“Even if I ask AI a question, it only returns generalities... 💢”
“In the end, I'm just re-researching everything myself.”
It's not a problem with the AI's performance. It's your "delegation method" that changes the experience instantly.
Have you ever experienced this when trying to use AI for work?
- Even if you ask AI for analysis, it only returns generalities unrelated to your business.
- You pay an SEO agency hundreds of thousands of yen a month, but you don't know what to decide looking at the report numbers.
- Competitors are steadily rising in search rankings, but you don't know where to start.
- You want to leave work to AI, but you can't design "what to delegate and how," and you realize you can't do anything beyond copy-pasting.
By the time you finish reading this article, you will have the "design patterns" to systematically delegate work to AI.
The subject is SEO, but no prior SEO knowledge is required.
The structure of the design patterns introduced here can be used as-is in any situation where you want to delegate work to AI, whether in marketing, sales, or back-office operations.
Sarvesh Shrivastava, Favikon SEO World Rank #1, TEDx Speaker, and featured in Forbes. His article, which fully discloses 20 design patterns built from 14 years of local SEO practice (plumbers, HVAC, lawyers, cleaning companies), is currently going viral with 5.94 million views and 16,000 bookmarks.
Just two things before we start.
- Save this and set aside just 30 minutes this week.
- Share this article with anyone who wants to delegate work to AI.
I will break down and explain the content in an easy-to-understand way. Don't worry, I'll explain all SEO technical terms in Japanese.
Original post here:
https://x.com/bloggersarvesh/status/2036068241936896421
The Real Reason AI Responses End in Generalities
If you ask AI to "improve SEO," it will respond like this:
"Conduct keyword research and optimize meta tags. We recommend performing competitor analysis and creating a content strategy."
It's a textbook generality that applies to any industry.
Now, if you give the same AI your business context first and then ask the same question, it changes like this:
"Your 'Water Leak Repair Shibuya' is currently ranked 15th. Adding 'Shibuya' to the title tag alone could move it to the first page. All three competitors have already added 'Plumbing Repair' to their GBP subcategories."
Same AI, same question. The difference isn't the AI's performance, but the human's "delegation design."
Before entering the 20 design patterns, there is Step 0, which is the premise for everything.
This is the step where you provide your business information in bulk before asking the AI for anything. Whether you do this or not fundamentally changes the accuracy of all subsequent AI outputs.
If you just tell a first-time consultant to "improve SEO" without explaining anything, it's natural that they'll give irrelevant advice. AI is exactly the same. Without context, it can only produce generalities.
Mr. Sarvesh organizes this preliminary information into six categories:
- Basic Business Info: Company name, address, phone number, website URL, Google Business Profile link, years in business, team size.
- Services and Market: Primary services, secondary services, service areas, target customers, average project value.
- Goals: 5 keywords you want to rank for, keywords you currently rank for, keywords you should rank for but don't.
- Current Numbers: Number of reviews and rating, monthly new reviews, monthly site traffic, search rankings, biggest challenge.
- Competitor Info: URLs of 3 competitors, analysis of why you are losing to them.
- Work Policy: Whether to prioritize quick-win measures, whether to report rather than guess when things are unclear.
Here is the prompt Mr. Sarvesh actually gives to Claude Cowork. You can use it as-is by replacing the [ ] parts with your business information.
1Below is all the information you need to know about my business before starting SEO work. Please refer to this information every time I request an audit, strategy planning, or competitor analysis. Do not ask for this information again.2Basic Business Info: Company Name: [Your Company Name] / Address: [Address] / Phone: [Phone Number] / Website: [URL] / Google Business Profile: [GBP URL] / Years in Business: [X years] / Team Size: [1 person / Small / Large]3Services and Market: Primary Service: [Your Business Content] / Secondary Services: [Service 2], [Service 3] / Service Areas: [City 1], [City 2], [City 3] / Target Customer: [Ideal Customer Profile] / Average Project Value: [Amount]4Goals: 5 Keywords to Rank For: [KW1], [KW2], [KW3], [KW4], [KW5] / Currently Ranking Keywords: [KW1], [KW2] / Keywords Should Rank For But Don't: [KW1], [KW2]5Current Status: Reviews: [X] count, [X] stars, [X] new reviews per month / Monthly Site Traffic: [X] / Current Search Ranking: [Rank X for Keyword A] / Biggest Challenge: [Honestly in one sentence]6Competitors: [Competitor Name] - [GBP URL] - [Site URL] - [Why you are losing] x 3 companies7Work Policy: Prioritize measures with immediate effect. When recommending, always state the impact and the time until the effect appears. Do not guess if something is unclear; report it.
