Local SEO

If customers visit you at an address, or you serve a specific area, Local SEO helps Google show your business in local results and Maps. RankKit SEO adds LocalBusiness schema with your address, map position, phone and opening hours to every page, gives you a block and shortcode to show the same details on your site, and publishes a locations.kml file.

Local SEO for one business is free. RankKit SEO Pro adds multiple locations, each with its own page.

Before you start

Local SEO describes a business, so the site must be run by an organization. Go to RankKit SEO → Settings → Identity and set Who runs this site to Organization. If it's set to Person, the Local SEO tab says: "Local SEO describes a business. Set "Who runs this site" to Organization under Identity to use it." See Site identity.

Set up your business

1. Go to RankKit SEO → Settings → Local SEO.
2. In the Your business card, turn on Enable.
3. Fill in the details and click Save changes.

Field	Notes
Business name	As customers know it.
Business type	"The most specific schema.org type: Restaurant, Dentist, Plumber…" Start typing for suggestions. Default is LocalBusiness.
Short description	One or two sentences.
Street address, City, Region / state, Postcode	Your address, written the same way as on your Google Business Profile.
Country code	"Two letters (ISO 3166-1)", such as US, GB or DE.
Latitude, Longitude	"In Google Maps, right-click your door and click the numbers to copy them."
Phone, Email	Public contact details.
Price range	For example $$.
Area served	For service-area businesses, for example "Greater Boston".
Photo or logo	"Shown in Google results for the business. Falls back to the site logo."
Map link (optional)	"Your Google Business Profile or map link. Without it, "Get directions" opens Google Maps at the address."

Opening hours

Choose how hours appear in the schema:

• Not shown (default)
• Opening hours: set each weekday to Open or Closed, add time ranges, use 24 hours for all-day opening, and Add split hours for a lunch break. Copy to all days copies Monday to the rest of the week.
• Open 24/7

There is also a legacy Hours (text, schema.org format) field, "used until you set opening hours above", in the format Mo-Fr 09:00-18:00, one per line.

What it adds to your schema

Your Organization node gets the LocalBusiness type you chose, with the address, geo coordinates, hasMap, areaServed, phone, email, opening hours and priceRange. It appears on every page as part of the automatic schema. Check it with the schema validator.

Show it on your site

Add your business details to a contact page or footer, so visitors see the same information Google reads.

• Block: add the Business info (RankKit SEO) block. In its Show settings, choose what to display: business name, address, phone, email, opening hours and directions link.
• Shortcode:

[speedrank_local show="name,address,phone,email,hours,map"]

show= takes any of: name, address, phone, email, hours, map.

Locations KML file

With Publish locations.kml on (the default), RankKit SEO publishes a map file of your business locations at /locations.kml for Google Earth and Maps, and lists it in your sitemap index. It needs XML sitemaps on. Locations without coordinates are listed by address.

Multiple locations (Pro)

For branches, stores or offices. Each location gets its own page, LocalBusiness schema, opening hours, block and shortcode, a place in the store list, and an entry in the KML file.

1. On Settings → Local SEO, find Locations and turn on Enable. Save changes, then reload the page.
2. Click Add location. Enter a Page title (for example "Downtown store"), a Status (Published, Draft or Private), the business fields and opening hours.
3. Click Save location.

Each location has a page at /locations/<slug>/, and all locations are listed at /locations/. From the list you can View, edit the Page content, Edit the details or Delete (move to the trash) a location.

Show one location with its ID, or a list of all of them:

[speedrank_local location="123"]
[speedrank_locations]
[speedrank_locations city="Boston"]

The Store list (RankKit SEO) block does the same as [speedrank_locations], with an Only this city filter.

RankKit SEO Pro Multiple locations, the store list and per-location shortcodes are part of RankKit SEO Pro. Start a 14-day free trial.

FAQ

Does this replace my Google Business Profile?

No. Your Google Business Profile is still the main source for Maps and the local pack. RankKit SEO's schema confirms the same details on your own site, which helps Google trust them. Keep the name, address and phone identical in both.

I only serve an area and don't want my address shown. What do I do?

Fill in Area served and leave out what you don't want public. The block and shortcode only show the parts you choose with Show or show=.

Do I need the KML file?

It's optional and harmless. It gives Google one more machine-readable source for your location. Turn off Publish locations.kml if you don't want it.