Local SEO Report: What to Include for Single and Multi-Location Clients

A plumber, a dental practice or a restaurant group does not hire an agency to move a keyword from position 7 to position 4. They want the phone to ring, people to walk in, and more good reviews than the competitor down the road. Yet many a local SEO report still opens with a rankings table and a domain authority score, and the owner skims it looking for the one number that matters to them: did we get more calls?

Multi-location clients add a second problem. A regional manager does not want twelve separate reports. They want to know which branches are winning, which are slipping and why. This guide sets out the sections that answer both needs, using the metrics Google actually provides in Business Profile and Google Analytics, so the report reads like a summary of customer actions rather than an SEO lesson.

What should a local SEO report include?

A useful local SEO report has seven sections, in this order, so the client gets the answer first and the detail after. The order matters as much as the content: owners read the top of page one and stop, so whatever is there has to be the outcome.

1. Summary. Three or four sentences: what happened to calls and visits, what caused it, and what you will do next.
2. Google Business Profile performance. Views, searches, calls, direction requests, website clicks, and bookings or messages where the business uses them.
3. Reviews. Total count, average rating, new reviews this period and how many got a reply.
4. Local rankings by city or area. Priority keywords tracked in the places the client serves.
5. Website conversions from local traffic. Form fills, calls and bookings from visitors who came through the profile or local search.
6. Location comparison. For multi-location clients, one table with every branch side by side.
7. Work done and next steps. What the agency did, and what it will do next month.

This structure is a local version of a full SEO client report. The difference is emphasis: a national ecommerce client cares about organic sessions and revenue, while a local client cares about the profile, the map pack and the phone.

Which Google Business Profile metrics belong in the report?

The metrics to show are the ones in the Business Profile Performance report that match how the client's customers buy. Google notes that only metrics that apply to a business appear, so a salon will not see the same list as a hotel. Use Google's names in the report so the owner can open their own profile and find the same figure. Definitions below follow Google's Business Profile performance help page.

Put calls, direction requests and website clicks at the top as the headline actions, and compare each with the previous period and the same month last year. Seasonal businesses (a garden centre, a ski shop) will look broken on a month-on-month view in the off season, and the year-on-year column prevents a panicked call. A dedicated Google Business Profile reporting section keeps those action metrics, reviews and media on one page instead of screenshots pasted into slides.

Views deserve a caveat in the report itself. Google counts unique visitors, counts each person once a day, and counts only views of the profile, so the figure is often lower than the numbers in Google's own notification emails. One line under the chart saves a confused email.

How do you report reviews without vanity numbers?

Report reviews as four figures: total reviews, average rating, new reviews this period, and the share of new reviews that received a reply. The first two show reputation, the last two show momentum and effort. A business with a 4.8 rating that got two reviews in six months is in a weaker position than the number suggests.

Google's own guidance backs up why this section belongs in the report. Its local ranking help page says replying to reviews shows customers you value their feedback, and that more reviews and positive ratings can help a business's local ranking. Reply rate is not a metric Google calculates for you, so work it out from the reviews list each month and keep the method the same.

Add one qualitative line: a recurring theme from new reviews, good or bad. "Three reviews mentioned slow weekend service" is more useful to an owner than a decimal change in rating. Two quirks are worth knowing before a client asks. Google says replies are checked against its content policies and usually take up to 10 minutes to post, but sometimes up to 30 days. And review availability varies by country, region and business category, so a missing review count is not always an error.

How should local rankings be shown by city or area?

Local rankings should be tracked and reported per city or area the client serves, because the same keyword ranks differently a few kilometres apart. Google's local ranking help page names three main factors: relevance, distance and prominence. Distance alone means a national rank check is meaningless for a dentist; what matters is the result for "dentist near me" in the suburbs the practice actually serves.

Keep the list short: five to fifteen money keywords per location, each with the current position, the change, and the area it was checked from. Group them by service so the owner sees "emergency plumber" and "boiler repair" rather than a wall of terms. Setting up local keyword rank tracking by city or region keeps the check consistent month to month, which matters more than any single position.

How do you connect local visibility to website conversions?

Connect local visibility to revenue by showing what visitors from the profile and local search did on the website: form submissions, booking requests and click-to-call events. A website click in Business Profile only proves someone left the profile. The conversion data shows whether they became a lead.

There is now a native option in Google Analytics. Google's What's new log dates the Business Profile integration to June 8, 2026: a GA4 property can be linked to one or more profiles, which adds a Google Business Profile report collection with interactions, website clicks, calls, directions, messages, bookings and menus. Read the limits on Google's GA4 Business Profile link guide before you rely on it: data covers only the last 6 months, metrics from several linked profiles are summed and cannot be split by location, and the metrics cannot be used in explorations or comparisons. Useful for a single-location client; not enough on its own for a chain.

For the website side, a tagged website link on the profile (UTM parameters such as source and medium) lets you separate profile visits from other organic traffic in GA4 and report their conversions as their own line.

How do you build a local SEO report for multi-location clients?

A multi-location local SEO report needs one comparison table with a row per location and identical columns, placed near the top so the regional manager sees every branch at once. Google makes the raw data easy to collect: Business Profile Manager lets you select several profiles and download their performance data in one spreadsheet to compare locations.

The rate column is the important one. A city-centre branch will always have more views than a suburban one, so raw totals just rank locations by footfall. Actions per 100 views shows which profiles convert attention into calls and visits, and that is where photos, categories, hours and review replies make a difference. Flag the top and bottom two locations in the summary, with one sentence each on why.

Below the table, give each location a short page with its own actions, reviews and rankings, so branch managers can find their section. Keep the same layout every month. Delivered as reports under your brand, the pack looks like the agency's work rather than a tool export, and plans priced by client count make the cost easy to forecast.

What goes in the work done and next steps section?

The work done section lists the concrete changes the agency made and ties each one to a metric the client saw earlier in the report. "Added holiday hours to all six profiles before the long weekend" and "replied to 31 of 34 new reviews" are things an owner understands. "Optimised GBP" is not.

Next steps should be two to four actions with a reason each: add service-area pages for two suburbs where rankings are weak, upload new photos to the branch with the lowest action rate, ask for reviews at the location where new reviews have stalled. Every next step should point back to a number, so next month's report can show whether it worked. Sending the pack as automatic monthly PDF reports means the client gets it on time even in a busy month, with an AI-written summary of the period at the top.

Local SEO Report FAQ

What should a local SEO report include?

A short summary, Google Business Profile performance (views, calls, direction requests, website clicks and bookings where relevant), reviews, local rankings by city or area, website conversions from local traffic, and a list of work done and next steps. Multi-location clients also need a location comparison table.

Why are Business Profile views lower than the numbers in Google's emails?

Google counts views as unique visitors, counts a person only once a day, and counts views of the Business Profile itself rather than every appearance of the business on Google. That makes the Performance report figure lower than some notification counts.

How do I compare locations in a multi-location report?

Download performance data for several profiles at once from Business Profile Manager, then build one table with a row per location and the same columns for each: views, calls, direction requests, website clicks, reviews and rating. Add a rate such as actions per 100 views so busy and quiet locations can be compared fairly.

Can GA4 show Google Business Profile data?

Yes. Since June 8, 2026, a GA4 property can be linked to one or more Business Profiles. It adds a Google Business Profile report collection with interactions, website clicks, calls, directions, messages, bookings and menus, but only for the last 6 months and summed across all linked profiles.

How often should I send a local SEO report?

Monthly suits most local businesses, because the searches data in Business Profile updates once a month and month-on-month comparisons are easy to read. Busy multi-location clients may also want a weekly snapshot of calls and direction requests.