LSD
APIEndpoint 38 of 40Reports / Authority / Local SEO Score

Local Authority API

The local SEO equivalent of Domain Authority.

Domain Authority became SEO's universal benchmark for competitive strength. Local search never had an equivalent — you had to stitch together rankings, reviews, profile completeness, and citations by hand to make one number. We built Local Authority (0-100) as a single comparable metric for any local business, tuned to what actually drives local pack rankings. One call returns the score plus a transparent breakdown of each component so you know exactly what's helping and what's dragging.

Start Free — 50 CreditsView Docs

POST /v1/score/local-authority · 10 credits / call

POST /v1/score/local-authorityabcplumbing.com · Austin, TX
Local Authority Score
78out of 100
Rankings25%82
Reviews30%91
Profile completeness25%67
Citation consistency20%74
▌ Ask your agent

These prompts are the new local benchmarking workflow.

Connect Local SEO Data as an MCP server once (60 seconds, below). Then your agent scores any business on demand. Replace bracketed business names with your own.

Pre-pitch authority check

Score the local authority for [prospect business name] in [City, State]. Show me their score, what's helping it, what's dragging it down, and how they compare to top local competitors.

Client month-end tracking

Score local authority for all 12 client locations. Compare this month's scores to last month. Flag any location that dropped or is below 70. Show the breakdown so we know which component to focus on.

Competitive authority benchmark

Score local authority for [my business] and my top 5 local competitors in [City, State] for the [keyword] market. Rank them and tell me who's strongest and who's vulnerable.

Authority score threshold alerts

Monitor 10 managed client locations monthly. If any location drops below 65 authority score or shows a downward trend from last month, send me a priority alert with the score breakdown.

▌ Real response

What you get back

Live response from POST /v1/score/local-authority for a sample Brooklyn pizzeria.

response · application/json~4-8s · 10 credits
{
  "status": "success",
  "credits_used": 10,
  "business": "Joe's Pizza",
  "location": "Brooklyn, NY",
  "data": {
    "authority_score": 74,
    "breakdown": {
      "ranking": {
        "score": 80,
        "weight": 0.25,
        "detail": "Local pack position #2 for 'pizza brooklyn'"
      },
      "reviews": {
        "score": 72,
        "weight": 0.30,
        "detail": "847 reviews, 4.6 avg rating"
      },
      "profile": {
        "score": 65,
        "weight": 0.25,
        "detail": "78% complete, missing menu and photos"
      },
      "citations": {
        "score": 82,
        "weight": 0.20,
        "detail": "88% NAP consistency across 52 directories"
      }
    },
    "percentile": "Top 28% in Brooklyn, NY for pizza",
    "trend": "stable"
  }
}
▌ Returns

The local authority breakdown that matters

Composite authority score

0-100 local SEO strength metric

Single number comparable across all your clients. Tracks improvement over time. Works across industries and geographies. Replaces manual spreadsheets of disconnected metrics.

Weighted component breakdown

Ranking, reviews, profile, citations, each with score and weight

See exactly what drives the score: local pack rank (25%), review rating and count (30%), profile completeness (25%), citation consistency (20%). Transparent methodology means you know what to fix.

Percentile ranking

How this business ranks against local competitors

Know if 74 is strong or weak for that market. Percentile tells you 'top 28% in Brooklyn for pizza' instead of just a number.

Trend indicator

Is the score rising, stable, or declining

Month-over-month change signals whether your efforts are working or the business is slipping. Critical for client reporting.

▌ Built for

What agencies and consultants build with this

Pre-pitch local authority audit

Before the sales call, score the prospect's local authority. Walk in with a number, a breakdown, and a percentile telling them exactly where they stand vs competitors. Close more deals because the diagnosis is quantified, not speculative.

→ For consultants

Monthly client scorecard

Agencies cron a monthly authority score across all client locations. Email each client their score trend, component breakdown, and what to prioritize next. Built once in Claude, runs on schedule. One number per location per month — clients understand progress.

