Nine actions. Tied to specific neighborhoods.
Why this mattersYou have your map, your zones, and your competitor intelligence. This is the lesson where it becomes action. Not vague goals. Not "improve my SEO." Nine concrete moves tied to specific neighborhoods on your map, with a scheduled feedback loop to tell you whether they actually moved the dots.
Read this once. Sit with it before you answer.
How does the geographic pattern on your map translate into nine specific actions tied to neighborhoods, and how do you tell whether those actions actually moved the map?
Where you stand right now.
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
- 1Translate each zone (strongholds, contested, dead) into specific actions on website, GBP, and content.
- 2Build a nine-row Geographic Action Plan with one action per zone (three of each).
- 3Sequence actions correctly: structural infrastructure first, then content, then reviews.
- 4Schedule the next heat map run to measure whether the actions moved the map.
The whole lesson in a few points.
- 01Nine specific, geography-tied actions. Three strongholds. Three contested zones. Three dead zones. Each tied to a real neighborhood with a target completion date.
- 02Stronghold actions are maintenance: review requests, geotagged job photos, monthly post mentions.
- 03Contested zone actions are targeted offense: build a Core 30 service page for the area, focused review collection, three-surface content about work done there.
- 04Dead zone actions require a deliberate yes or no. If yes, full Core 30 treatment plus a 90 to 180 day timeline. If no, mark "not pursuing" and save the energy.
- 05The next scheduled heat map is the feedback loop. Action plan executed. Map regenerated. Movement measured. Next month's actions calibrated.
Stronghold actions — protect what you own.
For each of your strongholds, the action is maintenance.
Action one. Pull every customer you have served in stronghold areas in the last 12 months. Request reviews from any who have not left one yet. Use the compliant six-message sequence from Lesson 5.4.
Action two. Take photos at every job you complete in stronghold neighborhoods. Geotag them. Name the files with the neighborhood or city included. Upload one to two per week.
Action three. Mention stronghold neighborhoods by name in at least one GBP post per month. "Just finished a kitchen remodel in [neighborhood]." Specific, location-tagged content reinforces what Google already knows.
Three small recurring moves. Done consistently, your strongholds stay strong while competitors who do not maintain theirs lose ground.
Contested zone actions — win the close ones.
For each contested zone, the action is targeted offense.
Action one. Build a Core 30 service page for the neighborhood or city if you do not have one. From your Module 4 services list, identify the service most relevant to that contested zone. Build a dedicated page on your website with the neighborhood name in the URL, the H1, the meta description, and throughout the body content. This sets up Module 10 work directly.
Action two. Run a focused review request campaign for any customers you have served in the contested zone in the last 18 months. Even five or six new reviews from a specific geographic cluster moves the map.
Action three. Publish a What's New GBP post specifically about work you did in that contested zone. Use the three-surface workflow from Lesson 7.3 to push the same story to your website, your GBP, and your social.
Sequencing matters. The website page first. Then the reviews. Then the content. Done over 60 to 90 days, contested zones move into stronghold territory at a predictable rate.
Dead zone actions — choose your battles.
For each dead zone, the action depends on whether you actually want to win there.
If yes. Build a dedicated city or neighborhood page on your website. This is the most expensive move on the list because dead zones require structural infrastructure, not just content marketing. The page needs full Core 30 treatment — service descriptions, FAQ, before-and-after examples if you can pull from past work, local references, schema markup.
Layer on top of the page: one GBP post per month mentioning the dead zone neighborhood. Photos from any work you can do in that area, even if it is rare. Reviews from any customer you have served there. Realistic timeline: 90 to 180 days minimum before you see meaningful movement.
If no. Mark the dead zone as "not pursuing." Save the energy. You do not have to chase every neighborhood. A focused stronghold and a few converted contested zones is a stronger position than scattered partial coverage everywhere. Pick your battles deliberately. The map gives you the information. You decide where to invest.
Build the nine-action plan.
Open your workbook to the Geographic Action Plan page. Nine rows. Three for strongholds. Three for contested zones. Three for dead zones.
For each row, write one specific action with a target completion date. Not "build a website page." Specifically, "build the Maplesville service page by June 15." Some actions will be one-time (build a page). Some will be recurring (request reviews from a neighborhood every month for the next 90 days). Label each as one-time or recurring.
This becomes your Module 9 deliverable. The nine actions are the bridge into Module 10 (website work) and feed back into Module 7 (posts and photos) and Module 5 (review collection).
Schedule the next heat map.
Last step. Schedule your next heat map run. If you are using LeadSnap with the saved grid and scheduled cadence from Lesson 9.3, you are already set. The next map runs automatically.
If you set it to monthly, that is your check-in cadence. 30 days from your baseline, the new map runs. You open LeadSnap, click into the side-by-side comparison view, and see exactly which grid points moved.
That is the feedback loop. Action plan executed. Map regenerated. Movement measured. Next month's actions calibrated based on what worked. The compounding kicks in around month three. By then, you have enough data to see which actions actually moved the map and which ones did not. You stop guessing and start replicating what works.
Nine actions tied to geography. One scheduled feedback loop.
Module 9 is the most measurable module in this course because every action either moves a dot or it does not. Module 10 is where the website work begins, anchored to the dead zone and contested zone strategy you just built.
The vocabulary that follows you.
- Geographic Action Plan
- The nine-row, three-zones-by-three-actions plan on its own page in your workbook. Strongholds, contested zones, and dead zones each get three actions with target completion dates and one-time or recurring labels.
- Stronghold maintenance
- The three recurring moves that protect green zones from competitor erosion: targeted review requests, geotagged job photos with neighborhood filenames, and monthly neighborhood-specific posts.
- Contested zone offense
- The three sequenced moves that convert yellow zones to green over 60 to 90 days: dedicated Core 30 service page, focused review request from customers in the zone, three-surface content about work done there.
- Dead zone decision
- The deliberate yes-or-no call on every dead zone. Yes triggers structural infrastructure plus a 90 to 180 day timeline. No saves the energy for zones that matter.