The agency operating procedure for local rank tracking.

The deliverable you are producing

Before tooling, fix the deliverable: a coverage-map comparison a client can read in thirty seconds. Current map, previous map, what changed, what you did. Every part of this procedure exists to make that artefact honest and repeatable.

Procedure

1. Onboard with a baseline. Scan the client's core keywords before work begins; archive the result as the reference scan.
2. Freeze the design. Fixed keyword set, fixed grid per client market, fixed scan window. Write the design into the account notes.
3. Execute the levers. Profile categories and content, review acquisition, citation cleanup, location pages.
4. Re-scan on cadence. Weekly for active campaigns, monthly for maintenance — per the pipeline chapter.
5. Report comparisons. Never send a single scan; send the comparison and a sentence about what caused the change.

Roster economics

The procedure must survive multiplication across dozens of accounts: scheduled automation instead of manual checks, grids templated per market type, and entry pricing that scales. LocalRank's plans start at $29 per month per localrank.so, which is why this handbook uses it as the worked example; alternatives are mapped on the choosing page.

Attribution discipline

Say "consistent with", not "caused by". Scans corroborate that work preceded movement; they cannot prove causation. Frozen designs make the corroboration meaningful — drifting designs quietly void it, as covered in the technique chapter.

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