Local SEO Audit Checklist Every Contractor Should Run
Most contractors set up a Google profile and a website once, then leave both alone for years. Meanwhile, phone numbers change, competitors improve and Google updates how it works. A local SEO audit is a simple check-up that finds what has gone stale or broken. You can run a basic one yourself in an afternoon.
This checklist walks through the areas that matter most, in the order that makes sense. For each area you will see what to check, what a problem looks like and what to do about it. Keep a notepad open and write down every issue as you go.
Step one: check your Google Business Profile
Your profile drives Map Pack visibility, so start there. Confirm that your business name matches your real-world name. Check the address or service area, phone number, website link and hours. Make sure holiday hours are set before a holiday, not after.
Then look at categories and services. The primary category should match your main trade. Secondary categories should describe real services you sell. Read through the services list and the description, and make sure they sound like a person wrote them. Finally, look at your photos. Old, blurry or missing images cost you calls. Add recent shots of your crew, trucks and finished jobs.
Step two: look at reviews
Count your reviews and note your average rating. Check how recent the newest ones are. A profile with forty reviews but nothing in the last year looks inactive. Read your most recent reviews and see whether customers mention the services and towns you want to rank for.
Check for unanswered reviews, good and bad. Replying shows you are paying attention. Look at your competitors too. Compare how many reviews they have and how often new ones appear. If you are far behind, a simple routine of asking after every job can close the gap over time.
Step three: audit your citations
Search for your business name and phone number. Make a list of every listing you find, then compare each one with your master details. Look for wrong addresses, old phone numbers, closed-business flags and duplicates. Pay extra attention to the large directories and to sources specific to your trade.
Fix what you can. Claim listings you have not claimed, correct errors and ask to remove duplicates. Citations are a quiet piece of the puzzle, but wrong ones can confuse Google about who you are. A clean set of details is the goal, not sheer numbers.
Step four: review your website
Open your website on a phone first, since most homeowners will. Does it load in a few seconds? Is the phone number visible without scrolling? Can you tap to call? Look at the main service pages. Each major service should have its own page with clear text, photos and a way to contact you.
Check the basics behind the scenes as well. Every page should have a unique title and description. Your name, address and phone number should appear in the footer. Look for broken links and pages that return errors. If your site has no pages for the towns you serve, note that as a gap.
Step five: check rankings from more than one spot
Search your main services and see where you show up. Do not rely on a single search from your office. Results change by location, so try searching from different neighborhoods, or use a grid-style tracking tool that checks many points at once. Write down your position for each important search.
Look at both the Map Pack and the regular results. You may be strong in one and absent from the other. Also search for your business by name and check that your profile, website and key listings appear correctly. This gives you a baseline, so you can see whether later changes help. An SEO review of your rankings and citations can do the same work if you prefer to hand it off.
Step six: compare against two or three competitors
Pick the contractors who show up above you most often. Look at their profile categories, review counts, photo quality and website structure. Notice what they do that you do not. Maybe they have a page for every service, or a steady stream of fresh photos, or a clear list of towns.
The goal is not to copy them. It is to find openings. If every competitor has a thin website, a strong set of service pages can set you apart. If they all have hundreds of reviews, you know that review growth should be a priority.
Step seven: confirm tracking is working
An audit is only useful if you can measure results afterward. Check that you can see calls, form fills and visits from your profile and website. Make sure call tracking, if you use it, does not replace your main number on your profile or listings. Confirm that form submissions reach a real inbox someone checks daily.
If you cannot say how many leads came from search last month, fix that before anything else. Without numbers, you cannot tell which changes are working. Google's own documentation, such as the Google Search Central documentation, explains how to set up the basics for measuring search performance.
Turn the findings into a priority list
When you finish, you will probably have a long list. Do not try to fix everything at once. Sort the items into errors that can hurt you now, gaps that limit your growth and nice-to-have improvements. Start with the errors, such as wrong hours, a wrong phone number or a broken contact form.
Then work through the gaps one by one, such as missing service pages, a thin review count or electrical contractor marketing weak photos. Re-run the audit every six months, or sooner after a move, rebrand or website change.
If you would rather hand the audit to someone else, visit the agency website to see how the agency describes its process, which begins with a discovery call and a growth plan.