Why a full agency audit is the wrong starting point
Most published local SEO audit guides are written for agencies running audits across dozens of client locations. They cover Google Business Profile, Apple Business Connect, Bing Places, citations, website signals, reviews, backlinks, keyword tracking, competitor benchmarking, and AI-answer visibility — ten categories that assume a marketing team and a tracking dashboard. If you run a 0-5 person local business, you don't need that whole process this week. You need to know, in one sitting, where you're actually losing customers and what to fix first.
This worksheet condenses that agency framework into five areas a solo owner can check directly: your website, your Google Business Profile, other directory listings, your reviews, and whether every service and area you actually serve has a matching page or listing entry. For each area, capture evidence, rate severity, and write one next action — not a research project, a decision.
The worksheet: copy this table
Copy the table below into a doc or spreadsheet. Fill 'Evidence to capture' with what you actually found (a screenshot, a count, a mismatch), not just a checkmark — you'll need it to decide what to fix first.
| Area | What to check | Evidence to capture | Severity (Critical / Needs work / OK) | Next action |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Website | Clear headline, how the business shows up on Google/shared links, services + prices + hours + contact info as readable text, mobile usability | [Your notes / Website Audit grade per item] | [Fill in] | [Fill in] |
| Google Business Profile | Primary category matches the main service, hours are accurate for every day, business name matches signage, services list is complete, recent photos | [Your notes: category, hours, name, photo count] | [Fill in] | [Fill in] |
| Other listings/directories | Name, address, phone match your website exactly on 3-5 relevant directories (e.g., Apple Maps, Bing Places, Yelp, an industry directory) | [List any mismatches found, directory by directory] | [Fill in] | [Fill in] |
| Reviews | Number of unanswered reviews, review recency/volume, recurring complaints in review text | [Count of unanswered reviews + 1-2 recurring themes] | [Fill in] | [Fill in] |
| Service & area coverage | Every service and every town/area you actually serve has a matching page or listing entry — not just your headquarters city | [List services/areas without a matching page] | [Fill in] | [Fill in] |
For the Google Business Profile row, check these fields by hand: is your primary category the single best match for your main service (not a broader or adjacent one)? Are your listed hours accurate for every day, including holidays? Independent practitioner audits report primary category and accurate hours as significant local ranking levers, with rank changes observed after correcting either — reason enough to check both first, even though this is a manual review today.
For the other-listings row, pick 3-5 directories that matter for your trade and area (map platforms, a general directory like Yelp, and one industry-specific directory), then compare business name, address, and phone number character-by-character against your website and Google profile. Log every mismatch: published local SEO audit frameworks consistently treat this name/address/phone consistency as a top-tier check, since a mismatch can make a business surface correctly in one place and not another.
For the service-and-area row, list every service and every town or neighborhood you actually serve, then check whether each has a corresponding page on your website or a corresponding service-area entry in your Google profile. A service you offer but never mention anywhere online won't surface for that search, no matter how strong the rest of your presence is.
Worked example: [Example] Riverside Plumbing Co.
Riverside Plumbing Co. is a fictional example used to show how the worksheet gets filled in — not a real customer or a measured result.
| Area | What to check | Evidence to capture | Severity | Next action |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Website | Services/prices as text, mobile usability | Website Audit flagged 'services listed as an image, not text' as Urgent; mobile speed graded Needs work | Critical | Rewrite services section as plain text this week |
| Google Business Profile | Primary category, hours | Category set to 'Contractor' instead of 'Plumber'; hours correct | Needs work | Change primary category to Plumber |
| Other listings | NAP match across 4 directories | Phone number on Yelp is an old landline; other 3 directories match | Needs work | Update phone number on Yelp |
| Reviews | Unanswered reviews | 6 of last 10 reviews unanswered; 2 mention slow callback times | Needs work | Reply to all 6 using drafted replies |
| Service & area coverage | Services/areas vs. matching pages | Serves 3 neighboring towns but website only mentions the home city | Critical | Add a page or section for each served town |
What this worksheet doesn't cover yet
This worksheet automates two of its five rows today: the Website Audit and the Review Reply Writer are both live, free tools you can run right now. Beside also offers a free, self-serve Business Audit that reads your Google listing, reviews, photos, website, and local competitors — it needs only an email address, with no waitlist, invitation, or queue to join. Use it as a fast starting scan, but treat it as a summary rather than a substitute for the field-by-field checks in the Google Business Profile, other-listings, and service-area rows above — those still take a manual read in this worksheet. Beside's dedicated SEO and GEO content-publishing feature (deeper AI-answer visibility work) is still labeled 'Soon' on Beside's roadmap and isn't shipped yet, so this piece won't imply it covers that.
Once your worksheet is filled in, sort rows by severity and tackle Critical items first — they're usually the ones actively blocking a customer from finding or contacting you, not just a polish item.