Free Local SEO Audit Checklist: Rank Higher in Your City

Your Google Business Profile is your most important local asset. Google prioritises businesses with complete, accurate profiles in local results and Maps.

Quick audit, five minutes: the profile is claimed and verified by you; name, address and phone are exactly right; the category is specific ("Plumber" beats "Home Services"); hours are current including holidays; the description runs 300+ characters with keywords used naturally; the website URL is linked; and at least five recent photos of your team, premises and work are uploaded.

To fix it, sign in to Google Business Profile, confirm no previous owner or competitor controls the listing, complete every field, rewrite the description around your main service and city, and add fresh photos. Then set up a routine for asking customers for reviews.

Google needs to understand both what you do and where you do it. Keywords that include your city or region signal local relevance.

Quick audit, ten minutes: page titles include city plus service ("Plumber in Austin, TX", not "Plumbing Services"); meta descriptions mention the location; the H1 pairs your primary service with the city; body copy references the city and nearby areas naturally three to five times; each location you serve has its own page; and your schema carries address, phone and service area.

To fix it, rewrite your homepage title around service plus city, create a page per city you serve, and mine Google's "People also ask" and search suggestions for the phrases local buyers actually type.

Your name, address and phone number need to match everywhere online - directories, social profiles and old listings you have forgotten about. Inconsistent citations confuse search engines and quietly cap how well you can rank.

Quick audit, fifteen minutes: search your business name and phone number and check the top directory results. Note every variation in spelling, suite number, abbreviation or phone format.

Fix the major aggregators and industry directories first, claim or correct duplicates, and remove listings for addresses you no longer occupy. Pick one canonical format for your name, address and phone, then use it everywhere without exception.

Review volume, rating and recency all influence local rankings, not just trust. A steady trickle every month beats a burst of twenty followed by a year of silence.

Quick audit, five minutes: check your total review count against the businesses ranking above you, your average rating, how recent the newest review is, and whether you reply to reviews - good and bad.

To fix it, ask every satisfied customer at the moment they are happiest, using a direct review link that removes friction. Reply to every review within a couple of days in a consistent, human tone, and never argue with a critic in public.

LocalBusiness schema tells search engines your address, phone, opening hours, service area and price range in a machine-readable form, which helps you qualify for rich results and local panels.

Quick audit, ten minutes: run your pages through Google's Rich Results Test. Confirm a LocalBusiness (or a more specific subtype) node exists with address, telephone, opening hours, area served, and a link between the location page and the organisation.

Add the markup to your homepage and every location page, use the same name, address and phone as your Google Business Profile, and retest after publishing so no errors slip through.

If you serve several areas, each one needs its own page with genuinely local content: the team covering it, directions and parking, service specifics, and proof from customers in that area.

Quick audit, ten minutes: check that every priority area has a page, that the pages are not near-duplicates of one template, that each has a unique title, H1 and testimonial, and that all of them are linked from a clear locations hub.

Duplicating one page across ten towns creates listings that cannibalise each other and rank for nothing. Write each one for the people who live there.

Most local searches happen on a phone, often with intent to call within the hour. A slow or awkward mobile page loses the customer even when you rank.

Quick audit, five minutes: run PageSpeed Insights on your homepage and top service page. Aim for a Largest Contentful Paint under 2.5 seconds, tap targets at least 48px, a tap-to-call button visible without scrolling, and no layout shift as images load.

Compress and resize images, defer non-critical scripts, and test the whole booking or enquiry flow on a real phone on mobile data rather than office wifi.

Fix this week: claim and complete your Google Business Profile, correct name, address and phone everywhere, and add a visible tap-to-call button. These move the needle fastest.

Fix this month: local keyword targeting on your main pages, LocalBusiness schema, a review request routine, and citation cleanup on the major directories.

Fix next quarter: full location pages for every area you serve, local content and mobile speed work beyond the quick wins.

Local SEO with us runs $1,200 a month, month to month, covering profile management, citation cleanup, review workflow and location pages. If you would rather know where you stand first, the free SEO audit tells you which of these seven areas is holding you back most.