Marketing & GrowthFree tool
Local Business Health Check Report
A scored report on your Google listing, reviews, local rankings and website, compared with up to 20 nearby competitors, plus a ranked fix list.
Free to start · Opens in your River workspace, ready to edit and share
How to do a local SEO audit
A local SEO audit checks how your business appears when people nearby search for what you sell, and how you compare with the businesses shown beside you. It covers your Google Business Profile, your reviews, your rankings for the searches customers use, your website and your listings on other sites. A good one ends with a short fix list, ordered by impact and effort.
Measure yourself against those businesses, not a generic checklist. A flawless profile with 12 reviews still looks like the small, risky choice beside three rivals with 200 each.
Know what Google ranks on
Google says its local results are mainly based on relevance, distance, and popularity1. The same page calls the third factor prominence: how well known a business is. Google also says no one can pay for a better local ranking. You can't move closer to every customer, so focus the audit on relevance and prominence, and allow for distance.
Google's local ranking factors, and what to check for each
| Factor | What Google means | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Relevance | How well your profile matches what someone searched for | Your category, services and description, and your website's service pages |
| Distance | How far you are from the person searching | Where you rank from different spots in your area |
| Prominence | How well known you are, judged partly by links from other websites and by your reviews | Your review count, rating and recency, plus links and listings on other sites |
Start with the searches customers use
Write down three to five searches a customer would type. Mix your main service, an urgent version and your town, such as "water heater repair Austin" or "emergency plumber near me".
Search like a customer
Use a phone and a private browser window, so you see roughly what a new customer sees.
Move around your area
Because distance counts, check from a few spots across your service area, not only from your shop.
Record the top three
For each search, note the three businesses at the top of the map results and where you appear, if at all.
Name your real rivals
The businesses that keep turning up are the ones customers compare you with. Measure yourself against them from here on.
If one rival keeps beating you, a competitor analysis for a small business counts what its customers complain about and finds the weaknesses it can't easily fix.
Audit your Business Profile
Start with the primary category, since it tells Google what you are. Whitespark, which sells local SEO software, asked 47 local search experts to score 187 factors for its 2026 report. They ranked the primary category first for map rankings2, just ahead of distance. Whitespark notes that none of them has special access to Google's algorithm.
What to check on your profile
| Check | What good looks like | Common mistake |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Your real-world name, as on your sign and website | Services or town names added to it |
| Primary category | The most specific one that completes "This business is a…" | A broad category, or one picked as a keyword |
| Address or service area | A staffed address customers visit, or a service area with the address hidden | A virtual office, or a home address on show |
| Hours | Regular hours, plus special hours for holidays | Hours that don't match the sign on the door |
| Phone and website | A local number you control and a link to your own site | A call-center number, or a link that forwards elsewhere |
| Verification | One verified profile, so you can reply to reviews | A second profile for the same business |
Be strict about the name. Google's guidelines say it should reflect your business's real-world name3, and that adding unnecessary information could get your profile suspended. Keywords in the name may help: Whitespark's experts rank them third for map rankings. They also list keyword stuffing in the name among the 10 biggest risks of suspension.
Compare reviews, not just stars
For you and each rival, note the review count, average rating, date of the newest review and how many reviews have an owner reply. Customers look well beyond the stars. In a 2026 survey of 1,002 US adults by BrightLocal, which sells local SEO software, 47% said they won't use a business with fewer than 20 reviews4. Nearly three in four (74%) only care about reviews from the last three months.
You have 43 reviews averaging 4.8 stars. The three plumbers above you in the map results have 180, 210 and 340, at 4.5 to 4.7 stars.
Your newest review is five months old. Each of theirs has several from the past month.
You've replied to six of your 43 reviews. Two of the three reply to almost every one.
- Stars aren't the gap. At 4.8, you beat all three. Volume, recency and replies are where you trail.
- Same day, same searches. Counting every business at once, from the same searches, keeps the comparison fair.
- An obvious first fix. Recency is the quickest gap to close: ask every customer, starting this week.
Make the request part of every job, worded the same way each time. Google lets you share a review link or QR code5 for this. Send it to everyone, not only happy customers: Google's Maps policy bars businesses from selectively soliciting positive reviews6, a practice known as review gating.
Then reply to every review in your own words. BrightLocal found 80% of consumers are likely to use a business that responds to all its reviews, while templated replies put off half.
Never pay for reviews
Google strictly prohibits offering free or discounted goods or services in exchange for reviews5, and removes incentivized reviews from Maps. In the US, the FTC's 2024 rule also bans incentives for reviews that must be positive or negative7 and lets the agency seek civil penalties from knowing violators.
Check your website and local listings
Your website backs up your profile. Google says it can detect category information from your website3 and from mentions of your business around the web. Customers check it too: in BrightLocal's survey, 54% visit a business's website after reading positive reviews. Look for these on yours:
- A page for each main service, naming the towns you serve
- The service and town in each page's title and main heading
- The same name, address and phone number as your profile
- A phone number visitors can tap to call
- Reviews or testimonials, and one clear next step: call, book or get a quote
Each service page should also answer the questions customers ask before they call. An FAQ section generator can draft those answers from your own prices and policies. If a page never appears in Google at all, check its crawling and indexing with a technical SEO audit.
