Website Local SEO Audit
Analyze your website for local SEO signals, schema markup, technical health, and mobile readiness. Get actionable recommendations to improve your local search rankings.
Local SEO Signals
NAP consistency, local keywords, Google Maps embed, clickable phone numbers, and address markup.
Schema & Technical
LocalBusiness schema, JSON-LD, HTTPS, canonical tags, robots directives, and page load time.
Mobile & Performance
Viewport meta, responsive design, image optimization, compression, and caching headers.
What Does This Audit Check?
Our website local SEO audit runs 30+ automated checks across 6 categories, weighted by their impact on local search rankings. Here's exactly what we analyze and why each signal matters.
Local SEO Signals
Weight: 30% of overall score — the most important category
Local SEO signals tell Google that your website is a legitimate local business, where you're located, and what services you offer. These are the most heavily weighted signals in our audit because they directly impact your Google Maps and local pack rankings.
Google reads your title tag first. Including your city or service area signals local relevance immediately. Pages with location-modified titles rank 20-30% higher in local results.
While not a direct ranking factor, local keywords in meta descriptions improve click-through rates from search results. Higher CTR = better rankings over time.
Your business name, address, and phone number must appear on your website exactly as they do on your Google Business Profile. Inconsistencies confuse Google and hurt your local rankings.
We check for city names, neighborhood terms, "near me" patterns, and service-area language in your page content. These terms help Google associate your business with specific locations.
An embedded Google Map confirms your physical location to search engines. It also improves user experience — visitors can get directions directly from your site.
Mobile users need to call you with a single tap. A clickable phone number with a tel: link also signals to Google that you're a contactable local business.
Using the HTML <address> tag helps search engines identify your business address programmatically, even without schema markup.
Your main heading is the strongest on-page signal. Including your location or service area in the H1 tells Google exactly what your page is about and where.
Technical Health
Weight: 20% of overall score
Technical SEO is the foundation that everything else sits on. If your site has technical issues, even the best content won't rank. We check the signals that Google's crawlers evaluate when deciding whether to trust and rank your site.
Google has confirmed HTTPS as a ranking signal since 2014. Sites without HTTPS show a "Not Secure" warning in Chrome, which drives away 85% of potential customers.
A 200 status means your page loads successfully. Broken pages (404, 500 errors) waste Google's crawl budget and create dead ends for visitors.
Pages loading over 3 seconds lose 53% of mobile visitors. Google's Core Web Vitals use load time as a direct ranking factor. We measure server response time and total load.
Canonical tags tell Google which version of a page to index. Without them, duplicate content across URL variations dilutes your ranking power.
A noindex or nofollow tag accidentally left on your page will completely remove it from Google. We verify your pages are set to be indexed.
If you serve customers in multiple languages or regions, hreflang tags ensure Google shows the right version to the right audience.
Compression reduces page size by 60-80%, directly improving load time. Most modern servers support this — but it needs to be enabled.
Proper cache headers let browsers store your assets locally, making repeat visits almost instant. This improves both user experience and Core Web Vitals scores.
Schema Markup
Weight: 15% of overall score
Schema markup is structured data that helps Google understand your business in a machine-readable format. For local businesses, schema is what powers rich results in search — star ratings, business hours, address, and more appearing directly in search results. It's also critical for AI search engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity, which rely heavily on structured data to generate answers.
The LocalBusiness schema type tells Google you're a local business and provides structured info about your name, address, phone, hours, and category. Pages with LocalBusiness schema are 2x more likely to appear in the local pack.
Breadcrumb markup helps Google understand your site hierarchy and displays breadcrumb navigation in search results, improving click-through rates by 15-25%.
FAQ schema creates expandable question-answer sections directly in Google search results. This dramatically increases your search result size, visibility, and click-through rate. It's also the primary format AI search engines extract for citations.
We check if your page has any JSON-LD structured data at all. Pages with no structured data miss out on rich results and give AI search engines nothing to cite.
Content Quality
Weight: 15% of overall score
Content signals tell Google whether your page provides real value to visitors. Thin, poorly structured content won't rank — regardless of how perfect your technical SEO is. We analyze your content structure, depth, and social sharing readiness.
A clear heading hierarchy helps both users and search engines understand your content. We check for exactly one H1 tag, proper use of H2-H6, and keyword presence in headings.
Images without alt text are invisible to Google. Descriptive alt text with local keywords improves image search rankings and accessibility compliance.
