# Local SEO in Bucharest: what actually matters > How a Bucharest business gets into the Google map: the business profile, reviews, contact details, area pages and how fast the site loads on a phone. URL: https://thenichesociety.ro/en/blog-seo-local-bucuresti-ce-conteaza When someone searches for a service "in Bucharest", Google picks the businesses on the map based on three things: how well they match the search, how close they are and how well known they are. **A complete Google Business Profile, real reviews with replies, the same contact details everywhere and a site that is fast on a phone do more than any trick.** There is no paid way to move up in the Google map. ## What local SEO means for a Bucharest business Local SEO means showing up when someone searches for something near them. "Dentist Drumul Taberei", "car service sector 3", "accountant Bucharest". For searches like these, Google does not just show ten links. It first shows a map with a few businesses, with stars, opening hours and a call button. Plenty of people call straight from there and never reach anyone's website. We are a company that does [SEO optimization in Bucharest](https://thenichesociety.ro/en/seo-services) ourselves, so we are not neutral. This article does not describe how we work, though. It only gathers what Google says publicly, in its help pages, about how a business gets into local results. These are things an owner can check alone, in one afternoon, without paying anyone. Bucharest has one particular trait. It is a big city, with six sectors and neighbourhoods that mean real distances for a customer. Someone in Berceni looking for a plumber does not want one from Baneasa. That changes how you think about visibility: you are not competing for "all of Bucharest", but mostly for the people around you and for those who search for you by name. ## How Google picks the businesses it shows on the map Google says openly how it orders local results. There are three main criteria. Relevance is how well a business profile matches what the person is looking for. Distance is how far the business is from the person searching. If the person does not type an area into the search, Google uses what it knows about where they are. Prominence means how well known the business is. For prominence, Google gives a few concrete examples. It matters how many sites link to your business and how many reviews it has. More reviews and good ratings can improve your position in local results. In other words, the map and the website are not two separate worlds. A site that others link to because it is useful also helps the map profile. Bought links do not help: Google treats them as spam. There is one more sentence on the Google page worth remembering. There is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. Paid ads are a separate thing and do not change the order of businesses in the free results. If someone promises you "first place on the map" for money, ask them exactly what they will do and get the answer in writing. 30 minutes, free. We'll tell you honestly if it makes sense. ## Google Business Profile: complete, correct and under the real name The first thing to do is your business profile on Google. Google writes that businesses with complete and accurate information are more likely to show up in local searches. That means the exact address, opening hours including special holiday hours, the right category and useful attributes, such as parking or card payment. Real photos of the place and of what you do also help customers choose. Google's rules for the profile are fairly strict. The name has to be the one the business uses in the real world, with no added keywords, slogans or phone numbers. "Example Clinic" is fine. "Example Clinic best cheap dentist Bucharest" breaks the rules and can get the profile suspended. Each location is allowed only one profile. The rule is the same for everyone. If you work at the customer's home and do not receive people at your premises, Google asks you to hide the address and set a service area. That is the case for plumbers, electricians or cleaning companies run from a flat. The phone number has to be one the business controls directly. Google prefers a local number to a call centre line and does not accept numbers that redirect people elsewhere. ## Reviews: how to ask for them and how to reply Reviews count twice. Google uses them for prominence, and people read them before they call. The simplest way to ask for them is the one Google itself recommends: a direct link or a QR code the customer scans. You can send it on WhatsApp after the job, print it on the receipt or stick it on the door. Most happy customers do not leave a review simply because it did not occur to them. This is also where most mistakes happen. Google's policy forbids reviews obtained in exchange for a discount, a gift or a payment. It also forbids asking only the customers you know are happy, or discouraging negative reviews. Reviews written by employees or by people who were never customers count as a conflict of interest and can be removed. Replies to reviews matter just as much. Google recommends short, polite and timely replies. On a negative review you do not attack the person and you do not publish information about them. You apologise if needed and say what you are doing to put it right. The next customer reads your reply more carefully than the bad review. A reply signed with your name or initials shows there is a person behind the business, not a robot. ## The same contact details everywhere The business name, address and phone number appear in many places: on the website, in the Google profile, on Facebook, in online directories, on booking platforms. The problem starts when they no longer match. You moved premises two years ago, but the old address is still on half the internet. You have a new number, but the old Facebook page still lists the old one. The customer ends up at the wrong door and trust drops. Google says that wrong information can stop your profile from showing up for relevant searches. The safest approach is to pick one version of your details and use it identically everywhere. The same name, the same address written the same way, the same phone number. Then go through the places where the business appears and fix whatever is out of date. It takes a few hours, not months. On the