Mr. Sarvesh says:
"If you load this into Claude, the accuracy of all subsequent prompts will increase. Claude will stop answering as a 'stranger's SEO consultation' and start answering as 'your dedicated SEO advisor.'"
By providing this information in six categories just once, all 20 subsequent design patterns will return "proposals optimized for your business." This is the foundation for everything.
■ Claude Cowork vs. Claude Code: Which one should you use?
In this article, Mr. Sarvesh is using Claude Cowork. It is one of the two AI agent tools provided by Anthropic, the other being Claude Code, which is usually introduced on this account.
The AI model running in the background is the same Claude. The difference is "who it is designed for."
Claude Cowork is a desktop app for business users. You can use it without any programming knowledge. Since it can directly operate a web browser, instructions like "Open Chrome, search Google Maps, and summarize the results in a spreadsheet" as seen in this article's prompts will work as-is. Sales, marketing, HR, accounting, customer support—anyone working on a PC can use it starting today.
Claude Code is a CLI tool for developers. It is operated from the terminal and can read/write code and understand entire projects. If you write the project context in a file called CLAUDE.md, all outputs will be accurate.
By the way, the desktop version has recently become available.
Personally, I recommend business people use this one if possible.
The principle of "passing business context first" in Step 0 is exactly the same as writing the business context in CLAUDE.md for Claude Code.
In other words, the 20 design patterns introduced in this article can be copy-pasted and used by Cowork users, and Claude Code users can incorporate the same thinking as CLAUDE.md + Skills.
Regardless of which tool you use, the design of "passing business context to AI before delegating work" remains the same.
Google Maps Ranking is Determined by "Settings"
The first thing to do is build the foundation for your business to be "found" on Google Maps. If your Google Business Profile (GBP) isn't set up correctly, you won't appear in searches no matter how good your service is.
■ 1. Category Audit
GBP has primary and secondary categories. Most business owners set the primary category when they open and don't touch it for years.
That category directly controls which searches your business appears in. If the category is wrong, your business won't be visible to people who want to buy.
In this prompt, the AI searches for three keywords on Google Maps, extracts all category settings of top-ranking competitors, and organizes them in a spreadsheet.
1Open Chrome and access Google Maps. Search for the following three keywords: "[Service Name] [City Name]": [KW1], [KW2], [KW3]. For each search, open the GBP of competitors appearing at the top of the map and extract the primary category and all subcategories.2Organize in a spreadsheet. Separate tabs for each keyword, with columns: Business Name, Primary Category, Subcategories, Star Rating, Review Count, Ranking. Highlight categories that competitors have but you don't.3Based on that, create a priority list of categories to add. Start with categories held by all 3 companies and end with categories held by only 1 company.
Mr. Sarvesh says:
"I've had clients who started appearing in a completely new set of searches just by adding one subcategory the following week."
Delegate the investigation and organization of categories to AI, and let the human decide "which category to add." Separation of work and judgment. This structure continues for the next 19 patterns.
■ 2. Attribute Audit
GBP attributes are tags like "Women-led," "Free estimate," "24-hour service," and "Credit cards accepted." Most people don't even know they exist, but they affect both search ranking and click-through rate.
■ 3. Competitor Review Analysis
More important than the number of stars is the "velocity" of reviews. Google values a business with 90 reviews increasing at a rate of 15 per month more than a business with 200 reviews, 180 of which are from two years ago. Analyze the last 50 reviews of three competitors to understand review velocity and frequent keywords.
