Checklist · Local SEO

Local SEO audit: a one-hour checklist for Seacoast NH businesses

Updated October 2026 · By Kyle Fredette, Seacoast Cited

A local SEO audit checks whatever decides whether nearby customers find you: your Google Business Profile, your spot in the map pack, matching name, address and phone listings, reviews, mobile speed, service and town pages, schema, and what ChatGPT says about you. A Seacoast business owner can run this one in about an hour with free tools.

What does a local SEO audit check?

A local SEO audit checks the signals Google and AI tools use to pick local businesses: relevance (do your profile and pages match the search), distance, and prominence (reviews, links, mentions). In practice that is eight checks, from your Google Business Profile to a ChatGPT test, and each one has a clear pass or fail.

The whole local SEO checklist on one screen:

Check	Time	Free tool	Pass looks like
1. Google Business Profile	10 min	Your profile dashboard	Every field filled, correct category, no unreviewed edits
2. Map pack check	10 min	Your phone, private window	You appear in the top three for your main service in your home town
3. NAP consistency	10 min	Search your name and phone	Name, address and phone identical everywhere, no duplicates
4. Reviews	5 min	Google Maps	A steady flow of recent reviews, every one answered
5. Speed and mobile	5 min	PageSpeed Insights	Loads fast on a phone, tap-to-call works
6. Service and town pages	10 min	Your own site menu	One page per main service, towns named in plain text
7. Schema	5 min	Rich Results Test	LocalBusiness markup that matches your listings
8. ChatGPT check	5 min	ChatGPT	Named when asked for your service in your town

Think of it as a local SEO analysis you can repeat each quarter to see whether your fixes worked.

How do you do a local SEO audit in an hour?

Block off an hour, open a notepad, and work through the eight checks below in order, writing down every pass and fail. Use your phone for the map pack and speed checks, because that is how many local customers search. Do not fix anything yet. Finish the audit first, then rank the fixes.

1. Google Business Profile (10 minutes)

Search your business name on Google and open your profile editor. Confirm the business name matches your sign (no extra keywords stuffed in), the primary category describes what you mainly do, and the phone, hours, holiday hours and website link are right. Check that services are listed by name, photos are recent, and nobody has suggested changes you never approved.

Pass if: every field is filled, the category is accurate, and nothing has been changed without you knowing.

2. Map pack check (10 minutes)

On your phone, open a private browser window and search your main service plus a town. Try a search like "electrician Exeter NH" in that window. Repeat for each town you want work from and note who holds the three map pack spots. A Dover business may show well at home and vanish in Portsmouth, which is normal, because distance matters. Our guide on how to rank higher on Google Maps covers what to do with what you find.

Pass if: you show in the map pack for your main service in your home town.

3. NAP consistency (10 minutes)

NAP means name, address and phone. Search your business name and your phone number separately and open each listing that comes up: Google, Apple Maps, Bing, Yelp, Facebook, the Better Business Bureau and your chamber of commerce. Look for old addresses, old numbers, name variations and duplicate listings. Mismatches make search engines and AI tools less sure which details are right.

Pass if: the name, address and phone are character-for-character identical everywhere, with no duplicates.

4. Reviews (5 minutes)

Compare your review count, star rating and the date of your newest review with the three businesses in the map pack. Recency matters as much as the total: a customer comparing twenty reviews with one from last month against sixty with none in two years may well trust the twenty. Check whether you have replied to every review, including the unhappy ones.

Pass if: you get new reviews every month and every review has a calm, specific reply.

5. Site speed and mobile (5 minutes)

Run your homepage and your most important service page through Google's free PageSpeed Insights and look at the mobile score. Then open your site on your phone and try to call you, find your hours and send a message.

Pass if: the site loads quickly on a phone and a customer can call you with one tap from any page.

6. Service and town pages (10 minutes)

Write down your three to five most profitable services and the towns you want work from. Does each service have its own page explaining what it involves and where you do it? Do your towns appear in plain text, not only in a map image? A single "Services" page with a bulleted list is the most common gap.

Pass if: every main service has its own page, and your service area is written out in words.

7. Schema (5 minutes)

Schema is code that tells search engines and AI tools plainly who you are. Paste your homepage address into Google's Rich Results Test or the Schema Markup Validator. You are looking for LocalBusiness markup (or a type like Plumber or Dentist) with the same name, address and phone as your listings.

