The Local SEO Checklist Template for Small Businesses

The local SEO checklist template

Work through the seven sections in order — they’re sequenced by impact. Check items off as you go; anything you can’t check becomes your to-do list.

1. Google Business Profile

• ☐ Profile claimed, verified, and every field completed (categories, services, hours, attributes)
• ☐ Primary category is your exact business type — not a broader parent
• ☐ 10+ real photos (storefront, team, work); new photos added monthly
• ☐ Q&A seeded with your five most-asked customer questions, answered by you

2. Name, address, phone & citations

• ☐ NAP identical — character for character — on your site, GBP, and every directory
• ☐ Listed in the two or three directories that matter in your industry
• ☐ Apple Business Connect claimed — Siri answers local questions from Apple Maps, and most competitors haven’t claimed theirs
• ☐ Yelp listing accurate — Apple Maps displays Yelp ratings, not Google’s

3. Reviews

• ☐ A simple, repeatable ask (link or QR code) that happy customers actually use
• ☐ Every review answered — positive and negative — within a few days
• ☐ Reviews spread across Google plus one industry platform, not all in one place

4. On-page local signals

• ☐ City or service-area named in your homepage title tag and H1
• ☐ LocalBusiness schema with address, phone, hours, and geo coordinates
• ☐ A dedicated page per core service, each answering real customer questions
• ☐ Embedded map and clear contact path on every key page

5. Local content

• ☐ An FAQ answering the questions customers actually ask (with FAQPage schema)
• ☐ Content that names the neighborhoods and towns you serve — naturally, not stuffed

6. The AI-search layer (the 2026 section most checklists miss)

• ☐ Ask ChatGPT and Perplexity for your service “near me” in your town — are you named?
• ☐ AI crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Applebot) allowed in robots.txt
• ☐ Business facts published in clear, extractable form (llms.txt helps) — our guide to ChatGPT visibility for local businesses covers this layer in depth

7. Track it

• ☐ Google Search Console verified; branded vs. non-branded queries reviewed monthly
• ☐ GBP insights (calls, direction requests) logged monthly so trends are visible

The 20-minute lite version

Short on time? This is local SEO lite — the five checks that move the needle most: complete your Google Business Profile, make NAP identical everywhere, answer every review this week, put your city in your homepage title, and ask one happy customer for a review today. Twenty minutes, repeated weekly, beats a perfect plan that never runs.

How to use this template

Copy the checklist into a doc or project board, date it, and mark each item done, partial, or missing. Re-run it on the first of each month — local SEO decays quietly as hours change, photos age, and reviews go unanswered. For the deeper strategy behind each section, see our full local SEO guide for small businesses; to have every item checked and prioritized for you — including the AI layer — that’s exactly what the SEMPITE Brand Audit does.