Last updated: February 2026
A local SEO audit is a systematic evaluation of all the factors that influence a business's visibility in local search results. It examines the health and optimization level of a business's Google Business Profile, website, citation profile, review presence, and competitive positioning. The purpose of a local SEO audit is to identify specific issues, missed opportunities, and areas where optimization can produce ranking improvements.
Think of a local SEO audit as a comprehensive health check for your local online presence. Just as a doctor examines multiple body systems during a physical, a local SEO audit examines multiple signal categories to produce a complete diagnosis. This guide walks you through every step of the process so you can conduct a thorough audit yourself. For broader strategic context, see our complete local SEO guide.
Why Should You Start With a Local SEO Audit?
You should start with a local SEO audit because it prevents wasted effort on low-impact activities by revealing exactly where your biggest opportunities lie. Without an audit, you are guessing which optimizations will move the needle. With one, you have a prioritized roadmap based on your actual data and competitive landscape.
Common findings from local SEO audits include:
- Incomplete GBP profiles missing critical fields
- Wrong or suboptimal primary GBP category
- NAP inconsistencies across 20+ directories
- Missing schema markup on the website
- Competitors with 3x more reviews
- Broken or missing citation listings
- Mobile speed issues dragging down performance
Each of these issues, once identified, becomes a specific action item you can fix.
How Do You Audit a Google Business Profile?
You audit a Google Business Profile by systematically reviewing every field and feature against best practices, checking for completeness, accuracy, and optimization opportunities. Log into your GBP dashboard and evaluate each element against this checklist.
GBP Audit Checklist:
- Business name: Does it match your real-world name exactly? No keyword stuffing?
- Primary category: Is it the most specific and relevant category for your core service? Check what top competitors use.
- Secondary categories: Have you added all applicable additional categories?
- Address: Is it accurate and formatted correctly? Does it match your website exactly?
- Phone number: Is it a local number? Does it match your website?
- Website URL: Does it link to the most relevant page (homepage or location page)?
- Hours: Are they accurate? Are special hours set for holidays?
- Description: Is it complete, keyword-rich, and compelling?
- Attributes: Have you checked all applicable attributes?
- Products/Services: Are they added with descriptions?
- Photos: How many do you have? How recent are they? How do they compare to competitors?
- Posts: When was your last post? Are you posting regularly?
- Q&A: Have you seeded common questions? Are there unanswered questions?
- Reviews: What is your count and average rating? How recent is your last review?
Quick assessment: Use GBP Rank Tracker's Profile Health Score for an instant, automated evaluation of your GBP listing against best practices.
How Do You Audit Your Website for Local SEO?
You audit your website for local SEO by evaluating its technical health, on-page optimization, local signals, and content quality. The website audit focuses on whether your site effectively communicates your geographic relevance and business information to both search engines and users.
Website Audit Areas:
NAP and Contact Information:
- Is your full NAP displayed consistently on every page (typically in the footer)?
- Does the NAP exactly match your GBP listing?
- Is your phone number click-to-call on mobile?
- Do you have a dedicated contact page with an embedded Google Map?
On-Page Local Signals:
- Do your title tags include your city and primary keyword?
- Do you have unique meta descriptions with local context?
- Is LocalBusiness schema markup properly implemented?
- Do you have dedicated service pages for each offering?
- Do you have location pages for each area you serve?
Technical Health:
- Does your site load in under 3 seconds on mobile?
- Are there any crawl errors in Google Search Console?
- Is your site fully HTTPS?
- Is the XML sitemap submitted and current?
- Are there broken links (404 errors)?
What Does a Citation Audit Involve?
A citation audit involves checking your business listings across major directories, data aggregators, and industry-specific platforms for accuracy, consistency, and completeness. The goal is to identify listings with incorrect information, find missing citations on important platforms, and locate duplicate listings that may be splitting your signals.
Citation Audit Steps:
- Compile your current citations: Search for your business name on Google and note every directory listing that appears. Use citation scanning tools to automate this process.
- Check NAP consistency: For each citation, verify that the business name, address, and phone number exactly match your GBP listing. Even small differences (e.g., "St" vs "Street" or different phone numbers) count as inconsistencies.
- Identify missing citations: Compare your listings against a list of the top 50 directories for your country and industry. Note any gaps.
- Find duplicates: Search each major directory for multiple listings of your business. Duplicates confuse Google and dilute ranking signals.
- Assess citation quality: Are your listings on authoritative directories or low-quality spam sites? Quality matters more than quantity.
For a deeper dive into citations, read our guide on local SEO checklist which includes a citation-specific section.
How Do You Audit Your Review Profile?
You audit your review profile by evaluating your review quantity, quality, velocity, platform diversity, and response rate across all relevant review platforms, then comparing these metrics against your top local competitors. Reviews are both a ranking factor and a conversion factor, making this audit section critical.
