Local SEO report template: what to include (2026 + copy-paste)
A local SEO report has to prove something a general SEO report never touches: that the business is winning the searches that happen within a few miles of its front door. Organic clicks and keyword position still matter, but they miss the part of local search that actually drives calls and walk-ins, the Google Business Profile and the map pack. This piece covers what a local SEO report template needs that a national one doesn't, gives you a copy-paste markdown skeleton, and lists the tools that fill each section.
What a local SEO report needs that a general one doesn't
A local SEO report tracks five things a general SEO report ignores: Google Business Profile performance, map-pack (local pack) rankings, citation consistency, review velocity and rating, and local landing-page performance. A national SEO report can live entirely inside Google Search Console and a rank tracker. A local report can't, because the local pack is a separate surface with its own ranking signals and its own analytics, and Search Console doesn't show map-pack visibility at all.
Google states plainly that local ranking is built on three signals: relevance, distance, and prominence, where prominence is driven partly by review count and links (Google Business Profile Help). None of those three map cleanly onto the clicks-and-position view a general report uses. That gap is the whole reason a dedicated local template exists.
The weighting backs this up. In Whitespark's 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors survey of expert local SEOs, Google Business Profile signals account for about 32% of local pack ranking weight, review signals around 20%, and on-page SEO roughly 19% (Whitespark). A report that only shows on-page and organic position is reporting on a fifth of what moves the client's rankings.
The five sections a local SEO report must have
Every local SEO report should be built around the five local signals, one section each, in the order the client cares about them. Below is what each section proves and where the data comes from.
| Section | What it proves | Primary source |
|---|---|---|
| Google Business Profile | Calls, direction requests, profile views | GBP performance / API |
| Map-pack rankings | Visibility in the 3-pack by keyword + area | Local Falcon, BrightLocal |
| Citation consistency | NAP is identical across directories | Whitespark, BrightLocal, Moz |
| Reviews | New reviews, average rating, response rate | GBP, review platform |
| Local landing pages | Which city/service pages earn organic traffic | GSC + GA4 |
Google Business Profile performance
The Google Business Profile section reports the actions customers took directly from the profile: calls, direction requests, website clicks, and profile views. These are the closest thing local SEO has to a conversion number, because a direction request or a phone tap is a person deciding to visit or call. Pull them from the profile's performance view or the API, and compare month over month and year over year to strip out seasonality.
Report the actions, not just the impressions. "Profile views up 30%" is weak on its own. "Calls from the profile up 41% month over month, direction requests up 18%" tells the client the profile is producing demand, not just being seen.
Map-pack (local pack) rankings
Map-pack rankings measure where the business appears in Google's local 3-pack for target keywords, and they change with the searcher's physical location. This is the single biggest thing a general SEO report gets wrong about local: there is no one "rank" for "plumber near me." The business might sit at position 1 from downtown and fall off the pack three miles away. A single rank-tracker number hides that entirely.
Report map-pack visibility as a grid, not a number. Grid tools like Local Falcon check your rank from dozens of points across the service area and return an average map rank plus a heat map. Put the average rank per keyword in the report and link the heat map so the client can see the geographic edges where they lose.
Citation consistency
Citation consistency measures whether the business name, address, and phone number (NAP) are identical everywhere they appear online. Inconsistent NAP, an old suite number on Yelp, a former phone number in a directory, sends conflicting signals to Google and erodes prominence. The report should show a simple count: total citations found, how many are consistent, how many need fixing, and which ones you corrected this month.
This is a section clients rarely see elsewhere and always appreciate, because it is concrete cleanup work with a visible before and after. A citation audit from Whitespark, BrightLocal, or Moz Local gives you the raw list to build the row from.
Review velocity and rating
The reviews section tracks new reviews earned this month, the running average star rating, and the percentage of reviews the business replied to. Velocity matters as much as volume. A steady drip of reviews reads as genuine, and consumers are skeptical of sudden spikes. BrightLocal's 2024 Local Consumer Review Survey found that 75% of consumers "always" or "regularly" read online reviews, and that 88% would use a business that replies to all of its reviews versus far fewer for a business that ignores them (BrightLocal).
So report the response rate as a first-class metric, not a footnote. If the client is at a 60% reply rate, that's a lever you can pull next month, and the survey number is the argument for pulling it.
Local landing-page performance
The local landing-page section shows which city and service pages earned organic traffic and conversions, from Search Console and GA4. This is the part that overlaps with a general SEO report, but the cut is different: you group by location and service page, not by head keyword. A "furnace repair in Tucson" page and a "furnace repair in Mesa" page are separate rows, so the client sees which markets their content is winning.
This section is also where a local report connects back to the standard monthly workflow. The mechanics of pulling GSC and GA4, writing commentary on anything that moved more than 10%, and surfacing wins over activity are the same as any client report. Our guide to making an SEO report for a client covers that workflow in full, and the general SEO client report template is the base this local version extends.
A copy-paste local SEO report template
This is a working local SEO report skeleton in markdown: the five local sections plus a summary and a next-month plan, with placeholders you fill from your data pulls. Copy it, rename the client, and reuse the same structure every month so the client's eye learns where to look.
