How to Find Local SEO Clients on Google Maps: Start at Position 4
Search one service in one city on Google Maps, skip the top three, and score positions 4 to 10 on six signals. A local SEO prospect list you can build by hand.
Google Maps already shows you which local businesses are close to ranking and what is holding them back. Building a prospect list from it takes six steps:
- Pick one service and one city: Search the way a customer would, such as a service plus the city name.
- Search from inside the service area: Google says distance from the searcher affects local results, so set the map to the area before you read the list.
- List positions 4 to 10: These businesses are relevant enough to appear and sit just below the map pack.
- Note six signals on each listing: Position, strong reviews with a weak rank, a Sponsored label, an incomplete profile, unanswered reviews and a weak website.
- Check the website behind the profile: Look for missing service pages, pages nothing links to and missing LocalBusiness schema.
- Count the signals and sort: Contact the businesses with three or more signals first.
Twenty businesses from one search is enough for a first list. Each row already contains the opening line of your pitch.
Steps 1 to 4 need only Google Maps and a spreadsheet. CrawlRaven comes in at step 5, where you check the website behind each profile, and again once a prospect becomes a client and you can join the crawl with their Search Console and GA4 data. Try CrawlRaven free: 1 site, no credit card →
Search any service plus a city on Google Maps and you get a ranked list of businesses, with their reviews, their profiles and their websites one click away. For an agency, that list is a free database of prospects, already sorted by how close each one is to the top.
The short version: to find local SEO clients, search one service in one city, skip the top three results, and score positions 4 to 10 on six signals you can read straight off the listing. Twenty businesses is enough for a first list, and every row ends up with a specific thing to say.
Where the prospects sit in a Maps result list
Illustration with placeholder names and numbers. The green tags are the signals you write down in step 3.
Why positions 4 to 10 make the best prospects
The first three listings appear in the map pack on Google Search. The businesses right below them have a short distance to close, and three things make them good prospects.
- Google already treats them as relevant. They show up for the search, so the work is moving up a few places.
- The gap is visible. You can compare their profile with the three above it and see what is missing.
- The result is easy to explain. “You are seventh, here is what the top three have” needs no SEO vocabulary.
Google's Business Profile help page says local results are based mainly on relevance, distance and prominence. It also says businesses with complete and accurate information are more likely to show up, and that more reviews and positive ratings can help. Those are the things this method checks.
Step 1: Pick one service and one city
Keep the first list narrow. One service in one city gives you businesses that compete with each other, so every comparison you make is fair. If you have not chosen a trade yet, start with the search data on local SEO niches.
- Choose a service where one new customer is worth a lot, such as dental work, legal help or home repairs.
- Choose a city or district you can describe by name.
- Write the search the way a customer would: the service, then the place.
- Write two variations, such as an urgent version and a specific treatment or job.
Step 2: Search from inside the service area
Distance is one of Google's three local factors, and it means how far each business is from the person searching. Searching from your office in another city can show a different order from the one a local customer sees.
- Open Google Maps and move the map to the city you chose.
- Zoom until the service area fills the screen.
- Run the search with the city name included.
- Repeat from a second point in the area, such as a neighboring district, and note any business whose position moves a lot.
Google's word for how well known a business is. Its help page ties prominence to things like the number of reviews, the ratings and how many websites link to the business.
Step 3: List positions 4 to 10 and note the signals
Open a spreadsheet and add one row for each business from position 4 down to position 10. Add the top three as well, in a separate block, so you have something to compare against.
Then read each listing for these six signals:
What to look for on each listing
| Signal | Where you see it | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Ranks 4th to 10th | The Maps result list | Relevant enough to appear, one scroll away from the map pack |
| Strong reviews, weak rank | Rating and review count | Customers like the business; visibility is the gap |
| Running an ad | A Sponsored label on the listing | Already paying to be seen for this search |
| Incomplete profile | Services, hours, photos, booking link | Google has less information to match to searches |
| Reviews unanswered | The reviews tab | Nobody is managing the profile |
| Weak website behind it | The Website button | No service pages, or a link to a social page |
- Ranks 4th to 10th: relevant enough to appear, one scroll below the map pack.
- Strong reviews, weak rank: customers like the business and visibility is the gap.
- Running an ad: a Sponsored label means they already pay to be seen for this search.
- Incomplete profile: services, hours, photos or a booking link are missing.
- Reviews unanswered: nobody is managing the profile.
- Weak website behind it: no service pages, or the Website button opens a social page.
The signal I would weight most is strong reviews with a weak rank. That business has already done the hard part, which is keeping customers happy. What it lacks is something an agency can supply.
Step 4: Open each profile and check what is missing
Click into each listing and compare it with the three at the top. Google says complete and accurate business information makes a profile more likely to show up, so every gap here is something you can point to.
- Is the primary category specific to the service you searched?
- Are services listed, with descriptions?
- Are hours filled in, including holidays?
- Is there a booking or appointment link?
- How recent are the photos?
- Are recent reviews answered?
Write each gap in the sheet in plain words. “No services listed, top three list eight each” is a sentence you can reuse in the first message.
Step 5: Check the website behind the profile
Click the Website button. The profile and the site work together, so look for a few specific things.
- Service pages. Does each service have its own page, or is everything on one page?
- The city in the copy. Is the location in the title tag and the text?
- Pages nothing links to. A booking or pricing page that exists but cannot be reached from the menu.
- LocalBusiness schema. Is there valid schema markup with the name, address and phone number?
