The Local SEO Audit

What it does

When someone in your town types "plumber near me," three things come up: ads, the map with three businesses, and the regular results. This audit covers the two free ones. Your Google listing, which is what puts you on the map, and the regular results, which is what your website earns.

It searches the way a customer does, one service at a time, one town at a time, and writes down where you land and who's in the top three. Then it opens those three and tells you why they're there. "You're not in the top three" means nothing until you know who is.

Before you start

• An AI that can drive a browser. Claude on the desktop app, Claude in Chrome, or ChatGPT in agent mode.
• No login for most of it. If you're signed in to the Google account that owns your listing, it also reads your real numbers: calls, direction requests, website clicks. And Search Console, if anyone ever set it up.
• About 20 minutes. More towns and services means longer.
• It will never edit the listing, leave or answer a review, click an ad, or change anything.

It asks for three things: your business name, the three to five services you most want calls for, and the three to five towns you most want them from.

What it checks

• The listing, top to bottom. Primary category (the one line under your name; "Contractor" when you're a roofer is a finding). Whether the name is your real name or stuffed with keywords. Service area. Phone number, compared to the website. Hours. Review count, star rating, how many came in the last 90 days, how many you replied to. Photos: real crew and jobs, or stock. Posts. Unanswered questions.
• The search grid. Every service times every town. Map pack spot, regular-results spot, and the three names in the map pack. Five services and four towns is twenty searches. It keeps a table.
• Who wins, and why. The three companies that show up most. Their category, review count, photos, and whether their site has a page for your town.
• Your site from Google's side. How many pages Google knows about, and whether there's one for each service and town.
• Search Console, if signed in. What people actually typed before they clicked you. Whether anything but your own name brings clicks.
• Does the web agree about you. Name, address, and phone on Google, your site, Yelp, Facebook, BBB, Angi. An old address on Yelp is a finding; it fights the real listing.

What you get back

One page. The three biggest things with screenshots. A table of where you show up for every search. A table of who's winning and why, with you in the first row. A Keep / Fix / Cut line for every part of the listing. The one thing to fix this week, which is usually the primary category, the phone number, or asking every finished job for a review. And what it couldn't see without a sign-in.

The honest part

This is the listing-and-map half of what I do on a new account, minus one tool. A real rank check searches from dozens of points across town, because the map changes depending on where the phone is standing. The audit searches from one place and says so. If the results look close, that tool is the next step, and it's one of the things I'd run for you.

It's working if

• It named the three companies above you, with their review counts, not "competitors."
• The search table has a row for every service and town you gave it.
• The fix-first is one thing, and you could start it today.

Common questions

I don't have a Google listing. Can it still run?

It will find out in step one, and that becomes the whole finding. Claiming the listing is free and takes a week; it tells you how.

Will it edit my listing?

No. It reads. It won't even suggest an edit on a competitor's listing.

Do I need to be signed in?

No. Signed in, you get your real call and direction counts and Search Console. Signed out, you get everything a customer sees, which is most of it.

What about Yelp ads or Angi?

It notes your reviews and listing details on those sites. It doesn't audit the ads there; Ask Joey has an opinion about pay-per-lead sites.

Where it fits

The audit Ask Joey sends most people to first, because the map is where most home service calls come from and it's free. Then the website audit, because the listing sends people to the site. The ads audit if you pay for ads.