→ For agencies

Authority-based goal tracking

Set a target authority score (e.g., 'reach 80 by Q3'). Use monthly scores to track progress and communicate wins to clients. Replaces vague metrics like 'more visibility' with a concrete 0-100 scale.

→ Goal-setting framework

Multi-location benchmark and competitive analysis

Score all your client locations and your top competitors in one batch job. Build a local market map showing who's winning on authority, who's weak, and where to invest next.

→ Competitive intelligence
▌ vs. the alternatives

Why not just combine your own metrics?

You could build a local authority score by pulling rankings from one tool, reviews from Google, profile data from another tool, and citations from a fourth. You'd spend 2 hours per business stitching data together by hand. The methodology would change whenever a tool changes. You'd have no percentile or trend. The Local Authority API centralizes the calculation — one call, transparent weights, comparable across all clients and markets.

ApproachCost per scoreData freshnessMethodology transparencyAgent-ready
Manual audit (6 tabs open)2–3 hours laborStale, varies by toolUndocumentedNo
BrightLocal score + manual adjustment$39–$149/mo + laborDailyProprietary, not disclosedDashboard export only
Whitespark citation rank + rankings tool$24–$49/mo + other toolsWeeklyProprietaryCSV + manual
Local Falcon authority score$99–$299/moDailyNot publishedDashboard only
Local SEO Data Local Authority API$0.05 per score (10 credits)4–8 seconds freshFully documented: 25% rank, 30% reviews, 25% profile, 20% citationsNative MCP, agent-first
▌ Connect in 60 seconds

Use it from your agent

Two integration surfaces: MCP for clients that speak MCP, REST API for everything else.

Direct MCP integration

Drop-in support in Claude Desktop, OpenClaw, Hermes Agent, and any MCP-aware client.

Add to your client's MCP config (e.g. claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "localseodata": {
      "url": "https://mcp.localseodata.com",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer sk_live_..."
      }
    }
  }
}

REST API

For Perplexity Computer, ChatGPT Custom GPTs, custom agents, and any platform that calls REST endpoints directly.

Base URL:

api.localseodata.com

See the docs for endpoint reference and auth.

▌ Quickstart

Your first call in three lines

Same call, three syntaxes. Pass a business name and location (city, state). Optionally pass a keyword for the ranking component — if you omit it, the endpoint auto-detects a primary keyword based on business category. You get back a 0-100 authority score, a breakdown showing how each component (ranking, reviews, profile, citations) contributes, a percentile vs local competitors, and a trend direction.

terminal · curl
POST /v1/score/local-authority
curl -X POST https://api.localseodata.com/v1/score/local-authority \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_live_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "business_name": "Joe'"'"'s Pizza",
    "location": "Brooklyn, NY",
    "keyword": "pizza brooklyn"
  }'
Full endpoint reference → · Get an API key →
▌ Pricing for this endpoint

$0.05 per local authority score

Pay-as-you-go starts at $5. Monthly plans from $19. No seat fees. Funds never expire.

Free tier
50
credits on signup (5 scores + buffer)
Starter · $19/mo
~380
scores/mo at this rate
Per-call cost
$0.05
per local authority score (10 credits)
▌ FAQ

