Audit evidence first, then prioritize the work.

AUDIT 1

Preserve the starting point before changing anything

List client-owned accounts and confirm access to Business Profile, website, domain, hosting, Search Console, Analytics, call tracking and lead systems. Record profile status, indexed pages, priority queries, calls, forms, qualified enquiries, reviews and response performance.

• Named users and backup owners documented.
• Search Console coverage and manual actions checked.
• Analytics and conversion events tested.
• Business Profile status and duplicates recorded.
• Telephone and form destinations verified.
• Recent business changes and previous SEO work noted.

AUDIT 2

Review eligibility, identity, categories and customer actions

Compare the profile with real-world branding and the website. Check name, address behavior, service areas, phone, website, hours, categories, services, photos, attributes, reviews and owner access. Record suggested edits and policy notices.

Test the profile from a signed-out mobile device. Confirm that calls, website visits, bookings and directions behave as intended. Use Google’s current representation guidelines as the policy baseline.

AUDIT 3

Inspect indexability, architecture and decision-stage usefulness

Crawl the website and review response codes, canonical URLs, robots directives, sitemap coverage, titles, headings, internal links, structured data, mobile layout, speed and accessibility. Prioritize defects that prevent crawling, indexing or conversion over cosmetic scores.

Map important services and locations to existing pages. Identify missing intent, overlapping URLs, thin location pages and orphaned content. Review whether each priority page explains service fit, process, proof, coverage and a usable next action.

AUDIT 4

Check whether the web can recognize the same legitimate business

Review key business listings, local organizations, suppliers, trade associations, press, project references and relevant links. Correct important identity conflicts, but do not treat mass citation volume as the objective.

Compare competitors by category, service architecture, project evidence, reviews, local links and conversion experience. Use the comparison to identify gaps, not to copy tactics without understanding the business.

AUDIT 5

Assess review acquisition, response and operational learning

Record review count, recency, rating distribution, response coverage and themes across important platforms. Inspect the request process for incentives, review gating, poor consent or excessive reminders. Confirm who handles critical feedback and when it escalates.

Look beyond the average rating. Repeated comments about communication, punctuality, pricing clarity or workmanship reveal what future customers may fear and what operations should improve.

AUDIT 6

Follow every enquiry path until ownership is clear

Submit a test form, call during and outside business hours, test booking links and inspect estimate follow-up. Record acknowledgement time, human response time, routing, pipeline stage, reminders, failure alerts and stop rules.

Track the complete funnel: source, contact, qualification, appointment, estimate, decision and completed work. A local SEO audit that stops at traffic can miss the point where most revenue is actually lost.

AUDIT 7

Turn findings into a dependency-aware 90-day plan

Score each finding by business impact, confidence, effort, risk and dependency. Fix ownership, security, policy, tracking and broken customer actions before expanding content. Group the roadmap into the first 30, 60 and 90 days with a responsible owner and acceptance test.

COMMON QUESTIONS

Questions local businesses ask