Local SEO in Belgium: how to rank on top when customers search in your region

Anyone looking for a hairdresser, contractor or accountant today rarely types a brand name. They search “hairdresser Mechelen” or “accountant near me” and choose from what Google puts on top. Local SEO decides whether you are there. And the field changed hard over the past year: AI Overviews appeared in Belgian search results, ads are taking over the local pack and in the US almost half of consumers now also ask AI tools which business to pick. In this article you’ll read how local search results really work in 2026, what changed in your Google Business Profile, which role reviews and Belgian directories play and how to become visible in ChatGPT and AI Overviews too. With a concrete action plan, based on what we apply at ClickForest every day, including on our own local pages.

What is local SEO?

Local SEO is optimising your website and your Google Business Profile so your business appears on top when someone in your region searches, like “hairdresser Mechelen” or “plumber near me”. The goal: being visible in the local pack (the map with three businesses), in the organic results and in the AI answers above them.

The difference with regular SEO is not the technique but the focus. Regular SEO aims at broad visibility for a language or country; local SEO targets queries with a geographic component, and those sit much closer to a purchase. Someone searching “social media agency” is orienting; someone searching “social media agency Bruges” is choosing. That is why we treat local SEO at ClickForest as its own discipline for SMEs in Flanders, next to the broader SEO approach, with its own levers: your profile, your reviews, your mentions and your local pages.

Why is local SEO more important than ever for Belgian SMEs?

Because the local search landscape changed harder in one year than in the ten years before. AI Overviews appeared in Belgium and grew, according to Belgian research, from 3.37% to 14.53% of queries, ads are taking over the local pack and AI search tools like ChatGPT give local recommendations. Whoever only aims at the classic blue links is losing ground.

The figures behind that shift. Belgian agency Online Marketing Monkey analysed over 8 million keywords across 70 Belgian sites: at the rollout in May 2025, 3.37% of queries triggered an AI Overview; by August 2025 that was already 14.53%. Meanwhile Sterling Sky found in its “State of Local SEO in 2026” research (US and Canada) that ads in the local pack on mobile rose from 1% of viewed reports in early 2025 to 22% in December 2025, and Local Services Ads from about 11% to 31% of tracked queries. Founder Joy Hawkins draws a sharp conclusion:

“Google is definitely going pay-to-play based on all this data I’ve been analyzing.”

— Joy Hawkins, founder of Sterling Sky

For you as an SME that doesn’t mean panicking, it means the unpaid local positions are becoming scarcer and therefore more valuable. And the demand is there: in US consumer research by BrightLocal (2025), 46% of consumers say they “always” or “often” explicitly add “near me” to searches. A hard Belgian equivalent of that figure doesn’t exist, but with almost 95% of Belgians online weekly (Statbel, 2024) the underlying trend is no different here.

Do local searches still get regular results or AI answers?

Mostly still regular local results. In a US case study, Whitespark analysed 540 queries and saw a local pack in 93% of cases with pure local intent, and an AI Overview in only 15%. Informational questions do get AI answers almost every time. For a local business the local pack thus remains the main goal, with the AI layer as a growing second front.

Search intent (Whitespark case study, US, 2025)	Local pack shown	AI Overview shown
Pure local (“plumber Antwerp”)	93%	15%
Informational (“how do I spot a water leak”)	6%	92%
Average across all 540 queries	39%	68%

That split is good news for whoever sits well in the local pack, but ignoring the AI layer is risky. Seer Interactive tracked around 5.5 million queries at its American clients between January 2025 and February 2026: on queries with an AI Overview, organic click-through dropped from 3.2% to 2.4%, but whoever is cited in the AI Overview gets, according to the same study, 120% more organic clicks per impression than whoever is not. Being visible inside the AI answer becomes a goal in itself, exactly what we do in our GEO approach.

“AI Overviews are now deeply embedded in consumers’ local search experiences, highlighting the need for local businesses to gain inclusion in these results as much as possible.”

— Miriam Ellis, Whitespark

How does Google decide who gets into the local pack?

Google ranks local results on three factors: relevance (how well your profile matches the query), distance (how close you are to the searcher) and prominence (how well-known and appreciated your business is). Buying is not possible: Google literally states in its own documentation that there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking. If you notice that you turn up nowhere outside the local pack either, something broader is going on and the triage in why your website is not ranking high in Google helps you pinpoint it.

How you influence those three factors is the domain of the yearly Whitespark Local Search Ranking Factors survey (2026 edition, November 2025), in which 47 local SEO experts weigh 187 factors. Mind you: that is expert consensus, not a Google-confirmed list. Some striking outcomes for the local pack: a keyword in your business name ranks 3rd (not that you should stuff your name, but it explains why “Hair Salon Mechelen Centre” sometimes outranks a stronger business), being open at the moment of the search ranks 5th, a visible address 7th and the freshness of your reviews 11th. The signals from your Google Business Profile together weigh about a third of your local pack position, reviews about a fifth.

How do you optimise your Google Business Profile in 2026?

Fill in everything Google lets you fill in: the right primary category, your services, up-to-date opening hours, plenty of real photos and regular updates via posts. Also know what disappeared: the chat feature stopped in July 2024 and the public Q&A section is being phased out. Your profile today is above all your showcase of reviews, photos and current information.

