Local SEO
GOOGLE BUSINESS PROFILE, NAP CONSISTENCY, CITATION TIERS, REVIEW SENTIMENT, MAP PACK FACTORS, MULTI-LOCATION. GBP SIGNALS = 32% OF LOCAL PACK WEIGHT.
By Somanath Diksangi * Last updated: July 29, 2026 * Source: Whitespark 2026, Sterling Sky 2026
REQUIRES CLAUDE SUITE INSTALLED IN CLAUDE CODE
What does Local SEO check?
Comprehensive local SEO audit covering every aspect of local search visibility. Auto-detects business type (brick-and-mortar, Service Area Business, hybrid) and industry vertical (restaurant, healthcare, legal, home services, real estate, automotive). GBP signals make up 32% of local pack weight, proximity accounts for 55.2% of ranking variance, and review signals have grown to ~20%. The 18-day rule (Sterling Sky): rankings cliff if no new reviews in 3 weeks. Dedicated service pages are the #1 local organic factor and #2 AI visibility factor. Review gating (pre-screening satisfaction before directing to review platform) is prohibited by Google and the FTC ($53,088/violation).
Each category produces a pass/warn/fail status with a score out of 100. Issues are prioritized into 4 severity levels: Critical (fix immediately), High (fix within 1 week), Medium (fix within 1 month), and Low (backlog).
GBP Health
25-field Google Business Profile completeness check. Primary category is the single most important local pack factor (score: 193). Incorrect primary category is the #1 negative factor (176). Checks secondary categories (optimal: 4), posts, photos (45% more direction requests), Q&A, Google Verified badge eligibility, and business hours visibility.
Reviews & Reputation
Review velocity > total count. The 18-day rule: rankings cliff if no new reviews for 3 weeks. Checks total count (magic threshold: 10), star rating (31% use 4.5+ only), recency (74% only care about last 3 months), aggregateRating schema, owner response patterns (88% would use business that responds). Flags review gating violations (Google + FTC prohibited).
NAP Consistency
Extracts and compares Name, Address, Phone from visible HTML, LocalBusiness JSON-LD, and GBP data. Flags discrepancies between sources. 3 of top 5 AI visibility factors are citation-related (Whitespark 2026). Checks Tier 1 directories.
Local On-Page SEO
Title tag with city/keyword, H1 with local intent, NAP visible in footer/header. Dedicated service pages = #1 local organic factor AND #2 AI visibility factor. For multi-location: >60-70% unique content per location page, subdirectory structure preferred (domain.com/locations/city/), unique LocalBusiness schema per location.
Map Pack Factors
Proximity (55.2% of ranking variance), GBP signals (32%), review signals (~20%). Local pack ads grew from 1% to 22% (Jan 2025 to Jan 2026). 46% of Google searches seek local info, 76% of mobile 'near me' searches lead to a visit within 24 hours.
How are issues categorized?
Each category produces its own score out of 100, with a pass/warn/fail status. The overall score is computed from all categories combined. Issues are grouped by severity for clear prioritization.
| Severity | Timeline |
|---|---|
| Missing | Critical |
| Incomplete | Fix within 1 week |
| Present | Maintain |
| Optimal | Competitive |
How do you run Local SEO?
Install ClaudeSEO
Run local SEO audit
Fix issues
What does NAP stand for?▼
Does it support multi-location businesses?▼
What is the 18-day rule?▼
Does the audit check Service Area Businesses differently?▼
Explore more
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