Google Business Profile (14 items) — the highest-leverage local SEO category, where most businesses have 4-6 unfixed gaps: (1) Primary category is the most specific accurate match available — not the broadest defensible option. (2) Secondary categories cover every distinct service or specialization that generates search volume. (3) Business description is 750 characters, includes primary service keywords, geographic modifiers, and 1-2 genuine differentiators. (4) Service menu is fully populated with descriptions for every service offered. (5) Products section is used for high-value service offerings with pricing where appropriate. (6) All attributes are set accurately — especially appointment-required, online booking, and payment method attributes. (7) Photos include exterior (street view), interior, team members, and work/service images — minimum 10, ideally 20+. (8) New photos added at minimum monthly. (9) Google Posts are published weekly or bi-weekly with service-specific or seasonal content. (10) Q&A section is populated with 8-12 questions and answers you wrote. (11) Review response rate is 100% — every review, positive and negative, receives a response within 72 hours. (12) Review velocity is consistent — at least 3-5 new reviews per month for most competitive markets. (13) Business hours are accurate including holiday hours updated seasonally. (14) Website URL in GBP points to a relevant service or location page, not just the homepage.

Citations and directory presence (9 items) — foundational infrastructure that most businesses have partially built but rarely maintained: (15) Business name is identical across all directory listings — no variations, abbreviations, or DBA differences. (16) Address format is identical across all directories — same abbreviations, same suite format, same zip code. (17) Phone number is consistent — one primary number used everywhere, in the same format. (18) Primary data aggregators are accurate: Localeze/Neustar, Infogroup, and Acxiom. (19) Top-tier general directories are claimed and complete: Yelp, BBB, Apple Maps, Bing Places, Foursquare, Manta. (20) Industry-specific directories are claimed for your vertical (Healthgrades/Zocdoc for healthcare, Avvo/Martindale for legal, Angi/HomeAdvisor for home services, etc.). (21) Duplicate listings are identified and removed or merged. (22) Old business addresses or phone numbers are updated across all directories. (23) Yelp profile is complete with service descriptions, photos, and accurate hours — many local businesses have claimed Yelp but never built it out.

On-page signals (12 items) — the website elements that tell Google what you do, where you do it, and why you should rank: (24) Title tags on service pages include primary keyword + geographic modifier + brand name within 60 characters. (25) Meta descriptions on service pages are 140-155 characters, include primary keyword and a call to action. (26) H1 on each service page matches the page's primary keyword target — not a generic headline. (27) Each service has a dedicated page — not one page listing 8 services with a paragraph each. (28) Each primary location has a dedicated page with unique content — not a template with city name swapped. (29) NAP (Name, Address, Phone) is in crawlable text on the homepage and contact page — not just in an image or header graphic. (30) LocalBusiness schema markup is implemented on the homepage with business name, address, phone, hours, and the most specific available schema subtype. (31) Service schema is implemented on individual service pages. (32) FAQPage schema is implemented on any page with question-and-answer content. (33) Internal linking connects homepage → service pages → location pages → relevant blog posts in a clear hierarchy. (34) Images have descriptive alt text that includes relevant keywords where natural. (35) Contact page includes full NAP, service area description, and an embedded Google Map.

Technical health (7 items) — the crawlability and indexation foundation that determines whether all your other SEO work is actually being seen by Google: (36) Site is verified in Google Search Console with no critical coverage errors and no pages blocked by robots.txt that should be crawled. Run Screaming Frog across the full site to identify redirect chains (3+ hop redirects), 404 errors on pages with backlinks, and pages returning non-200 status codes that should be live. (37) XML sitemap is submitted to Search Console, contains only canonical, indexable pages, and has no URLs returning errors. (38) Core Web Vitals pass for all primary service and location pages — check PageSpeed Insights for LCP under 2.5 seconds, CLS under 0.1, and INP under 200ms. Failing Core Web Vitals on mobile suppresses organic rankings for affected pages. (39) HTTPS is implemented site-wide with no mixed content warnings that cause browser security alerts. (40) No duplicate content issues — verify canonical tags are correctly set on paginated content, location page variations, and any CMS-generated pages. Run Screaming Frog's duplicate content report to identify pages with identical or near-identical title tags and body content. (41) Structured data is implemented and valid — validate LocalBusiness, FAQPage, and Article schema using Google's Rich Results Test for each primary page type. Schema errors suppress rich result eligibility. (42) Page load time under 3 seconds on mobile for all primary service pages — GTmetrix provides the waterfall breakdown that identifies specific third-party scripts, image formats, and render-blocking resources causing load delays. Ahrefs' Site Audit and Semrush's Site Audit both surface technical issues with severity ratings and fix guidance that prioritize the changes most likely to affect rankings.

Content checklist — the pages and post types that build topical authority and capture every customer intent in your service area: Content gaps are among the most consistent ranking suppressors found in local service business audits. The content checklist items: individual service pages for every primary service offered (not a single 'Services' page listing everything), individual location pages for every city in the primary service area (with genuinely differentiated content, not city-name templates), a review response process that generates keyword-rich responses to every review within 48 hours, blog content covering the top 5 to 10 informational questions your customers search before hiring, and FAQ schema on every page with Q&A content. Track content coverage gaps using Semrush's Keyword Gap tool against your top 3 competitors — any keywords in positions 1 through 10 for them that you don't rank for at all are your highest-priority content creation targets. For citation and review-related content, see our dedicated guide to <a href="/blog/local-seo-ranking-factors">local SEO ranking factors</a> for the authoritative signal framework.