Service
Local SEO in Portsmouth: the map has three slots per district, and the district is small
Portsea Island is four miles long. A search from Southsea Common, from Commercial Road and from Cosham gets three different map packs, and the mainland suburbs and the towns across the harbour get their own again. For a plumber, a dentist, a bar or a boatyard, the map in your district decides more work than the rest of the page. This is the service that builds the profile properly, keeps it right every month, and gives Google the reviews and mentions that make it choose you over the twenty others in the same square mile.
The map, district by district
Where the map centres in Portsmouth, and who wins there
| Map centre | What it decides | What wins it |
|---|---|---|
| Southsea and the seafront | Bars, restaurants, cafes, hotels, the visitor trade; also the dense terraces behind it for trades | A profile that says Southsea before Portsmouth, opening hours that match the seafront (late, weekends), photographs of plates and rooms |
| The centre, Fratton and Landport | Commercial Road footfall, the station, Fratton Park on match days, the big terraced grid | Exact hours, the right category, a service area that covers the grid, reviews that mention the streets |
| North End, Copnor, Hilsea | Home services: plumbers, electricians, garages, the family trades | Service-area profile, hidden address for van businesses, job pages with real photos from these streets |
| Cosham, Drayton, Farlington | The mainland suburbs, the hospital, the Lakeside offices; searches with money and no rush | A profile on the mainland if you are there, otherwise the service area and a page that names these places honestly |
| Gosport, Fareham, Havant | Separate maps across the water, each with its own competition | A real base to appear on their map; a page each to appear in their results |
The profile, kept right
The monthly routine for a Portsmouth profile
The profile decays. Hours drift, photos age, a competitor adds a keyword to their name, a review sits unanswered for a month. This is the routine that stops it.
Weekly
Every new review answered by name. Questions answered. The map checked by hand from a phone in your district.
Fortnightly
New photographs: the frontage, the work, the plates, the boats. A post: a job, a season, an offer.
Monthly
Categories and services reviewed against what customers searched. Hours confirmed, special hours set for the bank holidays. Competitors with stuffed names reported.
Quarterly
The service area re-drawn against where the work actually came from. The description rewritten if the business changed. Duplicate or old profiles hunted down and merged.
Across the water
Gosport is a ferry ride and a different map
Gosport is a few minutes across the harbour and twenty by road; Fareham and Havant are a bridge and a motorway junction. Each is its own map, and a Portsmouth profile does not appear on them however good it is, because distance is a hard rule on the map. What appears there is the result under the map: a page that says you take work in that town, how you get there, and what you charge for it. We build that page only for businesses that genuinely go, and never pretend a Portsmouth address is a Gosport one.
The towns, from the island
- Fareham9 miles
- Gosport6 miles
- Havant7 miles
- Waterlooville8 miles
- Emsworth9 miles
- Hayling Island9 miles
The full list is on the areas page.
Questions Portsmouth businesses ask us
Why does the map show different businesses in Southsea and Cosham?
Because it centres on the phone. Portsmouth is dense enough that a search from Palmerston Road and a search from Cosham High Street are two different maps with two different top threes. Your profile wins the district your address is in first; the service area and the pages decide how far beyond it you show.
I am in Southsea but I work across the whole island. What does the profile say?
The address stays where you are. The service area lists the districts you actually go to, in the words people use: Southsea, Fratton, North End, Copnor, Cosham, Drayton. A trade working from a van hides the address and shows the area; a shop or a restaurant keeps the pin.
Do I need a separate profile for Gosport or Fareham?
Only if you have a real second base there, staffed, with signage. A second profile at a friend's address is the fastest way to lose both. For a business that travels across the water, one profile with an honest service area and one page per town is the right set-up.
Will one bad review sink me?
No. A profile with forty reviews and one two-star review with a calm reply looks more trustworthy than five perfect ones. Silence sinks profiles: no replies, no new reviews for a year, photos from before the Spinnaker was built.
Can you get the profile verified? Google keeps asking for video.
Yes. Video verification is normal now. We prepare the walk-through (signage, the inside, proof of the address) so it passes first time.
Is this different from the £200 profile build?
The one-off build is the profile done properly once. Local SEO is the profile kept right every month plus the pages, reviews and mentions that make it rank in a crowded district. Most Portsmouth businesses start with the build and move to the retainer when the map starts sending work.
Find out why the map is not showing you in your district
Send your business name and postcode. You get the profile audit, field by field, the map from three districts, and a fixed price for fixing it.