Every local business wants to appear at the top of Google.

Whether you’re a law firm, accountant, healthcare provider, or home service business, higher rankings can bring more website visits, phone calls, and enquiries.

But what if your competitors have bigger budgets, stronger websites, and years of SEO investment behind them?

Trying to outrank them for the same competitive keywords might not be the best use of your resources.

We believe a successful SEO strategy should focus on more than rankings. The goal is to attract the right visitors and turn that visibility into business opportunities.

And sometimes, the most valuable opportunities come from searches your competitors aren’t targeting.

In our latest episode of The Website Growth Show, Rana Shahbaz speaks with Andrew Shotland, founder of Local SEO Guide, about how local businesses can compete more effectively as Google and AI-powered search continue to evolve.

Here are some practical strategies worth considering for your business.

1. Stop focusing exclusively on your biggest keywords

Let’s say you’re an estate planning attorney.

Naturally, you want to appear when someone searches for “estate planning attorney near me.”

But that search is likely competitive, and the businesses already ranking at the top may have significant advantages.

Now consider the questions someone might ask before deciding they need an attorney.

They might search for information about transferring property after a parent’s death, understanding probate, or deciding whether they need a trust.

Those searches may represent opportunities to reach people earlier in their decision-making process.

The same approach applies to other industries.

Your potential customers aren’t only searching for your services. They’re also searching for solutions to the problems that lead them to your services.

2. Build your content around real customer questions

One of the most valuable sources of content ideas is probably already inside your business.

Your customer enquiries.

Think about the questions people ask before working with you. What are they confused about? What concerns keep coming up? What alternatives are they considering?

These questions can help you create content that attracts potential customers while demonstrating your expertise.

At WP Minds, we recommend approaching content planning by combining three sources of information:

Customer insights: Questions from consultations, emails, sales calls, and support conversations.
Search research: Keywords, search intent, competing pages, and opportunities in your local market.
Business priorities: The services, locations, and customer enquiries that matter most to your growth.

This combination helps avoid a common mistake: creating content simply because a keyword has search volume.

A blog post attracting 1,000 visitors who never need your services may be less valuable than a page attracting 50 visitors who are actively considering hiring you.

3. Make sure your website supports the entire customer journey

Getting someone to your website is only part of the job.

Once they arrive, they need to understand what you offer, whether you can solve their problem, and what they should do next.

For a local service business, we recommend ensuring that your website has clear, useful pages for your primary services and locations.

Your service pages should explain what you do, who the service is for, and how someone can get started. Location pages should provide genuinely relevant local information rather than simply repeating the same content with different city names.

Educational articles should connect naturally to related services.

For example, if an estate planning firm publishes an article explaining probate, a reader should have an easy way to explore the firm’s probate services or contact the team.

The article attracts someone with a question. The service page helps them understand the available solution.

A well-structured website connects information with action.

4. Use AI search to understand what customers want to know

Search behavior is becoming more conversational.

Someone looking for a local service might still use Google to search for “accountant near me.”

But they might also ask ChatGPT a much more detailed question about their business, describe their situation, and request recommendations.

AI tools can then ask follow-up questions to narrow down what the person needs.

This creates an opportunity for businesses to better understand customer intent.

For example, an AI search about home care might lead to questions about dementia support, overnight assistance, pricing, or alternatives to assisted living.

These questions can reveal useful topics to address on your website.

One exercise we recommend exploring is to search for your primary services in Google and AI tools, then examine the information provided and the follow-up questions that appear.

Look for recurring themes, particularly questions your current website doesn’t answer clearly.

5. Treat your Google Business Profile as an ongoing priority

A complete, accurate profile helps people understand your services, location, hours, and other relevant details.

Customer reviews are another important consideration.

We recommend regularly reviewing your:

Primary and secondary business categories
Services and business attributes
Business hours and contact information
Photos and videos
Customer reviews and responses
Website and location-page links
Business information across relevant directories

Local SEO shouldn’t be treated as a one-time setup task.

6. Don’t rely on traffic as your only measure of SEO success

One of the biggest changes in search is that website traffic no longer tells the full story.

AI-generated answers can provide information without requiring users to visit a website.

Customers may also discover your business through ChatGPT, Google Maps, social media, or another source before contacting you directly.

As a result, traditional analytics may not accurately reflect every interaction that influenced an enquiry.

That doesn’t mean traffic and rankings are no longer useful. They remain important indicators, but they should be evaluated alongside business outcomes.

At WP Minds, we recommend looking at a broader picture of performance, including qualified enquiries, phone calls, form submissions, Google Business Profile interactions, and conversions from important service pages.

It’s also worth adding a simple question to your contact forms or enquiry process:

“How did you first hear about us?”

Include options such as Google Search, Google Maps, ChatGPT, social media, and referrals.

Ultimately, the most meaningful SEO results are the ones that support business growth, not just higher visitor counts.

Where should you start?

If you’re looking to improve your local SEO, you don’t need to overhaul your entire website immediately.

Start by reviewing a few fundamentals:

Identify your most important services. Make sure each has a clear, useful page that explains the service and offers a logical next step.
Review your customer questions. Find topics that connect to genuine customer problems and aren’t adequately addressed on your website.
Evaluate your local competition. Look at competing websites, Google Business Profiles, reviews, and content to identify opportunities.
Check your Google Business Profile. Confirm that your categories, services, business information, and reviews are being maintained.
Measure enquiries alongside visibility. Understand which pages and channels are contributing to actual business opportunities.

From there, prioritize improvements based on their likely impact rather than trying to do everything at once.

For more insights on local SEO, AI search, customer reviews, and competing in difficult markets, listen to Rana Shahbaz’s conversation with Andrew Shotland.

Listen to the full episode: Local SEO Strategy — How to Outrank Your Competitors