The local SEO playbook
Local SEO Playbook: 10 Plays Your Agent Runs to Get You Found and Called
This is the local SEO playbook I ran by hand for clients like Clearly and MTS Moving, the work SEO specialists bill hours for: fast pages, the words people search, the details Google and AI assistants read, a page for every service and town, and proof of which searches bring calls. Your WebCore agent runs it now, while you run the business.
By Rigo Guadrón, founder of WebCore November 2, 2026
The basics run on every plan, including the free trial. SEO Lighthouse and Ghost-Writer are included from Starter.
Why most local websites never get found
That isn't a design problem. It's what happens when SEO is a line item at launch and nobody touches the site again. The plays below are the work that should happen on every page, every month, and almost never does.
The 10 plays in our local SEO playbook
Some run on every publish, on every plan. Some run when you ask. Each card says which.
1. Make every page fast on a phone
Google judges speed by three numbers: how long your main content takes to show, how much the page jumps while it loads, and how fast it answers a tap. Your agent's Performance Lighthouse measures all three on every page and makes the changes the evidence supports, like loading your main image first. Tracking scripts wait for the visitor's first touch, so they never slow the first screen.
2. Give Google and AI assistants your words, not a blank page
Many modern sites send an empty page and build the words with JavaScript. Vercel's December 2024 study of AI crawlers found that none of the major ones run JavaScript, so they see nothing. Every WebCore publish writes a ready-to-read copy of each page. Our home page hands a crawler 1,471 words before any code runs.
3. Put a real title and description on every page
The title is the blue line in Google, and the description is the reason to click it. Every publish checks each page for a title, a description and a share preview, and fills in anything missing from the page's own words, so a link looks right in search results and in a text message.
4. Tell Google what each page is
Structured data is the label search engines read: this is the business, this is a guide, these are questions with answers. Every publish adds markup that matches what each page really is, and never dresses a blog post up as something for sale. With SEO Lighthouse, your agent also keeps the code for Google's Rich Results test, so you can check each page yourself.
5. Hand crawlers a map of the whole site
A sitemap lists every page, robots.txt points crawlers to it, and llms.txt sums up your business in plain words for AI assistants. All three are rewritten on every publish, so a page you add today is on the map the day it goes live. Ours lists 97 pages.
6. Find the searches that turn into calls
Ask your agent what people in your area search for, and it researches the words they really use, the way someone types “furnace repair Guelph” at ten at night. It saves the ones worth chasing, so every page and article aims at a search that can end in a call.
7. Know who you're up against
Ask who ranks above you, and your agent finds and checks your real competitors, the keywords they win and the angles they use. Nothing it finds is saved until you approve it.
8. Build a page for every service and every town
One page that lists everything ranks for nothing in particular. The playbook gives each service its own page and each town you serve its own page, written for the person searching it. Ask for “a page for furnace repair in Guelph” and your agent builds it, links it from your site and adds it to your sitemap when you publish.
9. Answer the questions people ask before they call
Ghost-Writer, the writing side of your agent, interviews you one question at a time, locks a keyword before it writes, and turns your answers into articles that sound like you. Each one opens with a short answer and ends with a FAQ, the format AI assistants quote, and nothing publishes below 90 out of 100. When the next article is due, your agent reminds you.
10. Count the calls, not just the clicks
What the playbook changes on a real site
On the left, the typical site in our Web Index. On the right, webcore.pro, which runs the same plays your agent runs.
A typical local site
- 8.3 seconds to show its headline on a phone, the Web Index median
- About half give Google no structured business details
- SEO done once, at launch, then left alone
- One services page trying to rank for every job
- Leads in an inbox, with no idea which search sent them
A site running the playbook
- 94 out of 100 on Google's mobile speed test, for our home page on October 4, 2026
- Markup on every page that matches what the page is
- Sitemap, robots.txt and llms.txt rewritten on every publish, with 97 pages listed today
- A page for every service and every town
- Every lead in Pipeline, with where it came from
Why I turned my playbook into an agent
What it cost was hours. Every play needed a specialist and a stack of paid tools, so the full playbook only reached companies with a real budget. Most trades and clinics got a website at launch and nothing after it.
The playbook worked. The hours were the problem.
So I built WebCore to run it: the same plays, on your site, from $99 a month, and nothing goes live until you publish.
Three businesses, one playbook
What owners ask for, and what the agent does with it.
A plumber in Cambridge
Asks for a page about emergency drain cleaning. The agent checks what people nearby search, builds the page with the town in the title, adds markup that says what it is, and lists it in the sitemap at the next publish. Every form and chat lead from that page lands in Pipeline.
A dental clinic in Kitchener
Asks for an article on what dental implants cost. Ghost-Writer interviews the dentist about real cases, writes it with a short answer at the top and a FAQ at the end, and won't publish it below 90 out of 100. Patients get a straight answer, and AI assistants get something to quote.
A moving company in Ontario
What each plan runs
Every plan, including the free trial, runs plays 2 to 5 on every publish. New pages when you ask (play 8) and your Pipeline (play 10) come with every plan too.
SEO Lighthouse adds the speed work (play 1), your agent's full SEO checks with Rich Results test code, and keyword and competitor research (plays 6 and 7). Ghost-Writer runs play 9.
Agencies run this playbook too
Local SEO playbook questions
What is a local SEO playbook?
It's the set of plays that gets a local business found when people nearby search for what it does: fast pages, clear words, structured data, a page for each service and town, articles that answer real questions, and tracking that shows which searches bring calls.
How long does local SEO take to work?
Fixes to speed and structure count once Google crawls your pages again, which can take days or weeks. New pages and articles usually take a few months to climb. Anyone who promises page one next week is guessing.
Can you guarantee rankings?
No, and nobody honest can. The playbook makes your site fast, readable and complete, which is the part anyone can control, and Pipeline shows you what it brings in.
Do I need to know SEO to use it?
No. You tell your agent about your business and approve what it suggests. It explains every change in plain words, and nothing goes live until you publish.
Will it work on my current website?
Is this the same as SEO Lighthouse?
SEO Lighthouse covers the technical plays: speed, readable pages, titles, structured data and the sitemap. The playbook adds the research, the pages, the articles and the tracking around them, so the technical work has something to rank.
What about my Google Business Profile?
How much does the playbook cost?
The publish plays run on every plan, from $99 a month. SEO Lighthouse and Ghost-Writer are included from Starter at $299 a month, or $50 a month each on Essential.
- The local SEO checklist
- How to rank in Google Maps
- SEO or Google Ads first?
- How Ghost-Writer writes
Let your agent run the playbook
Name your agent and build your site. The first plays run the first time you publish.