Local SEO in Singapore means appearing in Google Maps and the local results on Google Search when someone nearby looks for what you do: "physio near Bishan MRT", "dentist Tampines", "aircon servicing". Google says local results are based mainly on relevance, distance and prominence. You can't change where a searcher is standing, but you can make your business more relevant and more prominent with a complete, verified Business Profile, the same details everywhere, reviews from real customers, and pages on your own site that describe your services and location properly.
How local SEO works in Singapore
Google's page on improving your local ranking sets out three factors:
- Relevance is "how well a Business Profile matches what someone is searching for". Complete, detailed information helps Google match you to the right searches.
- Distance is how far you are from the person searching. If they don't share a location, Google uses what it knows about where they are.
- Prominence is "how well-known a business is". Google says it draws on information such as how many websites link to you and how many reviews you have, and that more reviews and positive ratings can help.
It also states: "There's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google." Be wary of anyone who offers a shortcut.
In a dense city, a searcher often has several similar businesses within a short walk. Distance is largely fixed, so the work goes into the parts you control: how complete and accurate your listing is, and what your reviews say.
Setting up your Google Business Profile
Your Business Profile is the listing that appears in Maps and in the local results. Google's guidelines for representing your business are strict, and everything else in this guide assumes you follow them.
- Verify it. Verification confirms you're authorised to manage the profile. Google decides which methods you're offered (phone, text, email, video or post, among others), and says reviews of a verification can take up to five business days.
- Use your real-world name. The name should match your signage and how customers know you. "Including unnecessary information in your business name isn't permitted", so "Bright Physio" is fine and "Bright Physio | Best Sports Injury Clinic Tampines" isn't.
- Choose categories carefully. Google asks you to use as few as possible, describing what the business is rather than everything it sells.
- Give a precise address. Include the block, street, unit number and postal code. A virtual office or mailing address you don't operate from isn't eligible, and each physical location gets one profile.
- Know the practitioner rules. Public-facing professionals such as doctors and lawyers may have their own profiles; support staff shouldn't. A solo practitioner at a branded practice usually shares the practice's profile. This matters for clinics and law firms in particular.
- Set your hours, including special hours. Add closures and changed hours for public holidays such as Chinese New Year and Hari Raya Puasa before they happen. Wrong hours send people to a locked door.
- Use a phone number that reaches that location, and link to that location's own page on your site if it has one.
- Add real photos of the entrance, the room, the team and the work. Someone looking for a unit in a busy mall or an industrial building wants to recognise the shopfront.
Service-area businesses
Aircon servicing, home cleaning, movers and many renovation firms are service-area businesses. Google's page on service areas says to remove your address if you don't serve customers there, and to set your service area by city, postal code or another type of area, up to 20 areas. A hybrid business, such as a contractor with a showroom, can show both the address and the service area.
Consistent name, address and phone number
Google builds business information from several sources: what you provide, what users contribute, licensed third-party data and public information, including your own website. When those sources disagree, you're relying on Google to guess which is right.
Singapore addresses can be written in many ways, which makes inconsistency easy:
| Written as | Also written as |
|---|---|
| Blk 123 Bishan Street 12 | 123 Bishan St 12 |
| #02-45 | 02-45, Unit 2-45 |
| Singapore 570123 | S(570123), S570123 |
Pick one format and use it exactly, everywhere you control:
- your website footer and contact page
- your Business Profile
- Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn
- booking and delivery platforms, which matter a lot for restaurants
- directories and industry association listings
Use the same trading name too. If customers know you as "Bright Physio" but your website footer says "Bright Health Solutions Pte Ltd", show both clearly and use them the same way everywhere.
When you move premises or change your number, update everything on the same day, and edit your existing profile instead of creating a new one. Because Google also takes information from users, check your profile every month or two for changes you didn't make.
Getting reviews within Google's rules
Reviews feed prominence and they're what people read before choosing. Google's rules on how you ask for them are clear, and breaking them can get reviews removed.
What's allowed. Google's tips to get more reviews suggest asking customers to visit a review link or scan a QR code. Put it where it fits the moment: the follow-up message after an appointment, a card at the counter, the bottom of a receipt or invoice email.
What isn't. Google's prohibited and restricted content policy for Maps rules out:
- incentives of any kind, including "payment, discounts, free goods and/or services", and a lucky draw entry is still an incentive
- discouraging negative reviews, or choosing to "selectively solicit positive reviews from customers", which rules out sending only happy customers to Google and steering unhappy ones to a private form
- reviews based on a conflict of interest, which the policy says may include current or former employment and family relationships, so staff and relatives shouldn't review you
- requiring or pressuring customers to leave reviews while they're on your premises, or asking them to include particular content
Replying. Google suggests being professional and polite, keeping replies short, and never sharing a reviewer's private information. For a clinic or a law firm, that means never confirming in public that someone was a patient or client. Reply to the specific point, offer to continue the conversation privately, and leave it there.
If a review breaks Google's policies (spam, a fake review, a conflict of interest), you can report it for removal. Google says not to report one just because you disagree with it.
Local pages on your own website
Your Business Profile and your website work together. The profile gets you onto the map; the website adds to what Google knows about you and answers the questions that decide whether someone gets in touch.
- Service pages that describe what you do in the words customers use, with prices or ranges if you publish them, what to expect and who it's for.
- One page per real location, with the full address, unit number, opening hours, nearest MRT station and exit, bus services, parking, an embedded map, a photo of the entrance and the team at that branch.
- Consistent details that match your profile exactly.
Be careful with pages for areas you serve but don't operate from. A set of near-identical pages for "renovation contractor Punggol", "renovation contractor Sengkang" and so on, with only the place name swapped, is what Google's spam policies describe as doorway abuse: "pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page". If you've done real work in an area, a project write-up serves better: the flat type, the brief, the photos, what was hard. That approach suits interior design firms especially well.
LocalBusiness structured data and maps
Structured data tells search engines the facts about your business in a format they can read reliably. Google's LocalBusiness documentation requires the name and address, recommends telephone, URL, geo-coordinates and opening hours, and suggests using the most specific business type available.
- Make sure the markup says exactly what your profile and contact page say.
- Don't mark up your own reviews to try for star ratings in results. Google's review snippet guidelines say pages using LocalBusiness markup are ineligible for stars when the business controls the reviews about itself.
- Test the markup with the Rich Results Test before and after launch.
Schema markup for small businesses covers the other useful types. On the contact page itself, an embedded map and a directions link help people who arrive from your profile finish the journey.
The website side of local SEO, from location pages to structured data, is part of our SEO services.