Local SEO for Corfu businesses, step by step

Local SEO in Corfu is everything that helps Google show your business to people who search nearby, or who search for what you do plus "Corfu". It comes down to a complete Google Business Profile, a website Google can understand in each language, and signs of trust such as reviews, all pointing to the same name, address and phone number.

I build websites for Corfu businesses, and most of the local SEO problems I see are not mysterious. They are small jobs left half-done, or done once and never updated. Here are the steps, in the order I would tackle them.

Local SEO in Corfu: the steps that matter

1. Claim and complete your Google Business Profile

When someone types "taverna Kassiopi" or "boat rental Paleokastritsa", the map results usually appear before any website. Those results come from Google Business Profiles. Claim yours, choose the right categories, add real photos and accurate hours, and link it to your website. I explain each part in my Google Business Profile guide for Corfu.

2. Use the same name, address and phone everywhere

Google cross-checks your details across your website, your profile, booking platforms, social media and directories. Corfu makes this harder than most places. Village addresses are often vague, and names exist in several spellings: Kerkyra or Corfu, Paleokastritsa or Palaiokastritsa, Agios or Ayios.

Pick one version per language and use it everywhere, word for word. Write the phone number the same way each time, with +30 for international guests. If you change your number or move, update every listing, not just the website.

3. Build real bilingual pages with hreflang

Your guests search in English, Italian or German, and your local customers search in Greek. Each language needs its own page with its own address (URL), written for that reader, and the pages should point to each other with hreflang tags so Google shows the right one. A Greek page can target "εστιατόριο Κασσιόπη" while the English page targets "restaurant in Kassiopi". Start with Greek and English, and add more languages when your bookings justify it.

4. Collect reviews, and reply to them

Reviews are one of the clearest local signals, and guests read them closely. Ask every happy guest, and make it easy with a short link or a QR code at checkout or on the bill. Reply to every review, good and bad, in the language it was written in.

Never buy reviews or offer discounts in exchange for them. Google's policies forbid it, and fake reviews tend to be removed, sometimes with consequences for the profile.

5. Publish local content

Google needs evidence that you are part of a place. Pages about what you do in specific areas help, as long as they are real: "wedding receptions in Gouvia" only if you actually host them there. Short articles that answer what your guests ask, such as how to get to you from the port or where to park, are useful for people and for search.

6. Add structured data

Structured data (schema) is code that describes your business to search engines: name, address, phone, opening hours, map coordinates and type of business, such as Restaurant or Hotel. It helps Google understand the page. It doesn't guarantee special search results, but sites without it are harder to read.

7. Make the site fast on a phone

Most visitors arrive on mobile, often on patchy holiday data. Speed is part of how Google judges page experience, and it is certainly how visitors judge you. Properly sized images, light code and video that loads only when someone presses play make the biggest difference.

Common local SEO mistakes I see in Corfu

Translation widgets

A button that translates the page inside the visitor's browser gives Google only one language. The translated text has no URL of its own, so it cannot rank, and machine translation of menus and room descriptions often reads badly. Real pages, written or properly edited by a person, do the job.

Slow sites

Ten full-size photos in a homepage slider, an autoplaying video and a dozen plugins can make a page take many seconds to appear on a phone. Test your site with Google's free PageSpeed Insights, on mobile, and take the result seriously.

Stock photos

The same sunset photo appears on dozens of Corfu websites, and guests notice. Stock images say nothing about your terrace, your food or your team. Real photos and a short film of your place build trust and give Google images that belong to you.

Profiles that don't match reality

A second profile for the same business, a profile at an address where you don't actually receive customers, or a business name stuffed with keywords all break Google's guidelines and can get a profile suspended. Keep it honest and boring.

Where to start this week

The free steps come first: claim your profile, fix your name, address and phone everywhere, and start asking for reviews. Then look at the website: real language versions, structured data and speed. My article on what a Corfu business website needs covers the website side in more detail.

Nobody can honestly guarantee first place on Google. What you can do is make your business easy for Google to understand and easy for guests to trust. If you would like help with the website side, have a look at my web design service in Corfu.

Updated: 8 November 2026