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By Brian Hunter · Founder, Hunter Creative Media & Design

If your local business isn’t showing up in the map pack or local search results, the problem isn’t usually one big thing. It’s a dozen small things. A missing category here, an inconsistent phone number there, a page that loads too slowly on mobile: they compound.

We’ve audited hundreds of local business websites and Google Business Profiles. This checklist is what we actually use internally. It’s organized by category so you can work through it systematically, fix what’s broken, and build on what’s working. There is a lot more ground to cover here, and we walk through all of it in our complete local SEO playbook for small businesses.

Print it out. Grab a highlighter. Let’s go.

Google Business Profile Audit

Your Google Business Profile (GBP) is the single most important asset for local search visibility. If you do nothing else, get this section right.

Profile Completeness

  • Business name matches your real-world signage exactly: no keyword stuffing
  • Primary category is the most specific option available (e.g., “Family Law Attorney” not just “Lawyer”)
  • Secondary categories cover all your core services (you get up to 9 additional categories)
  • Business description uses all 750 characters and includes your primary keywords naturally
  • Address is accurate and matches your website and all directory listings character for character
  • Phone number is a local number, not a toll-free tracking number
  • Website URL points to the correct page (homepage for single-location, location page for multi-location)
  • Hours are accurate, including special hours for holidays
  • Service area is defined if you serve customers at their location
  • Attributes are filled out (wheelchair accessible, women-owned, etc.)

Photos and Visual Content

  • At least 10-15 high-quality photos uploaded
  • Cover photo and logo are set and display correctly
  • Photos include interior, exterior, team, and work examples
  • Photos are geotagged with your business location
  • New photos added at least monthly
  • No stock photos: Google’s AI can detect them and they hurt trust

Posts and Updates

  • Google Posts published at least weekly
  • Posts include a clear CTA (Learn More, Call Now, Book Online)
  • Event posts used for upcoming specials or seasonal promotions
  • Offer posts used for time-limited deals
  • Posts include relevant keywords without being spammy

Q&A Section

  • Common questions pre-populated by you (yes, you can ask and answer your own questions)
  • All customer questions answered promptly
  • Answers include relevant keywords where natural
  • No competitor spam in your Q&A (check regularly)

Reviews

We’ll cover this in more depth below, but for the GBP-specific items:

  • Review link is easily accessible and shared with customers
  • Owner responses on every review, positive and negative
  • No fake reviews (they will get flagged and hurt you)
  • Keywords appear naturally in customer reviews (this happens when you deliver great service: you can’t control it, but you can encourage detailed reviews)

On-Page SEO Audit

Your website needs to clearly tell Google what you do, where you do it, and why you’re the best option.

Title Tags

  • Every page has a unique title tag
  • Title tags follow the format: Primary Keyword | Secondary Keyword | Brand Name
  • Location included in title tags for service pages (e.g., “Roof Repair in Edwardsville, IL”)
  • Title tags are 50-60 characters to avoid truncation
  • Homepage title tag includes your primary service and location

Meta Descriptions

  • Every page has a unique meta description
  • Descriptions are 150-160 characters
  • Each includes a call to action
  • Location mentioned naturally
  • Compelling enough to earn the click (this is your ad copy in search results)

Header Tags

  • One H1 per page, containing your primary keyword
  • H2s break content into scannable sections
  • H3s used for subsections where appropriate
  • Headers follow a logical hierarchy (no skipping from H1 to H4)
  • Location keywords appear in at least one header per page

Local Keyword Integration

  • Primary keyword appears in the first 100 words of page content
  • Service + location combinations used naturally throughout
  • “Near me” variations addressed through content context (not stuffed in awkwardly)
  • Long-tail local keywords targeted on specific pages
  • No keyword cannibalization: each page targets a distinct primary keyword

Schema Markup

  • LocalBusiness schema implemented on every page (or relevant subtype like Restaurant, Dentist, etc.)
  • Schema includes NAP, hours, geo coordinates, price range
  • Service schema on service pages
  • FAQ schema on pages with FAQ sections
  • Review/rating schema if you have testimonials (use aggregate rating markup correctly)
  • Test with Google’s Rich Results Test tool: no errors
Local search visibility is won in the map pack, not just the blue links.
Local search visibility is won in the map pack, not just the blue links.

Citation Audit

Citations are mentions of your business name, address, and phone number across the web. Consistency here is non-negotiable.

NAP Consistency

  • Business name spelled identically everywhere (including Inc., LLC, etc.)
  • Address formatted the same way across all listings (St. vs Street, Ste. vs Suite)
  • Phone number is the same everywhere: one primary number
  • Website URL consistent (with or without www, with or without trailing slash: pick one)
  • Run a citation scan using BrightLocal, Moz Local, or Whitespark to find inconsistencies

Top Directories to Check

  • Google Business Profile
  • Apple Maps / Apple Business Connect
  • Bing Places
  • Yelp
  • Facebook Business Page
  • Better Business Bureau
  • Industry-specific directories (Avvo for lawyers, Healthgrades for doctors, Houzz for contractors)
  • Local Chamber of Commerce
  • Local business associations
  • Data aggregators: Data Axle, Neustar Localeze, Foursquare

What to Fix

  • Duplicate listings (merge or remove)
  • Old addresses or phone numbers from previous locations
  • Listings claimed by former employees or agencies
  • Missing listings on high-authority directories
  • Inconsistent business categories across directories

Review Audit

Reviews are a ranking factor and a conversion factor. You need both quantity and quality.

