How to Use Semrush for Local SEO (UK Setup Guide)

Semrush local SEO work runs through a separate product called Semrush Local, priced per business location rather than bundled into the main subscription. As of July 2026 it costs $30 (about £22) per location per month on the Base plan or $60 (about £44) on Pro, and its centrepiece is the Map Rank Tracker: a grid of pins laid over your service area that shows exactly where you appear in Google’s map results, street by street. This guide walks a UK business through setup, explains what each plan includes, and covers the review and Google Business Profile tools that feed the local pack. It is part of our SEO tools guides, written by Luckywebs, a London SEO and web agency.

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What Is Semrush Local and How Much Does It Cost?

Semrush Local is the local SEO toolkit Semrush sells separately from its main platform. It bundles four jobs into one subscription: map rank tracking, Google Business Profile management, review monitoring and replies, and syncing your business details across online directories. As of July 2026 it comes in two standard plans, Local Base at $30 (about £22) per location per month and Local Pro at $60 (about £44) per location per month, and you can buy it on its own or add it to an existing Semrush subscription. Semrush bills in US dollars, with no separate UK price list. Because it is priced per location, a single-branch plumber pays for one location while a five-branch estate agency pays for five. For where this sits against the main platform’s plans, see our full Semrush pricing breakdown, and for the main platform’s sterling figures see our guide to what Semrush costs in pounds.

What Is the Difference Between Semrush Local Base and Pro?

The difference between Semrush Local Base and Pro comes down to reviews, listings and tracking volume. Base covers Google Business Profile optimisation with AI post publishing and automatic replies to new Google reviews, plus a limited Map Rank Tracker allowance. Pro adds review monitoring across other popular review sites, review generation (SMS and email requests to customers), listing management across 70 or more directories, and more than three times the tracking credits. As of July 2026 the plans compare like this:

Feature	Local Base ($30, about £22,/location/month)	Local Pro ($60, about £44,/location/month)
Google Business Profile optimisation	Yes, with AI agent	Yes, advanced
AI post generation and publishing	Yes	Yes
Auto-replies to Google reviews (AI)	Yes	Yes
Review monitoring across other review sites	No	Yes
Review generation (SMS and email requests)	No	Yes
Listing management (70+ directories)	No	Yes
Map Rank Tracker credits per month	375	1,225

Prices in US dollars, per location, as of July 2026. A one-van trade with a handful of target keywords fits Base; a business that needs review requests or directory sync needs Pro.

What Is the Semrush Map Rank Tracker and How Does the Grid Work?

The Semrush Map Rank Tracker measures where your business ranks in Google’s map results from many points around your area at once. You lay a grid of pins over your service area, choosing the number of pins and the distance between them: Semrush’s own documentation uses 5x5 and 7x7 grids with half a kilometre between pins as its examples (as of July 2026). Each pin acts as a separate simulated searcher, and the tool colours the grid as a heatmap: green where you rank well, red where you are invisible. This matters because map rankings shift with the searcher’s position; you can be first outside your own door and nowhere half a mile away. Scans cost one credit per pin per keyword (a 5x5 grid is 25 credits per keyword per scan), credits refresh on the first of each month, and paid plans can schedule scans daily, weekly or monthly. It also reports Share of Voice, a weighted average rank across every pin: one trend line for monthly reports.

How Do You Set Up Semrush Local SEO Tracking for a UK Business?

Setting up Semrush local SEO tracking takes about 20 minutes for a UK business. Work through these steps:

1. Find your listing. Sign in at semrush.com, open the Local toolkit and search your business name; confirm the address, review count and rating match your Google Business Profile.
2. Check for duplicates. If two listings appear (old address, lapsed profile), sort that in Google Business Profile first; tracking the wrong listing wastes the subscription.
3. Pick a plan. Base or Pro, per location, as compared above.
4. Place the grid. Choose a grid size, set the distance between pins, and drag the grid over the area your customers actually come from, not just your office. Pins sit at precise map coordinates, positioned by distance rather than postcode.
5. Add keywords. Each campaign takes up to 100, but track the searches customers use, such as “emergency plumber cambridge”, not brand names. Our guide to local keywords for tradespeople shows how to build this list.
6. Budget your credits. A 5x5 grid scanned weekly for three keywords uses about 300 credits a month, inside Base’s 375. Bigger grids or longer keyword lists need Pro’s 1,225.
7. Run the baseline scan. Save the first heatmap, then start fixing what it shows using our local SEO checklist.

How Does Semrush Local Work with Your Google Business Profile?

Semrush Local connects directly to your Google Business Profile and manages it from inside the toolkit. On Base that means AI-assisted profile optimisation, generating and publishing Google posts, and automatic review replies; Pro adds advanced profile management and pushes your business details out to 70 or more directories so your name, address and phone number match everywhere (as of July 2026). Our advice: let the tool handle the repetitive publishing, but review anything AI-written before it goes out under your business name, especially replies to complaints. The profile fundamentals remain yours to get right:

• Primary category matches what you actually sell
• Opening hours correct, including bank holidays
• One consistent UK phone number everywhere the business is listed
• Recent, real photos of your work, premises and team
• Services and attributes filled in, not left blank

How Do You Manage Reviews with the Semrush Local Toolkit?

