Local SEO audit checklist

Someone three streets away searches “dentist open Saturday”. Google has to choose which practices to show in the map results, and it says it weighs three things: relevance, distance and prominence. You cannot change how far the searcher is from you. Everything in this local SEO audit checklist works on the other two.

Google says relevance is how well a Business Profile matches the search, distance is how far the business is from the searcher, and prominence is how well known the business is; it also says more reviews and positive ratings can help local ranking, and that there is no way to pay for a better local ranking (how Google determines local ranking).

Each table below gives the check, how to verify it, and what a pass looks like.

Google Business Profile

Google says a profile’s business name must match the real-world name on signage and stationery, categories should be as few as possible, and there should be only one profile per business location (guidelines for representing your business).

Check	How to verify	Pass looks like
Verified and owned	Sign in to the profile manager	Verified, with at least two owners or managers from your business
Business name	Compare with your signage	Exactly the trading name, with no added keywords, locations or taglines
Primary category	Search the category list for the most specific match	The narrowest category that describes the core business
Secondary categories	Review the list	Few, and each one describes what the business is, not a service it offers
Address or service area	Check the map pin	Precise address and pin; service-area businesses hide the address
Hours	Compare with your website	Regular and special hours both current, including holidays
Phone	Call it	A local number the business controls, matching the website
Website link	Click it	Goes to the matching location page, not the home page of a multi-location brand
Duplicates	Search Maps for your name and old addresses	One profile per location; old or duplicate listings reported
Photos and services	Review the profile as a customer	Recent photos and a complete services or products list

NAP consistency

NAP stands for name, address and phone number. Inconsistent NAP rarely breaks rankings on its own, but it creates doubt about which details are correct, and that doubt spreads to directories, maps apps and AI assistants.

Where to check	What to look for
Website footer and contact page	Same name, address and phone as the profile, as text rather than an image
LocalBusiness structured data	Same values as the visible page
Major directories and data aggregators in your country	Old addresses after a move, old phone numbers, previous business names
Social profiles	Contact details and website URL
Industry directories and associations	The same three details, plus a link to the right location page

Our view: fix the listings that rank on page one for your business name first. Those are the ones customers and AI systems are most likely to read.

Location pages on your site

Check	Pass looks like
One page per real location	Each location has its own URL linked from a locations hub
Unique content	Staff, parking, directions, local services or pricing, not the same text with a new city name
NAP and hours as text	Matching the Business Profile exactly
Title and description	Service and place first, brand last; check with the meta tag checker
Embedded map	A map or directions link that matches the profile pin
Internal links	Linked from the main navigation or footer, so it is never an orphan page
Indexable	No noindex, a self-referencing canonical, and listed in the XML sitemap

Service-area pages for towns you do not have an office in are fine when they contain something specific to that town. Pages that differ only by the city name are thin. Google says in its spam policies that pages targeted at specific regions or cities that funnel users to one page are an example of doorway abuse.

LocalBusiness structured data

Google says name and address are required, recommends using the most specific LocalBusiness subtype available, and advises marking up each location as its own entity; it recommends review and rating properties only for sites that capture reviews of other local businesses (LocalBusiness structured data).

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Dentist",
  "name": "Example Dental Care",
  "url": "https://www.example.com/locations/riverside",
  "telephone": "+1-555-010-0199",
  "address": {
    "@type": "PostalAddress",
    "streetAddress": "12 River Road",
    "addressLocality": "Springfield",
    "addressRegion": "IL",
    "postalCode": "62701",
    "addressCountry": "US"
  },
  "geo": { "@type": "GeoCoordinates", "latitude": 39.78172, "longitude": -89.65015 },
  "openingHoursSpecification": [{
    "@type": "OpeningHoursSpecification",
    "dayOfWeek": ["Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday"],
    "opens": "08:00:00",
    "closes": "17:00:00"
  }]
}

Check	Pass looks like
Subtype	The most specific type, such as Dentist or Plumber, not just LocalBusiness
Location URL	url points to the location page, not the home page
Coordinates	At least five decimal places
Phone	Includes the country code
Validity	No errors in the schema markup validator
No self-serving review markup	No aggregateRating for your own business on your own pages

The JSON-LD glossary entry explains the format if you are adding this by hand.

Reviews

Google says businesses may ask customers for reviews but must not offer incentives, must not discourage negative reviews or selectively ask only happy customers, and must not post reviews from employees or others with a conflict of interest (prohibited and restricted content).

Check	Pass looks like
Steady flow	A routine that asks every customer, not a burst after a quiet year
No review gating	No survey that filters out unhappy customers before the review link
No incentives	No discounts, gifts or prize draws tied to leaving a review
Responses	Every review answered, negative ones calmly and specifically
Policy-violating reviews	Reported through the profile, not argued with in public

Local links and mentions

Prominence is about how well known you are, and links and mentions from local sources are part of that. Our view: for most local businesses the useful links are few and real: suppliers and partners, local news coverage, sponsorships, chambers of commerce, trade associations and community organisations. Check what you already have with the backlink checker, then look for organisations you work with that do not link to you yet. Bought links and generic directory blasts add risk without adding prominence.

Local queries in AI answers

Google says there are no special requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and its best practices include checking that your Business Profile information is up to date (AI features and your website).

Check	Pass looks like
Facts agree everywhere	Hours, address, services and prices match across profile, website and major directories
AI crawler access	robots.txt and your CDN allow OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot and PerplexityBot
Answers on the page	Location pages state service area, typical prices, hours and booking options in plain text
Readable without JavaScript	Opening hours and addresses are not loaded by a script after the page renders

Our view: assistants such as ChatGPT and Perplexity piece together local answers from websites, review sites and directories. When those sources disagree, the answer is more likely to be wrong. The AI visibility guide explains how to test what assistants say about you, and the AI visibility checker tests whether your pages can be read.

What to do next

1. Fix the Business Profile first: name, primary category, hours and the website link to the right location page.
2. Correct NAP on the listings that appear on page one for your business name.
3. Run each location page through the free audit to catch indexing, structured data and speed problems.
4. Set up a review routine that asks every customer and answers every review.
5. If your site runs on WordPress, the WordPress SEO audit covers the platform settings that most often hide location pages.

Frequently asked questions

How often should I audit my Google Business Profile?

Check it monthly and after any change to hours, address, phone number or services. Profiles can be edited by Google or by users suggesting changes, so a monthly look catches edits you did not make.

Does NAP need to match exactly everywhere?

The business name, address and phone number should refer unambiguously to the same business. Small formatting differences such as St versus Street are not the problem; old addresses, old phone numbers and different business names are.

Can I add review stars to my own website with schema?

Google does not show review stars for a business's reviews of itself. Its documentation recommends review and rating markup on LocalBusiness only for sites that collect reviews about other businesses, so leave it off your own location pages.

Should I create a page for every city I serve?

Create a page for each real location, and for service areas only where you have something specific to say, such as local projects, pricing or regulations. Near-identical pages that only swap the city name risk falling under Google's doorway abuse policy.