Guides · Local search
How to Run an Online Presence Audit in One Afternoon
By Josh Croom · October 27, 2026 · 11 min read
An online presence audit checks what a stranger finds when they look up your business: your search results, your Google listing, your website and every phone number tied to your name. You can run one in a single afternoon with a phone and a laptop, signed out of everything, and it turns up the problems that send callers to someone else.
A neighbor's tip that ends at a dead number
9:14 PM. A homeowner hears your name from a neighbor and looks you up on her phone after dinner. The map pin sits on the empty lot next door, and the number on your listing rings a line you shut off two years ago.
She taps the next business on the map, and you never learn the call was almost yours. Your team is unlikely to catch this from their own phones, because Google knows they're signed in, where they are and what they clicked last week, so their searches look better than hers.
How a stranger's search differs from yours
You know your business too well to see it the way a new customer does. The audit swaps each of your shortcuts for the view a stranger gets.
Checking from your own phone
- Google may show your site higher for you, because you visit it all the time.
- You already know the right phone number, so you never dial the one on the listing.
- You only look at the pages in your menu.
- One speed test looks fine, so you move on.
Checking like a stranger
- Signed out, in a private window, with the search set to your town.
- Every phone number Google and the directories show for your name.
- Every page in your sitemap, including the blank ones.
- Five speed runs on a phone, judged on the middle score.
Four numbers behind the audit
Most people who look you up do it on a phone, so the audit tests your site on a phone. Google also publishes the bar a phone page should clear, which gives you a fair way to grade your own site.
- 68%of visits to our client sites came from a phonesites outside online stores, July 8 to September 30, 2026
- 90is the speed score Google colors green50 to 89 needs work, and under 50 is poor
- 2.5 secor less for the biggest image or text block to showGoogle's mark for a good load
- 5 runsand you keep the middle scoreabout twice as steady as one run, says Google
Why signed-out searches come first
A site can score well on a website checker and still be hard to find in the search results. The SEO score inside Google's speed test only checks whether Google can read the page. Only a live search shows whether Google picks you when someone types what you sell plus your town.
That's why the audit spends its first hour on searches and only then turns to the site itself. A faster page won't help if you don't show up for the searches that bring work. You'll want to know that before you spend money on ads, a new site or a new listing.
The afternoon audit, step by step
Block out one afternoon and keep a notepad or a spreadsheet open the whole time, because every finding gets a date and a source as you go.
Step 1
Search like a stranger
Sign out of Google, open a private window and set the search to your town. Then run six to eight searches: your name, what you offer plus your town, what you offer plus each nearby town, and the price question, such as "(what you offer) cost (your area)."
Step 2
Check what shows for your own name
Your home page should come first when someone types your business name. If an empty cart page, a blank privacy page or a page with a template title shows up above it, that goes on the fix list.
Step 3
Run the phone speed test five times
Use Google's PageSpeed Insights, set it to mobile and run it five times in a row. Scores move from run to run even when nobody touches the page, so you keep the middle score and set the other four aside.
Step 4
Read every page in your sitemap
Your sitemap lists every page on your site, not just the ones in your menu, and it's where the leftovers hide. Look for sample text from the template, page titles like "About 5," blank Privacy or Terms pages and an old year in the footer.
Step 5
Read your Google listing
Search for every Google listing that carries your name or your address, because a duplicate splits your reviews in two. Then check the name, the main category, the map pin, the hours and the phone number against your sign and your site.
Step 6
List every phone number tied to your name
Start with your site's footer and the number in your site's code. Then check Google, Facebook, Yelp, Apple Maps, Bing, your chamber and any state license list. Write down where each number shows, because a stranger will dial whichever one they find first.
Step 7
Check your email records and your tags
Look up your domain's public email records and make sure SPF and DMARC are there. Then look for an analytics, tag manager or ad tag on your pages, because a site with no tag measures nothing.
Step 8
Name your three or four real rivals
Your real rivals are the businesses that keep showing up in the searches you just ran. Write one line on each one, saying what they do that you don't do yet.
Step 9
Write two short lists before any fix list
Write down what's already working first, so your fixes build on it instead of tearing it out. Then list what you're not doing yet, and why, before you write a single fix.
Step 10
Date every finding and name its source
Search results and listings change from week to week, so a finding without a date can mislead you a month later. Check each one again on the day you act on it.
Fill this in as you search
Copy this table onto paper or into a spreadsheet before your first search. One row per search makes the pattern easy to spot by the end of the afternoon, and it shows you which towns and services you're missing.
| What a stranger types | Where you show | First on the map | First on the web |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your business name | ____ | ____ | ____ |
| What you offer plus your town | ____ | ____ | ____ |
| What you offer plus a nearby town | ____ | ____ | ____ |
| The price question | ____ | ____ | ____ |
How to read your phone speed score
Google's speed test runs a tool called Lighthouse, and it colors a score of 90 to 100 green and labels it Good. A score from 50 to 89 needs improvement, and anything under 50 is poor. The test also times how long the biggest image or block of text takes to show on the screen, and Google's own guide counts 2.5 seconds or less as good.
