When you hear “local listings,” your brain probably jumps to pizza joints and dry cleaners. Fair. But here’s the twist: those same listings matter just as much for businesses that don’t even have a front door. Remote agencies, eComm brands, consultants working from their kitchen table, all of them can benefit from showing up like a local, even if they’re not.
Let’s talk through why that matters, and how to actually make it work.
Search visibility isn’t just for the corner bakery.
Google’s local algorithm doesn’t discriminate. It cares about three things: relevance, prominence, and proximity. That’s true for a yoga studio downtown, and it’s true for a freelance UX designer working from a laptop in Boise. Nearly half of all searches on Google have local intent. That means the person searching is looking for something nearby or region-specific, even if they don’t say it outright.
And here’s the kicker: Google will often show service-based or remote businesses in local results, especially if they’ve set up a proper Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business), Bing Places, Apple Maps, or Yelp listing. If you’ve ever searched “marketing agency near me” and found one with no office hours and no photos of a building, that’s why.
Source: Think with Google
Consistency builds trust, and trust gets clicks.
Search engines are a little paranoid. They need to see the same information repeated across multiple sources before they believe it’s true. So when your business name, phone number, and service area match across directories, it signals credibility. That’s true whether you’ve got a storefront or not.
If your listings are inconsistent, maybe your phone number is outdated on Yelp, or your business hours are missing on Apple Maps, it chips away at your authority. And that’s not just a theory. Citation signals, which include listing consistency, account for about 7% of your ability to show up in the local pack. That’s the little box with the map and three businesses that shows up above the organic results. You want to be in that box.
Source: Moz Local Search Ranking Factors
Local listings are where conversations start.
Think of your listing as a mini customer service desk. People don’t just look at it. They interact with it. They read reviews, leave their own, ask questions, send messages, and sometimes even book
appointments right there. For service-based businesses, especially ones that don’t have a storefront, this is where a lot of
trust-building happens.
And yes, reviews matter. A lot. In one survey, 87% of people said they read reviews for local businesses, and 73% said they wouldn’t even consider a business with bad or no reviews. That’s not a small group. So if your listing is active, meaning you’re responding to reviews, answering questions, and keeping things up to date, you’re not just visible. You’re approachable.
You’re not just visible. You’re building relationships.
Source: BrightLocal Consumer Review Survey
Voice search is local search.
Here’s something people forget. When someone says, “Hey Siri, who does tax prep near me?” they’re not typing. They’re talking. And voice assistants don’t browse. They pick one answer. That answer comes from structured data, and a big part of that comes from, you guessed it, local listings.
More than 70% of people say they prefer using voice over typing, and most voice searches are local. If your business isn’t listed properly, you’re not even in the running for that one coveted answer. It’s like not showing up to the race and wondering why you didn’t place.
Source: PwC Voice Assistants Report
Geo-targeting isn’t just for locals.
Let’s say you run a remote web design agency, and you want more clients in Austin. You don’t need an office there; you just need to show up there. A well-optimized local listing can do that. By setting your service area and using location-specific keywords, you can show up in searches like “Austin web designer” or “digital marketing near Austin.”
This is especially handy if you serve multiple regions. You can create listings for each target area, without pretending you’re a chain or faking a local address. Google actually allows service-area businesses to hide their address and still appear in local results. No storefront required.
Local SEO and geo-targeting work hand in hand. One makes you visible; the other makes sure the right people see you.
Data insights that actually mean something.
Here’s something most businesses miss: your local listings come with data. Not just how many people saw your business, but how they found it, what they searched for, and what they did next. That’s gold.
Google Business Profile Insights, for example, can show you which queries led to your listing, which photos got the most views, and how many people clicked to call. That kind of info helps you figure out what’s working, and where to shift your attention. Maybe you’re getting a lot of traffic from searches in Denver but no conversions. That’s worth digging into.
And because most of your competitors aren’t doing this well, you don’t need to be perfect. You just need to be better than average. Which, frankly, isn’t that hard.
So what’s the takeaway?
Local listings aren’t only for shops with open signs and parking lots. They’re for any business that wants to be found, trusted, and chosen. Whether you’re selling software, coaching clients, or shipping candles from your garage, they make you visible where people are actually looking. And they give you a chance to make the first move.
And the best part? It’s not expensive. It’s not complicated. It just takes a little consistency, a little attention, and a willingness to show up. Even if you don’t have a door to walk through.
That’s one more tool in the belt.
We’ll be back soon with more you can use.
Until then, keep building.
– Perfect Sites Blog