# {Business name}: Local SEO report, {Month YYYY}
## Executive summary
- Headline: calls + direction requests from GBP up X% MoM
- Map-pack: now in the 3-pack for {N} of {M} tracked keywords
- Reviews: +{N} new, {rating} avg, {X}% response rate
- Next: {1-2 sentence preview}
## Google Business Profile
| Action | This month | Last month | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calls | ... | ... | ... |
| Direction requests | ... | ... | ... |
| Website clicks | ... | ... | ... |
| Profile / search views | ... | ... | ... |
## Map-pack rankings (average map rank)
| Keyword | Avg map rank | Last month | In 3-pack? |
|---|---|---|---|
| {keyword + city} | ... | ... | Yes / No |
| ... | ... | ... | ... |
Heat map: {link to grid scan}
## Citation consistency
- Total citations found: {N}
- Consistent: {N} Needs fix: {N}
- Fixed this month: {list}
## Reviews
| Metric | This month | Last month |
|---|---|---|
| New reviews | ... | ... |
| Average rating | ... | ... |
| Response rate | ... | ... |
## Local landing pages
| Page | Clicks | Conversions | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| /service-city | ... | ... | ... |
| ... | ... | ... | ... |
## Next month
1. {specific action}
2. {specific action}
3. {specific action}
Keep the summary at the top and the plan at the bottom. The decision-maker reads the four summary bullets; the marketing manager reads the tables; you use the next-month section as your own planning artefact.
Tools that fill each section
Most local SEO reports pull from four or five tools, one or two per section, and the right stack depends on how many locations you report on. The table below maps the common tools to the section they feed.
| Tool | Section it fills | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Business Profile | GBP actions, reviews | Free | Native performance view + API |
| Local Falcon | Map-pack grid rankings | From ~$25/mo | Geo-grid rank + heat maps |
| BrightLocal | Citations, rankings, reviews | From ~$39/mo | All-in-one local suite |
| Whitespark | Citation audit + building | From ~$25/mo | Strong citation data |
| GSC + GA4 | Local landing pages | Free | Organic clicks + conversions |
| Anchorify | Delivering the report | Free during beta | Markdown file to a shareable URL |
An all-in-one suite like BrightLocal covers most rows if you report on many locations. A solo consultant with a handful of local clients can run on the free tools plus a grid tracker and skip the suite. Whichever stack you pick, the report itself is just a markdown file, which is what makes the last row work.
How often to send a local SEO report
A local SEO report runs on a monthly cadence for almost every retained engagement, the same as general SEO, with the map-pack grid being the one thing worth a mid-month glance. Local rankings move with proximity and reviews rather than big algorithm swings, so weekly local reports rarely have enough new signal to justify the effort. The cadence-and-format question, weekly snapshot versus monthly report versus quarterly review, and which delivery format fits each, is covered in our guide to SEO report frequency and format.
If the client also runs a location-farming play, seeding many nearby city pages, the monthly local report pairs naturally with a geo-farm monthly update template that tracks page-by-page progress across the target area. Realtors run the same pattern at neighborhood level, which is why the Anchorify for realtor farming workflow uses the same stable-URL delivery.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should a local SEO report include?
A local SEO report should include five sections a general report skips: Google Business Profile actions (calls, direction requests, views), map-pack rankings by keyword and area, citation consistency, review velocity and rating with response rate, and local landing-page performance. Wrap those in an executive summary at the top and a next-month plan at the bottom, and keep every table month-over-month and year-over-year comparable.
How do I report on local pack rankings?
Report local pack rankings as an average map rank plus a heat map, not a single position number. Because local rankings change with the searcher's location, a grid tool like Local Falcon or BrightLocal checks your rank from many points across the service area and returns an average, so the client sees both where they win and the geographic edges where they fall out of the 3-pack. Put the average per keyword in the table and link the full grid scan.
How is a local SEO report different from a regular SEO report?
A local SEO report adds Google Business Profile performance, map-pack visibility, citation consistency, and review tracking, none of which appear in Search Console or a standard rank tracker. A general report can live inside GSC, GA4, and a keyword tracker; a local report has to pull from the profile and a geo-grid tool as well, because the local pack is a separate ranking surface with its own signals of relevance, distance, and prominence.
How do I deliver a local SEO report to a client?
Deliver a local SEO report as a public URL rather than a PDF or a permission-gated doc, so the map-pack heat map and tables stay live and the same link works every month. Write the report as a markdown file, publish it once, and re-run the command next cycle to update the same address. That skips the PDF re-export every time you fix a number and skips the sharing-permissions step a Google Doc forces on you.
Sources
- Google Business Profile Help, Tips to improve your local ranking on Google: relevance, distance, prominence.
- Whitespark 2026 Local Search Ranking Factors: GBP ~32%, reviews ~20%, on-page ~19% of local pack weight.
- BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey 2024: 75% read reviews regularly; 88% favour businesses that reply to all reviews.
Anchorify turns any markdown file into a shareable URL with one command. Write your local SEO report as a .md file, run anchorify report.md, and send the client a link that shows the latest map-pack grid and review numbers every month. It's free during beta, sign in at anchorify.io.