Local SEO is what gets a Bristol business found by people in Bristol who are searching right now. It is the most leveraged search work a service business can do: a tradesperson in Clifton, a clinic in Redland, a consultancy in the city centre — none of them compete with the national results that dominate broader keywords. They compete in a much smaller local pack, and the rules are different.
The four pillars are Google Business Profile, on-site signals (NAP consistency, service-area pages, structured data), citations on UK directories, and reviews. None of them work alone; all four reinforce each other.