■ 4. Review Reply Strategy
Google officially acknowledges that replying to reviews improves local search rankings. If you reply to 10 reviews a month and include the service name and region in each reply, you'll accumulate 120 keyword-rich pieces of content on GBP per year. By creating templates, you can respond to any review within 60 seconds.
■ 5. GBP Posting Strategy
GBP posts are the most underutilized feature on the platform. Posts expire in 7 days, but consistent posting sends a signal to Google that "this business is active." Create a posting calendar of 2-3 posts per week, rotating seasonal promotions and region-specific content.
■ 6. Service Section Optimization
GPB's service section is prime real estate for keywords. Most businesses leave it blank or without descriptions. If the services you provide aren't listed on GBP, you effectively don't exist for those searches.
■ 7. Description Optimization
The GBP description is a prime 750-character space. Create three versions—keyword-focused, conversion-focused, and trust-focused—and test them every 30 days. The idea is to treat it as a testable asset rather than writing it once and leaving it.
■ 8. Photo Audit
Data shows that businesses with photos get 42% more direction requests and 35% higher click-through rates. Consistency is more important than quantity. Uploading 3-5 photos every week is better for Google's evaluation than uploading 50 at once and leaving it. Photo filenames and location information also affect search rankings.
Take a step back here. The eight design patterns we just saw all have the same structure: "Let AI investigate competitor information, and let humans decide how to act." This is about SEO, but if you extract the structure, it can be used as-is for "refining sales lists," "researching the recruitment market," or "analyzing product reviews."
Sales are Sleeping on the Second Page of Search
Once the GBP foundation is ready, the next step is the website. The most important concept here is the "Page 2 Goldmine." Dig up keywords sleeping on the second page of search results that are "just one push away from the first page."
■ 9. Keyword Gap Analysis
Use a search data analysis tool called SEMrush to identify all keywords that competitors rank for but you don't.
Target keywords with 100-2,000 monthly searches, filter for difficulty under 40, and create a priority list of the top 20 most effective keywords. Sources of sales that you are missing are hidden among the keywords your competitors are using to attract customers every day.
■ 10. Audit of Sales-Driving Pages
Analyze the last three months of data in Google Search Console (GSC). GSC is a free search data tool provided by Google that shows all the keywords your site is being searched for.
Classify pages into four categories: keywords that are one push away, pages that are displayed but not clicked, pages that don't rank at all, and problem pages where multiple pages compete for the same keyword. Assign weekly actions to each.
■ 11. Building Service x City Pages
Google ranks by page, not by the entire site. If you don't have a dedicated page for the search "Air Conditioner Repair Shibuya," you won't appear for that search. Identify missing "Service x City" combinations and generate SEO titles, descriptions, headings, body text, FAQs, and CTAs for each page in bulk.
■ 12. Thorough GSC Analysis
Most business owners open GSC, get overwhelmed by the amount of data, and close it. This prompt organizes that data and identifies the most valuable "Page 2 Goldmines."
Keywords positioned 11-20 in search results with over 100 monthly impressions. These are the top priority for optimization. Moving from 15th to 5th place is more valuable than creating 10 new pages.
1Access GSC and export all search performance data for the last 90 days.2Identify the "Page 2 Goldmine." Extract all keywords ranked 11-20 with over 100 monthly impressions. These are the top priority for optimization.3For each keyword, open the currently ranking page and check the following: Is the keyword in the title tag? Is it in the H1 heading? Is it in the first 100 words? Page word count, presence of internal links, and current meta description content.4Create a 30-day optimization sprint. Week 1: Fix title tags and H1 headings. Week 2: Enhance thin content pages. Week 3: Fix internal links. Week 4: Rewrite meta descriptions. For all fixes, write the actual text to be used, not just instructions.
Considering the effort to create 10 new pages, fixing the title of a keyword already in 11-20th place is far more efficient.
