Free Local SEO Audit

Google Business Profile audit: the checks that decide your map visibility

For a local business, the Business Profile is often the first thing a customer sees, before the website and before a phone call. It shows your name, hours, photos, rating and location in the panel beside the search results and in Google Maps.

Most profiles are set up once and left alone. Hours change, services change, photos go stale and competitors keep improving theirs. None of that announces itself: the only symptom is fewer calls, fewer direction requests and fewer visits. A Business Profile audit connects that symptom to its cause.

What a Business Profile audit covers

An audit is a structured review of every field that affects how the profile is found and how people respond once they find it. Work through these in order; the first few carry the most weight.

1. 1.Ownership and verification

   Confirm the profile is claimed, verified, and that the people with access are the people who should have it. A former employee or an old agency as owner is a common and quiet problem.

2. 2.Business name

   It should match the name on your sign and your website. Extra keywords added to the name break Google's guidelines and can get a profile suspended.

3. 3.Primary category

   The single most influential field. It tells Google what you are, and it decides which searches you are even considered for. Pick the category that matches your core service, not the broadest one.

4. 4.Secondary categories

   Add the ones that describe real services you sell. Unrelated categories dilute the profile rather than widen it.

5. 5.Address or service area

   A storefront shows an address. A business that travels to customers sets a service area. Mixing the two, or listing a mailbox as a storefront, causes verification and ranking trouble.

6. 6.Phone number and website link

   The phone should be a number that is answered. The link should go to the most relevant page for that location, which is not always the home page.

7. 7.Hours, including special hours

   Wrong hours send people to a locked door. Holiday and special hours are the ones most often missed.

8. 8.Description and services

   Say what you do, for whom, and where, in plain words. Fill in the services list so the profile carries the terms customers search with.

9. 9.Attributes

   Accessibility, payment options, and similar attributes feed the filters people apply in Maps. A missing attribute can remove you from a filtered search.

10. 10.Photos

    Recent, real photos of the outside, the inside, the team and the work. The outside photo matters most: it is how a first-time visitor recognises the building.

11. 11.Reviews and replies

    Look at how many reviews arrive each month, the average rating over time, and whether every review has a reply. An unanswered complaint near the top of the list reads as neglect.

The mistakes that cost the most

• A primary category that is too broad. It keeps you out of the specific searches your best customers type.
• Hours that were never updated. Customers who arrive to a closed door do not come back, and Google treats a stale profile as a less reliable one.
• One old photo. A single logo from years ago gives nobody a reason to choose you over the listing beside yours.
• Silence on reviews. Replying to every review, especially the critical ones, shows the next reader that someone is paying attention.
• A name, address and phone that differ between sites. When your details disagree across your website and the directories, both Google and customers are less sure which version is right.

How to run the audit yourself

Start from the customer's side. Search for the service you sell, the way a customer would, from where your customers are. Note whether your profile appears in the map results at all, and which businesses appear above you. Run the free scan at the top of this page and it unlocks one free local grid, which does this for one search across a spread of points around your address, so you can see where in your area you appear and where you do not.

Then compare, field by field. Open the profiles that appear above you and compare them with yours on the checks listed above: their categories, how recent their photos are, how many reviews they receive and whether they reply. The differences are your list of work.

Check the categories behind the results. The categories competitors use are rarely visible at a glance. The category audit lists the ones behind the businesses ranking around you and the ones missing from yours.

Check your details everywhere else. Your name, address and phone should read the same on your website and in every directory that lists you. Search for your business name and phone number together and note every listing where a detail differs; each one is a small fix that removes a doubt.

Read the Performance report. Inside the profile, Google shows the searches that surfaced you and how many people called, asked for directions or visited your website. Look for patterns rather than single numbers: a drop in calls that lines up with an hours change, or a rise in direction requests after a run of new reviews.

How often to audit

Quarterly is a sensible minimum for a single location. In a crowded market, monthly is better. Any real change to the business, such as new hours, a new service or a move, should trigger a check the same week.

The profile also works alongside your website. Google reads both, so a site that is slow, unclear about where you work or missing your address weakens the profile that points to it. The free SEO audit runs 85+ checks across 17 scored categories on your website and shows the value measured for each one.

Questions people ask

Is my Business Profile helping or hurting me?

If it is complete, accurate, recently updated and producing calls and direction requests, it is helping. Missing fields, old photos, unanswered reviews or the wrong primary category mean it is holding you back, often without any visible sign.

What is the most important field?

The primary category. It decides which searches the profile is considered for. After that: hours, reviews and replies, then photos.

Does an audit change my ranking by itself?

No. An audit tells you what to fix. The changes you make afterwards are what move the profile, and distance from the searcher still matters whatever you do.