website, the same details can also be described in the page code, in a format Google reads directly, called LocalBusiness structured data. There Google requires the name and address of the business. It also recommends the phone number, map coordinates and opening hours. It is not something the owner writes, but it is worth knowing it exists and asking whoever builds your site whether they added it. ## A page for every sector: only if it has something real to say A common temptation is to make one page for each sector or neighbourhood. "Plumber Sector 1", "Plumber Sector 2" and so on, with the same text and a different area name. It looks logical, but Google describes exactly this situation in its spam policies. Pages made for specific cities or regions that all funnel people to the same final page are treated as doorway abuse. The same policy also mentions pages generated at scale, including with AI, that add nothing useful for the reader. The risk is not only that you do not move up. The risk is dragging the whole site down. So an area page only makes sense if you have something different to say there: a real branch, a team that actually covers the area, jobs done there, different hours or terms. For most small businesses, one good service page that clearly says where you work and which areas you cover does more than twenty almost identical pages. If you have three real locations, then yes, each one deserves its own page, with the address, hours, people and photos from there. And each one deserves its own separate profile on Google. Then link each profile to its own page. ## How fast the site is on a phone Most people looking for a local business do it on their phone, often on the move. If the site loads slowly or elements jump around the screen when you try to tap the phone number, the person goes back to the map and calls the next one. Google measures this experience with three indicators, called Core Web Vitals, and their thresholds are public. You do not need to know what each term means. The first shows how quickly the main content of the page appears and should be 2.5 seconds or less. The second shows how quickly the page responds when you tap something and should be 200 milliseconds or less. The third measures how much elements move on the screen while loading and should stay at 0.1 or less. Google recommends meeting these thresholds for three quarters of real visits, measured separately on phones and computers. You can see where you stand yourself, for free, by entering your site address in PageSpeed Insights. If the phone results are red, that is the first fix to make, before any new text. The report shows mobile and desktop data separately, and for a local business the mobile tab is the one that matters. ## Where to start, in the order that matters You do not have to do everything at once. The order below starts with what brings customers fastest and what you can check yourself. The first three points cost nothing but time. The last two may need help from whoever runs your website. Put them in your calendar, one a week. In a month you have covered the basics, without rushing. If after all this the business still does not show up for the searches that matter, the problem is usually deeper: the site is not indexed properly, the service page does not say clearly what you do, or the competition has far more reviews and links. Then it is worth having someone look at the real data in Search Console, not at guesses. Without data, any advice is just a guess. - 01Claim and complete your Google Business Profile: category, hours, service area or address, real photos. - 02Check that the profile name is exactly the real one, with no added keywords. - 03Create a link or QR code for reviews and ask every customer, not just the happy ones. - 04Search for your business on Google and fix old addresses and phone numbers on the sites where it appears. - 05Test your site on a phone in PageSpeed Insights and fix whatever is red first. ## Sources and further reading. - 01[Google Business Profile — How to improve your local ranking](https://support.google.com/business/answer/7091?hl=ro) - 02[Google Business Profile — Guidelines for representing your business on Google](https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=ro) - 03[Google — Fake engagement policy (reviews)](https://support.google.com/contributionpolicy/answer/7400114?hl=ro) - 04[Google Business Profile — How to read and reply to reviews](https://support.google.com/business/answer/3474122?hl=ro) - 05[Google Search Central — Spam policies (doorway pages, scaled content)](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies) - 06[web.dev — Core Web Vitals and recommended thresholds](https://web.dev/articles/vitals) 30 minutes, free. We'll tell you honestly if it makes sense. ## Frequently asked questions ### What is local SEO? Local SEO is everything you do so your business shows up when someone searches for a service nearby, especially on the Google map. It includes the Google Business Profile, reviews, correct contact details and a site that Google understands and that is fast on a phone. ### How do I show up on the Google map in Bucharest? Create and verify a Google Business Profile with the real name, the right category, opening hours and the address or service area. Then collect real reviews and reply to them. Google orders businesses by relevance, distance and how well known they are. ### Can I pay to be first on Google Maps? No. Google says there is no way to pay for a better local ranking. You can pay for ads, which are labelled as ads, but they do not change the order of the free results on the map. ### Am I allowed to put keywords in my business name on Google? No. Google's rules require the profile name to be the one the business uses in the real world, with no extra information, slogans or phone numbers. Breaking the rule can get the profile suspended. ### Is it worth making a page for every sector of Bucharest? Only if you have something different to say for each area, such as a real branch or jobs done there. Almost identical pages made only for the area name are described by Google as spam. ### Let's see what can be automated in your business. A free 30-minute session: we'll tell you what can be automated, how long it takes and what it costs, with a fixed price after discovery. We reply the same business day.