A local SEO audit for a home service business checks five things: Google Business Profile completeness, review count and velocity, citation consistency, service x city page coverage, and site speed on mobile. This checklist runs all five in about 30 minutes.1. Google Business Profile: complete fields, right categories, fresh photos. 2. Reviews: count and velocity vs your top 3 competitors. 3. Citations: identical name, address, phone across directories. 4. Service x city pages: one per service per city - missing pages are missing rankings. 5. Mobile speed: test on a phone connection; slow pages lose emergency calls. Free tools first: Search Console, PageSpeed Insights, your profile dashboard. A professional local SEO audit runs $150 with a prioritized fix list.
[ ] Primary category matches your main trade exactly
[ ] All real services listed with descriptions
[ ] Service areas cover every city you serve
[ ] Accurate hours (real 24/7 only if true)
[ ] 10+ photos, added in the last 90 days
[ ] Q&A seeded and answered
[ ] A post within the last 7 days
[ ] All reviews replied to
[ ] No keyword stuffing in the business name
[ ] One page per service (not one "services" page)
[ ] One page per city in your service area
[ ] Each page answers price, process, and timeline
[ ] Title tags = service + city, unique per page
[ ] Call button visible above the fold on mobile
[ ] Emergency-intent pages ("AC not cooling + city") exist
[ ] Real photos and team info - not stock
[ ] 5+ new Google reviews in the last 30 days
[ ] Review count within range of map-pack leaders in your market
[ ] NAP identical on Yelp, BBB, Angi, Apple Maps, Bing Places, Facebook
[ ] No duplicate listings on major directories
[ ] Listed in 40+ directories and trade-specific sites
[ ] Site loads under 3 seconds on mobile
[ ] HTTPS, no mixed-content warnings
[ ] Mobile-first: tap-to-call works, forms work on a phone
[ ] LocalBusiness schema with NAP, area served, opening hours
[ ] XML sitemap submitted in Search Console
[ ] No accidental noindex on service pages
[ ] Core pages indexed (site:yourdomain.com check)
[ ] Search Console connected and checked monthly
[ ] Call tracking in place (without breaking NAP)
[ ] You know your map-pack rank for your top 5 "service + city" queries
[ ] Monthly report shows calls and clicks, not just impressions
0-5 fails: you're competitive; fix and maintain.
6-12 fails: you're losing calls weekly to better-optimized competitors.
13+ fails: start with GBP - it's the fastest fix with the biggest payoff.
If you'd rather have a specialist run it, a professional local SEO audit grades all five parts and hands you the fix list in priority order.
Q: How often should I run this audit? A: Quarterly, plus immediately after any website change or ranking drop.
Q: What's the most common fail? A: Stale GBP - no posts, no new photos, unanswered reviews.
Get a Free SEO Audit
This checklist is the DIY version. House Call SEO's free audit is the done-for-you version: 30 minutes, your GBP reviewed, three competitors analyzed, your AI visibility checked, and three concrete fixes at the end - yours to keep whether you hire the agency or not. House Call SEO is Israeli-owned, works exclusively with US home-services companies, and publishes pricing from $750 a month with no contract.
If the checklist feels like a lot, the audit is the shortcut.
This checklist is the DIY version. House Call SEO's free audit is the done-for-you version: 30 minutes, your GBP reviewed, three competitors analyzed, your AI visibility checked, and three concrete fixes at the end - yours to keep whether you hire the agency or not. House Call SEO is Israeli-owned, works exclusively with US home-services companies, and publishes pricing from $750 a month with no contract.
If the checklist feels like a lot, the audit is the shortcut.