■ 13. Review Sentiment Analysis
Reverse-engineer the words customers actually use from competitor reviews and rewrite your website copy with those words. This is a technique most SEO agencies don't know. "The business that writes copy in the words customers actually use wins." This is the essence of improving conversion rates.
The patterns so far are about "finding hidden opportunities from data." Keywords sleeping on Page 2, words customers use in reviews. Both take a huge amount of time for humans to find manually. Let AI collect them, and let humans decide "where to invest." This structure works the same way for ad keyword analysis and social media post reaction analysis.
External Trust Determines Search Ranking
Once GBP and the website are in order, the next phase is building "external trust." Links from other websites and the consistency of your business information published online determine Google's trust score.
■ 14. Competitor Backlink Analysis
Use a backlink analysis tool called Ahrefs to identify sites linking to three competitors. Two to four substantial links per month have a higher compounding effect than 20 directory registrations. Generate a 90-day link-building plan and contact emails for each link target in bulk.
■ 15. Information Consistency Audit
Check the accuracy of your business information published on Google Maps, Yelp, and various directories. Inconsistencies in phone numbers or addresses are the biggest killers of local SEO. If the phone number is different on Yelp and Google, the contradiction in trust signals will lower your search ranking. This is one of the few measures where you can see results within 30 days of fixing it.
■ 16. Search Intent Mapping
Most businesses optimize for the wrong keywords. They chase high-volume "awareness stage" keywords and ignore "ready to buy" stage keywords that have lower volume but 5-10 times higher conversion rates.
This prompt uses a framework to classify search keywords into four buying stages.
1I want to map search keywords to the buying journey. My business is [Industry], located in [City], and primary services are [Service 1], [Service 2], [Service 3].2Access SEMrush and get all keywords with 20+ monthly searches in my service area. Classify them into the following 4 stages:3Stage 1: Unaware of the problem. Searches where they have a problem but don't know what to call it. E.g., "water leaking from ceiling," "weird noise from AC."4Stage 2: Problem aware. They know the problem but are researching solutions. E.g., "how to fix a roof leak," "AC not cooling cause."5Stage 3: Solution comparison. Comparing options. E.g., "plumber vs DIY pipe repair," "how to choose an AC repair company."6Stage 4: Ready to buy. Want to request now. E.g., "emergency plumber [City Name]," "AC repair near me."7Present the total number of keywords, total monthly search volume, average difficulty, and top 10 keywords for each stage. Place Stage 4 keywords on service pages and GBP. Stage 3 on comparison pages and FAQs. Stage 2 in educational content. Stage 1 in problem identification content. Present 5 Stage 4 keywords to rank for within 90 days and specific actions.
Most businesses spend their SEO budget on Stage 2, but Stage 4 has 5-10 times the conversion rate.
This four-stage classification isn't just for SEO. It applies to marketing lead nurturing, sales funnel design, and customer support FAQ design. Classify which stage the customer is in and prepare the optimal content for each stage. This framework can be applied to any business operation.
The consistent structure seen in these three parts is "let AI investigate the whole, and let humans strategically decide where to start." GBP categories, Page 2 keywords, backlink analysis—the essence of what's being done is the same.
Content and Measurement Create Long-Term Competitive Advantage
The final part is building a system to "keep widening the gap" with competitors. Fill content gaps, be recognized as a Google "entity," and correctly measure monthly results.
■ 17. Content Gap Analysis
Identify all content that competitor sites have but you don't. Someone searching for "weird noise from AC" is one step away from calling an AC repair company. Mr. Sarvesh says, "Problem-awareness content is a 24-hour salesperson."
■ 18. Entity Optimization
This is the most advanced design pattern in this article. It's an area most SEO practitioners don't even know about.
Google evaluates not just sites but "entities," or actual business entities. Whether a business is registered in the Knowledge Graph affects not only search ranking but also display in AI Overviews.
AI Overviews are summaries generated by AI at the top of search results. Businesses with strong entity signals tend to have stable rankings even when algorithms are updated.
