Local SEO Checklist

What changed in local SEO since most checklists were written

Many checklists that rank today still tell you to do things Google has removed. Before you start:

The 11 sections

1. Eligibility and setup (6 checks): eligibility, ownership, verification, duplicates, practitioner profiles, Bing and Apple.
2. Google Business Profile core info (15): name, categories, address, service areas, phone, website link, hours, holiday hours, description, services, products, attributes, opening date, booking links.
3. Photos, posts, questions (7): photo specs, posts that stay live, what replaced Q&A.
4. Reviews (9): review link, asking everyone, no incentives, replies, reporting, review velocity.
5. NAP and citations (9): one canonical NAP, core directories, old addresses, duplicates.
6. Location and service pages (8): one page per real location, unique content, service-area pages that are not doorways.
7. On-page local signals (8): titles, H1, click-to-call, speed, local proof, local keyword research.
8. Local schema (6): LocalBusiness markup, matching NAP, geo, no self-serving stars.
9. Local links and mentions (6): memberships, sponsorships, local press, competitor gaps.
10. AI answers and maps assistants (5): what assistants say about you and where they get it.
11. Tracking (7): UTM tags, Performance report, calls, Search Console, map rank, lead source.

Sample: 6 rows from the checklist

*BrightSmile Dental in Austin is a fictional example.*

Google Business Profile: the part that moves the map pack

Your Business Profile is what shows in the map pack and Google Maps. The fields that matter most:

• Name: your real-world name, nothing added. Google says extra words in the name can get the profile suspended (Google guidelines).
• Primary category: the most specific category that completes "This business IS a...". Look at the top 3 map results for your main search and note their categories.
• Address or service area: a real place customers visit, or up to 20 service areas if you travel to them. Virtual offices are not eligible.
• Phone and website: a number that reaches this location, and a link to this location's page.
• Description: up to 750 characters, no links, no promotions (Google).
• Photos: at least 3 real photos (exterior, interior, team or work), JPG or PNG, 10 KB to 5 MB, 720 x 720 px recommended (Google).
• Posts: updates, offers or events. Posts older than 6 months are archived unless they have a date range (Google).

Reviews: what Google allows and what gets you in trouble

Google says more reviews and positive ratings can help local ranking. It also bans the shortcuts (Google's fake engagement policy):

The simplest system that works: send the same short message with your review link to every customer after the job, every time. Reviews then arrive every month instead of in bursts.

NAP consistency: how to audit it in 30 minutes

NAP means name, address and phone. When it matches on your profile, your website and the directories, your location data is easy to trust. To audit it:

1. Write your canonical NAP once (exact suite format, exact phone format).
2. Search Google for your phone number in quotes, then your old address and old phone number.
3. Log each listing in the NAP audit sheet. It marks every field Match, Check or Fix.
4. Fix the High-traffic listings first: Google, Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, Facebook, Yelp, then your industry sites.

Location pages that rank without being doorways

Each real location needs its own page with its address, hours, map, directions, staff, photos and local reviews. Google's spam policies call pages that only swap a city name "doorway pages." Service-area businesses can have pages for towns they serve, but only where they have real work and proof there. If you have 40 thin "plumber in [town]" pages, merge most of them into one "Areas we serve" page.

Who this checklist is for

• Owners of one location who want a clear list in priority order.
• Service-area businesses (plumbers, cleaners, roofers) who do not have a storefront.
• Multi-location brands and franchises who need one standard for every location.
• Agencies who need a client-ready audit with sources.

If you are not local (you sell online only), start with the SEO checklist instead.

Use SEOmatic to run the local SEO checklist on brightsmile-dental.com.

My Google Business Profile shows:
- Name: BrightSmile Dental
- Address: 1200 Example Ave, Suite 200, Austin, TX 78701
- Phone: (512) 555-0142
- Primary category: Dentist My money searches: "dentist austin", "emergency dentist austin", "dentist near me". My location pages: /locations/north-austin/ and /locations/round-rock/

1. Run check_site on brightsmile-dental.com: can Google index the homepage, and does robots.txt allow Googlebot and the AI search crawlers?
2. Run connect_seomatic so I can sign in and connect Search Console.
3. site_pages action crawl on my contact page and each location page. For each page, compare the name, address and phone on the page with my profile above, and report: mismatches, missing tap-to-call link, missing or wrong LocalBusiness schema (and any aggregateRating about my own business), missing map or hours.
4. site_pages action analyze on each location page: title, H1, meta description. Does each name the service and the place?
5. local_presence action visibility for my money searches: who holds the map pack, which directories rank in the top 10, my organic position.
6. gsc_performance action top_queries for the last 3 months, then list queries that contain "austin", "round rock" or "near me", with clicks, impressions and position.
7. gsc_indexing action batch_inspect on my location pages: are they indexed?
8. site_audit: duplicate titles across location pages, missing metas, broken internal links, slow pages.
9. Give me one table: checklist section, check, pass or fail, evidence (URL and numbers), fix, priority (High, Medium, Low).
10. For the website fixes, stage proposals with task_manage action create and show them with show_approval_cards. Do not change anything I have not approved.
11. List the checks you could not run with these tools (Business Profile fields, reviews, photos, posts, directory listings, Bing Places, Apple Business Connect) so I can do them by hand from the checklist.