How to Do a GBP Audit with Claude (Step-by-Step with Real Output)

A plumbing company in Buffalo has been in business for 12 years. They have a Google Business Profile. They’re not showing up in the top 3 for “emergency plumber Buffalo” despite being closer to downtown than two of the businesses that are ranking. The owner knows something is wrong but doesn’t know what — and manually comparing their profile to competitors across every attribute would take hours they don’t have.

This is the GBP audit workflow: a single prompt to Claude that returns a complete profile analysis, competitive comparison, and prioritized action list. What would take 2-3 hours of manual profile inspection and spreadsheet work returns in minutes with specific, actionable findings.

What You’ll Need

Before running a GBP audit, confirm your setup: LocalSEOSkills installed (Claude Code or Claude.ai upload), LocalSEOData MCP connection configured with API key. You’ll also need the business information: business name, address (or Google Place ID if you have it), the target keyword(s) you want to rank for, and the target city/location.

The Scenario

You manage local SEO for Reliable Plumbing Services at 847 Main Street, Buffalo NY. They’re targeting “emergency plumber Buffalo” but they’re not appearing in the local 3-pack. Before making recommendations, you need to understand what’s wrong with their profile and how it compares to what’s currently ranking.

The Prompt

Audit the Google Business Profile for Reliable Plumbing Services at 847 Main Street,
Buffalo NY. They're targeting "emergency plumber Buffalo" and not ranking in the top 3.
Compare their profile to the top 3 competitors in the local pack, give me a completeness
score, and prioritize the top 7 fixes.

This prompt includes all necessary information: business identifier, address, target keyword, and the competitive context you want.

What Happens When You Hit Enter

The dispatch skill reads the prompt, identifies “audit” + “Google Business Profile” + competitive comparison intent, and routes to gbp-optimization + localseodata-tool.

LocalSEOData endpoints get called in sequence:

  1. business_profile returns the full GBP data for Reliable Plumbing: current categories, description, attributes, photos, Q&A, hours, services listed
  2. profile_health returns a completeness score based on how many fields are optimized versus available
  3. local_pack for “emergency plumber Buffalo” returns the three businesses currently in positions 1-3
  4. business_profile × 3 pulls each competitor’s profile data for comparison

Claude then synthesizes: evaluating the target profile against completeness benchmarks, comparing each field to competitor profiles, and ranking findings by likely ranking impact.

Reading the Output

The audit returns a structured analysis with several sections.

Completeness Score

GBP Audit: Reliable Plumbing Services
Overall Completeness Score: 64/100

Breakdown:
- Basic Info: 100% (name, address, phone, hours all complete)
- Categories: 47% (primary only, missing secondary categories)
- Attributes: 22% (5 of 23 available attributes completed)
- Photos: 28% (4 photos, competitor average is 28)
- Services: 40% (some services listed, major gaps)
- Description: 65% (present but not optimized for target keywords)
- Q&A: 0% (no Q&A content)
- Posts: 15% (last post 4 months ago)

A 64% score means significant optimization opportunity. Competitors currently ranking average 83% completeness. The gap is clear.

Category Audit

CATEGORY AUDIT
Primary category: "Plumber" ✓
  Matches 2 of 3 competitors; third uses "Emergency Plumber" as primary

Secondary categories: 0 of 6 possible
  Missing: "Emergency Plumber", "Drain Cleaning Service", "Water Heater Repair",
          "Sewer Line Contractor", "Bathroom Remodeler", "Gas Installation Service"

Competitor comparison:
  Competitor A: 6 secondary categories
  Competitor B: 5 secondary categories
  Competitor C: 4 secondary categories
  Reliable Plumbing: 0 secondary categories

Impact: HIGH
The keyword "emergency plumber Buffalo" matches the "Emergency Plumber" category.
Without this secondary category, Google has weaker relevance signals connecting
this profile to emergency plumber queries.

Category gaps are the highest-leverage findings. Adding secondary categories takes minutes and directly affects query eligibility.

Attribute Gaps

ATTRIBUTES
Completed: 5 of 23 available
  ✓ Credit cards accepted
  ✓ Wheelchair accessible
  ✓ On-site services
  ✓ Service area verified
  ✓ Years in business

Missing high-value attributes:
  ✗ 24/7 availability (all 3 competitors have this)
  ✗ Emergency service (all 3 competitors have this)
  ✗ Free estimates
  ✗ Licensed
  ✗ Insured
  ✗ Online appointments
  ✗ Phone consultations

Impact: HIGH for emergency-related attributes, MEDIUM for others

For a business targeting “emergency plumber,” missing “24/7 availability” and “Emergency service” attributes is a clear problem. These attributes directly answer the user’s implicit question: “can they help me right now?”

