Boost local rankings with Birdeye’s Local SEO Audit tool

Do you want to be found by local customers, optimize your local marketing campaigns, and improve your reputation within your community? 

For large businesses, mastering local SEO can be challenging, but a local SEO audit tool can simplify the process. 

Investing in local SEO is crucial for rapid growth, yet many businesses struggle to measure the impact of their efforts. Without clear insights, it’s difficult to know what’s working and what needs adjustment. A local SEO audit tool helps businesses  monitor and modify their action plan and stay ahead of market demands.

In this article, we’ll explore the benefits of local SEO audits and show you how to conduct one effortlessly using Birdeye’s free tool.

What is local SEO?

Local SEO (Local Search Engine Optimization) is the process of optimizing a business’s online presence to rank higher in location-based queries or “near me” queries on Google. This strategy helps businesses improve their visibility in local searches, making it easier for potential customers to find their products or services nearby.

According to Birdeye’s research on the impact of online reviews on multi-location businesses, 65% of consumers use search engines like Google to look for local businesses. Optimizing your Google Business Profile for local SEO is an effective customer acquisition strategy. 

How does local SEO work?

Google ranks local businesses based on three key factors of Local SEO:

• Proximity

This factor is responsible for choosing businesses that are geographically the closest to the search query. 

• Relevance

The relevance factor determines how closely the business is relevant to the search query based on its product range, service list, operational hours, delivery methods, etc. 

• Prominence

This factor decides if the business is trustworthy, well-liked, and approved by other customers to display for the search query based on reviews, link clicks, website traffic, and so on. 

To evaluate and rank a business, Google scans millions of pages, including the business’ website, third-party listing sites, third-party review sites, and its Google Business Profile. 

Optimizing your business on Local SEO to outrank the competition

Businesses can gain a strong competitive advantage in local searches by improving their performance against the major ranking factors. Here’s how:

• Distance/Proximity: Make sure your business has the most accurate address, location, and landmarks. That way, Google can identify your business as the closest to the searcher’s location. 

• Relevance: Select the right business categories and keywords for the business description section of your Google Business Profile. It also helps to include business hours, services/products you offer and post regular updates on Google. Updated content signifies an active profile and helps showcase relevance to local search queries.

• Prominence: Build a strong collection of customer reviews to support your authority across organic search results. Also, ensure that you respond consistently to positive and negative reviews generated over time. Fix any customer issues that show up to gain the trust of customers.

Bottom line: If a business wants to show up on the top results for any local search query, they must:

• Maintain consistency across all these websites.
• Build a positive online reputation.
• Optimize its presence across the internet. 

The best way to achieve these goals is to perform a local SEO audit. 

Local SEO audit 

A local SEO audit can help businesses find out how well they are doing in local search engine rankings and understand the factors influencing their rankings. A local SEO audit will analyze your website, Google Business Profile, and targeted keywords to determine if they align with your goals. 

How often should you do an SEO audit?

You should contact local SEO audits at least quarterly or twice a year depending on the size of your business. This way, you can stay on top of any local search result position changes, identify opportunities for growth, and ensure that your business is consistently visible to your local target audience. 

You can also break down the overall local SEO audit process into smaller sections with varying frequency to optimize resources. 

Here is a breakdown of how often you should do certain aspects of the local SEO audit: 

• Local SEO report tracking – Quarterly
• Website technical health check – Quarterly
• Keyword position tracking – Monthly 
• Google Business Profile optimization – Quarterly or as and when a new update comes in 
• Online review management – Monthly 
• NAP consistency management – Quarterly or twice a year 
• On-page SEO – Quarterly

How to do a local SEO audit? The ultimate checklist for local businesses 

Businesses can conduct a comprehensive local SEO audit with website’s technical health analysis, local keyword research, Google Business Profile optimization, NAP consistency maintenance, review management, backlink management, on-page SEO, and tracking results consistently. 

