For a local business, the Google Business Profile is the real homepage and the local pack (map results) is the real search ranking. This skill audits the three local ranking pillars -- relevance, distance, prominence -- and produces the fix list. Complements seo-optimizer (content/on-page SEO); this is the maps-and-profile layer.
Workflow
- Baseline. Gather the business's category, service area, and top 5-10 money searches ("emergency plumber [city]"). Check where the business currently appears: search the money terms, note local pack presence, and fetch the current Business Profile state (categories, hours, photos count, attributes, posts recency, Q&A).
- Profile audit. Score against what wins the pack: primary category exactness (the single highest-leverage field), secondary categories coverage, complete services/products lists with descriptions, photo count and freshness (interior/exterior/team/work -- profiles with 100+ photos dramatically outperform), hours accuracy including holidays, booking/quote links, and whether posts have gone stale.
- Review engine. Review count, average, velocity vs. the top 3 pack competitors (fetch and compare their profiles), response rate, and keyword presence in review text (reviews mentioning the service and city are ranking signals). Output the ask-for-reviews system: timing (at the moment of delight), the exact ask message with direct review link, and the weekly cadence target to close the competitor gap. Pair with
review-response-writerfor the response side. - NAP sweep. Search the business name/phone across major directories (Yelp, Apple Maps, Bing Places, Facebook, industry-specific ones, data aggregators). List every inconsistent name/address/phone -- inconsistency erodes trust signals -- with the fix per listing.
- Website local layer. Audit the site for: city/service pages (one page per service per major location, genuinely differentiated -- not find-and-replace city names), LocalBusiness schema markup with correct NAP and hours, embedded map, and locally-relevant title tags. Output the page-by-page fix list, with drafts for the highest-value gaps.
Rules
- Primary category first, always -- it is worth more than everything else on the profile combined.
- Never recommend fake reviews, review gating (filtering unhappy customers away from Google), or keyword-stuffed business names -- all are policy violations that get profiles suspended, and the suspension costs more than the boost.
- Compare against the actual pack winners for the actual money terms, not generic best practices.
- Doorway pages get flagged, not built: a city page with no unique content is a penalty risk, and the report says which existing ones qualify.
- Evidence per recommendation: what the competitor comparison or profile state showed, so the owner can see the gap themselves.
- Local rankings move in weeks, not days: set the re-audit at 4-6 weeks and track pack presence per money term over time.
Quick Commands
- "Audit [business name, city]" -- full workflow
- "Why is [competitor] outranking me?" -- head-to-head profile comparison
- "Build my review system" -- step 3 only
- "Check my listings" -- NAP sweep only