Quantity and Velocity

  • Total review count compared to top 3 competitors in the map pack
  • New reviews coming in consistently (not 20 in one week then silence for months)
  • Reviews spread across platforms, not just Google
  • A system in place for requesting reviews from happy customers

Recency

  • Reviews from the last 90 days carry more weight
  • If your most recent review is 6 months old, that’s a red flag for both Google and potential customers
  • Seasonal businesses need to maintain review flow even in off-season

Response Rate and Quality

  • Every review responded to within 48 hours (ideally 24)
  • Positive review responses thank the customer and mention the service naturally
  • Negative review responses are professional, empathetic, and offer to resolve offline
  • Responses never get defensive or argumentative
  • Owner responses occasionally include keywords naturally (don’t force it)

Sentiment Analysis

  • Read through recent reviews for common complaints: these are UX or service issues to fix
  • Note which services get mentioned most positively: double down on marketing those
  • Track star rating trends over time: a declining average needs immediate attention

Technical SEO Audit

All the content optimization in the world won’t help if your site has technical problems.

Mobile-Friendliness

  • Site passes Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test
  • Text is readable without zooming
  • Buttons and links have adequate tap targets (at least 48×48 pixels)
  • No horizontal scrolling required
  • Forms are easy to fill out on mobile
  • Phone number is click-to-call

Page Speed

  • Core Web Vitals passing on both mobile and desktop (check in Google Search Console)
  • Largest Contentful Paint under 2.5 seconds
  • Cumulative Layout Shift under 0.1
  • Interaction to Next Paint under 200 milliseconds
  • Images optimized and served in WebP or AVIF format
  • No render-blocking JavaScript or CSS above the fold

Security and Crawlability

  • HTTPS enabled site-wide with valid SSL certificate
  • No mixed content warnings
  • XML sitemap submitted to Google Search Console
  • Robots.txt not blocking important pages
  • No orphan pages (every page reachable through internal links)
  • 404 errors identified and redirected or fixed
  • No redirect chains (A redirects to B redirects to C)

Content Audit

Content is what ranks. Thin, outdated, or missing content is the most common gap we see.

Location Pages

  • Dedicated page for each city/area you serve (if you serve multiple locations)
  • Each location page has unique content, not just the city name swapped out
  • Location pages include local landmarks, neighborhoods, and context
  • Embedded Google Map on each location page
  • Local testimonials on location pages when possible

Service Pages

  • Dedicated page for each core service (not one page listing everything)
  • Each service page is 800+ words with genuine, useful content
  • Service pages answer the questions customers actually ask
  • Internal links between related services
  • Clear CTAs on every service page

Blog Content

  • Publishing at least 2-4 times per month
  • Blog posts target local long-tail keywords
  • Content addresses real customer questions and pain points
  • Posts are 1,000+ words for competitive topics
  • Internal links to relevant service pages from blog posts
  • Content is updated or refreshed annually for evergreen topics

Competitor Analysis

You don’t audit in a vacuum. Understanding your local competition tells you what “good enough” looks like and where the opportunities are.

  • Identify the top 3-5 businesses ranking in the map pack for your primary keywords
  • Compare their GBP completeness, review count, and posting frequency to yours
  • Analyze their website content depth: how many service pages, location pages, blog posts
  • Check their backlink profiles for local link opportunities you’re missing
  • Note their schema implementation
  • Look for gaps: services they don’t cover, locations they don’t target, questions they don’t answer

Putting It All Together

A local SEO audit isn’t a one-time event. We recommend running through this checklist quarterly, with ongoing monitoring of rankings, reviews, and technical health in between.

Prioritize fixes based on impact:

  1. Fix GBP issues first: they have the most direct impact on map pack rankings
  2. Clean up citations: NAP inconsistency undermines everything else
  3. Address technical problems: speed and mobile issues affect every page
  4. Build out content: this is the long game that compounds over time
  5. Develop a review strategy: consistent reviews signal an active, trusted business

The businesses that dominate local search aren’t doing anything magical. They’re doing the fundamentals consistently and thoroughly.

Keep Reading

If you’d rather see the checklist in action, our Dr. Samiya Hashmi case study walks through a functional medicine site built to win local search from day one.

About the Author

Brian Hunter is the founder of Hunter Creative Media & Design, an Aurora, IL studio building hand-coded websites and custom web applications for small businesses across Chicago’s western suburbs. He writes about web performance, local SEO, and the software that runs small businesses. Get in touch.