Here is a detailed and actionable Local SEO checklist to guide you through the process:​

1. Analyze your website’s technical health

The technical performance impacts user experience and, in turn, impacts how well your business listings perform on search engine results. Here is how you can ensure your website stands the test of time: 

• Use SEO tools to identify broken links, duplicate content, and crawl errors. Addressing these can improve user experience and search engine indexing. ​
  
• Optimize for mobile responsiveness. Most local searches begin on mobile devices, making it critical to ensure your website is responsive and offers a seamless mobile experience. ​
  
• Monitor your website for optimum speed. A fast-loading site enhances user satisfaction and can also positively impact search rankings. Make sure you constantly monitor page load and response times and take steps to correct any issues as they come up. ​

2. Perform local keyword research

Your business site and Google listing can show up for the relevant Google searches only when you use the right keywords in your website and business descriptions. 

• Research keywords that local customers use to find your products or services. Incorporate these keywords naturally into your website content, meta descriptions, and title tags.
  
• Examine which keywords local competitors target to uncover opportunities for your strategy. ​

3. Optimize Your Google Business Profile (GBP)

Most of Google’s information needs come from your Google Business Profile, making it a critical part of your audit checklist. 

A few things to check include:

• If you have claimed and verified your profile across multiple locations. 
• The completeness of the profile including business hours, SEO-friendly descriptions, products, services, and category information. 
• High-quality photos and videos that showcase your business to potential customers.

Related read: Google My Business tools that can help your local SEO campaigns 

4. Ensure NAP consistency across citations

Check who mentions your business and how so that Google does not find any conflicting information online during a search. 

Ensure that your business’s Name, Address, and Phone number (NAP) are consistent across Google Maps, online platforms, including directories and social media profiles. Inconsistencies can confuse search engines and users. ​

Pro Tip: Track and manage your business citations to ensure that you only list on reputable directories and the right industry-specific platform to boost local SEO signals. 

5. Manage and encourage online reviews

Prominence is a critical factor for local SEO performance, making it important for businesses to focus on customer reviews. This allows you to establish a strong authority in your industry and ensure customers trust you over your competitors. 

To do so, businesses should: 

• Monitor reviews across Google, Yelp, and other industry-specific sites for new reviews.
• Engage with both positive and negative reviews professionally and promptly, demonstrating a commitment to customer satisfaction.
• Encourage customer feedback by closing out every transaction with a review request.

6. Evaluate and build local backlinks

Backlinks provide context to your local content and help Google evaluate your relevance to a search query. For best results, 

• Assess current backlinks to analyze your existing backlink profile, focusing on the quality and relevance of linking sites.
• Engage with local organizations, sponsor community events, or collaborate with local influencers to earn backlinks from reputable local websites
• Remove any irrelevant backlinks that may hamper your local SEO performance 

7. Optimize on-page elements for local SEO

For your business listings and website, think beyond optimizing address and citations. Invest in quality content and other on-page elements to improve your rankings for local queries. 

Businesses can consider the following strategies to boost local search performance: 

• Dedicated pages for each location with tailored content.
• Local keywords in headings, meta descriptions, and body content to signal relevance to search engines. ​
• A map on your contact page to provide clear directions and enhance local SEO signals.

8. Monitor and analyze performance

Last but not least, this is the step where you map out your performance and understand how well your business is faring on local search queries. 

Here is how you can do it: 

• Implement Google Analytics tools to track website traffic, user behavior, and search performance. ​
• Regularly monitor your rankings for targeted local keywords to assess the effectiveness of your SEO strategies. 
• Use the data collected to refine and improve your local SEO efforts continually. ​

By systematically following this checklist, you can identify and address areas for improvement, leading to enhanced visibility in local search results and increased customer engagement.

Local SEO audit tools 

A typical local SEO audit includes website audits to evaluate SEO performance, competitive analysis, market research, and more. While this might sound labor-intensive, the good news is you won’t have to complete every step each time you evaluate your local SEO efforts. 

Instead, analyzing your performance against the most important factors of local SEO is often enough – and local SEO audit tools can help you do this easily. 

For local businesses—especially those with multiple locations—performing these tasks without extra help can be expensive and time-consuming. 

