To improve how your business shows up in local search results, it's very helpful to first understand where you stand right now. A Local SEO audit is like a checkup for your online presence, specifically looking at the factors that influence local rankings. It helps you see what you're doing well and what needs fixing.
What is a Local SEO Audit?
A Local SEO audit is a process of reviewing your business's online visibility and optimization efforts that are relevant to local search. It involves examining key areas to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in your ability to rank for local keywords and "near me" searches.
Why Do a Local SEO Audit?
Performing a Local SEO audit is important because it helps you:
Understand Your Starting Point: See how visible your business currently is in local search.
Find Problems: Identify issues like inconsistent business information (NAP), unoptimized profiles, or technical errors hurting local performance.
Discover Opportunities: Spot chances to improve your Google Business Profile, build more citations, get local links, or optimize your website content for local keywords.
Benchmark Performance: Get a snapshot of your current rankings, traffic from local search, and review situation so you can measure progress later.
Create a Plan: The audit findings give you a clear roadmap of specific actions you need to take to improve your local SEO.
Key Areas to Check in a Local SEO Audit
A thorough Local SEO audit covers the most important factors for local ranking:
Google Business Profile (GBP):
Is the profile claimed and verified?
Is all the information complete and accurate (NAP, hours, website, categories, service areas)?
Is the business description optimized with local keywords?
Are high-quality photos and videos uploaded?
Are you using Google Posts?
How many reviews do you have, what's your average rating, and are you responding to reviews?
Are you monitoring and answering questions in the Q&A section?
Is the profile active and not suspended?
Local Citations:
Is your NAP (Name, Address, Phone) exactly the same on your website, GBP, and across other online directories?
How many citations do you have, and are they on reputable national, local, and industry-specific websites?
Are there any inaccurate or inconsistent citations that need cleaning up?
On-Page Local SEO:
Is your NAP information clearly displayed on your website, especially on the contact page and in the footer?
Are local keywords (city, neighborhood names) used naturally in your website content, page titles, meta descriptions, and headings?
If you have multiple locations, are there dedicated, unique pages for each location with local details?
Is Local Business Schema markup correctly implemented on your website?
Is a Google Map embedded on your contact or location pages?
Is your website mobile-friendly and does it load quickly?
Local Link Profile:
How many backlinks do you have from other local websites?
Are these local linking sites relevant to your industry and geographic area?
Are there opportunities to earn more local links (e.g., sponsoring local events, local testimonials)?
Competitor Local Analysis: Look at businesses that rank well for your target local keywords. How have they optimized their GBP, citations, website, and local links?
Local Ranking Check: Track your current rankings for important local keywords (e.g., "[service] in [city]", "[product] [neighborhood]").
Tools to Help with Your Audit
Several tools can assist with performing a Local SEO audit, including Google Search Console, Google Business Profile dashboard insights, third-party SEO platforms that offer citation audits, backlink analysis tools, website crawlers, and local rank tracking tools.
Using the results of your Local SEO audit, you can create a prioritized action plan focusing on the areas that will have the biggest impact on your local rankings and visibility.
After putting effort into optimizing your pages, tracking their performance is key. Stay informed about how your content ranks and what your competitors are doing with live updates. Get the advantage of real-time keyword and backlink tracking. Whether you're new to SEO or just need quicker insights, seochatbot.ai is built to guide you. You can have a full conversation with your data, asking follow-up questions and getting answers that evolve as your site improves.