“Your Google Business Profile is the new homepage. Most users never make it to your website.”

— Mike Blumenthal, co-founder of Near Media

Concretely, as of July 2026:

• Posts still work in three forms: updates, offers and events. A monthly rhythm is enough to keep your profile alive.
• Chat is gone since 31 July 2024; calling from the profile remains, and for certain accounts Google offers SMS and WhatsApp contact options. So make sure your phone number is correct and gets answered.
• The Q&A section is disappearing: Google shut down the accompanying API on 3 November 2025 and is winding down the public section. Put the questions customers asked there as an FAQ on your own site, where they are also readable for AI search.
• An AI layer is coming: in March 2026 Google launched “Ask Maps”, a conversational assistant in Google Maps drawing on more than 300 million places and the reviews of over 500 million contributors. For now only in the US and India, but it shows where Maps is heading: your profile data and reviews become the fuel for AI answers.

How important are reviews for your local visibility?

Reviews are both a ranking factor and a conversion factor. In the US BrightLocal research of 2026, 97% of consumers read reviews for local businesses, 31% only use businesses with at least 4.5 stars and 47% avoid businesses with fewer than 20 reviews. Fresh reviews weigh the most: 74% mainly look at ratings no older than three months.

Responding is as important as collecting: 89% of consumers expect the owner to reply to reviews, and 19% even expect it the same day (a year earlier that was 6%). Reviews are thus not decoration under your profile but ongoing work: a fixed rhythm in which you ask for a review after every job, respond within a day and take negative feedback seriously. Interesting for the slightly longer term: in the same research Google dropped from 83% to 71% as the place where consumers read reviews, while 45% now also use AI tools like ChatGPT for local recommendations (a year earlier 6%). Your reviews increasingly do their work in places where you don’t see them.

Which Belgian mentions and citations really count?

Fewer than you’d think, but the right ones must be correct. The paper Gouden Gids (Belgium’s Yellow Pages) appeared for the last time in 2022; goudengids.be continued digitally and Trends Top (with more than 1.7 million Belgian businesses) also remains a living directory. More important than dozens of mentions is that your name, address and phone number are exactly the same everywhere.

“You don’t need 200 citations. You need 20 good ones and to not screw them up.”

— Mike Blumenthal, co-founder of Near Media

For a Flemish SME that concretely means: your website, your Google Business Profile, goudengids.be, Trends Top and a handful of sector directories or municipal overviews, all with identical NAP data (name, address, phone). On top of that, real local links weigh more than yet another mention: your municipality’s site, the local press, the sports club you sponsor or the traders’ association. What that looks like per sector is in our example on local SEO in the tourism sector.

How do you become locally visible in ChatGPT and other AI search tools?

Make your online reputation machine-readable. ChatGPT uses the Bing index and fetches the best web results per question; it doesn’t look directly into Google Business Profiles. Whoever stands strong in regular search results, directories and review platforms thus also gets named in AI answers. Structured data makes that information extra readable for machines.

This is no longer niche behaviour: in BrightLocal research from March 2026, 45% of American consumers use AI for local recommendations (a year earlier 6%), with ChatGPT leading. At the same time 97% of those AI users at least sometimes double-check the recommendation on real review platforms; AI is an extra front door, not a replacement for your reputation. Practically you do three things. One: put LocalBusiness structured data on your site, with address, opening hours and geo coordinates, as we do on our own location page in Antwerp. Two: write your pages so a machine can lift the answer, the core of GEO and the GEO strategies that come with it. Three: check how AI tools talk about your business today and work on the sources they draw from, as we describe in how ChatGPT recommends your business.

Want to know where your business stands today? ClickForest sets up local SEO for SMEs in Flanders, from Google Business Profile to AI visibility, and always starts with an SEO audit as a baseline.

What can you do about your local SEO this month?

Start with what pays off fastest: claim and complete your Google Business Profile, set up a fixed review rhythm, make your name, address and phone number identical everywhere, build one strong landing page per branch or region and add LocalBusiness structured data. Then measure your positions and profile statistics monthly.

1. Google Business Profile: right primary category, all services, opening hours, at least ten real photos and a monthly post.
2. Review rhythm: ask for a review after every job, respond within 24 hours, aim for fresh reviews every month.
3. NAP consistency: exactly the same name, address and phone on your site, your profile, goudengids.be and Trends Top.
4. One strong page per region or branch: unique copy, local cases, a map and an FAQ, like our own pages for SEO in Mechelen, SEO in Antwerp, GEO in Mechelen and performance marketing in Mechelen.
5. Structured data and measurement: LocalBusiness schema on every location page, then track your positions, profile views and calls monthly.

What should you remember about local SEO in Belgium?

The local pack remains the main prize: for pure local searches Google still almost always shows the map with three businesses, and those positions cannot be bought. You win them with a complete Google Business Profile, an ongoing review rhythm, consistent mentions and strong local pages. Meanwhile an AI layer is sliding over local search, and whoever has both their basics and their machine readability in order wins twice.

As a local SEO agency, ClickForest helps SMEs in Flanders set up and expand that foundation, from profile and reviews to structured data and AI visibility. Curious where you stand today? See our SEO approach or request the SEO audit and you’ll know within the week where the fastest local win sits.