When someone searches for a service near them, Google shows a map pack of three businesses before the normal results, and AI assistants increasingly answer "who is a good X near me" from the same listings, reviews and directories. Local ranking rests on three things: relevance (does the profile and website match the search), distance (fixed, out of the business's control), and prominence (reviews, links, mentions, how well-known the business is). This skill audits what the business controls and turns it into a short, ordered fix list.
When to use
- A business with a storefront, an office customers visit, or a service area (trades, clinics, restaurants, law firms, agencies with local clients).
- The business is missing or low in the map pack for its main service.
- Inconsistent business details across the web, few or old reviews, or thin town pages.
- Opening new locations.
- Not for: national or online-only businesses (use
cmo-seo-auditorcmo-keyword-research), building hundreds of location pages from data (plan that withcmo-programmatic-seofirst), or several languages or countries (usecmo-international-seo).

