How To Do A Complete Local SEO Audit: 11-Point Checklist

Native search engine marketing contains a number of particular duties geared to establishing the relevance and authority of a enterprise inside a focused geographic space.

Search engines like google and enormous language fashions (LLMs) like Google Gemini and ChatGPT reference many alternative knowledge factors to find out who shall be surfaced of their respective outcome units, which embody AI Overviews and AI Mode in Google, featured snippets, native map packs, picture or video carousels, and different rising search codecs.

So, how will you determine and prioritize optimizations with the best potential to ship changing site visitors to your web site or your enterprise door from conventional natural native search engine marketing or AI search?

Under, we’ll stroll by an analysis of every key aspect of your native search presence and uncover your finest alternatives to enhance your visibility in conventional natural and AI search.

These duties are listed in typical order of completion throughout a full audit, however some could be completed concurrently.

1. Key phrase Subject/AI Immediate Audit

Though the introduction of AI in search has modified the keyword-first technique, the pure place to start out a neighborhood search engine marketing audit is in natural and AI search outcomes. Begin with the topical key phrases, phrases, and AI prompts you’re hoping your enterprise shall be discovered for, as a way to determine the place you’re positioned relative to your opponents and different web sites/content material.

This analysis might help you shortly determine the place you may have established some stage of authority/momentum to construct on, in addition to subjects upon which you shouldn’t waste your effort and time.

search engine marketing is a long-term technique, so no key phrase or immediate must be summarily dismissed. Even so, it’s usually finest to give attention to key phrase subjects you realistically have an opportunity to achieve visibility and drive site visitors for. Pay shut consideration to the intent behind the key phrases you select and ideally give attention to these with business or transactional intent, as informational content material search outcomes are largely being dominated by AI summaries.

Additionally, you will want to think about optimizing for conversational search queries or prompts and voice search, as AI Mode will more and more depend on pure language processing.

Additional, some youthful customers have developed totally different looking out behaviors altogether and are utilizing social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok for native searches. Search optimization for these platforms is a special dialog, however having a watch on how your enterprise and its merchandise/providers are discovered when looking out right here can present perception into how searches are performed in additional conventional and rising AI codecs.

Completely different individuals search in several methods, and it’s essential to not restrict your analysis to single key phrases, however slightly account for the assorted methods and phrases your viewers might use to attempt to discover you or your choices; therefore, taking a topical method. This solely turns into amplified in AI search, the place each immediate is the start of a doubtlessly lengthy, drawn-out chat.

2. Web site Audit

Now you can conduct full content material and technical web site audits to make sure your web site is optimized for max crawlability, indexability, and visibility by search engine and LLM crawlers. A typical audit is designed to investigate the underlying construction, content material, and general web site expertise.

Right here once more, there are a lot of web site auditing instruments to crawl an internet site after which determine points and prioritize actions to be taken primarily based on search engine marketing finest practices.

A web site audit and optimization could be damaged down into a number of buckets:

Web page Optimization

Webpage optimization is all about making certain pages are effectively structured, centered round focused topical key phrases, and supply a constructive person expertise.

As a search engine crawls a webpage, it seems to be for alerts to find out what the web page is about and what questions it could possibly reply. These crawlers analyze your complete web page to find out its focus, however particularly give attention to web page titles and headings as main descriptors. A well-structured web page with a hierarchical heading construction is vital to serving to web site guests, search engine and LLM bots simply scan and eat your content material.

Ideally, every webpage is key phrase topic-focused and distinctive. As such, key phrase variations must be used persistently in titles, URLs, headings, and physique content material.

One other essential potential situation raised in an audit, relying on the character of your native enterprise, is picture optimization. As a finest follow, all photos ought to embody related descriptive filenames and alt textual content, which can embody pertinent key phrases. This turns into notably essential when photos (e.g., services or products photographs) are central to your enterprise, as picture carousels can and can present up in net search outcomes. In each case, consideration must be paid to the pictures showing in your main rating pages.

Lastly, an over-reliance on JavaScript could be notably detrimental for LLM visibility, as some LLMs presently don’t execute JavaScript. In case your web site is powered by JavaScript, you’ll wish to deal with this together with your developer to see how a very powerful content material could be offered in uncooked HTML or through server-side scripting to allow crawling and indexing.

Inner Hyperlink Audit

A hyperlink audit will allow you to shortly determine any potential misdirected or damaged hyperlinks, which may create a less-than-optimal expertise to your web site guests and should confuse search engine and LLM bots.

Hyperlinks are likewise alerts the major search engines use to find out the construction of an internet site and its skill to direct searchers to applicable, authoritative solutions to their questions.