Photo Audit

PHOTO AUDIT
Current photos: 4
  - 1 exterior
  - 3 team photos (dated 2019)

Competitor average: 28 photos

Missing categories:
  - Interior/office (builds trust)
  - Work in progress (demonstrates capability)
  - Completed jobs (social proof)
  - Equipment/vehicles (professionalism signal)
  - Recent team photos (currency signal)

Impact: MEDIUM — photos affect engagement signals and profile completeness score

Photo gaps contribute to the completeness deficit and affect engagement metrics that feed ranking signals.

Competitive Benchmarks

COMPETITIVE COMPARISON
                           Reliable   Comp A   Comp B   Comp C
Reviews                    67         183      142      201
Avg rating                 4.3        4.7      4.5      4.6
Secondary categories       0          6        5        4
Attributes completed       5          18       15       21
Photos                     4          34       22       31
Q&A items                  0          8        5        12
Post recency              4 months   1 week   2 weeks  3 days

The comparison makes gaps concrete. Reliable Plumbing isn’t just “low on reviews” — they have 67 while the average competitor has 175. That specificity drives prioritization.

Prioritizing the Recommendations

The audit output includes a prioritized action list:

PRIORITY ACTION LIST

1. Add "Emergency Plumber" secondary category
   Effort: 5 minutes
   Impact: HIGH — directly matches target keyword

2. Add "24/7 availability" and "Emergency service" attributes
   Effort: 5 minutes
   Impact: HIGH — signals emergency capability

3. Add remaining secondary categories (5 total)
   Effort: 15 minutes
   Impact: HIGH — expands query surface

4. Complete remaining service-relevant attributes
   Effort: 20 minutes
   Impact: MEDIUM-HIGH — improves completeness and trust signals

5. Upload 20+ photos across all categories
   Effort: 60-90 minutes
   Impact: MEDIUM — engagement signal, completeness

6. Create 5-10 Q&A entries for common questions
   Effort: 30 minutes
   Impact: MEDIUM — zero-click conversion, keyword relevance

7. Establish weekly posting schedule
   Effort: ongoing
   Impact: MEDIUM — freshness signal

Quick wins (category and attribute fixes) appear first. These are 15-minute tasks with high impact. Longer-term projects (photo uploads, Q&A creation, posting cadence) follow.

Executing the Fixes in GBP

Category changes: Log into Google Business Profile, go to Edit Profile > Business category. Add the recommended secondary categories. Google may take 1-2 weeks to fully process category changes in ranking calculations.

Attribute updates: Edit Profile > More > Additional features. Toggle on the missing attributes that apply to your business.

Photo uploads: Add photos through the Photos section. Include variety: exterior (multiple angles), interior, team (current photos), work in progress, completed jobs, equipment.

Q&A: In the Q&A section, add and answer common questions proactively. Questions should reflect what customers actually ask: “Do you offer emergency service?” “What areas do you serve?” “Do you provide free estimates?”

Description optimization: Edit the 750-character description to include service terms and location naturally. Don’t keyword-stuff, but ensure the description mentions primary services and service area.

When to Re-Audit

Major GBP changes take time to affect rankings. Category changes may take 1-2 weeks to process. Review velocity changes require ongoing effort before ranking impact appears.

Re-audit timing:

  • 30-45 days after category/attribute changes: enough time for Google to process
  • 60-90 days after photo/Q&A additions: engagement signal stabilization
  • After significant review volume increase: verify prominence signal improvement

Run the same audit prompt with the same target keyword. Compare the new completeness score and competitive position to the baseline.

Taking It Further

The GBP audit is one component of a complete local SEO picture. After implementing GBP fixes:

Run a geogrid scan to see geographic ranking patterns. The GBP audit tells you what’s wrong with the profile; geogrid tells you where the profile is weak geographically.

Run a citation audit to check NAP consistency. Profile completeness won’t help if citations are creating entity confusion.

Check AI visibility to understand presence across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and other AI surfaces.

Each of these workflows uses a similar prompt pattern: describe what you want to analyze, provide business identification, and let Claude route to the appropriate skills.