Local SEO

Use this reference when the audit or request is about a local business: Google Business Profile, the map pack, citations, reviews, or location pages.

Help local customers find the right business and turn searches into qualified calls, bookings, and visits. Diagnose the specific location and search context before prescribing changes.

Start With the Business Model

Read existing product context at .agents/product-marketing.md (or .claude/product-marketing.md, including older product-marketing-context.md setups). Ask only for missing facts relevant to the request:

• Business type: customers visit a storefront, staff travel to customers, both, or online only.
• Actual operating locations, staffed hours, service coverage, services, and capacity.
• Website and profile URLs; ownership, verification, duplicates, suspensions, or recent moves.
• Desired outcome and available evidence: qualified calls, bookings, visits, profile performance, Search Console, and location-level conversion data.

Use the requested scope. A profile description request needs a description, not a compulsory full audit. Without access, provide a provisional plan and identify the evidence needed; never report invented profile findings.

For profile eligibility, address visibility, duplicates, categories, and current feature availability, read profile-and-citations.md. An online-only business needs a different SEO plan. A service area is not a collection of extra storefronts.

Diagnose the Local Search Problem

Keep the two surfaces separate:

Google describes local ranking through relevance, distance, and prominence. Distance varies with the searcher's location; a larger declared service area does not establish a nearer physical location. Do not promise a top-three placement or a fixed ranking uplift.

Compare like with like: the same queries, locations, observation method, and time window. A single search from the owner's office is not evidence of visibility throughout a city. Separate branded from non-branded demand and label estimates, observed facts, and hypotheses.

Prioritize the constraint supported by evidence:

1. Wrong, ineligible, duplicate, unverified, or suspended profile: resolve the actual issue before adding promotional content.
2. Customers cannot contact or visit correctly: repair location facts, hours, destination links, and conversion paths.
3. Relevant demand is not represented: improve accurate categories, service information, and useful location pages.
4. Weak trust or discovery: address genuine customer feedback, relevant citations, and earned local mentions.

Improve the Profile and Citation Record

Use profile-and-citations.md for the requested profile or listing work. Produce field-level edits grounded in real business facts, with the existing value, proposed value, reason, and missing verification.

Build a canonical location record for the real-world name, public contact details, customer-facing hours, profile ID, and matching location URL. Keep a private operating address separate when customers do not visit it. Never publish a hidden home address merely to satisfy a citation checklist.

Citation cleanup should resolve conflicting identities and customer-facing information. Prioritize relevant maps, local/chamber, and industry listings customers actually use. Correct existing records and merge true duplicates through supported processes before creating more listings. For a software product directory campaign, use directory-submissions; its launch prerequisites and incentive rules are not a local Google review policy.

Earn and Respond to Reviews

Ask customers with genuine experiences for honest feedback through a neutral request and the correct location's review link. Do not select only happy customers, buy reviews, offer incentives, require particular wording, or promise removal of criticism. Google's rules differ from other review platforms (see the referrals skill's review programs reference); read the current Maps review policy.

Example request: "Thanks for choosing [business]. If you'd like to share your experience, you can leave a review here: [location review link]. We welcome your honest feedback."

Reply specifically and courteously. For a complaint, acknowledge the concern and offer an appropriate private contact path without exposing customer, medical, financial, or job details. Report a policy violation through the platform's process; an unfavorable genuine opinion is not automatically removable.

Track recurring feedback and service improvements alongside review volume and recency. A rating target must not become a staff quota for soliciting specified review content.

Build Useful Location and Service Pages

Read location-pages-and-measurement.md when building pages, preparing local schema, or measuring results.

Give each real location a useful destination. A service-area page describes verified service coverage; it must not imply an office that does not exist. Publish a city page only when it adds meaningful local information, evidence, or customer utility. Swapping city names in duplicated text does not create that value.

Route implementation details to the relevant existing skill:

• The rest of this skill (seo-audit): crawling, indexing, redirects, speed, and technical diagnosis.
• site-architecture: location hierarchy, navigation, and internal links.
• programmatic-seo: scaling a justified page pattern backed by real data.
• schema: markup implementation after choosing accurate, public business facts.
• ai-seo: visibility in AI answers when that is part of the request.

Return a Decision and an Actionable Artifact

For an audit or plan, return:

1. Business model and the specific location/search surface assessed.
2. Findings with source, date, customer impact, confidence, and missing evidence.
3. Prioritized changes with a responsible owner and a way to verify completion.
4. The requested artifact: field edits, citation cleanup table, review drafts, location-page outline, or measurement plan.
5. Follow-up measures tied to qualified customer actions rather than rankings alone.

For narrow requests, deliver the artifact directly and state only the relevant assumptions. Drafting a plan does not itself authorize profile changes, messages to customers, or directory submissions; follow the user's existing authorization for execution.

Sources

Check current platform rules when a recommendation depends on them. The references link directly to the relevant Google documentation, including retired Q&A functionality and the distinction between Schema.org validity and Google rich-result eligibility.