A part of this audit ought to embody the identification of alternatives to crosslink outstanding pages. If a web page inside your web site has key phrases (anchor textual content) referencing related content material on one other web page, a hyperlink must be created, offered the hyperlink logically guides customers to extra related content material or an applicable conversion level.

Exterior hyperlinks also needs to be thought-about, particularly when there is a chance to hyperlink to an authoritative supply of knowledge. From a neighborhood enterprise perspective, this may occasionally embody linking to related native organizations, companions, or occasions.

Schema Evaluation

Schema or structured knowledge might help search engines like google and LLMs higher perceive your enterprise and its choices and provide enhanced visibility. An efficient native search engine marketing audit ought to embody the identification of content material inside an internet site to which schema could be utilized.

Native companies have a chance to have their content material highlighted in the event that they:

• Publish extremely authoritative and related content material.
• Use structured schema markup to tag content material.

Related native enterprise schema markup contains LocalBusiness, Product, Service, Evaluation, and FAQPage, amongst others. All schema markup code must be validated through Google’s Wealthy Outcomes Check and/or the Schema.org validator.

Cellular Audit

As most customers search through their cellular units – particularly for native providers – it’s important for native companies to offer a constructive cellular net expertise. Web sites must load shortly, be simply navigated, and allow seamless person interplay.

Google affords a spread of free cellular testing and mobile-specific monitoring instruments, reminiscent of Web page Expertise and Core Net Vitals, in Google Search Console.

Extra in-depth person expertise and search engine marketing evaluation could be carried out through Google Lighthouse, although a neighborhood enterprise proprietor will seemingly wish to enlist the assistance of an online developer to motion any of the suggestions this instrument supplies.

Duplicate Content material

Excessive-quality, authoritative content material is, by definition, unique content material.

As such, it’s essential to let Google know in case your web site incorporates any content material/pages you didn’t create by including a canonical tag to the HTML header of the web page. Most pages, that are distinctive unto themselves, can have a self-referencing canonical.

Not doing so can have a detrimental impact in your authority and, by extension, your skill to rank. Most web site auditing instruments will flag content material lacking or having malformed canonical tags.

3. Google Enterprise Profile Audit

A Google Enterprise Profile (GBP) successfully represents a “secondary” web site and extremely seen level of presence for many native companies. More and more, this “secondary” web site is turning into the customers’ first level of contact.

An correct, complete GBP is important to establishing visibility in natural and now AI search outcomes.

A latest behavioral examine of journey reserving in AI Mode performed by Propellic discovered GBP to be among the many most extremely displayed and engaged content material for searchers reserving native lodging and experiences.

A Google Enterprise Profile audit ought to give attention to the accuracy and completeness of the assorted elements throughout the profile, together with:

• Enterprise data and placement particulars.
• Appropriate main enterprise class.
• Hours of operation.
• Appropriate pin location in Google Maps.
• Correct categorization as a bodily location or service space enterprise.
• Merchandise.
• Companies.
• Appointment hyperlink(s), if relevant.
• Pictures or Movies.
• Social Profiles.
• Gives.
• Common updates.
• Occasions.
• Informational content material.

The extra full the profile is, the extra seemingly it will likely be seen as a dependable native useful resource and be given applicable billing within the search outcomes.

Assuming you may have claimed and are licensed to handle your GBP, you possibly can entry and edit your data instantly throughout the search outcomes.

4. Evaluation Monitoring And Administration

One other essential facet of a GBP is evaluations.

Native enterprise clients have a chance to write down evaluations, which seem on the GBP for different clients to reference and play a major function in figuring out visibility within the native map pack. They’re most definitely a figuring out issue with regard to showing in Google AI Overviews.

Google will notify enterprise house owners as quickly as evaluations are submitted, and they need to be responded to as quickly as doable. This goes for unfavorable evaluations simply as a lot as constructive ones. Embrace an evaluation of your evaluations to make sure none have fallen by the cracks. This can even assist decide whether or not there are recurring customer support and satisfaction points or themes to be addressed. An in depth evaluation of evaluations could be a nice supply of content material concepts geared toward answering clients’ most urgent questions or issues.

After all, there are additionally a number of different locations for customers to submit evaluations, together with Fb, native assessment websites like Yelp, and industry-specific websites reminiscent of TripAdvisor and Houzz. A full audit ought to take stock of evaluations left on any of those providers, as they will present up in search outcomes.

Professional tip: Request constructive evaluations from all clients and politely counsel they reference the services or products they’re reviewing, as key phrases contained in evaluations can have a constructive impact from rating perspective.

5. Native Enterprise Itemizing/Quotation Audit

Native enterprise listings and citations present search engines like google and LLM bots with a approach of confirming a enterprise is each native and respected inside a selected geographic area. Latest research have revealed unlinked model mentions and citations play a major function in AI Visibility.

