it shows at the very top “Results for {Neighborhood, City}.”

One other thing I want you to notice in the picture above is that the first 3 results are “Sponsored”. After the sponsored ads, you’ll see the organic results. SEO gets you in the organic results. Anyone can buy the sponsored results.

Lastly, you’ll find on either the right side of the screen, or if you scroll down a little bit, what we call the Map Pack. It’s a Google map that lists the top three businesses in the area that fit your search querie. You can click on the business links or directly on the map, and it always shows a snippet of a review. Getting on this Map Pack is GOALS.

So how do you show up in these local organic results and get into the Map Pack?

Optimize Your Google Business Profile

Only businesses that have a Google Business Profile with a local address can show up in the Map Pack.

So in order to show up in the Map Pack you have to set up a Google Business profile and to optimize it just as you would your homepage of your website. This also increases your chances of showing up on the first page of search results because it clearly tells Google that you are location-based business and should be included in location-based searches.

Do these things to put your business on the (Google) Map:

1. Claim your Google Business profile if you haven’t yet. This is a no-brainer for a local business.

2. Fill in all of information available, including tour times, meeting locations, contact details, etc.

3. Use photos and posts to showcase your business. Aim to post new photos every week. They could be the same pics are your social media accounts even! Active photos and (short) videos signal to Google that you are important.

4. Collect reviews and respond to them. You know that reviews are key to your business, so make sure you are asking for them here. And make sure to respond to them in a timely manner. All of them - good and bad. And keep responses to bad reviews professional. According to Bright Local research, 34% of customers expect a response to a review with 2-3 days.

5. Use the Updates to link to new sales, products, services, content, etc. This can also be very similar to what you are doing on social media.

6. Include 3 Q&As. Think of these as FAQs. So list 3 common questions you have about your business, list them and answer them right in your account.

But what if you don’t have a physical address because you are a service business that travels? Well I have both good news and bad news.

The good news is that you can set up a “service area” instead of a direct address in your GMB profile.

The bad news is that you will not show up in the Map Pack. You will still show up in search results, just not on the map because there is no place to pinpoint if you have no address.

So you have two options. You could just leave it as a service area and just accept that you won’t be on the Map Pack. Or you could put your home address or an address of an office or workspace you use. There is no right or wrong answer here, it’s totally up to you. Many people don’t want to put their home address, and that is totally a valid concern, and others are okay with it. It’s totally up to you to decide how you want to go about this.

Speak Seattle’s Language (and Keywords)

When picking your keywords for your website, make sure to incorporate local keywords.

Sometimes adding local keywords is as simple as adding the name of the city or neighborhood to the end of your keyword, like “boat tours in Seattle” or “bookshop in Queen Anne”. Sometimes your local keywords need to be more specific like “food tours Pike Place” or “best kid-friendly restaurants near the Space Needle”.

One issue you might notice when doing your keyword research is that maybe the local term isn’t producing many (or any) results in your research tool.

Take this example for the keyword “dog walker Queen Anne Seattle”. Notice that there are no results showing in this keyword research tool.

That doesn’t mean that this keyword isn’t good for you. If you type it into your Google search bar, you will get lots of great results. So here’s how you can continue your research without getting stuck with no data.

If this happens, just try your keyword without the location to do your research, or by making the location more general. Here I removed the neighborhood “Queen Anne” and just keep “Seattle”. Notice that there are a lot more promising results showing up.

Another option for your research is you could try swapping your location with “near me”.

Notice the results are even higher, because they aren’t specific location-based.

But here’s the trick. So this dog walking service only operates in Queen Anne, but because Queen Anne is located in Seattle, they will automatically rank for both of these other search terms by people in and around Queen Anne. So after this research, add back in your location when you implement the keyword on your site.

Each keyword that you choose will be designated to one page on your website. This is what makes blogging so powerful for your SEO. You can have your main keywords for your home page and service pages, and then niche down even more by blogging. Having a good content strategy is key to hitting all of the right keywords across your website.

Make Your Website Mobile-Friendly

According to Hub Spot, over 60% of consumers use their mobile phones to search. If you are in the tourism industry, that number goes up even higher. Tourists are searching from their phones for stuff to do while they are sipping coffee at Tully’s.

Also, Google indexes mobile first, so even the search bots are prioritizing mobile searches. You must make sure that your website looks good, functions well, and is fast on mobile.

How do you do this?

1. Always test your website in a mobile version. You probably work on your site on your laptop, but don’t forget to click around in it with your phone. It will look vastly different.

   1. Check your fonts and images to make sure they all look good and are lined up correctly.

   2. Check readability. Do you have long paragraphs of texts that fill up the whole screen? You might need to break up your text with more space, headings, images, etc.

   3. Check that you can easily find and access everything.

   4. If you have pop-ups, check to make sure they look good and can be easily closed on your phone.

   5. Turn your phone to check in both portrait and landscape orientations.

2. Use your platform’s mobile version if possible. Some website platforms, like Squarespace, make it very easy to view and edit your website in a mobile version.

3. Check a web page’s speed at Page Speed Insights. Specifically check the mobile version.

   
   

Seattle’s Got Connections, and So Should You

Almost every top ranking website has good quality backlinks. Backlinks are places elsewhere on the internet linking to your website, like how I linked to Bright Local, Hub Spot, and Page Speed Insights in this blog post.

But for local businesses, getting local links is even more important.

Find other businesses, media, and bloggers in your area who fit well with your business. Reach out to them and ask to:

1. Partner with them in some capacity. Maybe your hair salon sells their product, so they can link to you on their site and vice versa.

2. Offer to guest blog or be a guest on a podcast.

3. Get listed in local directories like Visit Seattle or the Chamber of Commerce.

4. Reach out to local media for guest articles or as a source for future articles.

5. Reach out to local influencers on social media.

6. Offer a sponsorship for a local team or farmer’s market.

And of course include this information on your website as well!

Be a Part of the Seattle Scene

As a local business, you should be engaging in local activities and events, particularly ones related to your business. Share about your involvement on your website, your social media accounts, and your GMB profile.

The more Google connects your business to the local area, the more you will show up in local search results.

Make It Rain (Bookings, Not Just Water)

So as a recap, to increase your local visibility, you need to optimize your Google My Business Profile, use local keywords, make your website mobile-friendly, build local links, and engage with your community. Whether you’re running a dog-walking business in Queen Anne, a vegan bakery in West Seattle, or leading unforgettable food tours, local SEO can help you shine in your city. Now go get found!

Feeling overwhelmed? I specialize in Local SEO for Seattle businesses and would love to help your tours or services get booked up fast!