When a business doesn't appear for nearby searches, the cause is usually a few fixable gaps rather than one big problem. This checklist runs through the likely ones in order: your details, your pages, your reviews, your listings, your speed and your tracking. Grab your phone, a notepad and a coffee. Mark each item pass or fail, then start fixing from the top.
Before you start: search like a customer
Your own searches are coloured by where you are and what you have clicked before, so set up a fair test first.
- Open a private or incognito window on your phone
- Search your main service plus a suburb you work in, such as "dog groomer Mitchelton"
- Try the service with "near me" as well, ideally while you are in that suburb
- Note whether you show in the map, the regular listings underneath, both or neither
- Write down who does show, and how many reviews each of them has
Google says three things drive the map results: relevance to the search, distance from the person searching, and prominence, meaning how well known and well reviewed a business is. Every check below feeds one of those three.
Check 1: your Google profile
Your Google Business Profile is the listing that appears in the map. Setting it up properly is a job of its own, covered step by step in our Google Business Profile guide. For this audit, just answer four questions.
- Is the profile claimed and verified?
- Is the primary category the closest fit for your main service?
- Does the service area list the suburbs you really cover?
- Has it had fresh photos or a post recently?
Any "no" here, park it and work through the profile guide once the audit is done.
Check 2: name, address and phone everywhere
Google compares your business details across the web. If your business name, address and phone number (NAP for short) disagree from one site to the next, Google is less sure they all belong to one business.
- Your website footer and contact page match the Google profile exactly
- Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn show the same details
- Directory listings carry your current number, not an old mobile
- Abbreviations are consistent: choose "Street" or "St" and stick with it
- No leftover listings from a previous address or trading name
Directories and citations
A citation is any mention of your business details on another site. Search your business name, then your phone number, and work through what comes back. Cover the big general directories, any industry or association directory and local business groups. Claim what you can, correct what is wrong and ask for duplicates to be removed.
Check 3: service and suburb pages
Google needs a page it can match to a search. If someone looks for "pool fencing Ipswich" and your site has one page called Services listing twelve things, there is little for Google to point at.
- Each main service has a page to itself
- Each page names the service in its main heading and title
- Suburb or region pages exist only where you genuinely work, and say something specific about jobs there
- Suburb pages aren't copies with the town name swapped
- Every page links to your contact page and shows your number
Check 4: on-page basics and location signals
These sound technical but take minutes to check.
- Page titles: each names the service and place, and no two pages share one.
- Meta descriptions: a short, accurate summary sits under each title in the results.
- Headings: one main heading per page that says what it is about.
- Address or service area in the footer of every page.
- A map embed on the contact page, if you have a public address.
- Local business structured data, often called schema: hidden code that tells Google your business type, address and hours.
- Images with descriptive file names and alt text, not IMG_4021.
To see your titles the way Google does, search site:yourdomain.com.au and read down the list.
Check 5: reviews and how often they arrive
Prominence leans heavily on reviews, and a steady flow counts as well as the total. Forty reviews with nothing new in a year can look less active than fewer, fresher ones.
- Your review count against the businesses from your test search
- The date of your most recent review
- Whether every review has a reply, critical ones included
- Whether you have a routine for asking, like a text after each finished job
Our Google reviews guide covers asking for reviews and replying well.
Check 6: mobile speed
Most local searches happen on a phone, often on mobile data. A page that stalls loses people before they ever reach your number.
- Load your homepage and one service page on your phone with wifi off
- Count how long until you can read the heading and tap the number
- Look for pop-ups that cover the page on a small screen
- Run the page through our free website checker for speed and the basics
Check 7: tracking calls and enquiries
Without tracking you can't tell whether any of these fixes worked. Make sure you can answer one question: how many calls and enquiries came from Google search last month?
- Website analytics installed and recording visits
- Taps on your phone number counted as an event
- Form submissions counted, ideally on a thank you page
- Calls and direction requests checked in your Google profile's performance view
- Google Search Console set up, so you can see which searches bring up your site
Fix in this order
Broken basics
An unverified profile, wrong phone numbers or missing tracking. These undercut everything else.
Consistency
Make your details identical everywhere and clear out duplicate listings.
Pages
Add or improve service pages, then suburb pages where you have real work to show.
Reviews
Set up a simple asking routine and keep it going.
Speed and polish
Titles, structured data, images and load time.
Rankings move at Google's pace, and nobody can honestly promise a position. What this checklist does is remove the reasons Google has to pass you over. If you would rather have someone run the audit and make the fixes, Stackt does exactly that for local businesses, and a free marketing review is the easiest place to start.
The checklist on one screen
- Searched like a customer and noted where you appear
- Google profile claimed, verified and in the right category
- Name, address and phone identical on your site, socials and directories
- A page for each main service, with suburb pages only where earned
- Unique titles, address in the footer, local schema in place
- New reviews arriving regularly, each with a reply
- Pages load quickly on mobile data
- Calls, forms and search visibility being tracked
