London, Ontario is a digital marketing sweet spot that most local businesses are underusing.
With over 633,000 residents, a major university, strong healthcare and manufacturing sectors, and a fast-growing tech community, London generates significant local search volume. And yet — because it's not Toronto, the local search landscape is far less saturated. That means businesses that invest in local SEO now have a genuine opportunity to dominate their category in Google search results.
Here's how to do it.
What is local SEO?
Local SEO is the process of optimising your online presence so that people searching for your services in a specific geographic area — London, Ontario — can find you easily.
When someone searches "dentist near me," "plumber London Ontario," or "best web designer in London" — local SEO determines whether your business appears in those results. Specifically, it determines whether you appear in:
The Google Local Pack (the map results with 3 business listings)
The organic search results below the map
Google AI Overviews — the AI-generated summary that now appears at the top of many searches
Appearing in all three is the goal. Here's how to get there.
Step 1: Claim and fully optimise your Google Business Profile
Your Google Business Profile (GBP) is the single most important local SEO asset you have — and it's free.
A fully optimised GBP includes:
Basic information
Accurate business name (exactly as it appears everywhere else online)
Complete address or service area
Primary phone number
Website URL
Business hours (including special hours for holidays)
Categories
Choose the most specific primary category that describes your main service
Add secondary categories for additional services
Don't over-categorise — relevance beats quantity
Description
Write a 250–750 character description that includes your primary service keywords and location ("web design agency London Ontario")
Focus on what makes you different and who you serve
Photos
Upload at least 10 photos: your team, your workspace or storefront, examples of your work, and your logo
Add new photos regularly — active profiles rank higher
Reviews
Actively request reviews from satisfied clients (a direct link to your GBP review page makes this easy)
Respond to every review — positive and negative
Never offer incentives for reviews (it violates Google's terms)
Step 2: Make sure your NAP is consistent everywhere
NAP stands for Name, Address, Phone — the three core identifiers that Google and AI tools use to verify your business.
Your NAP must be identical across:
Your website
Your Google Business Profile
Your LinkedIn company page
All directory listings (Yelp, Yellow Pages, Foursquare, industry directories)
Your social media profiles
Even small inconsistencies — "St." vs "Street", a missing suite number, an old phone number — can confuse Google's local algorithm and suppress your rankings. Do a NAP audit and fix any discrepancies you find.
Step 3: Add LocalBusiness schema markup to your website
Schema markup is structured code that tells Google exactly what your business is, where it operates, and what it offers. It's one of the most powerful and underused local SEO tools available.
A LocalBusiness schema block for a London, Ontario service business should include:
Business name, URL, email, and phone
Address with addressLocality: "London", addressRegion: "ON", addressCountry: "CA"
Geographic coordinates (latitude/longitude)
Service area
Service types
Social profile links
This can be added via a custom code block in most website platforms. If you're on Framer, it goes in Site Settings → Custom Code → Head.
Step 4: Create location-specific content
Google rewards websites that demonstrate genuine local relevance — not just businesses that mention "London, Ontario" once in their footer.
Location-specific content means:
Service pages that are explicitly targeted to London Ontario ("Web Design Services in London, Ontario")
Blog posts that answer the questions London Ontario customers are actually asking ("How much does a website cost in London Ontario?")
Case studies or testimonials from London Ontario clients
References to local landmarks, neighbourhoods, and community context
This signals to Google that your business is genuinely embedded in the London Ontario market — not just another generic service provider slapping a city name on their homepage.
Step 5: Build local citations and backlinks
A citation is any mention of your business name, address, and phone number on another website. Backlinks are links from other websites to yours. Both are signals Google uses to verify your local authority.
For London, Ontario businesses, the most valuable citations and backlinks come from:
London Chamber of Commerce — membership includes a directory listing
Better Business Bureau — credibility signal for service businesses
Local industry associations — legal, medical, trades, real estate, and other sector-specific bodies
Local news coverage — London Free Press, LondonOntario.com, CBC London
Client websites — a "built by" link in the footer of sites you've designed is SEO gold
Start with the free and easy wins (Chamber, BBB, industry directories), then build toward earned media and client links over time.
Step 6: Optimise your website for mobile and speed
Over 60% of local searches happen on mobile. If your website loads slowly or is difficult to navigate on a phone, Google penalises your local rankings — regardless of how well everything else is optimised.
Target:
Page load time under 2 seconds
90+ Google PageSpeed score on mobile
No layout shifts or broken elements on small screens
Clear click-to-call button visible above the fold on mobile
If you're on a Framer website, these are built in by default. If you're on WordPress, you'll likely need to address hosting quality, image optimisation, and caching configuration.
How long does local SEO take?
Honest answer: 3–6 months to see meaningful results, 6–12 months to build a dominant local position. Local SEO is a long-term investment, not a quick fix.
The businesses that win in local search are the ones that start early and stay consistent — not the ones that try everything at once for 30 days and give up.
Get a free audit of your current local SEO
Run a free instant audit at spreenge.ca/signal to see your current local SEO score and get a prioritised list of fixes.
Or book a free call to discuss a local SEO strategy tailored to your London, Ontario business.
Femi Popoola is the founder of Spreenge Digital, a web design and local SEO agency based in London, Ontario. He holds a PMP certification, Executive MBA, and Master of Engineering.