Local Reporting Skill — Performance Reports That Tell the Full Story

A spreadsheet showing “GBP views increased 23%” doesn’t answer the question clients actually care about: “Is this working?” The number needs context — what were views last month, what’s the trend over 6 months, how does this compare to competitors, and most importantly, what does this mean for phone calls and appointments?

The local-reporting skill builds comprehensive local SEO performance reports that synthesize data from multiple sources into client-ready narratives. Not data dumps — reports that connect metric movement to business outcomes and provide clear context for what the numbers mean.

What This Skill Does

The local-reporting skill enables Claude to pull performance data across all relevant local SEO metrics, synthesize trends into narrative explanations rather than raw numbers, identify what moved and why, connect metrics to business outcomes (calls, direction requests, website visits), generate month-over-month and quarter-over-quarter comparisons, format output as client-ready reports, and roll up multi-location data for portfolio reporting.

Prompt: "Build a monthly local SEO report for Valley Plumbing for March 2025.
Pull GBP performance data, show ranking trend, review metrics, and write
an executive summary for the client."

Skills fired: dispatch → local-reporting + localseodata-tool
Data pulled: local_audit, geogrid_scan, review_velocity, gbp_insights

Output:
MONTHLY LOCAL SEO REPORT: Valley Plumbing
March 2025

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Valley Plumbing's local visibility improved across all tracked metrics
in March. Map pack visibility expanded from 62% to 71% of the service
area, driven by improved ranking in North Phoenix zip codes. GBP-driven
calls increased 18% (127 vs. 107 in February), validating the review
generation campaign launched in January. One area requiring attention:
review response rate dropped to 67% as volume increased — recommend
dedicating time to catch up on responses.

GBP PERFORMANCE
                    | March    | February | Change
Search views        | 2,847    | 2,412    | +18%
Map views          | 1,923    | 1,651    | +16%
Direction requests | 89       | 76       | +17%
Phone calls        | 127      | 107      | +18%
Website clicks     | 234      | 198      | +18%

RANKING TREND (ARP)
                    | March | February | January | Trend
Average Rank        | 3.2   | 3.8      | 4.1     | ↑ Improving
Service Area Coverage | 71%  | 62%      | 58%     | ↑ Expanding

REVIEW METRICS
                    | March | February
New reviews         | 14    | 11
Average rating      | 4.9   | 4.8
Total reviews       | 247   | 233
Response rate       | 67%   | 89% ⚠

NEXT MONTH PRIORITIES
1. Respond to 11 unanswered reviews to restore response rate
2. Continue review generation campaign
3. Add photos (last upload: 6 weeks ago)

The Metrics That Matter (And What They Actually Mean)

Local SEO has many metrics. Not all of them matter equally, and raw numbers without context mislead more than they inform. The skill reports on metrics that connect to business outcomes.

GBP Discovery vs. Direct Searches: Discovery searches (“plumber near me”) indicate how well you’re capturing new customers. Direct searches (your business name) indicate brand awareness. A healthy business has both, but discovery search growth usually matters more for customer acquisition.

GBP Actions — The Conversion Metrics: Views are vanity; actions are value. Phone calls, direction requests, website clicks, and booking clicks represent actual customer behavior. These are the metrics that connect to revenue. The skill prioritizes action metrics over impression metrics.

Map Pack Ranking (Geogrid Metrics): Average Rank Position (ARP) tells you where you typically appear across your service area. Share of Local Voice (SoLV) tells you how much of the map pack visibility you own. A business ranking #1 in some areas and #10 in others might have an ARP of 4 — the number hides geographic variation that geogrid analysis reveals.

Review Velocity and Rating Trend: Review count alone is a point-in-time metric. Velocity — how many reviews you’re getting per month — shows momentum. Rating trend shows whether recent reviews are improving or declining your average. A 4.6 rating with 15 reviews/month is healthier than a 4.8 rating with 2 reviews/month.

Citation Consistency Score: The percentage of major citation sources with accurate, consistent NAP information. A declining score indicates new inconsistencies appearing — often from aggregator data corruption.

AI Visibility Score: Emerging metric tracking whether your business appears in AI-generated recommendations (ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity). Early indicator of future traffic sources.

Building a Monthly Report with Claude

The reporting skill structures monthly reports for clarity and actionability:

Executive Summary (3-5 sentences): What happened this month in plain language. The client should understand performance after reading only this section.

GBP Performance Table: Month-over-month comparison of key metrics with percentage changes. Visual indicators (↑↓) make trends immediately clear.