Pass if: LocalBusiness markup is present, error free and matches your listings.

8. ChatGPT check (5 minutes)

Ask ChatGPT the question a customer would ask. A roofer might try "Who is a good roofer in Portsmouth NH?" and note whether you are named, who is named instead, and whether anything it says about you is wrong or out of date. This is the same ChatGPT check included in our monthly plans, and it shows how well the rest of your signals are being read. Our guide to whether AI will recommend your business explains what drives the answer.

Pass if: you are named for your main service in your home town, and the details are accurate.

Do you need a paid local SEO audit tool?

No, not for a first pass. Google's own free tools cover most of it: your Business Profile dashboard, Search Console, PageSpeed Insights and the Rich Results Test. A paid local SEO audit tool earns its cost when you need to track map rankings across many points in town, or audit dozens of directory listings at once.

If you have not set up Google Search Console, start there. It is free and shows which searches already bring people to your site. A single-location shop in Stratham or Kittery can get very far with the free set.

What should you fix first after a local SEO audit?

Fix whatever touches calls this month first: a wrong phone number, wrong hours, a missing or mis-categorized Google Business Profile, or a site that breaks on a phone. Next come reviews and listings that disagree with each other. Pages, schema and AI search work come last, because they compound over months rather than days.

Correct any wrong phone number, address or hours on Google and your website.
Fix your primary category and fill every empty field on your Google Business Profile.
Add a tap-to-call button and your hours to the top of every page.
Clean up mismatched and duplicate listings, starting with Apple Maps, Bing, Yelp and Facebook.
Start asking every customer for a review by text, and reply to the backlog.
Publish a dedicated page for your most profitable service, naming the towns you serve.
Add LocalBusiness schema that matches your listings.
Run the ChatGPT check again in a month and compare.

For the technical side of a site build, see our website SEO and AI search setup checklist.

Found more fails than you have time to fix? Kyle can walk through your results with you.

How often should a small business run a local SEO audit?

Run the full checklist once a quarter, and run it again any time something changes: a move, a new phone number, new hours, a new service, or a website rebuild. Between audits, glance at your Google Business Profile once a week for edits you did not make, since anyone can suggest changes to a listing.

Timing helps on the Seacoast. If you depend on summer visitors in Hampton, Rye, York or downtown Portsmouth, run it in early spring so your hours, photos and reviews are current before the season starts. Heating, plumbing and snow removal businesses get more from an early fall pass.

What does it cost to fix what the audit finds?

Many fixes cost nothing but time: correcting listings, filling out your profile, asking for reviews. Website problems usually mean a rebuild or new pages, which starts at $1,500 for our Starter Site. If you want someone to handle the ongoing work, SEO Essentials is $750 a month. Our local SEO cost guide explains what drives the price.

Read the full breakdown in what local SEO costs for Seacoast small businesses, see the monthly work on our SEO service page, or compare bundles on the packages and pricing page. Every monthly plan includes the ChatGPT check from step 8.

Frequently asked questions

Why does my business show up when I search but not for my customers?

Google personalizes results by location and search history. If you search from your shop, you are standing next to your own listing and have probably clicked it many times. Your customers search from their homes in other towns. Check with a private window and the town name in your search, or ask a friend in that town to search.

Is a local SEO report from an agency the same as an audit?

Not quite. An audit is a one-time check that finds problems. A local SEO report is the monthly follow-up that shows whether the fixes are working: calls, direction requests, map positions and page traffic. If an agency only sends reports and never tells you what is broken, ask for the audit behind them.

We work out of a truck, not a storefront. Does this audit still apply?

Yes. Service area businesses can hide their street address on Google and list the towns they serve instead. Everything else on the checklist still applies. Your name and phone must match everywhere, your reviews still count, and you need a page for each main service and the towns you cover most.

Can I offer a discount in exchange for reviews?

No. Google's policies prohibit offering incentives for reviews, and incentivized reviews can be removed. Ask every customer the same way instead, ideally by text right after the job with a direct link to your review form. Reply to every review, good or bad, briefly and specifically, so future customers see a real person behind the business.

More guides for Seacoast businesses live in our resources library.