46% of all Google searches have local intent.

That means nearly half of the people searching on Google are looking for a product or service physically close to them.

For local businesses, this is the primary battlefield. Most companies spend significant time and money trying to get found, get listed, and get ahead of their competitors in local search results.

But here’s the real question: how do you know if your efforts are actually working?

One of the most common mistakes people make is treating all website traffic as equal. We see this all the time with SEO agencies that proudly point to a 20% increase in overall traffic as a sign of success.

But if you're a pizza company in Sydney, getting 10,000 visitors from the United States is completely worthless to you. You need people who are actually looking for pizza in Sydney.

We saw this firsthand working with Johnny Gio's Pizza. They didn't just want to rank for the generic term "pizza"; they needed to rank for "pizza in Darlinghurst" and other specific suburbs across their network of stores.

You have to go a layer deeper than overall traffic to find and measure local intent. Here is what really matters to know if you're winning in your local market..

1. Local Keyword Rankings

This is the first and most important metric.

You shouldn't be tracking generic terms like "pizza." Instead, you need to focus on the combination of your service and your suburb. For example, "pizza Darlinghurst" or "plumber Surry Hills." These are high-intent keyword groupings that drive actual sales.

Many tools can help you track these rankings, but Google Search Console, which is completely free, is the easiest place to start. If you're not ranking for these crucial "service + suburb" keywords, you need to figure out why Google isn't interpreting your website as a relevant result for those terms.

2. Local Pack Visibility

The Local Pack is the block of three business listings that appear with a map at the top of the search results for a local query.

This is prime real estate on Google, and getting your business featured here for your core services and suburbs is a massive win.

Being in the Local Pack dramatically increases your visibility and credibility. You should be actively monitoring whether your business appears in this section for your most important local keywords. If you're not there, it’s a clear sign that your local SEO strategy needs attention.

3. Google Business Profile Actions

For any local business, your Google Business Profile (GBP) is one of your most powerful online assets. Google sends you regular performance reports detailing the actions people are taking directly on your profile. Pay close attention to this data.

You want to see more than just impressions (views). Look for tangible actions that signal strong local intent (calls, directions, clicks).

A increase in these actions is a good indicator that your local SEO efforts are connecting with the right audience.

4. Website Conversions

Finally, you need to track what happens when a user clicks through to your website.

Ideally, you have conversion tracking configured correctly in a tool like Google Analytics. This allows you to connect a website visit to a real-world outcome.

You should be asking these questions every month - how many downloads, calls and form submissions did we get?

When you can confidently look at this data, you can directly measure the ROI of your SEO.