One run can fool you. The score moves between runs even on a page nobody touched, so Google's Lighthouse team advises running it five times and keeping the middle score, which it found holds about twice as steady as a single run. Write that middle score down with the date, and you'll have a real number to compare against after a fix.
If your score is low and your site needs a rebuild rather than a patch, our web development page covers how we build fast-loading sites, on desktop and mobile.
Your Google listing and your phone numbers
Your Google listing can reach a stranger before your website does, so read it the way she would. The business name should match your sign, and the main category should be the work people search for. Keep the category list short and limited to what you mainly do. Then open the map, check that the pin sits on your building, and look at the street photo too.
Old phone numbers hang on in places you've forgotten. A directory can still show one, a chamber page can still list the line from your first office, and your site's code can carry a number the footer doesn't show. Write down every number and where it appears, then pick one main number and change every listing to match it, starting with Google and your own site.
Once the right number rings, the next job is answering it quickly. Our speed to lead guide covers the callback routine that keeps those calls from going to the next business on the map.
Check your email records and your tracking
Your domain carries public records that tell inboxes who may send mail in your name. SPF lists the services allowed to send mail as you, and DMARC tells an inbox what to do with a message that fails the check. Any domain lookup site will show you whether you have them. Gmail requires every sender to have at least SPF or DKIM, a record that signs each email, so without these records, the quotes and invoices you send can land in spam.
Then check whether your site measures anything at all. On a laptop, open your home page, view the page source, and search it for "gtag" or "googletagmanager." If neither one shows up, your site probably has no Google analytics or ad tag, so it likely counts nothing. That gap goes near the top of your list, because without a count you can't tell whether any other fix worked.
Name your rivals, then write two short lists
Count a business as a rival when it keeps turning up in your searches, whatever you think of it. Your line on each might say it asks for reviews on a schedule or offers a booking calendar. Another rival might have a page for each service or pay for the top spot on the map. If you run a pregnancy center, leave other centers off this list, because another center is never a rival.
Writing down what's already working keeps you from breaking it by accident. Write the reasons next to what you're not doing yet, because some gaps are choices you made on purpose. A fix list that ignores those choices turns into busywork.
Would a stranger find your business as it is today?
Answer five quick questions. Your answers stay on your device.
Does your home page come first when you search your business name, signed out?
Does your Google listing show the right hours, phone number and map pin?
Does every directory you checked show the same phone number?
Did your site score 90 or better on the middle of five phone speed runs?
Does your site carry an analytics or ad tag?
Strangers are finding the business you actually run. Put a date on the calendar six months from now and run the audit again, because results and listings change over time.
You're close. Start with the first question you answered No, because each one marks a place where a ready customer can slip away to someone else.
A stranger is probably meeting an older or emptier version of your business than the one you run. Block out an afternoon this week and work through the ten steps in order.
Your audit checklist
Tick each one off as you go. Your ticks stay on this device.
0 of 11 done
How we use this audit
We run this same check, from public data only, on every new business before anyone signs in to anything. It shows us what a stranger sees today, so we don't guess about what to fix first or spend on Google Ads that point people at a dead number.
If you'd like a second set of eyes on what you found, book a call with Miguel. He'll walk through your table with you and talk about which fixes to make before you spend anything on ads.
Questions people ask
What is an online presence audit?
It's a check of what a stranger finds when they look up your business: your search results, your Google listing, your website on a phone and every phone number tied to your name. You run it signed out, so you see what a new customer sees.
How often should I audit my online presence?
Run one once or twice a year, and again after a move, a name change or a new site. Run one as well whenever calls drop and nobody can say why.
Can I audit my online presence myself?
Yes. You need a phone, a laptop and an afternoon. Nobody has to sign in to anything, because the whole point is to see only what the public can see.
What is a good mobile speed score?
Google colors a Lighthouse score of 90 to 100 green and calls it good. Run the test five times and judge the middle score, because a single run can swing on its own.
Test your phone speed and count the searches in your town
Read next
- Call Log Template: What to Write Down From Every CallA ready-to-copy call log, the one question to ask every caller, and how to sort wrong numbers.
- ChatGPT Custom Instructions Examples: Make Each Fix Only OnceEight custom instructions examples to copy, and a four-line card that carries your fixes into every chat.
- ChatGPT Prompt Templates: Write the Weekly Ask Once and Save ItCopy-ready ChatGPT prompt templates for the jobs you run every week, and how to save each one.