■ 19. Competitor GBP Posting Pattern Analysis
Thoroughly investigate competitor posting history and reverse-engineer all posting times, days, post types, and seasonal patterns. If you build a posting strategy knowing the competitor's patterns, it will be more effective than posting by trial and error. Generate full text for the first four weeks of posts.
■ 20. Monthly Performance Report
Most business owners track the wrong metrics. Total traffic and domain rating don't tell you if SEO is generating sales.
Did the number of calls from GBP increase or decrease? What is the conversion rate from organic search? Automatically generate a one-page monthly report that lets you check only the metrics directly linked to sales in 5 minutes.
You Can Overtake Them in Just 3 Months
Of course, you don't need to do all 20 design patterns at once. Mr. Sarvesh has designed a 12-week roadmap considering difficulty and immediate effect.
Week 1:
Load business context + Category audit + Attribute audit. This is the fastest fix. Search display could change within a few days.
Week 2:
Review analysis + Review reply strategy + GBP posting. Review velocity goals are set, and the posting calendar starts moving.
Week 3:
Service section + Description + Photos. GBP optimization is complete.
Week 4:
Keyword gap analysis + GSC analysis. All website pages to be fixed are identified.
Weeks 5-6:
Sales-driving page audit + City page construction + Review sentiment analysis. Website messaging starts to align with GBP.
Weeks 7-8:
Backlink analysis + Information consistency audit + Search intent mapping. External trust building begins.
Weeks 9-10:
Content gap + Entity optimization + GBP posting pattern analysis. A foundation for long-term competitive advantage is formed.
Weeks 11-12:
Monthly report. Measure what worked, concentrate on what's effective, and fix what's not.
Mr. Sarvesh states clearly:
"I've seen businesses established for years be overtaken with 90 days of consistent execution."
SEO Design Patterns Can Be Used for Any Business
Some of you may have noticed by now.
These 20 design patterns look like they're about SEO, but they are actually meta-patterns for "systematically delegating work to AI."
Let's extract three structures.
■ Pass Your Business Context to AI
By passing business information once in Step 0, the accuracy of all subsequent prompts increased.
This is the same principle as CLAUDE.md in Claude Code.
If you write the business context in CLAUDE.md, all Claude Code outputs will be accurate. Design the context before writing the prompt. This thinking is a prerequisite for any situation where you delegate work to AI, not just SEO.
■ Define Reusable Business Patterns
The 20 design patterns classified into four parts will reproduce the same quality of operation over and over once created.
This is the same design philosophy as Skills in Claude Code. If you define reusable business patterns, anyone can execute them at any time and get the same results. Individual dependency is eliminated.
■ Delegate Work to AI, Humans Focus on Judgment
"Claude does the work. You do the high-level thinking."
Do you spend 2 hours investigating Google Maps categories, or do you let AI organize them in 5 minutes and focus on the judgment of "which category to add"? The difference is not in the speed of work, but in the quality of judgment.
These three structures are the same in marketing, sales, and back-office operations.
If you want to try it for work other than SEO, start with Step 0. Organize your work's "6 categories" and pass them to the AI. That alone should change the AI's response from generalities to a "dedicated advisor for you."
Summary
- The 20 design patterns built by the world's #1 SEO expert from 14 years of practice are a textbook for "how to systematically delegate work to AI."
- Everything starts with Step 0, "Loading Business Context." AI can only give accurate answers when it has context.
- GBP optimization is the area with the fastest results. Just fixing categories and attributes can change search display within days.
- The "Page 2 Goldmine" is the core. Keywords ranked 11-20 have the potential to jump to the first page with just a title tag fix.
- Classifying search keywords into four buying journey stages allows you to focus on Stage 4, which has 5-10 times the conversion rate.
- Executing step-by-step with a 12-week roadmap can overtake businesses established for years in 90 days.
- "Claude collects. You think." Step 0 = CLAUDE.md, 20 design patterns = Skills. The framework in this article can be directly transferred to "designing work delegation to AI."
For those who found this article even slightly helpful.
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