Local SEO strategy is how you make your business visible when people search for services near them. Someone in Ottawa types "plumber near me" or "coffee shop Westboro" and you want to appear in the map pack and local organic results. The core mechanics are different from regular SEO because Google weighs proximity, relevance, and prominence specifically for local queries. Your Google Business Profile is the foundation. Complete every field, choose accurate categories, upload photos weekly, and respond to every review within 48 hours. We've seen GBP suspension tank a business overnight, so verify ownership properly and never use a virtual office if you serve customers at your location. Citations matter less than they did in 2016, but consistency across directories still counts. Your NAP (name, address, phone) must match exactly on your website, GBP, Yelp, Yellow Pages, and industry directories. Even small discrepancies like "Street" versus "St." can dilute your signal. Reviews directly impact rankings and conversion. Businesses with 40+ Google reviews and a 4.3+ rating consistently outperform competitors in the same category. Ask customers immediately after a positive interaction, make it frictionless with a short link, and never incentivize or gate reviews. On-page elements need local signals. Your title tags should include your city for service pages, your homepage should mention your service area clearly, and you need location-specific content beyond just "serving Ottawa." Schema markup for LocalBusiness and service areas helps Google understand your coverage. Backlinks from local sources carry extra weight. A mention from the Ottawa Citizen, a sponsorship link from a community sports team, or a partnership with another local business signals geographic relevance better than a generic directory link. For multi-location businesses, each location needs its own landing page with unique content and its own GBP. Cookie-cutter pages get filtered. Track performance by location in Google Search Console using page-level filtering to see which areas convert and which need work. Local SEO compounds slowly but the leads come in hot because intent is immediate and commercial.