Common questions

What is Local Authority?+
Local Authority is a 0-100 composite score measuring how strong a business is in local search. It rolls up four key signals: local pack ranking (does the business own the 3-pack for its primary keyword), review rating and count (Google rating and review volume), profile completeness (NAP, hours, categories, photos filled in), and citation consistency (NAP accuracy across 50+ local directories). One number comparable across any business, any industry, any location. Think of it as Domain Authority but for local.
How is the Local Authority score calculated?+
The score weights four components: rankings (25% — local pack position for the keyword), reviews (30% — rating and review count), profile completeness (25% — how many fields are filled), and citation consistency (20% — NAP match across directories). A business ranked #1 in the local pack with a 4.7 rating, 300+ reviews, a complete profile, and clean citations scores around 88. A business ranked #8 with a 4.0 rating, 50 reviews, a 60% complete profile, and scattered citations scores around 52. The methodology is transparent because you're running production client work — you need to know exactly where the number comes from and what changes it.
What keyword is used for the ranking component?+
You can pass a keyword explicitly (e.g., 'pizza brooklyn'). If you omit keyword, the endpoint auto-detects a primary keyword based on the business category inferred from the business name and location. Auto-detection works for most service categories (plumber, dentist, HVAC, restaurant, real estate). For niche categories or specific keyword strategy, always pass the keyword parameter.
How often should I score local authority?+
Monthly for client reporting — most agencies run monthly scores for all client locations, compare month-to-month trends, and surface wins. On demand for pitches — consultants score a prospect before a sales call. Weekly for high-value clients — if you're actively managing a premium account's rank, weekly scores let you spot improvements and regressions early. Because pricing is per-call, frequency is purely business need. A 12-location monthly audit costs $0.60.
Is this the same as Domain Authority or Page Authority?+
No. Domain Authority (Moz) and Page Authority predict ability to rank in general Google search across the entire web. Local Authority predicts ability to rank in local pack and local search for a specific business in a specific location. They measure different surfaces and use different signals. Local Authority is tuned to Google My Business signals, review volume and recency, directory citations, and geographic factors. Domain Authority is tuned to backlinks and page-level authority. Both are useful, but for different purposes.
How does this compare to BrightLocal, Local Falcon, or Whitespark?+
BrightLocal, Local Falcon, and Whitespark offer dashboards for managing local SEO. BrightLocal starts at $39/mo for rankings and reporting. Local Falcon costs $99–$299/mo and includes tracking. Whitespark is $24–$49/mo for citations. The Local Authority API is designed for agents and bulk workflows — your agent calls this endpoint and gets JSON. One call covers all signals and costs $0.05. If you run 100 scores per month across clients, we cost $5 total; their bundles cost $150+. More important: agents can't call their dashboards. They can call our API.
Where does this data come from?+
Rankings come from live SERP queries. Review data (rating, count) comes from DataForSEO. Profile completeness comes from Google Business Profiles directly. Citation data comes from our first-party crawler scanning 50+ directories (Yelp, BBB, Yellow Pages, Citysearch, and more). The local authority score is our composite calculation combining these sources. Data freshness varies: rankings are live (seconds), profile is 24 hours, reviews are ~24 hours, citations are weekly.
How is Local Authority different from the Local Audit API?+
Local Authority scores just one metric (0-100) with a transparent breakdown. Use it for client reporting, scorecards, and benchmarking. Local Audit API is a composite that also returns rankings, review details, profile health, citation mismatches, and competitive gaps in one call. Use Local Audit for full audits and pitches. Use Local Authority for simple monthly tracking and scoring.
Can my AI agent use this directly?+
Yes. MCP: add Local SEO Data to your claude_desktop_config.json and your agent calls this endpoint from any prompt. REST: any agent that can make HTTPS calls hits the API directly with your Bearer token. You don't write integration code — just write the prompt: 'Score local authority for my top 10 competitors and rank them.'
What changed in 2026 that made Local Authority necessary?+
Two things: MCP made it practical for agents to call specialized APIs without custom code. Second, the dashboard era is ending — agencies and consultants need data for agent workflows and bulk reporting, not dashboards. Local Authority is a 2026 native score because agents need to score and benchmark businesses at scale, and traditional tools don't support that workflow.
▌ Related endpoints

Often used in the same agent prompt

POST /v1/audit/local
Local Audit API

Full audit with rankings, reviews, profile, citations, and gaps.

POST /v1/audit/reputation
Reputation Audit API

Composite reputation score with sentiment and platform breakdown.

POST /v1/rankings/local-pack
Local Pack API

Google's local 3-pack for any keyword and city.

POST /v1/audit/citation
Citation Audit API

NAP consistency across 50+ directories.

Score your first business or client in 30 seconds.

50 free credits on signup. Your first authority score happens through Claude, not curl.

Start FreeRead the docs
▌ MADE FOR THE NEW LOCAL SEO STACK