B2B SEO
Local SEO for B2B That Wins the Searches Where Location Counts
Most B2B searches are not local, but some of the most valuable ones are: a trade counter, a regional depot, a translation agency in the city, a machine shop within driving distance. I work out which of your searches have local intent and build for those, without turning your site into a list of town pages.
- years in SEO
- 6+
- client websites worked on
- 60+
- person doing the work
- 1
Local SEO for B2B is narrower, and often more valuable, than it looks
Local SEO for B2B is the work of winning the searches where a buyer's location changes the results - a trade counter, a depot, a machine shop within driving distance, a translator in the city - while leaving national searches to national pages. A packaging buyer looking for a long-term supplier will usually search nationally or internationally. A maintenance engineer whose line has stopped will search for a hydraulic hose repair or a bearing stockist near the plant, and call the first one with stock. A retailer looking for overflow warehousing searches by region. The same company can sit in both worlds.
So the first job is sorting your queries into those where location changes the results and those where it does not. I check the live results for each priority cluster from the locations that matter. If a map pack appears, the profile and location pages matter. If it does not, local work for that cluster is wasted effort, and the budget goes to on-page and content instead.
Intent shapes the page. A transactional local query such as "pallet supplier near me" needs phone, address, stock and opening hours above the fold. A commercial query such as "contract packers in the Midlands" needs capabilities, capacity and accreditations for that site. A navigational query for your company plus a town needs the right location page, not the homepage.
Key takeaways
- Local intent in B2B is narrower than in consumer markets but often high value: trade counters, depots, contract manufacturers and city-based service firms.
- Business profiles should only exist for real, staffed locations that buyers can visit or that serve a defined area; virtual offices and unstaffed sites risk suspension.
- B2B directories such as Thomasnet in the US and Kompass and Europages in Europe double as citation sources and as places procurement teams search.
- Location pages need real local substance - capabilities on site, stock held, delivery coverage, accreditations - or they become doorway pages.
- Reviews are harder to collect from procurement departments, so a steady, policy-compliant request process built into account management matters more than volume.
What's included in my local SEO for B2B
Local work is sized by how many of your priority searches actually trigger local results. For some firms that means seven parts below; for a national supplier it may mean one profile per site and little else.
A local-intent map showing which industrial searches trigger map results
I check each priority cluster from the locations that matter and record where a map pack appears and which business types win it. Where none appears, local work for that cluster is wasted, and the effort goes to product and application pages instead. This map decides how much of everything below is justified.
- Priority clusters checked from each key location
- Map pack presence and winners recorded
- Transactional, commercial and navigational local intent separated
- A short list of where local work pays
Business profile eligibility and setup for plants, warehouses and trade counters
A staffed plant, warehouse, trade counter or office with signage generally qualifies; a virtual office, a registered address with no staff or an unstaffed storage unit does not, and profiles for them risk suspension. Check Google's current guidelines before adding a location. Firms that travel to customers set realistic service areas rather than the whole country.
- An eligibility decision for every site
- Duplicates merged, ineligible profiles removed
- Primary category matched to what local searchers need
- Hours that reflect real buyer access, per department
Profile products, services and photos that show a supplier's real scale
Products and services sections are underused in B2B, which makes them a simple way to show range in buyer language, linked to the right pages. Photos of the real operation - the building and signage, the trade counter, the production line, the loading bays - are what procurement teams use to judge scale and credibility before a first call.
- Product families and services listed in buyer terms
- Each listing linked to its matching page
- Real photos of site, counter, line and team
- Profile links tagged so visits can be tracked
Industrial directories distributors and procurement teams use to shortlist
Some B2B directories are search tools in their own right. Thomasnet is a long-established North American industrial sourcing directory; Kompass and Europages cover European suppliers. Trade association member directories carry topical relevance a general directory cannot, and chambers of commerce tie your sites to the area. I choose by buyer use, not by link alone.
- Thomasnet for US-facing suppliers
- Kompass and Europages for exporters
- Association and chamber member listings
- Paid listings only where they appear in your results
Consistent business data across profiles, maps and company registers
Company name, address and phone should match everywhere: the site, profiles, directories and the registration they derive from, such as Companies House in the UK. Bing Places and Apple Business Connect are often ignored in B2B, yet Bing is the default on many managed office PCs and Apple Maps matters to drivers. Both are quick to claim.
