Local SEO tactics that stopped working in 2022 (but agencies still sell)

Local SEO as an industry has a problem. Half of it still sells tactics that haven’t worked in three to five years. The other half knows, but keeps selling them because they’re easy to productise and customers don’t know any better.

Here’s a list of things you’re probably paying for — or being pitched — that have stopped moving the needle. And what actually replaced them.

1. Mass directory submissions

What it is: pay an agency or use a tool (Yext, Brightlocal, Whitespark) to submit your business to 50 / 100 / 300 directories.

What it used to do: early 2010s, citation count was a meaningful ranking signal. More directories meant higher local authority.

Why it stopped working: Google publicly clarified in 2019 that citation count has minimal direct impact on local ranking. What matters is NAP (name, address, phone) consistency across existing citations, not building more of them. Mass citation submission often hurts consistency by creating variants.

What to do instead: audit your existing NAP listings across the top 10-15 directories (Google Business Profile, Apple Maps, Bing Places, Yelp, Facebook, Yell if UK, major industry directories). Fix inconsistencies. Stop there. One hour of work, not a monthly retainer.

2. PBN backlinks

What it is: paying for backlinks from “private blog networks” — sites that exist solely to link out to clients.

What it used to do: 2010-2015, PBN links moved rankings aggressively.

Why it stopped working: Google’s spam detection got very good at identifying PBNs. Sites that host PBN links get penalised. Sites that receive them get their benefit zeroed out — and increasingly, get penalised themselves.

What to do instead: for local businesses, don’t build links. Build relevance. Links to local businesses help at the margins, but structural alignment between GBP and website moves rankings by orders of magnitude more.

3. Exact-match domains

What it is: buying a domain like edinburghdentist.com or 24hremergencyplumber.co.uk and assuming the domain name gives you ranking power.

What it used to do: pre-2012, exact-match domains ranked disproportionately well. A domain with the primary keyword in it got a free authority boost.

Why it stopped working: Google’s “EMD update” in September 2012 stripped this advantage. Since then, exact-match domains perform roughly the same as any other domain of equivalent authority.

What to do instead: pick a brandable domain. Focus on content quality. The domain doesn’t rank you — the alignment and authority behind it do.

4. Keyword-stuffed business names

What it is: naming your business “ACME Emergency Plumber Edinburgh 24/7” because you believe the keywords in the business name will lift rankings.

What it used to do: early-to-mid 2010s, Google Business Profile rewarded keyword-stuffed names. Businesses named “Best Bathroom Fitter Edinburgh” ranked higher than businesses named “Jones & Co.”

Why it stopped working: it still semi-works, but Google Business Profile actively penalises keyword-stuffed business names now. You can get your profile flagged or suspended for using a business name that doesn’t match your actual trade name. Google’s policy explicitly prohibits it.

What to do instead: use your real business name. Rank via proper page structure and GBP category alignment. If your real business name is already keyword-rich (fair enough), use it consistently. Don’t bolt on “24/7 Emergency” to the profile name.

5. Review-gating and review manipulation

What it is: software that sends review requests only to customers who rate their experience highly (via a preliminary email survey), filtering out negative reviews before they hit Google.

What it used to do: marginally improved star averages.

Why it stopped working: Google explicitly prohibits review gating. Profiles caught doing it risk suspension. The filtering software providers know this and most don’t advertise it as “gating” anymore, but that’s what many still do under the hood.

What to do instead: ask every customer for a review — happy and unhappy — via a simple post-service SMS or email with a direct Google review link. Let the average settle where it settles. Reply thoughtfully to negatives. The real-world average is better than the gated one you’re curating.

6. Generic “we offer local SEO” retainers

What it is: £400-£1,200/month packages from agencies covering “ongoing local SEO optimisation”. Monthly reports. Quarterly reviews. No clear deliverables.

What it used to do: generated ranking shifts in the early 2010s because there was more low-hanging optimisation work to do on most sites.

Why it stopped working: most sites are now already doing the basics (meta titles, H1s, basic schema via plugins). The “ongoing optimisation” work is largely theatre — minor tweaks, ranking report screenshots, quarterly strategy calls that repeat last quarter’s call. You’re paying for vibes, not results.

What to do instead: if your site has real structural problems, pay for a one-time rebuild (the Core 30 model, for instance). If your site is already well-structured, don’t pay for a retainer — just keep the GBP active, respond to reviews, and update content when genuinely relevant. Most local businesses don’t need ongoing SEO support.

7. AI-generated content “optimised for local keywords”

What it is: content written by ChatGPT or similar, targeting local keywords, published en masse on your site.

What it used to do: briefly worked in 2022-early 2023 because Google hadn’t caught up.

Why it stopped working: Google’s March 2024 core update specifically targeted unedited AI content. Sites using it in volume lost traffic overnight, many permanently. Google’s helpful-content system continues to penalise generic AI output.

What to do instead: write genuinely useful content, for real humans, by real humans (or heavily human-edited AI). One properly-written service page is worth more than twenty AI-generated local landing pages targeting variations of the same query.

8. Location-page factories

What it is: generating a page per city or postcode you serve (e.g., “Plumber Edinburgh”, “Plumber Leith”, “Plumber Morningside”, “Plumber Gorgie” etc.), often with templated content.

What it used to do: ranked for long-tail local queries when Google was more permissive about duplicate content.

Why it stopped working: Google flags templated doorway pages. You can have them, but they need to be genuinely unique in content per location. Ten pages that are 80% the same are worse than no location pages at all.

What to do instead: have one or two high-quality pages covering your service area. If you genuinely serve 30 distinct locations with genuinely different content, go ahead — but most businesses don’t, and the location-page factory is usually a quality-dilution play that hurts rankings.

What actually works now

In 2026, the things that move local rankings are:

1. Structural alignment between GBP and website (the Core 30 method). Most local businesses are missing this.

2. Proper schema markup. LocalBusiness, Service, FAQ, Breadcrumb — hand-rolled, validated.

3. Genuine helpful content. Written for real searchers, answering real questions, demonstrating real expertise. Not AI slop.

4. Real reviews, answered thoughtfully. Volume and average matter, but so does the response pattern.

5. Core Web Vitals. Site speed as a minor but real ranking factor. More importantly, a slow site undermines every other signal.

6. Clean NAP across major directories. A one-hour audit, not a monthly product.

That’s most of it. Notice what’s missing: link building, PBNs, citation retainers, AI content volume, schema plugins, review gating. All of those are sold as solutions to local SEO problems. None of them solve the problem that’s actually there for most businesses.

The takeaway

Local SEO has a “what worked five years ago” problem. Agencies and consultants who haven’t updated their playbook sell tactics that no longer move rankings. If you’re being pitched any of the above, ask the agency to show you case studies from the last 12 months where those tactics specifically moved the needle. Most can’t.

What actually works is less glamorous: align the site with the GBP, write real content, get the basics right, stop paying for theatre. That’s the work.

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If you want a free audit covering which of these apply to your current setup, request one here.