I have done local marketing for over a thousand local service businesses. Roofers, HVAC companies, plumbers, dentists, lawyers, moving companies, handymen. Every trade, every market size, every budget level. And after all of that, I can tell you the single biggest gap I see across the board: these businesses are sitting on a tool that could compress weeks of SEO work into an afternoon, and most of them have not touched it.
That tool is Claude. And combined with Ahrefs, Semrush, and the Claude Chrome extension, it becomes a local SEO engine that outperforms what most agencies charge $2,000 a month to do manually.
Here are six prompts that consistently move the needle. Each one targets a different lever in the local SEO stack. Run one this week. Run all six this month. By the end of the quarter, your competitors will be wondering what changed.
Did You Know?
According to BrightLocal's 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey, 98% of people read online reviews for local businesses, and 87% use Google to evaluate local businesses. Your Google Business Profile is now the first impression for nearly every potential customer — before they ever visit your website.
Prompt 1: The Google Business Profile Category Audit
This is the fastest local SEO win available to most businesses, and the one that gets ignored the most. When someone searches for a service in your area, your Google Business Profile is almost always the first thing they see. Get this wrong and nothing else matters.
You are a local SEO expert. I run a [business type] called [business name] in [city, state]. My current primary Google Business Profile category is [current category].
Review all available Google Business Profile categories for my industry and give me:
1. The single best primary category I should be using and why
2. Up to 9 secondary categories ranked by relevance
3. Any categories my competitors are likely using that I might be missing
4. The specific keywords each category helps me rank for
Format your response as a clear list I can implement today.
Run this for every location you serve. Different cities, different competitive landscapes, sometimes different optimal categories. The Claude Chrome extension lets you pull live competitor GBP data while running this prompt — compare their category selections against yours in real time.
Pro Move
After running this prompt, use Semrush Local to verify how your new category selection affects your local pack rankings within 2–3 weeks. Track before and after.
Prompt 2: The Competitor Review Analysis
Your competitors' reviews are a goldmine of customer language, objection patterns, and service gaps. This prompt turns that goldmine into a content and positioning strategy.
I am going to paste in 20–30 Google reviews from my top local competitors in [business type] in [city]. Read them carefully and give me:
1. The top 5 things customers love most (exact phrases they use)
2. The top 5 complaints or unmet expectations
3. Service gaps no one in this market seems to be solving well
4. The emotional language customers use when they are thrilled vs. disappointed
5. 3 positioning angles I could use to differentiate my business based on what the market actually wants
[Paste competitor reviews here]
The output from this prompt feeds your website copy, your review response templates, and your Google Posts strategy. It is essentially free market research that most businesses never do.
Did You Know?
BrightLocal's research shows that businesses with responses to their reviews earn 35% more clicks than those that don't respond. The review response is not just reputation management — it is an SEO signal Google factors into local ranking.
Prompt 3: The Local Content Cluster Builder
Most local businesses have one city page. Maybe two. What they need is a full content cluster targeting every neighborhood, service variation, and long-tail query in their market. This prompt builds that blueprint in minutes.
I own a [business type] serving [primary city] and the surrounding area including [list nearby cities/neighborhoods]. My core services are [list services].
Build me a complete local SEO content cluster including:
1. A pillar page topic for each of my 3 main services
2. 5 supporting blog posts for each pillar (15 total) targeting long-tail local queries
3. 1 city/neighborhood landing page template outline for each location I serve
4. The exact H1 and meta description for each page
5. Internal linking structure connecting all pages
Prioritize topics with buying intent over informational topics. Format everything as a clear content calendar I can hand to a writer.
Use Ahrefs Keywords Explorer to validate the search volume on each topic before assigning writing resources. Cut anything under 50 monthly searches in your market unless it is extremely high commercial intent.
Prompt 4: The Schema Markup Generator
Schema markup is one of the most consistently underused local SEO tools. It tells Google exactly what your business is, what it offers, where it operates, and how customers can reach you. Most local business websites have none of it. This prompt fixes that in minutes.
