Before the kickoff: paperwork and payment
Do not start work before the agreement is signed and the first invoice is paid. It is not about distrust; it makes the start date clear for both sides, and it keeps you from doing a month of setup for a client who changes their mind.
Send one welcome email right after signing. It should say what happens next, what you need from the client and by when, and who their contact person is. Keep it short enough to read on a phone.
- Signed agreement with scope, term, cancellation notice and account ownership
- Setup fee and first month paid, or payment method on file
- Welcome email with next steps and the access checklist
- Kickoff call booked within the first week
- Client added to your CRM with contact person, locations and services
The access checklist
Access is where onboarding usually stalls. Owners do not know which Google account they used five years ago, or the website was built by a nephew. Send a checklist with short instructions for each item and offer to do it together on the kickoff call.
The business should remain the owner of every account. On a Google Business Profile, Google distinguishes owners, who have full control, from managers, who can do most of the work but cannot add or remove users or delete the profile. Ask for manager access. In Search Console, a full user can view all data; ask for that rather than ownership.
If nobody at the business can get into its own profile, Google’s request-ownership process is the route. Do not create a second profile for the same location.
- Google Business Profile: agency added as manager, or access granted to your agency organization account
- Google Search Console: agency added as full user
- Website: your own user account with editor or admin role, not the owner’s password
- Domain and DNS: who controls them, and a contact for changes
- Analytics and tag manager, if they exist
- Review platforms the business uses besides Google
- Photos, logo and brand colors in a shared folder
- List of services, service area, prices if public, and the owner’s preferred tone
The kickoff call agenda
Keep the call to forty-five minutes and run it from a written agenda. The goal is to leave with every access item done or assigned, a list of facts you need for the profile and content, and agreement on how you will communicate.
- Five minutes: introductions, who does what on both sides
- Fifteen minutes: access items, done live where possible
- Ten minutes: business facts: services, service area, busiest season, best jobs to get more of
- Five minutes: how customers are asked for reviews today, and who will send requests
- Five minutes: what the monthly report contains and when it arrives
- Five minutes: questions, next steps and the date of the first check-in
Record the baseline
Without a baseline you cannot show progress, and you will end up arguing from memory. Take the numbers in the first week, before you change anything, and store them with the date.
Measure map visibility across the service area, not from one point. A grid of searches for the main service shows where the business appears and where it does not. Run it again monthly on the same grid and keyword so the comparison is fair.
- Profile: calls, direction requests, website clicks for the last full month
- Reviews: count, average rating, date of the last review, reply rate
- Map visibility: grid results for two or three main keywords
- Website: organic visits and top landing pages from Search Console
- Profile completeness: categories, services, photos, description, hours
The first 30 days
Clients judge you most in the first month, while they still remember signing. Make visible changes early and tell the client about each one.
- Week 1: baseline recorded; profile facts corrected; primary and secondary categories checked against the actual services
- Week 1: review request process set up with one link for every customer
- Week 2: first profile post published; new photos uploaded; all open reviews answered
- Week 3: services and products completed on the profile; holiday hours scheduled if needed
- Week 4: first monthly report sent, with what was done and what comes next
Set the communication rhythm
Decide how and when you talk, and write it into the welcome email. A predictable rhythm reduces ad-hoc calls and shows the client you have a process.
Many owners would rather read a short email or text than sit in a long meeting. A monthly report they can read in two minutes, plus a quarterly call to look at results and plan the next quarter, is a rhythm that holds up. When something goes wrong, such as a suspended profile or a bad review, call first and send the summary afterwards.
When something goes wrong, such as a suspended profile or a bad review, call first and send the summary afterwards.
Common onboarding problems and fixes
The same few problems come up again and again. Having a standard answer ready keeps the first month on schedule.
- Nobody knows which Google account owns the profile: check the email addresses the owner used for the business, then use Google’s request-ownership process if needed.
- There are two profiles for the same location: do not delete either on your own; follow Google’s help pages for duplicates and keep the one with the reviews.
- The website was built by someone who left: ask the hosting provider or domain registrar for account recovery in the owner’s name.
- The owner is slow to answer: book short fixed slots for the first two weeks instead of waiting for email replies.
- Staff send review requests only to some customers: set up one process that reaches every customer, so the requests stay within Google’s rules.
Plan the offboarding on day one
Clients leave, for reasons that have nothing to do with you. A clean exit protects your reputation and often brings a client back later. Keep a list of every account you hold access to for each client from the first day, so you can return it in an hour.
When a client leaves, remove your own access after the last day of service, hand over any content and reports you produced under the agreement, and confirm in writing. Never keep a client’s profile, domain or website as leverage.
- Access list per client, kept current
- Export of reports and content delivered
- Agency users removed from the profile, website and Search Console
- Written confirmation to the client with the date
Questions
How long should client onboarding take for a local SEO agency?
Aim to have access, the baseline and the first visible changes done within two weeks of the signed agreement. The first monthly report should arrive within thirty days.
What access does an agency need from a local business client?
Manager access to the Google Business Profile, full-user access to Search Console, a personal user account on the website, and a contact for the domain and DNS.
Should I ask the client for their Google password?
No. Ask the client to add your agency as a manager on the profile and as a user in Search Console. Shared passwords are a security risk and make offboarding messy.
What goes into an onboarding welcome email?
What happens next, the access checklist with short instructions, the date of the kickoff call and the name of the client’s contact person.
Sources: Google: Manage Business Profile owners and managers, Google: Overview for agencies, Google: Request ownership of a Business Profile, Google Search Console: Managing owners, users and permissions, Google: Guidelines for representing your business.