When a parent searches for childcare near home or work, can they find your centre, understand what you offer and book a tour without hunting through your website? Childcare local SEO should support all three steps.
Start with one centre and work through the checks below. You will finish with a practical list of changes to your Google Business Profile, centre page and enquiry process. If you manage several centres, repeat the checks for each location.
1. Check what a local parent actually sees
Search for your centre by name, then try a relevant search such as “childcare in [your suburb]”. Check Google Maps as well as the ordinary search results. Treat this as a parent-experience check, not a reliable ranking report: results can vary by location and other factors.
- Does the correct centre appear, with the right address and phone number?
- Does the website link open that centre’s page?
- Can a parent quickly find the ages you care for, opening hours and tour options?
- Are old names, duplicate listings or outdated details causing confusion?
Record each problem, who will fix it and the date it was checked. Screenshots make it easier to explain an issue to your website or marketing team.
2. Get your Google Business Profile details right
Verify your profile and check the business name, address, map pin, phone number, opening hours and category. Use your real centre name. Add accurate information about your services and current photos that help a family recognise the entrance and understand the environment.
For a group, link each location’s profile to its own useful centre page. A parent looking at your Bundall centre should not have to start again on a group homepage to find it.
Google explains that local results depend mainly on relevance, distance and prominence. Complete information helps Google understand your business, but there is no way to pay Google for a better local ranking. See Google’s local ranking guidance.
3. Make the centre page answer the questions that matter
Your centre page needs to do more than mention a suburb. It should help a parent decide whether to enquire.
- Location: show the address, access information and helpful parking or drop-off details.
- Care offered: explain age groups, programs and hours accurately.
- People and place: introduce the team and show current, approved photographs.
- Practical questions: explain how to ask about fees, availability and starting dates. Keep any published figures current.
- Next step: provide a clear tour or enquiry button and explain what happens after someone submits the form.
For example, “Childcare in Bundall | [Centre Name]” is a straightforward page-title starting point for a centre actually located there. The page itself should describe that centre’s real offering. Avoid making several near-identical pages that simply swap suburb names.
If your website serves multiple centres, give each real location its own page with distinct team, program and access information. Check that your centre finder links directly to these pages.
4. Build a consistent, honest review process
Give families a simple way to share their experience and assign someone to respond. Keep requests neutral rather than directing only happy families to Google. Do not offer rewards for reviews.
Use replies to show that you listen, while keeping family and child details private. If a review raises a concern, acknowledge it appropriately and move the conversation to a direct channel.
Set a regular review of your profile details and recent feedback. This is an operational habit for your team, not a promise that posting or replying on a particular schedule will improve rankings.
5. Connect useful articles to the right centre or service page
A parent reading about settling in, preparing for a tour or your kindergarten program should have an obvious next step. Link to the relevant centre page where it helps them, using clear wording such as “book a tour of our Bundall centre”.
Write from the questions your team receives. A useful article might explain what a family should bring to a first visit or how your centre handles orientation. Give specific, accurate answers rather than repeating a generic description of childcare.
Keep search and social activity connected. Our childcare social media guide covers how to show families what happens at your centre, while our childcare marketing essentials help you organise the wider plan.
6. Test the journey from a phone
Open your Google Business Profile on a phone and follow its website link. Read the centre page, tap the phone number and check the enquiry form. Use an agreed test submission so your team can confirm it reaches the right inbox without treating it as a real family enquiry.
Check that buttons are easy to use, important text is readable and large images do not make the page frustrating to load. Assign a person and a backup to new enquiries. Visibility cannot compensate for messages nobody follows up.
7. Measure enquiries and tours, as well as visibility
Keep a simple monthly record for each centre:
- Relevant Google Search impressions and clicks to the centre page.
- Website visits from its Google Business Profile, using consistent campaign tags where your tracking setup supports them.
- Successful enquiries and phone enquiries, with the source recorded where known.
- Tours booked, tours attended and enrolments arising from those enquiries.
Keep general website forms, employment applications and family enquiries separate. Compare equivalent periods and allow for seasonal changes, available places and the delay between an enquiry and an enrolment. Search Console website data and Business Profile interactions describe different activity, so do not combine them as if they were unique enquiries.
If visibility increases but enquiries do not, review the page and offer. If enquiries arrive but tours do not, review response ownership, availability and follow-up. Our guide to improving childcare occupancy looks at that next part of the process.
Your first four weeks
- Week one: check profile accuracy, access and the parent’s search experience.
- Week two: improve the centre page and test its enquiry process.
- Week three: refresh one genuinely useful article, add relevant links and establish a neutral review-request process.
- Week four: check tracking and record a baseline for enquiries and tours.
This is a schedule for completing the work, not a ranking deadline. Review the results over time before deciding what to change next.
Need help putting this into practice?
We help childcare centres connect SEO, websites, advertising and enquiry follow-up. Explore our childcare marketing services or talk to our team about the gaps in your centre’s current approach.