Internal links distribute ranking power across your site and help Google discover pages. Pages with fewer than 3 internal links are often under-indexed.
Thin pages (under 300 words) rarely rank for competitive local keywords. We check if your content has enough depth to satisfy search intent.
Open Graph tags control how your page appears when shared on Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social platforms. Missing OG tags result in broken, unappealing social shares.
Similar to Open Graph, Twitter Card tags ensure your content displays properly when shared on X/Twitter, with proper image, title, and description.
Performance
Weight: 10% of overall score
Page speed is a confirmed Google ranking factor. Slow websites lose visitors, conversions, and rankings. Google's Core Web Vitals — LCP, INP, and CLS — directly impact where your page appears in search results. We test the server-side performance signals that determine your baseline speed.
Time to First Byte measures how quickly your server responds. Under 200ms is excellent. Over 600ms signals hosting or backend issues that slow everything else down.
We verify your server compresses HTML, CSS, and JavaScript responses. Uncompressed pages transfer 3-5x more data, directly impacting load time on mobile networks.
Proper cache-control headers let returning visitors load your site from local storage instead of re-downloading everything. This cuts load time for repeat visits by 60%+.
We check for excessive external scripts, unoptimized images, and render-blocking resources that slow down your initial page render.
Mobile Readiness
Weight: 10% of overall score
Google uses mobile-first indexing — meaning it primarily uses the mobile version of your site for ranking. Over 60% of local searches happen on mobile devices. If your site doesn't work well on phones, you're invisible to most of your potential customers.
The viewport meta tag tells mobile browsers how to scale your page. Without it, your site appears zoomed out and unreadable on phones — and Google knows it.
We check for CSS media queries, responsive frameworks, and flexible layouts. A responsive design adapts to any screen size, ensuring your content is usable on all devices.
How We Calculate Your Score
Your overall score is a weighted average across all 6 categories. Categories are weighted based on their impact on local search rankings:
Score ranges:
- 80-100: Excellent — your site is well-optimized
- 50-79: Needs work — significant opportunities exist
- 0-49: Critical issues — your rankings are being hurt
Why Does Local SEO Matter for Your Website?
Your Google Business Profile gets you into the local pack (the map results). But your website is what Google uses to validate, cross-reference, and rank that listing. A poorly optimized website actively hurts your GBP rankings — even if your profile itself is perfect.
Google cross-references your website with your GBP listing to verify NAP (Name, Address, Phone) consistency, confirm the services you offer, and assess whether your business is legitimate. When your website has strong local SEO signals — schema markup, local keywords, mobile-friendly design — it reinforces your GBP listing and pushes you higher in local results.
Additionally, AI search engines like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity primarily rely on website content — not GBP listings — to generate answers. If someone asks “best plumber in Austin” and your website has clear, structured content with FAQ schema and LocalBusiness markup, you're far more likely to be cited in AI-generated answers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this audit really free?
Yes. You can run unlimited audits at no cost. There's no account required, no email capture, and no hidden upsell wall. We built this tool to help local businesses understand their website health.
How accurate is an automated audit compared to a manual one?
Our automated audit covers the most impactful technical and on-page signals — about 80% of what a manual audit would find. For deeper analysis (like content quality assessment, competitor gap analysis, and backlink profile review), a manual audit by an SEO professional is recommended. Our Managed plan includes a comprehensive manual audit every month.
What should I fix first?
Start with the "Top Recommendations" section of your results — these are the highest-impact issues sorted by priority. In general, fix Local SEO signals first (NAP, schema markup, local keywords), then Technical issues (HTTPS, speed), then Content and Mobile last.
How often should I run this audit?
Run an audit after any major website change (redesign, new pages, hosting migration). For ongoing monitoring, monthly audits are ideal. Our Managed plan runs automated audits monthly with hands-on fixes included.
Why is my score low even though my site looks fine?
Visual design and SEO health are different things. A beautiful website can still be missing schema markup, have slow load times, lack local keywords, or serve uncompressed content. This audit looks at what search engines see — not what humans see.
Does this audit check my Google Business Profile?
No — this tool audits your website only. For a complete GBP audit, use our free Google Business Profile Audit Checklist tool available on our tools page.
Want These Issues Fixed Every Month — Automatically?
Our Managed plan includes monthly website SEO audits with hands-on fixes, complete GBP management, review responses, rank tracking, and a dedicated account manager. Measurable results in 90 days.