14 September 2026·8 min read

The Local SEO Checklist for Agencies (2026): 31 Checks, in the Order That Moves the Map

Every agency has a local SEO checklist somewhere. Most of them are long, unordered, and treat "add a meta description" as equal to "fix the primary category". This one is ordered by how much each item moves a business's position in Google Maps for the searches that bring customers, based on what we see across the properties LocalPulse tracks. Work from the top.

Before you start: the baseline

Check the rankings from a grid of points across the service area, not from one place. A single position check hides most of the picture, because Google Maps results change with where the searcher is standing. Run a 49-point grid for the two or three keywords that matter, keep the map, and re-run it every month. Without this you cannot show the client what any of the following did. The free Google Maps rank checker runs one keyword; the monthly report runs ten.

Google Business Profile: the checks that move the map most

Verified, and owned by the client's own Google account, not an old agency's or an ex-employee's.
Primary category is the most specific one that describes the main service. "Plumber", not "Contractor". This single field decides which searches the business can appear for.
Secondary categories cover the other services actually offered, and nothing that is not.
Business name matches the signage and the company documents exactly. No added keywords, town names or slogans; they cause suspensions.
Address is a real, staffed location, or hidden with a service area set for a business that travels to customers. No virtual offices, no PO boxes.
Service area, where used, is realistic: the towns the business actually serves, not a 100-mile radius.
Phone number is a local number, identical to the website and the main directories.
Opening hours are accurate, including special hours for bank holidays. Wrong hours lose the "open now" filter.
Services are listed individually with a short description each, using the words customers search for.
Business description uses the first sentence to say what the business does and where.
Photos: exterior, interior, team, work in progress, at least twenty, with new ones added monthly. Profiles with recent photos get more actions.
Products, menu or booking link filled in where the category offers them.
Questions and answers section seeded with the five questions customers actually ask, answered by the owner.
Posts: at least one a month. Not a ranking factor in itself, but a live profile is treated as a live business.
No duplicate profiles for the same business or location. Search the name and the address on Maps; request removal of any duplicate.

Reviews

Review count and rating compared with the three businesses that hold the map pack for the main keyword. That gap is the target.
A steady flow of new reviews rather than bursts. Two a month beats twenty in one week followed by nothing.
Reviews mention the service and the place. Ask customers by name for the specific job: "a review of the boiler repair in Headingley helps other people find us".
Every review answered, including the bad ones, within a week, by the owner, without arguing.
No incentives, no review gating, no reviews from staff. These are the review-manipulation signals behind a growing share of suspensions.

Website

One page per service, one page per location served, each with the service and the town in the title, the first heading and the first sentence.
Name, address and phone in the footer of every page as text, matching the profile exactly.
LocalBusiness schema on the homepage (and the relevant subtype, such as Plumber or Dentist) with the same name, address, phone and hours as the profile.
The site loads in under three seconds on a phone and the phone number is a tap-to-call link.
A Google Business Profile link and an embedded map on the contact page, pointing at the correct profile.
Title tags and meta descriptions on the service pages say what and where, in plain words a customer would use.

Citations and consistency

The business appears on the directories that matter for the trade in the UK (Yell, Thomson Local, Checkatrade or TrustATrader for trades, the professional body's register, the local chamber) with identical name, address and phone.
Old addresses and old phone numbers are corrected or removed wherever they still appear, including social profiles.
The website is verified in Google Search Console and the profile is connected to it, which also enables instant verification if the profile ever needs re-verifying.

AI search visibility

Ask ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews the two or three questions customers ask ("who is a good emergency plumber in Leeds"). Record whether the business is named and who is named instead. In our study of 500 UK businesses in the Maps top 10, 26 percent were ever named.
Where the business is not named, the fix is items 2, 9, 21, 22 and 27 above: a clearly described business with consistent facts is what the assistants can recommend. Re-check monthly and report it.

How to use the list

At onboarding, go through all 31, note the failures, and put the top five in the first month's plan. Everything above item 15 is usually an afternoon's work and shows on the next grid. Items 21 to 29 take a month or two. Item 30 is the one clients are starting to ask about, so report it whether or not it has moved.

Then re-check quarterly, and re-run the grid monthly. LocalPulse does the monthly part for each client property: the 49-point Maps grid, organic rankings, AI search visibility and a plain-English fix list, in a report with your logo. See the sample report or read what a white-label local SEO report should include.

Track your clients’ rankings - £15 per property See how LocalPulse works