Local SEO for Service-Area Businesses
Map-pack diagnosis, GBP fixes, city pages that avoid doorway penalties, NAP cleanup, schema, and review replies for trades.
Before & after
Same prompt, same agent — the only difference is the skill.
Local SEO is crucial if you serve customers in specific areas. Google Business Profile is the central hub. You'd want to audit it for completeness—make sure your name, address, phone number are consistent. Check your business category and description. Get reviews and respond to them. Post updates to show you're active. Schema markup helps Google understand your business type. You'd also create service area pages if you serve multiple neighborhoods. What's your current setup?
GOOGLE BUSINESS PROFILE AUDIT BUSINESS BASICS Name: Correct (no extra keywords stuffed) Address: 427 Oak Street, Portland OR 97214 — verified Phone: Listed and clickable — pass Website: Linked and working — pass Business hours: Current, no holidays missed — pass Category: Primary 'HVAC Contractor', Secondary 'Furnace Repair' — pass NAP CONSISTENCY ISSUES FOUND Google My Business: 427 Oak St Yellow Pages: 427 Oak Street (pass) Angie's List: 427 Oak St, Portland, Oregon (inconsistent state format) Fix required: Update Angie's profile to 427 Oak Street, Portland OR 97214 DESCRIPTION GAPS Current: 'We fix HVAC systems in Portland.' Improvement: Add service specificity + service area New: 'Family-owned HVAC repair and maintenance, serving inner Portland and outer Northeast neighborhoods since 2015. Emergency service available 24/7. Licensed, insured, same-day appointments.' REVIEW STATUS Total reviews: 38 (3.9 stars) Unresponded: 5 (critical—one 1-star from 2 weeks ago) Action: Respond to all within 24 hours. Address negative feedback with solution, not excuse PHOTO AUDIT Count: 12 photos (good) Quality issue: 4 photos are blurry or cropped (replace) Missing: Before/after installation photos, team photo, service van Fix: Add 5 high-quality photos showing work, team, equipment LOCAL SCHEMA MARKUP Status: Missing on website Required schema: LocalBusiness + Service + ServiceArea Implement: Add JSON-LD to homepage + service pages Result: Google will display service areas on your profile SERVICE AREA PAGES NEEDED Current: None Recommended: 1. Pearl District (high density, high revenue) 2. Lloyd District (industrial, B2B potential) 3. Gresham (outer area, underserved) Template: Keyword-rich intro + local landmarks + FAQ + CTA to book PRIORITY FIXES (Next 30 days) 1. Respond to all 5 unanswered reviews (1 day) 2. Fix NAP inconsistency on Angie's (1 day) 3. Improve description + add photos (3 days) 4. Implement schema markup (2 days) 5. Publish 3 service area pages (5 days) EXPECTED IMPACT: 18-25% increase in local search visibility within 60 days
About this skill
Your HVAC, plumbing, or appliance repair business ranks fine near the shop and disappears two towns over. Someone sold you 40 copy-paste city pages that do nothing, and Yelp still lists your old phone number. This skill works from how the map pack ranks a business with a hidden address. It finds your real gap, ranks fixes by impact, and steers you away from the tactics that get Google profiles suspended.
What it does
- Works out whether your map-pack problem is relevance, distance, or prominence, so you stop fixing the wrong thing
- Audits your Google Business Profile in impact order: primary category, services, the page your website link points to, description, photos, and posts
- Tests each planned city page for real local facts. A page gets built only if it has some. Towns without them go into one "areas we serve" page instead of thin doorway pages
- Ranks NAP and citation fixes by impact, from wrong phone numbers to minor formatting, and sets up call tracking without breaking consistency
- Writes accurate LocalBusiness JSON-LD for a business with a hidden address, using the most specific type and areaServed
- Builds a review-request system that follows Google's rules, plus replies to good and bad reviews that don't argue or overshare in public
What you get
A ranked local SEO action plan with GBP fixes, a build-or-merge call for each town, a NAP fix list, ready-to-paste schema, and review templates. Or just the one piece you asked for, ready to paste.
Best for
Owners, office managers, and marketers at home-service and trade businesses that go to the customer: HVAC, plumbing, electrical, appliance repair, cleaning, roofing, and pest control. Also agencies that manage local search for them.
SKILL.md preview
---
name: local-seo-service-area-businesses
… (sign up to view the full skill)Featured in
More marketing & growth skills
View all Marketing & Growth skills →Paid Ads Campaign Planning and ROAS/CPA Diagnosis
Plans paid campaigns on Google, Meta, LinkedIn and X from break-even math, writes ads, and finds the metric behind a ROAS or CPA drop.
Scheduled Marketing Loop Spec for AI Agents
Designs a recurring marketing loop an AI agent runs on schedule: fresh inputs, ledger, approval gates, metrics, kill rules, run prompt.
App Store Screenshot Headlines That Convert
Screenshot captions for App Store and Google Play, mined from your app's code: ordered headlines, alternates, and A/B test ideas.
Analytics Audit: Reconcile Numbers, Fix Tracking
Finds which number is true when your dashboards disagree, sizes every gap, and builds tracking around the decision you have to make.