Local SEO audit: what to check and how to do it

Clicks, impressions, CTR and queries for your location pages, plus reporting on visibility in Google’s AI features.

Traffic, engagement and key events from local search.

Views, searches, calls, directions, website clicks and other interactions.

For indexing issues, broken links, duplicate content and on-page problems.

For links to your location pages and competitors’.

For inconsistent, duplicate or missing listings.

Across Google and the platforms that matter in your sector

For local search volumes, regional wording, near me variations and the terms local competitors rank for.

• Existing keywords: in Search Console, go to Performance > Search results and filter by each location page to see which queries drive impressions, clicks and conversions.

• Quick wins: look for queries with high impressions and low CTR. These are pages that rank but don’t persuade.

• New opportunities: use a location-filtered keyword tool, including implicit (“emergency plumber”) and informational (“best plumber for boiler repairs”) queries.

For each priority keyword, review:

• Average position and change over time

• Placement type: local pack, Maps, organic or AI-generated results

• How your listing appears (title, description, stars, photos)

• Which competitors appear alongside you

• SERP features, including Local Services Ads, which dominate some sectors

• Impressions against local search volume, plus clicks and CTR

• Site structure and your locations hub

• Location page URLs, titles, headings and meta descriptions

• NAP, and whether it matches your Business Profile exactly

• Localised and duplicate content

• Keyword cannibalisation between location pages

• Internal links to location pages

• Images and video

• Core Web Vitals and mobile experience (PageSpeed Insights is a good start)

• LocalBusiness structured data, tested and matching the visible page

Automated crawls catch a lot, but not everything. We recommend an expert-led technical review at least once a year.

• Is the primary category right? Are additional categories relevant?

• Are predefined and custom services added?

• Are opening hours correct, including upcoming holiday hours?

• Is the map pin in the right place? Pin placement has a real effect on local pack rankings.

• Do photos reflect the location as it is today?

• Are attributes, products and offers up to date?

• Does the website link go to the right location page, with UTM tracking?

• Has anything changed that you didn’t change? Google accepts edits from users and its own systems.

• Is the business name compliant, with no added keywords?

Google’s AI features in Maps answer customer questions using your profile, reviews, photos and website, so make sure all of those are accurate.

Each location page should have a descriptive URL (for example, example.com/locations/southampton), location keywords in the title, headings and body copy, and unique content. Check each page:

• Includes accurate NAP and opening hours

• Covers the services and facilities local customers care about

• Says something genuinely different from other location pages

• Answers local FAQs

• Is supported by localised content elsewhere that links back to it

• Local links: where do links to each location page come from? Are they locally relevant? Where are competitors earning links you’re not?

• Citations: check consistency on Google, Apple Maps and Bing first, then aggregators, directories and industry sites. Flag duplicates, old addresses and wrong numbers.

AI tools rely heavily on directories, so an outdated listing can surface in an AI answer, not just a directory page.

Online reviews potentially influence as much as £23 billion of UK consumer spending a year, and customers expect a strong rating backed by plenty of recent reviews. For each location, review:

• Average rating and total volume

• Recency: reviews in the last month and three months

• Response rate and speed

• Whether responses are personalised or templated

• Recurring themes in feedback

• Performance on other platforms that matter in your sector

• Compliance: no staff quotas, no requests for staff names, no review gating and no undisclosed incentives. Google’s policies prohibit these, and in the UK the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act makes fake and concealed incentivised reviews illegal, with enforcement by the CMA.

• Which keywords are competitors targeting, and what are they missing?

• How deeply do they cover relevant topics?

• Which of their pages drive the most visibility?

• How complete are their Business Profiles? Is there a gap you could fill, such as longer hours or a service they don’t offer?

• Do their sites have technical weaknesses?

• Where do their best links come from?

• Are their citations consistent?

• What’s their rating, review volume and recency, and what do their customers complain about?

Look beyond Google too. Are competitors visible in AI answers, on Apple Maps, marketplaces or social platforms where you’re not?

Instagram, TikTok and YouTube are all places people discover and vet local businesses.

• Are business details consistent across social profiles?

• Do you have a page or profile per location, where supported?

• How do people find businesses like yours on each platform?

• Are customers and creators sharing content about you, and are you engaging with it?

The step most audits miss:

• Run test prompts in ChatGPT, Gemini, Google’s AI results and Perplexity using real customer questions (“best family dentist in Winchester”, “garden centre near Romsey open Sunday”).

• Check accuracy. AI tools often get business details wrong, pulling outdated contact information from old listings.

• Note the sources cited, then check your listings on those sites.

• Check Search Console’s reporting on Google’s AI features to see which location pages appear there.