If you want to be found in Munich, you are not competing with the whole internet but with the businesses within a few kilometres. That makes local search optimization manageable: there are only a few levers, but they have to be right.
Your Google Business Profile does half the work
The map with three results above the normal list is fed almost entirely by the Google Business Profile, not by your website. It is free and the single most effective step. Complete means:
- the exact company name, the same one used on your website and invoices
- address and service area, phone number, link to the website
- the right primary category, plus a few accurate secondary ones
- real opening hours, public holidays included
- photos of the workshop, the shop, the team, the work
- services as a list, in your customers' words
Keep name, address and phone number identical everywhere: in the profile, on the website, in directories. Inconsistent details are the most common reason a business ranks below its neighbour.
What has to be on the website
- the city in the page title and the first heading, not only in the footer
- the districts or towns you actually work in, written as a normal sentence rather than a list of thirty names
- address and phone number as text, not only as an image
- a separate page per main service once there is more than one
- a contact page with directions and opening hours
The text should read like an answer given on the phone. Search engines have been good at natural language for years — stacked keywords no longer help and read badly.
Reviews
Reviews work twice over: they influence the order in the map and they help decide who gets called. Ask for them actively after finished jobs, ideally with a short link. Reply to every review, including critical ones — factually, without details that are nobody else's business. Do not buy reviews: they are recognizable and can cost you the profile.
Local search is rarely won by the nicest text, but by the most complete set of details.
What does little
- hiding search terms in white text or in the source code
- lists of every Munich district at the bottom of the page
- bought links from directories with no content of their own
- monthly ranking reports that nobody translates into inquiries
How long it takes
A complete profile often shows an effect within a few weeks. Texts and new pages take longer, usually two to three months before Google settles on them. So do not only measure positions — measure calls and form submissions. That is the number that counts.
The smallest sensible start
Complete the profile, upload five current photos, check the opening hours, ask three customers for a review, put the city into the headline of your home page. That takes an afternoon and covers more than half the effect.