Finally, look yourself up on Apple Maps, Bing, Yelp, Facebook and your trade's directories. Correct any old name, address or phone number, so every listing agrees with your profile.
Turn your audit into a fix list
Rank each fix by how much it should help and how long it takes. Profile corrections take an afternoon, so they come first. A review habit takes weeks to show. New service pages and local links take longest, so start them early.
Before you call the audit done
- Three to five customer searches, checked from more than one spot
- The top three businesses for each search, by name
- Your profile checked against Google's name, category and address rules
- Your review count, rating, recency and replies beside each rival's
- A page for each service, with the same name, address and phone as your profile
- Every fix ranked by impact and effort, with a date to check again
Run the same searches again in three months and compare. The tool at the top of this page can do the searching and counting for you. It finds your listing and up to 20 nearby competitors, reads the reviews, checks your website and writes a scored report with a ranked fix list.
How it works
Start with your business name or website and the area you serve. River looks you up the way a customer would: your Google listing, your reviews, the searches people use for your trade, and your website. It lines you up against up to 20 nearby competitors and reads the reviews of the strongest two. You get a scored report with a fix list, plus a spreadsheet with your business listed first. Anything it can't find is marked not found, never guessed.
Name your business
Type your business name or website and your area. You can also name your main service and a rival.
River looks you up
It finds your Google listing, reads your reviews, runs the searches customers use and checks your website.
Get your report
A scored report with a fix list, and a spreadsheet of up to 20 rivals with you first.
Start on the fixes
Ask River to draft review replies, write a missing service page or rewrite your page titles.
What you get
- A score out of 100 across seven areas, from your listing to social profiles, with evidence for each
- A spreadsheet of up to 20 local competitors with ratings, review counts, categories, websites and phone numbers
- Where you rank for up to five searches customers type, and which businesses hold the top three
- What customers praise and complain about, in your reviews and in your two strongest competitors' reviews
- What named competitors do that you don't, from the searches they win to the reviews they collect
- A fix list ordered by impact and effort, marking what you can do yourself this week
Common questions
What does a local SEO audit check?
A local SEO audit checks the things that decide whether nearby customers find and choose you. That includes your Business Profile on Google, your reviews, your position for the searches people type, your website's service pages and your listings on other sites. Each is judged against the businesses that appear beside you, because those are the alternatives a customer weighs.
How do I run a local SEO audit with River?
Type your business name or website and the area you serve in the box at the top of this page. River finds your Google listing, reads your reviews, runs local searches and lines you up against nearby competitors. The scored report, fix list and competitor spreadsheet open in your free River workspace, where you can edit and share them.
Why isn't my business showing up on Google Maps?
Common causes are a profile that isn't verified, details that are incomplete or wrong, a category that doesn't match the search, or a suspension for breaking Google's guidelines. Distance matters too: you may appear near your address but not across town. If River can't find your listing, the report makes that its headline and explains what it means.
Why does my ranking look different when I search myself?
Google ranks local results partly by how far each business is from the person searching. A search from your shop and one from across town can show different businesses, so a single check proves little. Compare yourself with the same few rivals across several searches and locations, and watch how that changes over time.
Do I need to give River access to my Google account?
No. River checks only what's public, the same listing, reviews and search results a customer sees, so there is nothing to connect. The flip side is that it can't see private numbers from your Business Profile dashboard, such as calls or direction requests. Check those yourself in your profile's performance view alongside the report.
How often should I run a local SEO audit?
Every three months is a sensible rhythm, and sooner after a move, a new service or a new competitor opening nearby. Reviews go stale fast, since most customers care mainly about recent ones. Run the same searches each time, so changes in your review count, rating and rankings show real progress rather than a different test.
Is the local business health check free?
Yes, it is free to start. Your report and competitor spreadsheet open in a River workspace, where you can edit them, share them or ask River to change them. Paid plans add more AI use and access to the most advanced models.
Sources
Google Business Profile Help. “Tips to improve your local ranking on Google.” support.google.com (opens in a new tab)
Whitespark. “Local Search Ranking Factors.” whitespark.ca (opens in a new tab)
Google Business Profile Help. “Guidelines for representing your business on Google.” support.google.com (opens in a new tab)
BrightLocal. “Local Consumer Review Survey 2026: Star Ratings Keep Rising, Old Reviews Don’t Cut It.” brightlocal.com (opens in a new tab)
Google Business Profile Help. “Tips to get more reviews.” support.google.com (opens in a new tab)
Google Maps User Generated Content Policy Help. “Prohibited & restricted content.” support.google.com (opens in a new tab)
FTC. “Federal Trade Commission Announces Final Rule Banning Fake Reviews and Testimonials.” ftc.gov (opens in a new tab)
Built by
Chandler Supple
Co-founder & CEO, River
Chandler has spent the last six years working in AI, building tools for millions of users and Fortune 100 companies. In 2025, he co-founded River to build a new kind of operating system for AI agents.