On a five-page site you can check this by eye. For twenty prospects, crawl them. CrawlRaven reports the pages on a site, the ones with no internal links, and schema and crawler access problems, which gives you a named finding for each row.
Step 6: Count the signals and sort the sheet
Add a column that counts how many signals each business shows, then sort by it. Start outreach with the rows that have three or more.
One row per business, sorted by signal count
| Business | Maps position | Reviews | Signals found | Site check | Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Business D | 4 | 4.9 (236) | Strong reviews, no booking link | Booking page not linked | 3 |
| Business F | 6 | 4.8 (141) | Running an ad, services missing | One page for all services | 3 |
| Business H | 8 | 4.7 (122) | Reviews unanswered | No city in page titles | 2 |
| Business E | 5 | 4.6 (88) | No website link | No site to check | 1 |
Illustration with placeholder names and numbers. Contact the rows with a count of 3 or more first.
The example sheet above has four rows:
- Business D, position 4: a 4.9 rating from 236 reviews, no booking link, and a booking page nothing links to. Count of 3.
- Business F, position 6: a 4.8 rating from 141 reviews, running an ad, with one page for all services. Count of 3.
- Business H, position 8: a 4.7 rating from 122 reviews, reviews unanswered, no city in the page titles. Count of 2.
- Business E, position 5: a 4.6 rating from 88 reviews and no website. Count of 1.
Businesses D and F go first, and each has an opening line. To turn it into a message the owner will answer, pair it with an AI answer screenshot for the same service and city. You can also send a one-page local SEO audit built from the same row, using these first-message templates.
Should you scrape Google Maps for this?
I would build this list by hand. Google's Maps Platform Terms of Service include a No Scraping clause, so check the terms before you point a tool at Maps.
There is a practical reason too. A scraped file gives you thousands of names and nothing to say to any of them. Twenty listings you have opened and read give you twenty specific findings.
When the list comes out thin
What if the search returns fewer than ten businesses?
Widen the area by one neighboring district, or switch to a broader version of the service. In a small town, positions 4 to 6 may be the whole prospect zone, and that is fine.
What if every listing looks well managed?
Then this search is already competitive. Keep the city and change the service, or keep the service and move to a neighboring city.
What about businesses with no website?
Keep them on the sheet with a note. They need a site before SEO can do much, so they suit an agency that also builds websites. If you only sell SEO, move them to the bottom.
Tools that make this faster
- Google Maps and a spreadsheet. Enough for steps 1 to 4.
- CrawlRaven. Our tool. It crawls a prospect's site for step 5, and after they sign it joins the crawl with Search Console and GA4 into one ranked plan. See the local SEO audit.
- Free checks. The website page counter shows how many pages a site has, the meta checker reads the title and description, and the schema validator confirms whether LocalBusiness markup is present.
We are also launching an AI SEO tool soon. Join the waitlist to hear when it opens.
Sources used in this post
- Google Business Profile Help – Tips to improve your local ranking on Google: relevance, distance and prominence, and the role of complete business information and reviews.
- Google Maps Platform Terms of Service: the No Scraping clause.
Related reading on CrawlRaven
- How to get local SEO clients with one ChatGPT screenshot, for the pitch that follows this list.
- The local SEO audit guide, for the full audit after the first call.
- Best local SEO tools, for the rest of the local stack.
Frequently asked questions
How do I find local businesses that need SEO?
Search one service in one city on Google Maps and read positions 4 to 10. Those businesses are relevant enough to appear and sit just below the map pack. On each listing, note six signals: its position, strong reviews with a weak rank, a Sponsored label, an incomplete profile, unanswered reviews and a weak website. Contact the ones with three or more.
Why focus on positions 4 to 10 on Google Maps?
Because the gap is small and visible. Google already considers these businesses relevant to the search, so the work is closing a short distance to the top three. You can also see what is missing by comparing each listing with the three above it.
Does my location change the Google Maps results I see?
Yes. Google's Business Profile help page lists distance from the searcher as one of three main local ranking factors, alongside relevance and prominence. If you search from another city, the order you see can differ from what a local customer sees. Center the map on the service area and include the city name in the search.
Can I scrape Google Maps to build a lead list?
I would build this list by hand. Google's Maps Platform Terms of Service include a No Scraping clause, and a scraped file of thousands of rows gives you names with nothing to say to them. Twenty businesses you have looked at closely, each with a specific finding, make a stronger list.
How many businesses should be on a local SEO prospect list?
Start with about twenty from one service and one city. That is small enough to review by hand and large enough to leave you several businesses with three or more signals. Add a second service or a neighboring city once you have worked through the first list.
What do I do once the prospect list is built?
Open with the strongest signal on each row. For a business with a booking page nothing links to, that finding is your first line. To make it concrete, pair it with an AI answer screenshot showing who an assistant recommends for the same service, which is the pitch covered in our post on getting local SEO clients with a ChatGPT screenshot.
What tools do I need to prospect on Google Maps?
Google Maps and a spreadsheet cover steps 1 to 4. For step 5, a crawler shows which pages exist, which have no internal links and whether schema is present. CrawlRaven does that crawl before a client signs, and after they grant access it joins the crawl with Search Console and GA4 into one ranked plan.
15+ years of growing SaaS websites through SEO | Author, 200-Point Audit Checklist
Aditi has spent 15+ years helping SaaS companies scale organic traffic through technical SEO and content strategy. She is the author of the CrawlRaven 200-Point Audit checklist used by agencies and in-house teams to systematically improve search performance.