To get found on Google as a local business, three levers matter: a complete, active Google Business Profile, a website that targets "your trade + your town", and a steady flow of customer reviews. In 2026, a fourth has joined the mix: being cited by ChatGPT and Perplexity.
When someone searches "restaurant in Aywaille" or "optician in Liège", Google shows a handful of businesses. Being in that list means customers. Not being there means you effectively don't exist. Here's how to get in.
1. Your Google Business Profile: your strongest ally
It's the panel with the map, reviews, and opening hours that appears first. Free to set up, and often more decisive than the website itself for a local business. To make it work for you:
- Accurate category, address, phone number, and up-to-date opening hours
- Genuine, recent photos of your premises
- Regular posts (offers, news, updates)
- A reply to every review, positive or negative
2. A website that targets your town
Google needs to understand what you do and where. That means pages that mention your trade and your area naturally (your town, nearby communes), clear headings, and genuinely useful content — not three hollow lines of filler. A fast, mobile-friendly site is a prerequisite: Google demotes slow sites.
3. Reviews: the fuel of trust
Reviews influence both your ranking and the customer's decision. A business with 80 reviews at 4.7 stars will outperform a competitor with none, even one ranking higher. The habit to build: simply ask satisfied customers for a review, at the right moment, with a direct link.
Local SEO isn't a magic formula — it's consistency: the same name, address, and phone number everywhere, an active profile, a clear website, and reviews coming in regularly. That's what moves you up the rankings, and keeps you there.
4. The new frontier: ChatGPT and Perplexity
A growing number of people no longer "Google" — they ask an AI: "what's the best restaurant near Liège?". These answer engines cite specific businesses. To be among them, you need a website that an AI can read and understand (structured content, clear information, properly marked-up business data). This is called GEO, and it's the SEO of tomorrow — already underway today.
Where to start?
If you were to do just one thing this week: complete and polish your Google Business Profile. After that, a website built for local search and readable by AI makes the lasting difference. That's exactly what we set up at Forge Studio — and we show you the result before you pay a penny.
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