It is very important have a presence in respected native directories, assessment websites, enterprise directories (e.g., Chambers of Commerce), or native companion websites to show your “localness.”

Relying on the scale and scope of your native enterprise, an audit of your listings and citations could be carried out in an automatic or handbook trend.

Enterprise listings and quotation administration instruments can be utilized to seek out, monitor, and replace all main citations together with your correct Title, Deal with, Telephone Quantity (aka NAP), and different pertinent enterprise particulars present in broader listings (e.g., web site deal with, enterprise description).

When you handle a restricted variety of places and have the time, one fast technique of figuring out the place your present listings could be discovered is to easily conduct a search on your enterprise identify. The primary three to 4 pages of search outcomes ought to reveal the identical.

It’s additionally essential to seek out and resolve any duplicate listings to forestall complicated clients and search engines like google alike with outdated, inaccurate data.

Native enterprise house owners and managers also needs to monitor Reddit for his or her model and native product/service choices to gauge exercise and sentiment. Reddit is a novel platform the place “karma” and belief are tantamount, however there is a chance for manufacturers and native companies to interact with their clients in the event that they do it in a clear, genuine, and non-promotional approach.

6. Backlink Audit

Backlinks or inbound hyperlinks are just like citations, however are successfully any hyperlinks to your web site pages from different third-party web sites.

Hyperlinks stay an essential think about figuring out the authority of an internet site, as they lend validity if they arrive from related, respected sources.

As with different elements of an audit, there are a number of good free and paid backlink instruments accessible, together with a hyperlink monitoring service in Google Search Console, which is a good place to start out.

An efficient backlink audit has the twin goal of figuring out and constructing hyperlinks through doubtlessly beneficial backlink sources, which may positively have an effect on your rating and visibility.

For native companies, respected native sources of hyperlinks are naturally useful in validating location, as famous with citations above.

Potential backlink sources could be researched in a wide range of places:

• Free and paid backlink analysis instruments, reminiscent of Ahrefs or Semrush determine any domains the place your main competitors has acquired backlinks, however you haven’t.
• Any non-competitive websites showing within the natural search outcomes to your main key phrases are, by definition, good potential backlink sources. Search for directories you could be listed in, blogs or articles you possibly can touch upon, or publications you possibly can submit articles to.
• Referral sources in Google Analytics might reveal related exterior web sites the place you have already got hyperlinks and might be able to purchase extra.

7. Native Content material Audit

Folks search in a different way and require various kinds of data relying on the place they’re of their shopping for journey. A well-structured native net presence will embody content material tailor-made and distributed for consumption throughout every stage of this journey, to bolster visibility and consciousness.

You wish to be discovered all through your buyer’s search expertise. A content material audit can be utilized to ensure you have useful content material for every of the journey buckets your viewers members might discover themselves in.

Informational content material could also be distributed through social or different exterior channels or revealed in your web site to assist educate your customers on the merchandise, providers, and differentiators you provide in the beginning of their path to buy.

As AI is consuming and repurposing a lot of this informational content material, it’s essential to make sure your informational content material contains your distinctive perspective primarily based in your expertise and experience. This content material ideally solutions your prospects’ why, how, and what forms of questions.

Transactional content material is designed to deal with these customers who already know what they need, however are within the means of deciding the place or who to buy from. The sort of content material might embody evaluations, testimonials, or aggressive comparisons.

Navigational content material ensures when individuals click on by from Google after having searched your model identify or a variation thereof, they land on a web page or data validating your place as a pacesetter in your house. This web page also needs to embody a transparent call-to-action with the idea they’ve arrived with a selected purpose in thoughts.

Business content material addresses these customers who’ve signaled a powerful intent to purchase. Efficient native enterprise websites and social pages should embody affords, coupons, reductions, and clear paths to buy.

Optimizing Content material For AI

From an AI search and visibility perspective, take note the overwhelming majority of AI outcomes are responses to long-form questions/prompts from customers. As such, it’s essential for a few of your content material to be in a direct query/reply format.

One fast and efficient tactic is the creation of an FAQ part inside services or products pages. Nonetheless, keep away from overseeding FAQs by together with generic questions and solutions. FAQs must be particular to the pages they reside on.

We’ve beforehand touched upon the significance of structured content material for improved crawling, scanning, and comprehension. When reviewing your content material, search for alternatives to include outlined heading constructions, tables of contents for long-form content material, and ordered lists.

Content material Selection And Distribution

High quality content material is content material your viewers desires to eat, like, and share. For a lot of companies, this implies contemplating and experimenting with content material past easy textual content and pictures.

Video content material shared through platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Fb, TikTok, and others is less complicated to eat and customarily extra partaking.

8. Google Search Console Evaluation

Google Search Console is a useful free useful resource for knowledge associated to key phrase and content material efficiency, indexing, schema/wealthy outcomes validation, cellular/desktop expertise monitoring, and safety/handbook actions.

