GBP Optimization Skill — Map Pack Visibility with Claude

Category selection is the highest-leverage optimization lever in all of Google Business Profile management. A plumbing company with only “Plumber” as their primary category misses every search for “emergency plumber,” “water heater repair,” and “drain cleaning service” — queries their competitors capture by adding three secondary categories that take sixty seconds to set. The gbp-optimization skill exists because this pattern repeats across every GBP attribute: there’s a right answer, most profiles get it wrong, and knowing what to fix requires expertise that most practitioners either lack or can’t apply consistently across dozens of client profiles.

The gbp-optimization skill equips Claude with the knowledge to audit any Google Business Profile, identify what’s missing or misconfigured, compare the profile against competitors currently winning the local pack, and generate a prioritized action list that tells you exactly what to fix and why.

What This Skill Does

The gbp-optimization skill enables Claude to audit existing GBP profiles against completeness benchmarks, identify category mismatches, flag missing attributes, analyze competitor profiles in the same local pack, and generate optimization recommendations in priority order. The skill doesn’t just check boxes — it understands why each optimization matters and prioritizes based on likely impact.

When you prompt Claude with a GBP optimization question, dispatch routes to the gbp-optimization skill, which then invokes the localseodata-tool to pull live profile data.

Prompt: "Why is Green Valley Plumbing not in the map pack for 'emergency plumber' in Scottsdale?"

Skills fired: dispatch → gbp-optimization + localseodata-tool
Data pulled: business_profile (target business), local_pack (top 3 competitors), profile_health

Output: Completeness score of 67% (competitors average 84%), missing secondary categories
including "Emergency Plumber" which all three competitors have, 4 missing service attributes,
competitor review advantage (competitors: 180-340 reviews, client: 47). Top 5 prioritized fixes
with expected impact estimates.

The output isn’t a raw data dump. Claude synthesizes the data into a structured audit: completeness score with category-level breakdown, specific gaps compared to competitors, and a prioritized action list with estimated impact per fix.

The GBP Ranking Signals Claude Understands

Google’s local pack ranking depends on three primary factors: relevance, prominence, and proximity. The gbp-optimization skill targets the two factors you can influence — relevance and prominence — while helping you interpret how proximity affects your ranking pattern.

Relevance signals tell Google what services you provide and what queries you should appear for. Category selection is the primary relevance signal: your primary category determines your core query eligibility, and secondary categories expand that surface. The business description, services list, and product catalog add keyword-level relevance signals. Attributes like “24/7 availability,” “emergency service,” and specialty identifiers further define what you do.

Prominence signals tell Google how important your business is relative to competitors. Review volume and average rating are the most visible prominence signals. Citation consistency (your NAP matching across directories), website authority, and engagement signals also contribute. A business with 300 reviews averaging 4.8 stars presents more prominence than one with 40 reviews at 4.5 stars.

Proximity is fixed — you can’t move your business closer to searchers. But the skill helps you understand how proximity affects your ranking pattern by connecting to geogrid data. You might rank #1 within half a mile of your address but fall to #8 at two miles. Understanding that pattern helps you prioritize: if proximity is limiting your reach, additional locations or service area optimization might matter more than incremental GBP improvements.

The gbp-optimization skill carries a completeness scoring model that weights each element by its likely impact on local pack ranking. Not all attributes are equal: adding a missing secondary category has more impact than uploading a tenth photo. The scoring model reflects these weights, helping you prioritize fixes that move rankings rather than checking boxes that don’t matter.

How Claude Audits a Google Business Profile

The audit workflow starts with a prompt specifying the business to audit. Claude activates the gbp-optimization skill, which directs data pulls through localseodata-tool.

The business_profile endpoint returns the complete GBP data for the target listing: current categories, description, attributes, photos, posts, Q&A, and services. The profile_health endpoint scores the profile against completeness benchmarks, identifying which elements are present, missing, or suboptimal.

The local_pack endpoint returns the businesses currently ranking in positions 1-3 for the target query and location. This enables competitive benchmarking: Claude can see what categories competitors use, what attributes they’ve completed, and how their profiles differ from the target business.

With this data, Claude applies the gbp-optimization skill’s expertise layer: evaluating category fit, identifying gaps, comparing against competitors, and synthesizing recommendations.

Prompt: "Audit the Google Business Profile for Elite Dental Care at 4521 Main Street,
Denver and tell me what's holding them back from ranking for 'cosmetic dentist Denver'."

