Local SEO in Astana: Google Business and 2GIS in 7 steps

A person in Astana types “coffee shop nearby”, “dentist on the left bank” or “laptop repair” and chooses from three or four cards on the map. If your company is not there or the card looks abandoned, the client will go to a competitor without even seeing the website.

Local SEO is a set of actions that help you show up in maps and results for people nearby. Below are seven steps you can complete in a week without a big budget, and a checklist for self-checking. We rely on Google’s documentation and on Webman’s practice of working with clients since 2016.

Local SEO answers queries with an explicit or implied place: “barbershop Astana”, “lawyer nearby”, “water delivery”. Google shows a block with a map and several companies, and the regular results below.

It is needed if:

• clients come to an office, salon or warehouse, or you travel to them around the city;
• you work in one or two cities, not across the whole country;
• calls, routes and leads “here and now” matter to you.

An online store across Kazakhstan needs local SEO less; classic SEO promotion matters more to it.

Local results are not a bonus to SEO but a separate storefront: there you are judged by distance, relevance to the query and prominence.

Google names these three factors in the Google Business Profile help: relevance, distance and prominence. You cannot change distance, but the other two can be tuned.

The company profile is the main asset. Register it at business.google.com and choose the main category as precisely as possible: “Dental clinic”, not “Health”. The category strongly influences which queries you will show up for.

What to fill in:

1. The name — exactly as on the sign, without adding keywords (“Beauty salon Astana cheap”). Google forbids this, and the profile may be blocked.
2. The address and service area if you travel to clients.
3. The phone, website and working hours, including holidays.
4. Services or products with descriptions and prices.
5. A description of the company to the point, without advertising clichés.

Go through the verification that Google offers. Without it the profile barely works.

A profile without photos inspires less trust. Upload real pictures: the entrance, interior, team, examples of work. Do not use stock pictures; the visitor will notice the mismatch right away.

Every week or two add a short post: a promotion, a new service, a client review. This is not a magic button for raising positions, but it shows that the company is alive and gives a reason to click.

In Kazakhstan 2GIS remains a familiar directory: people look up addresses, hours and phone numbers there. A 2GIS card is free in its basic form, and the data must be kept up to date: address, entrance, floor, working hours, service sections.

Check:

• there are no duplicate cards (an old address, a former name);
• the categories are specified correctly;
• the phone and website match those in Google;
• you reply to reviews.

Paid placements in 2GIS are a separate decision. Before buying, assess how many inquiries you get from the basic card.

NAP stands for name, address, phone (Name, Address, Phone). If the website says “5 Dostyk St., office 12”, Google says “Dostyk 5/12” and 2GIS has an old address, the search engine doubts that this is the same company.

Draw up a reference record and check it against:

• the website (in the footer and on the contacts page);
• the Google Business Profile;
• 2GIS;
• social networks and messengers;
• directories where you were mentioned before.

Fix the discrepancies. It is boring, but cheap and it works.

Reviews influence both the client’s decision and the company’s prominence. The rules:

1. Ask for a review after the service, sending a direct link from the Google Business profile in WhatsApp. The easier it is, the more often people leave one.
2. Reply to all reviews, including negative ones: calmly, to the point, without excuses.
3. Do not buy or write reviews yourself. This violates platform rules and risks sanctions, and clients quickly sense the fakeness.
4. Do not promise a discount for a positive rating. Google forbids rewarding reviews of a particular tone.

An example of a reply to a negative review: “Thank you for writing. We are sorry you waited longer than promised. Write to us on WhatsApp, we will look into it and come back with a solution”.

The card leads to the website, and the website must confirm your location and service. Check:

• the home page title and H1 contain the service and the city;
• the contacts page shows the address, map, working hours and a clickable phone number;
• there are separate pages for the main services, not one page for everything;
• LocalBusiness markup is connected (it can be checked in Google’s rich results tool);
• the website opens quickly on a phone, because a significant share of local queries come from mobile devices.

If you have several branches, make a separate page for each, with its own address, photos and phone. Do not copy one text with the district swapped: search engines treat such pages as duplicates. If the website is outdated, look at the options on the website development page.

The Google Business Profile has statistics: which queries brought people, how many calls, routes and visits to the website. Once a month record three numbers:

1. Profile impressions in search and on maps.
2. Calls and route requests.
3. Visits to the website, which are also visible in Google Analytics.

