Your Google listing is often the first thing a customer sees, before your website. We check its public details against your site, compare your reviews with the businesses next to you on Google Maps, and tell you what to fix first.
A Google Business Profile audit is a check of your business listing on Google Search and Google Maps: whether its details are complete, accurate and consistent with your website, and how it compares with nearby competitors. The goal is simple: make it easy for local customers to find you, trust you and contact you. A GMB audit is the same thing under the profile's old name, Google My Business.
We only use public information and never ask for access to your accounts. Here is exactly what the audit checks, and what it leaves to you.
| Item | In the audit | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| Business info and NAP | Checked | Your business name, address and phone on the Google listing, compared with your website and the business details coded for Google. A listing number that isn't on your site, or a mismatched name or address, is flagged. |
| Website link | Checked | Whether the listing points to your website, and whether the site loads securely over HTTPS. |
| Hours | Checked | Whether hours are listed, and whether the hours coded on your site agree with the listing. |
| Reviews and rating | Checked | Your Google rating and review count, scored and compared with nearby competitors in your category. |
| Categories | Used, not graded | We use Google's category for your business to pick comparable competitors. We don't grade whether your categories are the best choice. |
| Review recency and replies | Not in this snapshot | How recent your reviews are and whether you reply to them. Worth checking yourself from your profile. |
| Services, photos, posts and Q&A | Not in this snapshot | These live in your profile dashboard. We don't sign in to your accounts, so the report doesn't grade them. |
| Verification and ownership | Not in this snapshot | Whether the profile is claimed and verified is only visible to the owner. See the FAQ below for how to check. |
We pick up to three nearby businesses in your category and run the same checks on them, on the same day: Google rating and review count, website speed on phones, online booking, tap-to-call and business details for Google. The report puts them side by side, so you can see why a customer might pick them over you.
Scored. Your Google rating and review count from the listing, compared with the nearby median. Ratings a business puts on its own website never count.
Not graded in this snapshot. Customers notice when the newest review is a year old, or when complaints go unanswered, so check both from your profile.
If you're behind nearby rivals, the report's fixes and quick wins include practical ways to ask for reviews. See the FAQ below too.
Citations are mentions of your business name, address and phone (NAP) around the web. When they disagree, customers call old numbers and search engines get less sure about who you are. The audit checks NAP consistency across your website, the business details coded on it, and your Google listing, and flags mismatches like a phone number on the listing that isn't on your site. A full citation audit across every directory is outside this snapshot.
Usually grades a profile against a generic checklist and returns a score. Useful, but it rarely connects the listing to your website, your booking path or the competitors next to you.
Ties your Google listing to the rest of how you get customers: website, mobile speed, NAP consistency, reviews and booking. Every report passes automated quality checks, a person steps in when a check flags something, and every finding names its source.
You get up to five fixes ranked by likely impact, each with the evidence and a first step, instead of a long list of warnings.
The Google Business Profile checks are part of the full Growth Audit, our local SEO audit: a scorecard across six areas, up to five ranked fixes, a comparison with up to three nearby competitors, quick wins and a 30-day plan. Delivered as a private web page, PDF and Word file, one time, no retainer. See how the listing section looks in the sample report's Google Business Profile section.
Search for your business on Google and Google Maps the way a customer would. Check that the name, address, phone, website and hours match your website exactly, that your main category fits what you do, that photos and services are current, and how your rating and review count compare with the businesses shown next to you. Then sign in to your profile and fix anything out of date. The Growth Audit checks the public details and the comparison for you.
GMB stands for Google My Business, the old name for Google's business listings. Google renamed it Google Business Profile (GBP) in 2021. A GMB audit and a Google Business Profile audit are the same thing.
Google decides which verification methods are available for each business. Common ones are a short video recording of your business, a phone call or text, an email, or a postcard by mail; some businesses are asked for a live video call. You start verification from your profile once you've claimed it.
Search your business name and city on Google or Google Maps. If a listing appears, you have a profile, even if you didn't create it; Google can create one from public information. If it shows an “Own this business?” link, it hasn't been claimed yet, and you can claim it through Google Business Profile.
Ask every happy customer, soon after the job, and make it easy with the review link from your profile. A short text or email with the link works well. Reply to reviews, good and bad. Don't buy reviews or only ask customers you expect to be positive: both break Google's rules and can get reviews removed.
For most local businesses, Google reviews matter most because they appear right on Google Search and Google Maps, where most local searches start. Yelp still matters in some categories, but Yelp's own guidelines discourage businesses from asking for reviews, so focus your requests on Google.
An SEO audit is a structured check of the things that affect whether people find you in search and choose you: your website's technical health and content, speed, mobile usability and, for a local business, your Google listing, reviews and nearby competitors. A good audit ends with a ranked list of fixes rather than a long list of warnings.