Core 30

Caleb Ulku’s site-architecture framework: build ~30 pages — one per Google Business Profile category and service — that mirror the GBP exactly, instead of a thin 5-page site or a blog.

Definition

The Core 30 is how a local site should be structured to support Local SEO. If a GBP has 3–4 categories and 20–30 services, mapping one page to each yields ~30 pages: one homepage (the GBP landing page), 3–4 category pages, and ~25–30 service pages. This creates the topical relevance Google needs before ranking in competitive markets, and — per Entity-Based SEO — makes the website an “exact mirror” of the GBP entity structure.

Structure and linking are specific: target keywords are category+city (category pages) and service+city (service pages), placed in the title tag and H1. Pages connect in a hierarchy (homepage → category → service) using editorial (in-content) links, which pass authority, rather than navigation/footer links, which barely do. Each secondary category gets an H2 + 50–100 words on the homepage linking to its category page. Gaps are found via gap analysis (GBP categories/services vs. existing pages), and the whole set can be generated with AI (8-Pass AI Writing Pipeline) but must look like a real, formatted site (images, tables, short paragraphs), not “AI slop.”

The course (What the Core 30 Framework Is) adds an exit criterion the YouTube corpus only implied: do not start Core 30 until the Three-Step Method (Low-Competition Ranking Method) has been done and the Local Rank Map & Top 3% Metric is stuck below ~10–15% green after 8–10 weeks. Core 30 is for markets over ~500k or with multiple strong comprehensive competitors. Once green coverage hits 20–40%, stop adding topical pages and switch to neighborhood/landmark (geographic) content. URL structure “is not important”; Internal Linking (Nav vs Editorial) is. Gap analysis (Core 30 Gap Analysis): crawl with Screaming Frog, feed Internal All + Links All + homepage + GBP categories/services to Claude (Opus), then do not trust the first pass — he caught a missing “area rug cleaning” page that the model marked absent. Single-prompt drafts (Single Prompt Content Creation) are “80% of a first draft,” not publishable copy.

It is creator-branded (consensus: creator-opinion): dedicated service/location pages aligned to the GBP is sound, established practice, but “Core 30” as a named ~30-page target is Caleb’s packaging. Official Google spam policy (when ingested) flags scaled AI pages without added value — the quality bar on these pages is the difference between a playbook and a policy problem. It straddles web-dev information architecture and SEO → pillar: both.

Key Properties

• GBP-derived, not keyword-derived: page set = GBP categories + services (exported via GMB Everywhere / gap analysis).
• Hierarchy + editorial links: homepage → category → service; in-content links pass authority.
• Target keywords: category+city, service+city, in title tag & H1.
• Quality bar: AI-built but formatted like a real site; each page needs one external validation link (Local Link Building & Authority).
• Extends into topical supporting content and geographic landcape pages once built (see Local Rank Map & Top 3% Metric).
• Heuristic count: ~30 is illustrative, scales with GBP size.

Examples from Sources

In the Sources

Related

Concepts: GBP–Website Alignment (Consistency Signals), Local SEO, Local Ranking Factors (Relevance, Proximity, Prominence/Authority), Local Rank Map & Top 3% Metric, Entity-Based SEO, Local Link Building & Authority, 8-Pass AI Writing Pipeline, Schema Markup (Structured Data) Entities: Google Business Profile, GMB Everywhere, Screaming Frog, Core30 AI Tool, Caleb Ulku