Local SEO · · 11 min read
Local SEO for Chiang Mai businesses: the 2026 checklist
The map pack is the whole game for most local businesses here. Twenty-two checks, in the order they actually move the needle.
For a restaurant, clinic, garage or salon in Chiang Mai, the map pack is not part of the search results. It is the search result. Here is the order we work in.
Foundations, week one
- Primary category set to the single most accurate option — this is the highest-leverage field in the entire profile
- Secondary categories added only where you genuinely offer that service
- Business name matching your signage, with no keyword stuffing (this earns suspensions)
- Address formatted to Thai Post conventions and matching your Google Maps pin exactly
- Opening hours including Songkran, Loy Krathong and public holidays
- A local phone number, not only a mobile
Consistency sweep, week two
- NAP corrected across Chiangmailocator, CMHY, Wongnai, TripAdvisor and Thai Yellow Pages
- Old addresses removed from directories after any move — this is the most common ranking blocker we find
- Thai and English business names used consistently, not interchangeably
Content and signals, ongoing
- Weekly photo posts, geotagged, taken on a real camera
- Product or service tiles populated with prices
- Q&A section seeded with the questions staff answer daily
- Reviews requested from every customer, never gated or incentivised
- Every review responded to within 48 hours, in the language it was written in
- LocalBusiness schema on the site matching the profile exactly
- A real location page per branch, not one page listing all of them
Most businesses we audit are losing to a competitor with a worse product and a correctly configured primary category. Start there.
Written by
Vee Sengwan · Founder, Chiang Mai Clicks