A whole native search engine marketing audit should embody a assessment and evaluation of this knowledge to determine and react to strengths, weaknesses, alternatives, and threats outlined in every part.

Google Search Console screenshot, September 2025

Web site house owners and managers will wish to pay explicit consideration to any points associated to pages not being crawled/listed or handbook actions having been taken primarily based on questionable practices, as each can have a detrimental impact on search engine visibility.

Google Search Console does ship notifications for a majority of these points in addition to common efficiency updates, however an audit will guarantee nothing has been missed.

9. Analytics Evaluation

Whether or not you’re utilizing Google Analytics or one other web site/customer monitoring answer, the information accessible right here is beneficial throughout an audit to validate high and lesser-performing content material, site visitors sources, viewers profiles, and paths to buy.

Findings in analytics shall be key to your content material audit.

As you assessment your web site analytics, you could ask the next questions:

• Are my top-visited pages additionally my top-ranking pages in search engines like google?
• That are my high entry pages from natural and AI search?
• Which LLMs are sending site visitors to my web site?
• Which pages/content material should not receiving the extent of site visitors or engagement desired?
• What’s the typical path to buy on my web site, and may it’s condensed or in any other case optimized?
• Which domains are my high referrers, and are there alternatives to additional leverage these websites for backlinks? (see Backlink Audit above).

Use Google Analytics (or one other instrument of your selection) to seek out the solutions to those questions, so you possibly can focus and prioritize your content material and key phrase optimization efforts.

10. Competitor Evaluation

A complete native search engine marketing audit ought to determine and assessment the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors.

It’s possible you’ll have already got a great sense of who your competitors is, however to start, it’s all the time a good suggestion to verify who particularly exhibits up within the natural search and AI outcomes once you enter your goal key phrases. It’s possible you’ll discover totally different opponents in these two codecs, which symbolize each a risk and a chance.

These companies/domains are your true on-line opponents and the websites you possibly can be taught essentially the most from. If any of your on-line opponents’ websites and/or pages are rating forward of yours, you’ll wish to assessment what they could be doing to achieve this benefit.

You may comply with the identical guidelines of steps you’d conduct to your personal audit to determine how they could be optimizing their key phrases, content material, Google Enterprise Profile, evaluations, native enterprise listings, or backlinks.

Normally, the easiest way to outperform your competitors is to offer a greater general expertise on-line and off, which incorporates producing extra related, distinctive, high-quality content material to extra absolutely deal with the questions your mutual clients have.

11. AI Search For Native Companies

AI Overviews and AI Mode are more and more superseding conventional natural search leads to Google, because the search engine goals to offer the solutions to questions instantly inside its SERPs. Additional, Google has signalled its dedication to AI Mode by just lately integrating it into the Chrome deal with bar.

Whereas AI search optimization has some new issues, a powerful basis in conventional search engine marketing will go a protracted method to constructing visibility in AI search outcomes; chief amongst these at a neighborhood stage is a completely optimized Google Enterprise Profile, which seems prominently for native searches with business intent as outlined above.

Screenshot of Google AI Mode displaying Google Enterprise Profile Playing cards, September 2025

AI Mode Technique Guidelines Ought to Contemplate:

• Enhanced GBP Options: Keep up to date on new options inside Google Enterprise Profile, permitting for direct interactions or transactions, as these shall be favored by AI Mode.
• Concentrate on Person Intent: Perceive the transactional and informational intent behind native searches. AI Mode goals to offer fast options, so companies facilitating this can acquire a bonus.
• Voice Search Optimization: As AI Mode turns into extra conversational, optimizing for pure language queries and voice search shall be essential. Guarantee your content material solutions questions instantly and makes use of conversational language.
• Direct Motion Integrations: This may increasingly nonetheless be a methods away, however assessment and discover alternatives to combine with Google’s reserving or reservation options, if relevant to your enterprise. This might grow to be a direct pathway to conversions inside AI Mode.

Prioritizing Your Motion Objects

A whole native search engine marketing audit goes to provide a reasonably important listing of motion objects.

Most of the key phrase, web site, content material, and backlink auditing instruments do a great job of prioritizing duties; nonetheless, the listing can nonetheless be daunting.

Among the best locations to start out with an audit motion plan is across the key phrases, AI prompts, and content material you may have already established some, however not sufficient, authority for.

Decide how you can finest deal with deficiencies or alternatives to optimize this content material first earlier than shifting on to extra aggressive key phrases or these you may have much less or no visibility for. Establishing authority and belief is a long-term sport.

These audit objects must be reviewed each six to 12 months, relying on the scale and scale of your net presence, to allow the very best likelihood of being discovered by your native audience.

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