How to do local SEO audit

A local SEO audit should start with verifying your client's Google Business Profile setup, which is foundational for any local ranking. Check that the business name, address, and phone number (NAP) are consistent and match what appears on their website and citations across the web. Verify the business category is accurately selected—many businesses choose irrelevant categories that hurt visibility. Review the profile photos, description, and posts for completeness and recent activity. Then audit their citation profile by searching for the business name in major directories like Yelp, Apple Maps, Facebook, industry-specific directories, and local chamber of commerce listings. Document every inconsistency in NAP data, as citation confusion actively damages local rankings. Use tools like Semrush or BrightLocal to crawl this faster, but you'll still need to manually verify key citations that the tools might miss, especially in highly competitive or niche local markets.

Next, evaluate their local on-page SEO by checking whether service pages target local keywords naturally and include location-specific schema markup. The homepage and service pages should include the city or region they serve, but this needs to feel organic—keyword stuffing "plumber in Denver" repeatedly damages the user experience and modern rankings. Test their structured data with Google's Rich Results Test to ensure local business schema is properly implemented. Mobile performance matters significantly for local search since 80% of local searches happen on mobile devices, so audit page speed and mobile usability specifically.

Finally, analyze their local backlink profile and review content. Local businesses benefit from links from local news sites, chamber of commerce pages, and community organizations—not just general authority sites. Search for "[city] + [service]" and manually review the top 10 competitors to identify link sources you can pursue. Check whether they've published content that answers questions locals actually search for, like "how long does foundation repair take" or neighborhood guides. This local content creates opportunities for featured snippets and helps establish topical authority. Run a competitor analysis on the same search terms to identify gaps in their local visibility strategy.

Document all findings in a simple spreadsheet organized by priority: critical issues like NAP inconsistencies and broken schema implementation come first, then opportunities like missing citations or weak local backlinks. This approach gives you actionable recommendations your client can execute.