web analytics
Skip to content
Home / FAQ / Local SEO Basics / Does local SEO still work?

Local SEO basics

Does Local SEO Still Work?

Yes. Local SEO still works because Google still shows a map pack for most searches with local intent, and people still choose businesses from it. What changed is where the work pays off: your Google Business Profile, your reviews, and a website that matches them matter more than old tricks like thin city pages.
By Eric Walker · Last updated October 2026
HVAC technician inspecting an outdoor air conditioning unit with a flashlight

What the data says

The cleanest evidence I have found is a Whitespark study published in May 2025 that looked at 540 searches across Denver, Houston, and Phoenix in six industries. For searches with local intent, such as “plumber near me,” the local pack appeared on 93 percent of them. Google’s AI Overviews appeared on only 15 percent of those same searches, but on 92 percent of purely informational searches.

That split explains most of the panic. AI answers are taking over the “how do I fix a leaking faucet” searches. They have not taken over the “who can fix my faucet today” searches, and those are the ones that turn into phone calls. It is one study from one year, so treat the exact numbers as a snapshot, not a promise.

How often each result appearsSEARCHES WITH LOCAL INTENTLocal pack shown93%AI Overview shown15%INFORMATIONAL SEARCHESAI Overview shown92%Source: Whitespark, May 2025. 540 searches inDenver, Houston, and Phoenix across six industries.

What customers still do

Searchers still compare businesses before they call. In BrightLocal’s 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey of 1,002 US adults, 31 percent said they would only use a business rated 4.5 stars or higher, up from 17 percent the year before. Seventy-four percent look for reviews written in the last three months, and 80 percent said they are more likely to use a business that replies to all of its reviews.

Those numbers describe a buyer who is more selective, not one who stopped searching. If anything, they raise the bar for how your profile looks when someone lands on it.

What has changed

If you have read “SEO is dead” or “AI is replacing SEO,” here is my read. For informational searches, AI answers do take clicks that used to go to websites, and that is a real loss for blogs and publishers. For a local service business, the job is different. You are trying to be the business Google, and now AI assistants, feel safe recommending.

The signals behind that recommendation are the same ones local SEO has always built: a complete and accurate profile, consistent business information across the web, recent reviews, and a website that clearly says what you do and where. I cover the AI side in more detail in my guide to AI search and local SEO.

What still works, and what does not

Google says local results come from three things: relevance, distance, and prominence, and its own page on improving your local ranking says so directly. Here is where I put effort first:

What no longer works is volume without substance: dozens of near-identical city pages, keyword-stuffed business names, and bought reviews. Google has been tightening its spam enforcement, and those shortcuts are the first things to get filtered out.

Good to know

Local SEO is slow. Most businesses need several months before the map results move in a way they can measure, and I explain the usual range in my local SEO timeline. Anyone promising page one in two weeks is selling something else.

When local SEO is not the right fix

It does not help if your phone is already ringing more than you can handle, if you serve customers nationally rather than in a specific area, or if the real problem is price or service quality. It also will not rescue a business with a handful of poor reviews and no plan to improve them. In those cases, fix the underlying issue first.

If you are weighing the cost against the return, my page on whether SEO is worth it for a small business walks through the math.

How to check that it is working for you

Open your Google Business Profile performance report and look at calls, direction requests, and website clicks over the last six months. Then check Google Search Console for searches that include your service and city. If both trend up, local SEO is working for you. If they are flat after several months of real work, something specific is holding you back, and the fastest way to find it is to follow the steps in why your business is not showing up on Google.

Related questions

Not sure where you stand?

If you want a plain read on your Google Business Profile, your reviews, and how you compare with the businesses showing up ahead of you, I will go through them with you and tell you what to fix first.
Talk through your situation