Output structure:
- Overall completeness score: 72% (competitor average: 86%)
- Category assessment: Primary "Dentist" is correct but too broad; missing secondary
  categories "Cosmetic Dentist," "Teeth Whitening Service" that competitors have
- Attribute gaps: 8 of 24 applicable attributes incomplete
- Photo analysis: 12 photos (competitors average 28), no team photos, no before/after
- Review comparison: 89 reviews at 4.6 (competitors: 156-234 reviews, 4.7-4.8 average)
- Top 5 priorities with impact estimates and effort levels

Category Strategy: The Highest-Leverage Optimization

Primary category determines what you are in Google’s classification system. It’s the single most important GBP decision. A business with “Marketing Agency” as primary won’t appear for “SEO services” queries even if they do SEO. Selecting the most specific accurate primary category is step one.

Secondary categories expand query eligibility without diluting primary category signal. A law firm might have “Law Firm” as primary with “Personal Injury Attorney,” “Divorce Attorney,” and “Estate Planning Attorney” as secondary categories. Each secondary category creates eligibility for that category’s query set.

The gbp-optimization skill analyzes category selection in two ways. First, it evaluates whether the current categories accurately represent what the business does — mismatched categories create ranking problems. Second, it compares categories against local pack competitors: if every business ranking for your target query has “Emergency Plumber” as a secondary category and you don’t, that’s a clear gap.

Category discovery uses LocalSEOData’s local_pack endpoint. By pulling the categories of businesses currently ranking #1-3, Claude identifies what category configuration is winning. If all top-ranking competitors share a secondary category you lack, adding it is a high-priority action.

Profile Completeness: What Claude Checks

Beyond categories, the gbp-optimization skill evaluates the full profile attribute set.

Attributes communicate specific capabilities and amenities. Service attributes (emergency service, online estimates, free consultations) define what you offer. Identity attributes (LGBTQ+ friendly, women-owned, veteran-owned) connect with specific searchers. Health and safety attributes remain relevant post-pandemic. Payment methods (accepts credit cards, accepts insurance) answer practical questions. Each attribute you complete expands your potential query match and provides information searchers need to convert.

Services and products catalog entries are individually indexable. Each service you list becomes a potential query match. A roofing company with services listed for “roof repair,” “roof replacement,” “gutter installation,” and “roof inspection” matches more queries than one listing only “roofing services.” The skill audits service completeness against the business category, identifying what service entries are missing based on what similar businesses typically offer.

Business description offers 750 characters to explain what makes your business relevant. The skill evaluates description quality: does it include primary service terms? Does it mention the service area? Does it differentiate from competitors? Generic descriptions waste the space.

Photos influence engagement signals and user conversion. Photo count, recency, and category coverage (exterior, interior, team, products, services) all matter. The skill identifies photo gaps: no team photos reduces trust signals, no exterior photos makes the location harder to find, outdated photos suggest a stale profile.

Q&A is both a conversion opportunity and a content surface. Unanswered questions get answered by random users, often incorrectly. The skill identifies unanswered questions and drafts keyword-relevant responses that provide value while adding semantic content to the profile.

What the Output Looks Like

When Claude completes a GBP audit using this skill, the output follows a structured format designed for immediate action.

The completeness score section provides an overall profile score plus breakdown by category: category selection, attributes, description, photos, services, Q&A. Each subsection shows current state and comparison to competitors.

The gap analysis section identifies what’s missing: specific categories competitors have that you don’t, specific attributes incomplete, service entries to add. Each gap includes context on why it matters.

The prioritized action list ranks fixes by impact and effort. High-impact/low-effort items come first — these are your quick wins. High-impact/higher-effort items follow as strategic priorities. Lower-impact items are listed for completeness but aren’t urgent.

Competitor comparison shows how your profile stacks against the businesses currently ranking for your target queries. This makes the gaps concrete: “Competitor A has these 3 secondary categories you lack. Competitor B has 3x your review count. Competitor C has all 24 applicable attributes completed.”

Connecting LocalSEOData

The gbp-optimization skill relies on three primary LocalSEOData endpoints.

The business_profile endpoint returns full GBP data for any listing: categories, description, attributes, hours, photos, posts, services, products, and Q&A. This is the raw data the skill analyzes.

The profile_health endpoint provides a pre-scored assessment of profile completeness, identifying specific gaps and returning a completeness percentage. This saves Claude from calculating completeness from raw data and provides consistent scoring methodology.

The local_pack endpoint returns the businesses currently ranking 1-3 for any query and location. This enables competitive benchmarking: Claude pulls competitor profiles and compares them against the target business to identify what the ranking businesses have that the target lacks.

Get Started

Install LocalSEOSkills through Claude Code or Claude.ai upload, configure your LocalSEOData MCP connection, and run your first GBP audit:

Audit my Google Business Profile for [Business Name] at [Address] and give me the top 5
things to fix to improve my map pack ranking for [primary service keyword] in [city].

Claude will pull your profile data, compare it against competitors, and return a prioritized action list. For ongoing GBP management, the skill supports monitoring: run periodic audits to catch new optimization opportunities as competitors update their profiles and as Google adds new attribute types.

Learn More

To learn what this skill can do for your local SEO workflow, see the skill overview.