Local search, explained
Short, honest guides for owners who want to understand how people find a local business on maps and in AI answers, and what actually moves the needle.
All guides
Eight guides, one goal: more people through your door
Each guide explains the topic in plain language, shows what Local Booster does about it, and lists what you can do yourself.
How Google Maps ranking works
Relevance, distance and prominence, and which parts you can actually influence.
6 minute readApple Maps and Bing Places
The two maps most businesses forget, and why they now feed AI assistants too.
5 minute readGetting recommended by ChatGPT and Gemini
Where AI assistants get their facts about local businesses, and how to give them good ones.
4 minute readBrand mentions and citations
Why being named on directories, industry sites and local news builds trust with maps and AI.
5 minute readReviews and the review generator
What Google allows, how to reply to bad reviews, and how we ask customers for you.
6 minute readHow we measure: the map grid
Why one rank number misleads, and how to read a geo-grid and your monthly report.
6 minute readChoosing local keywords
What makes a search local, the map pack test, and how we pick the searches to target.
5 minute readLocal search glossary
Plain-language definitions of the terms you'll see in your reports, from NAP to top 3 share.
5 minute read
Reading path
Start here
New to local search? Read these in order. Together they take under an hour.
- How Google Maps ranking works. The three things Google looks at, and why your ranking changes street by street.
- Choosing local keywords. Decide which searches are worth winning before you work on anything else.
- Reviews and the review generator. The signal you can grow every week, and the rules to stay on the right side of.
- Brand mentions and citations. How being named across the web builds trust with maps and AI.
- Apple Maps and Bing Places. Cover the maps your competitors ignore.
- Getting recommended by ChatGPT and Gemini. Where AI answers come from, and what you can influence.
- How we measure: the map grid. How to tell whether any of it is working.
Keep the glossary open in another tab for any term you haven't met before.
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