Let’s get one thing straight: stuffing keywords like “Portland, Maine boutique shop” haphazardly into your homepage and hoping the Google gods rain fortune upon you isn’t a local SEO strategy.
Honestly, it’s barely even a tactic at this point.
Yet plenty of local businesses throw around SEO keywords in copy and metadata, half-heartedly update their Google Business Profile. I know it because I’ve seen it time and again. Then they wonder why they’re still invisible in local search.
If you want your business to actually show up when someone searches queries relevant to your business, you need to understand the difference between strategy and tactics—and how to use both. Let’s break it all down.
What Is a Local SEO Strategy?
Let’s start by defining local SEO. Local SEO refers to search engine optimization for businesses that provide goods and services to a specific town, city, or group of towns and cities. Optimizing your digital presence for “Portland, Maine” or “Ogunquit, Maine” falls under the purview of local SEO. Optimizing for terms like “New England” or trying to reach the entire United States, on the other hand, would not.
What, then, is a local SEO strategy? A Local SEO strategy is your game plan. It’s the big-picture thinking that maps out who you’re trying to reach (audience), where they’re located (geography), what they’re searching for (intent), and how you’re going to get in front of them (finally, tactics).
A good strategy doesn’t start with keywords or citations — it begins with understanding your audience and local market.
Suppose you’re an innovative Asian-fusion restaurant in downtown Portland. In that case, your target audience might be young hipsters seeking variety and adventure before heading to tonight’s sleaze indie pop show—when’s Charli coming, anyway?.
Or if your pub and grill is closer to the port, maybe it’s tired, blue-collar workers looking to relax over a pint and a good, hearty meal at the end of the workday with friends.
If you’re a home remodeling contractor in Deering Center, perhaps you’re speaking to growing, stressed-out families needing more space. Or fun-loving, outdoorsy retirees looking to age in place.
The platforms you focus on (though inevitably they will still center around Google), the keywords you target, and the content you publish all depend on this foundation.
What Are Local SEO Tactics?
Local SEO tactics are the specific actions you take to execute that strategy. They’re the to-do list for your digital optimization process.
Think of tactics like the ingredients in a recipe — they matter, but without the whole plan, you’re just tossing random stuff into a pot and calling it dinner. Which, frankly, I’m occasionally guilty of doing.
Tactics include things like:
- claiming and optimizing your Google Business Profile (have you done this yet??)
- responding to reviews (yes, even the petty ones)
- adding your address and phone number to your footer
- creating landing pages for different service areas
- making sure your business hours are actually accurate online.
They also include technical and off-page SEO tasks like adding schema markup to your pages, compressing your images, and building links from local directories.
On their own, these tactics might help a little. But without a clear strategy guiding them, they often become busywork and lead to half-baked or quarter-baked SEO results.
It’s the digital equivalent of reorganizing your spice cabinet instead of cooking when you want to eat. And that just leads to the land of hangriness.
Why the Difference Between Local SEO Strategy and Tactics Matters (and Why You Need Both)
Local SEO strategy and tactics aren’t interchangeable. Strategy gives your efforts focus. Tactics put your plan into action. You need both.
Let’s say you run a kombucha bar downtown. You’ve heard that reviews are essential, so you go all in and gather 200 five-star reviews on Google. Gold star for effort!
But your website doesn’t mention Portland, features no content about kombucha drinking, you’re using the wrong business categories, and your location pages are… nonexistent.
That’s tactical hustle without strategic direction.
Now flip it.
Imagine you have a brilliant local SEO strategy: you’ve researched your audience, mapped out your ideal service areas, and know exactly which neighborhoods you want to target and what content you should be producing.
But you’ve never verified your Google Business Profile. You haven’t published new content in six months. Your site still says “Welcome to our website!” at the top, and your business hours are listed wrong because you open earlier now.
That’s a solid strategy gathering dust.
How AI Can Help with Local SEO Strategy
Let’s discuss our new favorite sidekick: AI—love ya, robot friends! No, it’s not going to replace your entire marketing department. But when it comes to local SEO, it can seriously streamline your workflow and sharpen your insights.
AI tools like ChatGPT, Jasper, or even your favorite SEO software like Ahrefs can help brainstorm locally relevant topical or keyword ideas, not just the obvious ones. You can dig into
- long-tail variations
- questions people in Portland are actually asking
- hidden gems competitors are missing.
AI can also surface competitive intel in seconds. Want to know what keywords your biggest competitor ranks for in Portland? Or which pages bring them the most traffic? AI tools make that kind of sleuthing easy — and fast.
And if you need to create content for multiple service area pages or location-specific blog posts, AI can give you a first draft in minutes. Of course, you’ll still want to humanize it (and fact-check it — AI can hallucinate harder than a Mainer at a Phish show), but it’s a serious time-saver.
AI doesn’t replace strategy or strategic thinking, but it’s an incredibly helpful guide and tool when used with clear direction.
How Local SEO Fits into a Broader Search Strategy
Here’s where a lot of businesses miss the forest for the trees: they treat local SEO like an independent silo rather than integrating it into their overall website search strategy. Like the salesperson being nasty to Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, big mistake.
Your content on the homepage, service pages, and blog posts should reflect your local focus. If you’re a Portland-based business, your content should make that clear. Not just with keywords, but with actual relevance to the local audience. This could mean publishing a blog post like “What to Know Before Installing Solar Panels in Portland, Maine” with locally relevant details and considerations, instead of “5 Reasons to Go Solar” that could easily apply to people in Montana or Mongolia.
Local SEO also overlaps with technical SEO: your site must load fast, be mobile-friendly, and have proper schema markup to perform well. Google doesn’t usually hand out local pack placements to sites that feel like they were built in 2011 and never updated or run slower than my Honda Hybrid (I still love you, girl).
And don’t forget backlinking. If you’ve created neighborhood pages for Deering, West End, and East Bayside, you’d better be linking to them from your service pages and blog posts. You should also encourage local directories, listings, and media to backlink to your site.
Final Thoughts: Think Smart. Think Strategy.
A solid local SEO strategy isn’t about doing everything, everywhere, all at once—it’s about doing the right things with your limited time and money with a clear goal in mind.
You don’t need 40 blog posts, 100 citations, and 10 location pages by next Thursday. SEO isn’t an overnight success like that guy who sang “Gangnam Style.” You need a smart plan, the right mix of tactics, and maybe a little AI boost along the way.
So, whether you’re running a bakery in the West End, a law firm downtown, or a landscaping service in North Deering, take the time to think strategically about your entire SEO strategy. Then act accordingly.
And if all this still sounds overwhelming?
Well, that’s what I’m here for.
Ready to build a local SEO strategy that actually brings Portlanders to your doorstep (or inbox)?
Contact Reiser Digital and let’s map out a plan that works for your business.