Strategy
Part of Building a local SEO strategy without guessing at the market
Writing a local SEO planning template without a research budget
A practical template guide to building a local SEO plan from free official data, with a worked example, source links and the sections to fill in first.
What to take away
- A local SEO planning template is a set of fields you fill from named sources, not a slide deck of opinions.
- Start with an England scenario most readers will recognise: a two-person agency in Leeds quoting £750 a month retainers and needing to show a client why one postcode gets more spend than another.
- Free data covers most of the template. ONS population and business counts, local authority licensing records and search advertising guidance from the IAB UK do the heavy lifting.
- The template is only useful if every row names its source and the date it was pulled.
- Resource allocation decides the plan. A template that ignores staff hours becomes a wish list.
Why a template beats a blank page
A blank page invites guesswork. A template forces you to name the postcode, the source and the date before you write a single recommendation.
For an agency in Leeds, that means the plan starts with three or four target areas, not "Yorkshire". Each area gets its own row.
The template also protects you when a client asks why the budget moved. You can point to the source, not your instinct.
If you are still choosing the shape of the work, the wider local SEO strategy and planning guide for 2027 sets out the sequence before you start filling fields.
The sections every local SEO planning template needs
Use six blocks. Keep each one short enough to read in a meeting.
- Target areas, with postcode districts and the reason each was chosen.
- Demand evidence, quoting the source and the date it was checked.
- Competitor set, limited to businesses that appear in the same map results.
- Content and profile tasks, with an owner and a deadline.
- Budget lines in pounds, split between staff time and paid spend.
- Review date, so the plan expires instead of drifting.
The demand evidence block is where most plans fail. It is usually filled with a keyword tool screenshot and nothing else.
Free data sources that belong in the template
ONS publishes population and business counts down to local authority level. Those two numbers give you a defensible denominator for any area you pick.
Local authority licensing registers, such as premises or taxi licensing lists, tell you how many similar businesses operate nearby. That is a competitor count you can cite.
Search advertising guidance matters too. The IAB UK's Principles for creative best practice covers how local search creative should be built, which feeds the content block of the template.
For the strategic reasoning behind budget choices, the IPA Insight Centre is a research resource worth bookmarking.
People decisions sit alongside budget decisions. The CIPD's knowledge hub on business strategy covers resource allocation, which is the part of the template most agencies skip.
A worked example with labelled figures
Take a Leeds agency with two staff. It plans work for a client in LS6 and LS8.
Assume staff time is charged internally at £45 an hour. All figures below are illustrative examples, not market rates.
| Line | LS6 | LS8 |
|---|---|---|
| Research hours | 6 | 4 |
| Content hours | 10 | 6 |
| Profile work hours | 4 | 3 |
| Internal cost at £45 an hour | £900 | £585 |
| Paid local spend | £250 | £150 |
| Total monthly plan | £1,150 | £735 |
The template shows LS6 absorbing more hours because the plan lists more target services there. The client can see that, and can argue with it.
If the retainer is £1,400 a month, the plan is over budget before any profit. That is the useful moment. You adjust the plan, not the invoice.
Mistakes the template should catch
A plan that lists ten postcodes with no hours attached will not survive contact with a calendar. CAP the area list at what your team can actually serve.
A plan with no review date becomes permanent by accident. Set one, and put it in the client's diary.
A plan that copies last year's competitor list misses new entrants. Rebuild the list from current map results each cycle.
The common errors are catalogued in local SEO strategy mistakes: data and sources, which is worth reading before you finalise your first template.
How to keep the template current
Set a quarterly review. Check each source is still live, and re-pull the numbers you rely on.
Record the pull date beside every figure. A business count from three years ago is a different claim from one checked this month.
Keep one master template and one client copy. The master holds your source list. The client copy holds only what they need to approve.
Common questions
How many target areas should a template cover?
Only as many as your team can deliver work in during the plan period. For a two-person agency, three to five postcode districts is usually realistic.
What if I cannot find official data for an area?
Use the nearest local authority figures and label them as an approximation. Never present an estimate as a measured count.
Should the template include paid spend?
Yes, if the plan includes paid local search. Keep it as a separate line so the client can cut it without cutting staff time.
How often should the plan be rewritten?
Review quarterly and rewrite annually. A plan that is never rewritten becomes a document nobody reads.