Ranking Trend: ARP and SoLV over time, with geographic notes about where ranking improved or declined.

Review Metrics: New reviews, rating, total count, and response rate. Response rate is a leading indicator — declining response rate predicts declining engagement.

Competitive Context: Where appropriate, how metrics compare to key competitors. “Your review velocity of 15/month exceeds competitor average of 8/month.”

Next Month Priorities: Specific, actionable items based on what the data shows. Not generic recommendations — items derived from this month’s performance.

The skill pulls data from LocalSEOData endpoints (local_audit, geogrid_scan, review_velocity) and synthesizes it into this structure automatically.

The Narrative Layer: Turning Data Into Insight

Raw metrics don’t tell a story. A 23% increase in GBP calls could be excellent news or merely adequate, depending on context. The skill generates narrative that provides meaning:

Baseline comparison: “GBP calls increased 23% month-over-month and are now 67% higher than the baseline established at engagement start.”

Trend identification: “This is the third consecutive month of call volume growth, indicating sustained campaign momentum.”

Anomaly explanation: “The spike in direction requests on March 15-17 coincided with your feature in the Arizona Republic. PR-driven visibility contributed an estimated 35 incremental direction requests.”

Business outcome translation: “Based on your reported $450 average job value, the 20-call increase represents approximately $9,000 in additional monthly revenue potential.”

The narrative layer transforms reports from data validation (“here’s what we measured”) to business intelligence (“here’s what it means for your business”).

Multi-Location Portfolio Reporting

Agencies managing multiple locations need two report levels: individual location performance and portfolio rollup.

Individual location reports follow the standard structure — each location gets its own complete report with executive summary, metrics, and priorities.

Portfolio rollup aggregates across locations:

PORTFOLIO SUMMARY: [Agency Name] March 2025
Locations managed: 47

PORTFOLIO METRICS
Total GBP calls across portfolio: 3,847 (+12% MoM)
Average location ARP: 3.4 (improved from 3.9)
Locations with ARP < 3: 28 (up from 23)
Locations needing attention: 6

TOP PERFORMERS
1. Downtown Phoenix — 47% call increase, ARP improved to 1.8
2. Scottsdale — 34% call increase, 23 new reviews
3. Tempe — 28% call increase, expanded to 89% service area coverage

ATTENTION NEEDED
1. Mesa — Review response rate dropped to 34%, calls declining
2. Chandler — New competitor entered top 3, ranking dropped
3. Gilbert — Citation inconsistency detected, NAP correction needed

PORTFOLIO TRENDS
- Review velocity improving across 38/47 locations
- AI visibility established for 12 locations (up from 8)
- Citation health stable at 94% average

Portfolio reporting identifies patterns across locations, surfaces outliers requiring attention, and demonstrates aggregate value to agency clients or franchise leadership.

ROI Reporting and Revenue Attribution

The ultimate reporting question: what’s the return on this investment? ROI reporting connects local SEO metrics to revenue estimates.

Attribution model: GBP actions (calls, direction requests) × conversion rate × average job value = attributed revenue.

ROI ATTRIBUTION: March 2025

GBP-driven calls: 127
Estimated conversion rate: 35% (industry benchmark)
Estimated jobs from GBP: 44
Average job value: $450

Estimated GBP-attributed revenue: $19,800

Monthly investment: $1,500
Estimated ROI: 13.2x

Year-to-date GBP-attributed revenue: $52,400
Year-to-date investment: $4,500
YTD ROI: 11.6x

Revenue attribution caveats: These are estimates. Not all calls convert, not all jobs are average value, and not all conversions are solely attributable to local SEO. The skill presents estimates as estimates, with assumptions stated.

Trend value: Even if absolute numbers are approximate, trends are meaningful. If attributed revenue increased 25% quarter-over-quarter, the campaign is working regardless of exact dollar accuracy.

ROI reporting justifies engagement continuation and supports budget discussions with clear business-outcome framing.

Get Started

For monthly performance reports:

Build a monthly local SEO report for [Business Name] for [Month].
Include GBP performance, ranking trend, review metrics, and write
an executive summary explaining what the numbers mean.

For portfolio rollup:

Create a portfolio summary report for [Agency Name] covering all
[number] managed locations. Identify top performers, locations
needing attention, and portfolio-wide trends.

For ROI reporting:

Add ROI attribution to this report using a [conversion rate]%
estimated conversion rate and $[amount] average job value.

Claude returns client-ready reports that tell the story behind the numbers, connecting local SEO metrics to business outcomes that clients understand and value.

Learn More

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