Compare with the previous month and with the season. If there are more calls but no leads, look at how inquiries are handled, not at SEO.

Do not guess how clients phrase their need. Build a list from three sources:

1. Google suggestions as you type: write “dentist astana” and see what the search suggests.
2. The “Related searches” block at the bottom of the results.
3. Client questions by phone and in WhatsApp: ask managers to write down for a week how people phrase their request.

Then split the queries into three groups. The first is “service + city” (“air conditioner installation Astana”). The second is “service + district or landmark” (“left bank”, “near EXPO”). The third is “nearby” and “close by”, which Google answers using the phone’s geolocation. Each group needs its own page or profile section, not one common text.

If you work in Kazakh and Russian, set up the card and website in both: part of the audience searches in Kazakh, and competition there is often lower.

The profile and card can be set up in a week, but a noticeable growth in impressions usually does not come right away: Google must verify the data and accumulate reviews and activity signals. We do not promise deadlines or positions: they depend on competition in the niche, the district and the quality of execution. There is one practical recommendation: record the profile statistics from day one so you can compare the dynamics and not make decisions “by feel”.

Local SEO breaks where the profile was “handled by one person who left”. Appoint someone responsible and set a regular routine:

• Every week: reply to new reviews and questions, check messages from the profile.
• Once a month: add a post, update photos, check the schedule and statistics.
• Once a quarter: go through the checklist, check for duplicate cards and NAP.
• With any change of address, phone, schedule or product range: first the profile and 2GIS, then the website and social networks.

Register access to the profile on the company’s corporate email, not on an employee’s personal email. Add a second owner or manager: if one account is lost, the profile will not have to be recovered for weeks.

The Google profile lets you describe services and answer frequent questions. Use it as a mini reference: “Is there parking?”, “Do you work by appointment?”, “Do you accept payment via Kaspi?”. These answers settle objections before the call and save managers’ time.

For each main service add a name, a short description in one or two sentences and a price or “from”, if you are ready to show it. An honest price reduces the number of empty calls and raises the share of clients who come prepared.

Next to organic results there are paid local formats in Google Ads, for example extensions with an address and a call. They work faster but cost more per click and stop bringing clients the moment the budget is switched off. Organic local results build up gradually. A sensible combination: the paid channel covers demand here and now, while the profile, reviews and website grow in parallel. For more on the paid part, see the PPC advertising page.

This happens: a competitor suggests an “edit” of the address, or the profile is suspended because of the name or verification. Do not create a new profile for the same address, it will make things worse. Go to the Google Business Profile help, find the section on suspended profiles and submit a request for re-review, attaching a photo of the sign, a lease agreement or a company invoice. While the review is under way, do not change the name or address. A response may take several days, so keep the documents at hand and add a second profile owner in advance.

People increasingly ask ChatGPT or Alice: “Where in Astana can I get…”. Neural networks rely on public data: the website, cards, reviews, mentions. The more consistent your data is, the higher the chance that you will be mentioned correctly. For more on preparing a website for such answers, see the GEO promotion page.

Save it and go through the list:

• The Google Business profile is verified and the category is precise.
• The schedule, services, description and website are filled in.
• At least ten real photos are uploaded.
• The 2GIS card is up to date and there are no duplicates.
• NAP is the same everywhere.
• At least a few reviews have been received, and all of them have replies.
• The website has a contacts page with a map and an address.
• The “call” and “request” goals are set up in analytics.

1. A profile name with keywords. A risk of being blocked.
2. Several cards for one address. They compete with each other.
3. A virtual office address. Google checks this, and the client arrives at an empty place.
4. Fake review boosting. Expensive and dangerous.
5. A forgotten holiday schedule. The client arrived, it is closed, and negativity is guaranteed.
6. A profile but no website. Without a website it is harder for you to prove expertise and take a request.

• Local results evaluate relevance, distance and prominence: work on the first and the third.
• The foundation is a verified Google Business profile with a precise category and real photos.
• 2GIS and a single NAP across all platforms remove doubts for search engines.
• Collect reviews honestly and reply to every one.
• The website confirms your address and service, and the profile statistics show what works.

Want to check your company against this list? Order a free audit on the SEO promotion page: we will look at the profile, the website and discrepancies in the data. And if you plan to launch paid traffic, start with the article on how to calculate a Google Ads budget.