- Data corrected at the source first
- Bing Places and Apple Business Connect claimed
- Directory listings aligned with the site
- Each export market's directories checked
Location pages for each real site rather than every town you deliver to
One page per real site, plus a small number of regional pages where you genuinely serve an area differently, such as a dedicated delivery fleet or field service team. Each carries the site's capabilities, equipment, stock held, accreditations, hours and named contacts, and is linked from navigation, its profile and relevant capability pages.
- A template and copy brief per real site
- Stock, capability and accreditations by site
- Address, map, hours and collection details
- LocalBusiness markup consistent with technical SEO for B2B
Review requests and call tracking built into account management
A review request step tied to real moments - a first delivery, a project milestone, a problem solved - sent personally by the account manager with a direct link, and never with an incentive. Alongside it, tracked call numbers per location and per profile, plus direction requests and form fills, show which sites the searches actually reach.
- A request process that fits platform rules
- Replies to every review, positive or not
- Call tracking by location and profile
- Form and direction requests reported by site
Experience
Local SEO from someone who has done it many times
You work with me from the first call to the last report. No account managers, no hand-offs to a junior team.
Book a free call- years in SEO
- 6+
- client websites worked on
- 60+
- documented case studies
- 35
More B2B SEO
The other disciplines, written for manufacturers, distributors and B2B service firms.
Keyword Research for B2B
Research built around the buying committee: specification, standard, part number and application queries that tools show as zero volume but carry real contract value, mapped to one owning page each.
Read moreOn-Page SEO for B2B
Product, capability and application pages rewritten in buyer vocabulary, with specifications in HTML rather than PDFs, certifications stated precisely and an RFQ or sample request where the intent calls for one.
Read moreTechnical SEO for B2B
Crawlable catalogues from ERP and PIM exports, parameter and variant control, datasheets that stop outranking product pages, hreflang for export markets and migrations that keep years of rankings intact.
Read moreContent Strategy for B2B
Application pages, buyer guides, material comparisons and case studies by application, written with your engineers and planned around each committee member, from specifier to procurement to finance.
Read moreOff-Page SEO for B2B
Supplier, distributor and trade body links, trade press, certification registers, industry directories and review platforms - the sources buyers and AI assistants check before a supplier makes the shortlist.
Read moreWhich B2B searches trigger local results
Indicative, not fixed. Results vary by query, market and searcher location, so I confirm each one against the live results before building anything.
| Business type | Example local-intent queries | Map pack likely? | What to build |
|---|---|---|---|
| Distributor with trade counters | bearing stockist near me; hydraulic hose repair [town] | Often | Profile per branch, branch pages with stock range, hours and services |
| Contract manufacturer | CNC machining [region]; sheet metal fabrication near me | Often for the process, less for niche specs | Profile for the plant, capability pages naming the region served |
| Logistics and warehousing | pallet storage [city]; freight forwarder [port or city] | Often | Depot or warehouse pages with coverage, facilities and accreditations |
| Language services | certified translation [city]; sworn translator [city] | Often | Office profiles where staffed, city pages with real local services such as in-person interpreting |
| Packaging manufacturer | packaging manufacturers UK; custom boxes supplier | Sometimes for 'near me' variants, rarely for specifications | One profile per site; national product and application pages carry the rest |
| Industrial services | calibration services [city]; industrial cleaning [region] | Usually | Service-area profile plus a small set of regional pages backed by real coverage |
Reviews when your customers are procurement departments
B2B customers leave fewer reviews. Procurement teams are busy, some companies restrict staff from endorsing suppliers, and the person who would write the review is often not the one who received the service. So the aim is not volume; it is a steady trickle of genuine, specific reviews from the people who deal with you every week.
The practical route is to build the request into account management: after a successful project, a first delivery, or a resolved problem, the account manager sends a short personal request with a direct link. Reviews mentioning the product type, service and location tend to be the most useful to other buyers.
Stay within the rules. Google's policies prohibit incentivised and fake reviews, and selectively asking only happy customers can also fall foul of them. Regulators have tightened rules on fake and incentivised reviews in both the UK and the US. Never offer discounts or gifts for reviews, and never write them on a customer's behalf.