Review Audit Metrics:
- Total Google reviews: Count your reviews and compare to the top 5 competitors in the local pack.
- Average star rating: Note your rating and compare. Is there a significant gap?
- Review velocity: How many new reviews are you receiving per month? Is it increasing or declining?
- Recency: When was your most recent review? Stale review profiles signal inactivity.
- Response rate: What percentage of reviews have owner responses? Aim for 100%.
- Sentiment analysis: Read through your reviews. Are there recurring complaints that need to be addressed operationally?
- Platform diversity: Do you have reviews on Yelp, Facebook, and industry-specific platforms, or only on Google?
How Do You Conduct a Competitor Audit?
You conduct a competitor audit by analyzing the local SEO profiles of the businesses currently ranking in the local pack for your target keywords. The goal is to understand what they are doing well and identify gaps you can exploit.
Competitor Audit Process:
- Identify the top 5 competitors ranking in the local pack for your 3-5 most important keywords.
- For each competitor, evaluate:
- GBP completeness and categories
- Review count and average rating
- Website domain authority and content depth
- Citation presence on key directories
- Backlink profile (using a link analysis tool)
- Content quality and local relevance
- Create a comparison matrix to visualize where you lead and where you trail.
- Prioritize closing the biggest gaps first.
Use GBP Rank Tracker's competitor intelligence feature to automate much of this analysis and track competitors over time.
Turning Your Audit Into an Action Plan
An audit is only valuable if it leads to action. After completing all five audit sections, organize your findings into a prioritized action plan. The most effective approach is to score each finding by impact (how much ranking improvement it is likely to produce) and effort (how much time and resources it requires), then prioritize high-impact, low-effort items first.
- Critical fixes (Week 1): Incorrect GBP information, NAP inconsistencies, broken website elements. These are issues that may be actively harming your rankings and should be fixed immediately.
- High-impact optimizations (Week 2-4): GBP category changes, missing schema markup, incomplete profile sections, mobile speed improvements. These are the optimizations most likely to produce visible ranking improvements.
- Growth initiatives (Month 2-3): Citation building on missing directories, review generation system setup, content calendar creation. These build your ongoing local SEO foundation.
- Long-term investments (Month 3+): Local link building, advanced content strategy, ongoing competitor monitoring, and iterative testing. These activities compound over time and separate leaders from followers.
Document everything in a shared spreadsheet or project management tool so you can track progress, assign responsibility, and measure the impact of each fix over time. Re-run your audit every quarter to measure progress and identify new opportunities that may have emerged from algorithm updates, new competitors, or changes in your market.
What Are the Most Common Red Flags in a Local SEO Audit?
The most common red flags in a local SEO audit are issues that are actively suppressing your rankings or causing confusion for both Google and potential customers. Identifying these red flags should be your first priority because fixing them often produces the quickest ranking improvements:
- Wrong GBP primary category: This single issue can prevent you from appearing for your most important searches entirely.
- Multiple duplicate GBP listings: Duplicate listings split your review signals and confuse Google about which listing is legitimate.
- Major NAP inconsistencies: Different phone numbers or addresses across your top citations undermine Google's confidence in your data.
- No schema markup: Missing LocalBusiness schema means Google cannot easily parse your business information from your website.
- Mobile speed failures: A site that takes more than 5 seconds to load on mobile is losing both rankings and potential customers.
- Zero recent reviews: A review profile with no new reviews in the past 3 months signals inactivity to both Google and potential customers.
Re-run your audit every quarter to measure progress and identify new opportunities.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should I run a local SEO audit?
Run a comprehensive local SEO audit quarterly and a mini-audit monthly. Quarterly audits should cover all five sections in depth. Monthly mini-audits focus on reviewing rankings, new reviews, and GBP activity to catch issues early.
Can I run a local SEO audit for free?
Yes. You can manually audit your GBP, check citations by searching for your business online, review your website using free tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and Search Console, and analyze competitors by visiting their listings. It takes more time than using paid tools, but it is entirely possible.
What is the most common issue found in local SEO audits?
NAP inconsistencies across citations are the most commonly found issue. Businesses frequently have different phone numbers, old addresses, or variations of their business name scattered across dozens of directories without realizing it.
Should I audit my competitors too?
Absolutely. A competitor audit is essential because local rankings are relative. You need to understand not just your own optimization level, but how it compares to the businesses currently winning the local pack.
What tools do I need for a local SEO audit?
At minimum, you need access to your Google Business Profile, Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and a citation scanning tool. A local rank tracker with geo-grid capabilities gives you the most accurate picture of your current ranking positions.
How long does a full local SEO audit take?
A thorough local SEO audit takes 4 to 8 hours for a single location when done manually. Multi-location businesses should budget 2 to 3 hours per additional location. Using automated tools can reduce this to 1 to 2 hours per location.