Using a local SEO audit tool is an efficient solution that can provide: 

• A detailed report of your SEO efforts
• An itemized report on every element responsible for your local SEO ranking, such as addressing inconsistencies, negative review volume, or broken links
• Information about what factors are impacting your online reputation issues 
• Actionable ways to improve your SEO strategy 

How Birdeye’s Local SEO Audit tool works

Businesses must be digitally ready so customers can quickly find them, verify their credentials, and complete transactions. This can make all the difference between success and failure. Birdeye offers a host of solutions to make all of these possible without any hassle. Birdeye helps over 150,000 businesses improve their customer experience, which is why we created a tool that provides comprehensive SEO insight to local businesses. And best of all, it is FREE.

Here’s how it works:

Birdeye’s free Local SEO Audit tool scans your profile and relevant parts of the internet, collecting data about your SEO health with a single click. Most importantly, it covers the three most important factors that impact your local SEO ranking:

• Listings
• Reputation 
• Local search ranking 

How to use the Birdeye Local SEO Audit tool

Getting started with our SEO audit tool is quick and easy. Here are the steps you need to follow:

1. Head to Birdeye’s Local SEO Audit page.
2. Enter your business name as it appears on your Google Business Profile.
   • A drop-down menu will appear as you start typing, allowing you to pick your business from the list. If your business doesn’t appear, make sure your Google Business Profile is verified and/or not suspended by Google. 
3. Type in a few more details to customize the local search rank reporting, including your full name, mobile number, and email address. 
4. Click SCAN NOW. 
5. The report will be generated and is available to view/download within minutes.

Understanding Birdeye’s Local SEO audit report

How Birdeye’s Local SEO Audit Report Works

Birdeye’s Local SEO Audit report comprehensively analyzes your business’s online presence, highlighting strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT). It offers a detailed breakdown of your SEO performance across three key areas: Listings, Reputation, and Local Search Ranking.

Overview of the Report – How do I check my SEO audit? 

You can check your SEO audit results from the detailed report sent by Birdeye. Within the report, you’ll see a total SEO score derived from your performance in the following categories:

• Listings: Measures the accuracy and completeness of your business information across major online directories.
• Reputation: Evaluate your overall online rating, Google review distribution, customer sentiment, and review response rates.
• Local Search Ranking: Analyzes your rankings for relevant keywords compared to competitors.

Key Insights from the Report

How to fix your business listings 

The report assesses how consistently your business details (name, address, phone number) appear across listing sites. It highlights inaccuracies, missing listings, and provides a snapshot of your presence on industry-relevant directories. These insights help you correct inconsistencies and improve visibility.

How to improve local search rankings 

Ranking high in Google’s local map pack is critical for generating web traffic and conversions. The audit tool visualizes your local search position and how you compare to competitors. You can analyze ranking trends and adjust your SEO strategy to enhance visibility.

How to strengthen online reputation 

Your online reputation significantly impacts search rankings. The report benchmarks your reviews and ratings against industry standards, showing:

• Prominent review sites for your business
• Review volume and response rates
• Key positive and negative feedback

With these insights, you can proactively manage your reputation by promoting positive feedback, addressing any customer service issues, and gaining customer trust. Birdeye’s Local SEO Audit report provides actionable recommendations to enhance your local search visibility. 

Ready to improve your rankings? Connect with Birdeye today!

Take charge of your local SEO success

Optimizing your business for local search is no longer optional—it’s essential. A well-executed local SEO audit ensures your business stays visible, relevant, and competitive in search results. Every step plays a crucial role in building a robust digital presence, from fixing inconsistencies in business listings to improving search rankings and strengthening your online reputation.

With Birdeye’s Local SEO Audit tool, you get a clear, data-driven roadmap to enhance your local SEO strategy. Start your free audit today and take the first step toward attracting more local customers, boosting conversions, and staying ahead of the competition!

FAQs about the Birdeye Local SEO Audit tool

Improve local rankings with Birdeye

Staying ahead in local search requires more than effort—it demands the right local SEO ranking tools. Birdeye is an AI company that helps businesses like yours take control of their online presence, outrank competitors, and attract more customers.

With Birdeye’s Local SEO Audit tool, you can:

• Identify listing inaccuracies and optimize for maximum visibility
• Monitor and enhance your reputation with AI-driven insights
• Track your local search rankings and uncover competitor strategies

Birdeye Listings AI ensures your business information stays consistent across 50+ platforms, while Birdeye Insights AI and Competitors AI deliver deep analysis on customer sentiment and market trends—giving you a competitive edge in local search.