The essentials
- Five parts: the Google Business Profile listing, reviews, consistency of your details, the local website, local citations and links.
- Twenty checks doable in two hours with free tools.
- The deliverable: a status / fix / priority table, not a thirty-page report.
- When: before hiring a supplier, after a fall in calls, and once a year.
A local search audit answers one question: why doesn't my business appear (or appear any more) in the local pack on the queries that matter to me, and what should be fixed first? Unlike a complete SEO audit, it concentrates on the local signals: the Google listing, reviews, consistency of your details, the site and local mentions. Here are the twenty checks it should contain, with the thresholds that trigger action.
Part 1: the Google Business Profile listing (checks 1 to 7)
| # | Control | Alert if |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The listing is claimed and verified, and owned by the business | Unverified, or the owner is a former supplier |
| 2 | No duplicate listing | Two listings for the same business |
| 3 | An exact primary category, relevant secondary ones | A generic category, or one different from the competitors at the top |
| 4 | A compliant name (no keywords or town added) | A risk of suspension |
| 5 | Complete information: hours, phone, site, description, services, attributes | A completeness score below 100% |
| 6 | Photos: number, quality, recency | Fewer than 10 photos, or none in 6 months |
| 7 | Activity: posts, questions and answers, suggested edits pending | No post in 3 months |
The optimisations in detail are in optimising your Google Business Profile.
Part 2: reviews (checks 8 to 10)
| # | Control | Alert if |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | Number and rating, compared with the three local pack competitors | Fewer than half the reviews of the third in the pack, or a rating below 4.3 |
| 9 | Freshness: reviews in the last 90 days | No recent review |
| 10 | Response rate and quality of responses | Under 80% responded to, or generic responses |
The collection and response method is in Google reviews and local visibility.
Part 3: consistency of your details (checks 11 to 12)
| # | Control | Alert if |
|---|---|---|
| 11 | Identical NAP on the listing, the site and social media | Any variation in name, address or phone |
| 12 | Old details still present on the web (search the number and the address in quotes) | An old address on a visible directory |
Part 4: the local website (checks 13 to 17)
| # | Control | Alert if |
|---|---|---|
| 13 | A page dedicated to the business (or one per location / area) | Only a generic home page |
| 14 | NAP in the footer and on the contact page, with a clickable phone number | Details missing or shown as an image |
| 15 | Valid LocalBusiness structured data | Missing or failing the rich results test |
| 16 | Local keywords in the titles and H1s (activity + town) | Titles with no geographic mention |
| 17 | Mobile speed and usability | LCP above 2.5 s on mobile |
See structuring a site's local pages and Schema.org for local SEO.
Part 5: local citations and links (checks 18 to 20)
| # | Control | Alert if |
|---|---|---|
| 18 | Presence on the reference directories (the main local listings, trade directories, Apple Maps, Bing Places) | Absent from the main ones |
| 19 | Links from local sites (press, associations, partners, the council) | No local referring domain |
| 20 | Local pack rankings on 5 queries from 3 points in the area | Absent from the top 3 on the main queries |
The method is in local citations and tracking your position on Google Maps.
The deliverable to demand
A useful audit fits in one table: for each of the twenty checks, the status (compliant, to be fixed, critical), the precise fix, the priority and the estimated time. The critical fixes (an unverified listing, a duplicate, a wrong category, an inconsistent NAP) are dealt with within the week; the others within the month. A thirty-page report of screenshots with no action plan isn't an audit. That format also serves to judge a supplier: see choosing a Google Business Profile supplier.
After the audit
The fixes follow the order of the ten-step action plan, and monthly tracking rests on the local SEO KPIs. For a network of several locations, the audit is done listing by listing with a consolidated table, as described in multi-location local SEO.
How GreenRed helps
Rather than juggling several tools, GreenRed's Google Business Profile module brings these metrics together in a single dashboard, compares them over time and tells you which actions come first. You can try it free, with no card, from the Pricing.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a local SEO audit cost?
Between €300 and €800 excluding VAT for one location with a freelancer or an agency, often included in a listing management service. It can also be done in-house in two hours with this checklist and free tools; a marketing platform then automates the tracking of the checks.
What is the difference between an SEO audit and a local SEO audit?
The SEO audit covers the whole site and its visibility on national queries: technical, content, popularity. The local SEO audit concentrates on the Google Business Profile listing, reviews, consistency of your details, the site's local pages and citations. A local business needs both, with local first.
Which tools should you use for a local SEO audit?
The Google Business Profile listing itself (statistics, completeness), Google Maps in a private window for rankings, a search of the number and the address in quotes for NAP, Google's rich results test for structured data, PageSpeed Insights for mobile. A local rank tracking tool completes the set for regular readings.
How often should you audit your local SEO?
A full audit once a year and before any change of supplier, plus a monthly check of three metrics: local pack position on the main queries, actions from the listing, reviews received. Redo an audit after a move, a change of name or an unexplained fall in calls.