Free review
Get a free Local SEO review
Send me your site. Before the call I look at your rankings and pages, then tell you what I would fix first and what it is likely worth.
Location pages that work vs doorway pages
Location pages for B2B firms go wrong in a familiar way: one template, a list of towns, the name swapped in. Search engines treat that as doorway content.
Doorway pattern
- A page for every town within a hundred miles, with no presence there
- Identical copy with the place name swapped
- No address, no staff, no local stock or capability
- Linked only from the footer or a hidden sitemap
- Exists to rank, not to help anyone choose
Useful location page
- One page per real site, plus a small number of regional pages for genuine service coverage
- Site capabilities, equipment, stock held, accreditations and lead times
- Address, map, hours, delivery and collection details, named contacts
- Photos of the site and team
- Linked from navigation, the profile and relevant product or capability pages
My local SEO process for B2B firms
- 1
Separate local from non-local demand
Check priority clusters from your key locations and record where local results appear. This decides how much local work is justified at all.
- 2
Audit locations and profiles
List every real site, existing profile, duplicate and directory listing. Merge duplicates, remove profiles for ineligible addresses and claim missing ones.
- 3
Fix the data at the source
Consistent company name, address and phone across the site, profiles, directories and registrations. Exporters also check how each market's directories list them.
- 4
Build or rebuild location pages
One page per real site with genuine local detail, linked from navigation and from the profiles.
- 5
Set up reviews and measurement
A review request step in account management, and tracking for calls, direction requests and form fills by location, so you know which sites produce enquiries.
Where SEO meets CRO
Local searchers want to act, so the page must let them
Someone searching for a stockist or a repair service near their plant is often under time pressure. The location page should show stock or service availability, hours, a direct phone number for that site and a clear route to collect or book. Tracked call numbers per location and per profile show which sites the searches actually reach.
How local fits into B2B SEO
Local clusters come out of B2B keyword research, and location data has to agree with the structured data and hreflang set up in technical SEO. Directory and association listings also overlap with off-page SEO for B2B, since many of them carry links as well as citations.
For the full approach, see B2B SEO, my general local SEO service, or international SEO for firms selling across several markets.
Growth from real projects
Learn more about local seo
Local SEO in other industries
Local SEO for B2B FAQs
Does a B2B company need a Google Business Profile?
If you have a staffed location that customers visit, or you travel to customers in a defined area, usually yes. Even for national suppliers, a profile helps with branded searches, reviews and direction requests. If none of your queries trigger local results and nobody visits you, the profile is still worth claiming but needs little ongoing work.
Can we create profiles for each of our warehouses?
Only for locations that are staffed during stated hours and that serve customers, for example through collections, a trade counter or visits. Storage-only or unstaffed sites generally do not qualify. Creating profiles for ineligible locations risks suspension, which can affect your legitimate profiles too.
Is Thomasnet worth it for a UK manufacturer?
If you sell into North America, a complete profile can bring buyer enquiries and a relevant link. If you only sell in the UK and Europe, Kompass, Europages and your trade association directories are usually more useful. I check whether directories appear in the results for your priority queries before recommending paid listings.
Should we build a page for every area we deliver to?
No. Build a page for every real site, and a small number of regional pages where you genuinely serve an area differently, such as a dedicated delivery fleet or on-site service team. Pages for every town you deliver to, with swapped place names, are doorway pages and can harm the whole site.
How do we get reviews from corporate customers?
Ask individuals, not companies, at the right moment: after a successful delivery, a project milestone or a problem solved. A short personal request from the account manager with a direct link works far better than a generic email. Never offer anything in return, and accept that B2B review volume will be lower than in consumer markets.
Is local SEO for B2B worth it for a national supplier?
Only for the searches where location changes the results. A national packaging supplier may need one accurate profile per site and nothing more, while a distributor with trade counters or an industrial service firm can win much of its urgent work locally. I check the live results from your key locations first, so the effort follows real local demand rather than a template.
See where local SEO for B2B pays off for your sites
Send me your site and a list of your plants, depots or offices. On a free 30-minute call I will show you which of your priority searches trigger local results, how your profiles compare and which sites are missing enquiries.