The Semrush Local toolkit handles reviews in two directions: monitoring what comes in and generating more. On Base, an AI agent replies to every new Google review automatically in your chosen tone of voice, so no review sits unanswered for months. Pro widens the net: it monitors reviews from popular review sites in one dashboard, sends email alerts for negative Google reviews, and sends review requests to customers by SMS or email after a job or purchase (1,500 emails and 80 SMS a month on Pro, UK supported, as of July 2026). Two UK cautions. Check your lawful basis under UK GDPR and PECR before bulk-texting customers: a request tied to a completed job is normally fine, cold lists are not. And never gate reviews by asking only happy customers; Google prohibits review gating, and prospects read your replies to bad reviews before anything else.

What Does the Google Local Pack Actually Reward?

The local pack (the map plus three business listings that Google shows for searches with local intent) rewards three things, per Google’s own published guidance: relevance, distance and prominence. Relevance is how well your profile matches the search, which is why categories and services matter. Distance is how close you are to the searcher, which you cannot change but the Map Rank Tracker lets you measure honestly. Prominence is how well known and well reviewed the business is, fed by review count and rating, links, citations and the strength of your website. It is also the part you can build, and it sits behind two of our own case results: RakLAW, a law firm serving local clients, grew leads by 60 percent, and East Anglia Ultrasound, a Cambridgeshire scanning clinic, grew bookings by 52 percent. The grid shows you where you are losing; the checklist work above is what changes the colours.

Is Semrush Local Worth It Compared to Other Local SEO Tools?

Semrush Local is worth it for a UK business that lives or dies by the map pack and wants tracking, profile management and reviews in one place. Against other local SEO tools, weigh these:

Pros

• Grid tracking beats single-point rank checks for map visibility
• Reviews, listings and Google Business Profile tools in one subscription
• Per-location pricing is fair for single-location businesses
• Sits alongside the main Semrush platform if you already use it

Cons

• Billed in US dollars, so UK costs move with the exchange rate
• Costs stack quickly for multi-location businesses ($60, about £44, x 5 locations on Pro is $300, about £220, a month)
• Review generation and listing sync are locked to Pro
• You still need the main platform (or another tool) for organic keyword research and site audits

If the budget will not stretch, SE Ranking includes local features on its main plans rather than selling them as a separate product; our full SE Ranking review covers it. And if you want to test the main Semrush platform before committing to anything, start with our guide to the Semrush free trial.

If you would rather someone measured your map visibility and did the work that moves it, that is literally our job.

Book a Free Local SEO Review

Semrush Local SEO: Frequently Asked Questions

How much does Semrush Local cost in the UK?

As of July 2026, Semrush Local costs $30 (about £22) per location per month on Base and $60 (about £44) on Pro. Semrush bills in US dollars, so a UK business pays the sterling equivalent on the day plus VAT; there is no separate UK price list.

Can I buy Semrush Local without a main Semrush subscription?

Yes. As of July 2026, Semrush sells Local standalone or as an add-on to an existing subscription. If you are new to the platform entirely, our beginner’s plan for Semrush covers the main toolset it plugs into.

Does the Semrush Map Rank Tracker work with UK postcodes?

Not by postcode entry. You position a grid of pins over your area and set the distance between them; each pin is a precise map coordinate, finer-grained than a postcode district. You get street-level resolution, defined by distance rather than by typing CB1 or CB2.

How many keywords can I track on the Base plan?

The hard cap is 100 keywords per campaign, but credits run out long before that. Base includes 375 Map Rank Tracker credits a month (as of July 2026), and one scan costs one credit per pin per keyword: a 5x5 grid scanned weekly supports about three keywords. On a 7x7 grid (49 pins), even two keywords scanned weekly outrun it, so match grid size to your allowance.

Can I use the Map Rank Tracker without buying Semrush Local?

Yes. As of July 2026, Semrush also sells Map Rank Tracker on its own: a free tier with one campaign, one keyword, a 5x5 grid and 50 credits a month (manual or weekly scans only), or $30 (about £22) a month for one campaign with 4,000 credits (extra campaigns $10, about £7, a month each, extra credits $5, about £4, per 1,000). If grid tracking is all you want, that buys far more scanning than Local Base’s 375 credits; the Local plans add the profile, review and listings tools around the grid.

Is there a free trial of Semrush Local?

The 7-day free trial Semrush advertises (as of July 2026) applies to its main paid plans, not to Local’s per-location pricing. The free standalone Map Rank Tracker tier described above is the cheapest way to preview grid tracking before paying for anything.

Do I still need the main Semrush platform for local SEO?

For map-pack tracking, profile management and reviews, Semrush Local stands alone. For organic keyword research, site audits and tracking the regular blue-link rankings your location pages earn, you need the main platform or an equivalent.

Can Semrush Local track how AI tools describe my business?

No. Semrush Local tracks Google’s map results. Visibility in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google’s AI Overviews is a separate discipline with its own tooling, which we cover in our guide to tracking rankings in AI search.