Generate complete JSON-LD schema markup for my local business:
Business name: [name]
Business type: [type, e.g. Plumber, HVAC Contractor, Dentist]
Address: [full address]
Phone: [phone]
Website: [URL]
Hours: [hours for each day]
Services: [list main services]
Service area: [cities/zip codes you serve]
Pricing range: [$ / $$ / $$$ / $$$$]
Founded: [year]
Social profiles: [URLs]
Include: LocalBusiness schema, Service schema for each service, FAQPage schema with 5 relevant Q&As, and BreadcrumbList schema. Format as clean, valid JSON-LD ready to paste into my website's head tag.
Did You Know?
Pages with LocalBusiness schema markup are significantly more likely to appear in Google's AI Overviews and Knowledge Panels. In 2026, schema is not just an SEO signal — it is how AI tools understand and describe your business to users who never click through to your site.
Prompt 5: The Review Generation System
Consistent review volume is one of the strongest local ranking signals there is. The problem is not that customers do not want to leave reviews — it is that no one makes it easy or asks at the right moment. This prompt builds the whole system.
Build me a complete review generation system for my [business type] in [city]. Include:
1. A 3-message SMS sequence to send after job completion (Days 1, 3, and 7)
2. An email sequence with the same timing and different copy
3. An in-person script my technicians/staff can use at the end of every appointment
4. A QR code landing page copy that links to my Google review page
5. A response template for: 5-star reviews, 4-star reviews, 3-star and below reviews
6. The exact Google review link URL format I should use
Tone: friendly, direct, not pushy. Every message should feel personal, not automated.
The math on this is straightforward. A business that asks every customer through two channels captures dramatically more reviews than one that relies on customers to do it unprompted. Over a year, that gap in review velocity compounds into a significant ranking advantage.
Prompt 6: The Local Link Building Outreach Plan
Backlinks from locally relevant websites still move local rankings. Chambers of commerce, local news sites, neighborhood blogs, industry associations, sponsorship pages — these links signal to Google that your business is genuinely embedded in the community. This prompt finds them and writes the outreach.
I run a [business type] in [city, state]. Help me build a local link acquisition plan.
First, list 20 types of locally relevant websites that would be appropriate link targets for my business (chambers, associations, local blogs, news sites, directories, sponsorship pages, etc.).
Then write:
1. A cold outreach email for each of 3 different link types (sponsorship request, expert quote contribution, resource page inclusion)
2. A follow-up email for each
3. A list of 10 specific local organizations in [city] I should target first
4. The exact anchor text I should request or suggest for each link type
Keep every email under 150 words. Make them sound like they are from a real local business owner, not a marketing agency.
Did You Know?
According to Moz's Local Search Ranking Factors, link signals remain one of the top five ranking factors for local pack placement. A single link from a locally trusted domain can move you more than weeks of on-page optimization.
Putting It Together
These six prompts, used consistently, form a near-complete local SEO program. The tools that power the research layer — Ahrefs for keyword and backlink data, Semrush for competitive intelligence, the Claude Chrome extension for live browsing workflows — are what separate implementation from guesswork.
Most businesses will run one prompt, get impressive output, and then do nothing with it. Do not be that business. The value is in execution, not in the prompt.
Run one this week. If you want help building the full system for your business, reach out to the Woodside team. We do this work every day across a thousand different local markets and can usually spot your highest-leverage opportunity in a single audit.
Joey Rahimi is the founder of Woodside Ventures and Aiken House. He has marketed over 1,000 local service businesses across trades including roofing, HVAC, plumbing, dentistry, law, and more.
Authored by
Joey Rahimi
Joey Rahmi is many things – a writer, a mentor, an investor, a leader – but first and foremost, he’s an entrepreneur. Since launching his first company in a Carnegie Mellon University dorm room while pursuing a BS in Entrepreneurship, Joey has helped 20+ companies go from ideas scribbled down on napkins or floating around a would-be founder’s head to real-world success stories.
Read MoreReviwed by
Jeff Hennion
Jeff Hennion is an e-commerce and digital marketing specialist rewriting the rules of the client/agency relationship.
Read MorePublished
June 4, 2026
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Updated
June 5, 2026
