Local SEO Audit
A local SEO audit that checks every part of your local presence, from your Google profile to your map rankings, and hands you a ranked list of what to fix first.
What's included
- Google Business Profile review: ownership, categories, services, description, photos, hours and activity
- Duplicate profile and suspended listing check
- Citation consistency check across major directories and your industry's key sites
- Review analysis: count, recency, rating spread and how you respond, compared with local competitors
- Map ranking grid for your main searches across your service area
- Website review of your home page, service pages and any location pages for local signals
- Technical basics that affect local pages, like indexing, mobile display and page titles
- A prioritized fix list, with each item marked as something you can do yourself or something we can do
- A walkthrough call to go through the findings and answer your questions
Who it's for
A local SEO audit is for owners who want to know what's wrong before spending money on fixes. It suits you if:
- Calls from Google dropped and you don't know whether it's your profile, your website, a new competitor or something else.
- You're about to hire a local SEO company and want an independent picture of where you stand first, so you can judge any proposal.
- You've been paying someone for local SEO and aren't sure what's been done or whether it's working.
- You've just moved, rebranded or bought an existing business, and need to know what the web currently says about it.
- You have staff who can make changes and just need a clear list of what to do and in what order.
We audit single-location businesses of every kind, from dental practices and veterinary clinics to landscapers, contractors, restaurants and retail stores. If you have several locations, we can audit them together; each gets its own profile and map review, and the report shows which issues repeat across all of them. Prefer to check it yourself? See our list of free SEO tools.
The goal is not a long report full of warnings. It's a short, ranked list that tells you what's holding you back most and what can wait.
How we do it
- 1
Profile check
We go through your Google Business Profile field by field: who owns it, whether it's verified, the primary and secondary categories, services, description, hours, attributes, photos, posts and how you've replied to reviews. We search for duplicates and old profiles from previous addresses or names. We also check that your profile follows Google's guidelines, since a keyword-stuffed business name or an ineligible address can put the whole listing at risk.
- 2
Map rankings
With map ranking grid scans, we check your service area for your main searches. This shows your position from many points, not only from your own address, and makes it obvious whether you have a visibility problem across the whole area or only in certain zones. We note which competitors hold the top spots where you're weak.
Map ranking grid scans - 3
Citations
We check your name, address and phone number on major directories, data sources and the sites that matter in your industry. We look specifically for old addresses, previous phone numbers, former business names and duplicate listings, because those cause more confusion than small formatting differences.
- 4
Reviews
We compare your reviews with the businesses ranking above you: how many you have, how recent they are, your rating and how consistently you reply. We also check whether reviews mention the services you want to be known for, since customers read that detail.
- 5
Website
Using on-page checks, we review your home page, service pages and any location pages. We look at page titles, headings, whether your services and service area are clearly described, whether your name, address and phone number appear and match your profile, local business schema, mobile display and whether key pages are indexed. We note gaps, like a main service with no dedicated page.
On-page checks - 6
Prioritizing
Finally, we rank every issue by likely impact and effort. A wrong primary category or a duplicate profile usually outranks a missing photo. Each item gets a short explanation of what's wrong, why it matters and how to fix it. Where two fixes depend on each other, such as correcting your address on your profile before updating directories, we put them in the right order so nobody does the work twice. If we find something urgent, like a profile at risk of suspension, we tell you straight away rather than waiting for the report.
What you receive
You receive a written audit report, usually as a PDF, with four parts:
- A one-page summary of the biggest problems and the first five things to fix.
- Map grids for each audited keyword, with the competitors holding the top spots.
- Detailed findings for the profile, citations, reviews and website, with screenshots where they help.
- The prioritized fix list as a spreadsheet, with each task marked "do it yourself" or "needs specialist help", so you can assign it to staff or to us.
We then walk you through the findings on a call, answer questions and explain any trade-offs. The report and spreadsheet are yours to keep, whatever you decide to do next. If you run the audit again later, the same structure makes it easy to compare the two and see which problems are solved and which remain.
Pricing: custom quote after a free review
The scope of a local SEO audit depends on how many locations, services and keywords you want checked, so we quote it after a free review. If you then choose a monthly plan, the audit findings become the starting plan for that work.
Frequently asked questions
Something else? Call (866) 571-4320.
How is a local SEO audit different from a general SEO audit?
A general SEO audit concentrates on your website: crawling, speed, indexing, content and links. A local SEO audit adds everything outside your website that affects local results, including your Google Business Profile, citations, reviews and map rankings across your area. If your business depends on nearby customers, the local audit is usually the better place to start. For a deep technical review of a large site, see our SEO audit services.
Is this the same as your free SEO audit?
No. The free review is a quick look to see where the biggest problems are and whether we can help. The paid local SEO audit is a full investigation with a map grid, a citation check, a competitor comparison and a written fix list you can act on with or without us.
Do I have to hire you to fix what the audit finds?
No. The fix list is yours to keep, and many items are marked as things you or your staff can do yourself, like adding photos or updating hours. If you'd like us to handle the work, we'll suggest which monthly plan fits, but there's no obligation.
What do you need from me for the audit?
Your business name, website, the services you want more work for, the towns or area you serve, and any past names, addresses or phone numbers. Manager access to your Google Business Profile helps us see insights that aren't public, but we can audit the public side without it.
Will the audit tell me why a competitor outranks me?
It compares you with the businesses that appear above you for your main searches, looking at categories, reviews, citations, website content and where they sit on the map. That usually points to clear differences. Some factors, like a competitor being physically closer to searchers, can't be changed, and we'll say so.
How often should a local business get audited?
A full audit makes sense when you start local SEO, after a move or rebrand, when rankings drop suddenly, or roughly once a year to catch drift. If you're on a monthly plan, we monitor the main signals continuously, so a separate audit is rarely needed.
Start with a free look at your local presence
Tell us about your business in a short chat. We review your website and contact you within one business day, with no obligation.