If you’re wondering how to give your local business a real boost online, running a local SEO audit is your secret weapon. Think of it like a thorough health checkup for your business’s online presence, right in your neighborhood. And guess what? Semrush is like having a whole team of experts at your fingertips to make that happen. This guide is all about showing you how to use Semrush to really dial in your local SEO, making sure potential customers can easily find you. We’ll cover everything from your Google Business Profile to what your rivals are up to, and by the end, you’ll have a clear roadmap to getting more local eyes on your business.

Table of Contents

What Even Is a Local SEO Audit, Anyway?

what exactly are we talking about here? A local SEO audit is basically a into how well your business shows up in local search results. when someone types “best coffee near me” or “plumber in ” into Google? We want your business to be right there at the top. It’s not just about looking good, though. A good audit helps you spot all the things that might be holding you back and gives you actionable steps to fix them.

Why is this so important, you ask? Well, research shows that a huge number of consumers—up to 4 out of every 5, actually—use local search on their smartphones, and a whopping 88% of those folks visit a related store within a week. That’s a massive opportunity! By doing a thorough local SEO audit, you can attract more local customers, get more traffic to your physical store or website, and frankly, stay way ahead of your competitors. It helps you improve your visibility, gain credibility, and ultimately, bring more business through your doors or to your services.

Getting Started with Semrush for Your Local Audit

Alright, let’s roll up our sleeves and get into how you actually do this with Semrush. It’s pretty straightforward once you know where to go.

First things first, you’ll want to create a project in Semrush for your business. Just log in, head over to the “Projects” tab, and hit “Create Project.” You’ll put in your website domain and give your project a name. This acts as your central hub for all the magic we’re about to do. Semrush tutorial

Next, and this is super important for local SEO, you need to configure your target locations. Semrush will ask you to specify the city, town, or even region you want to focus on. Don’t forget this step, because it tells Semrush to give you localized search positions instead of just global ones, which is exactly what we need for local dominance.

One of the coolest things about Semrush’s Local Toolkit is how it helps you connect your Google Business Profile GBP. This is a must! When you link your GBP, Semrush can pull in all sorts of insights about your profile’s performance, making it easier to keep everything up to date and optimized. It’s like giving Semrush a direct line to Google to make sure your business is seen.

Your Google Business Profile: The Local SEO Kingpin

Seriously, if you’re a local business, your Google Business Profile GBP is probably the single most important piece of your online puzzle. It’s that little box that shows up in Google Search and Maps with your business info, photos, and reviews. Getting this right is non-negotiable.

Semrush gives you a bunch of tools within its Local Toolkit to help you optimize your GBP like a pro: Why the Right Semrush Logo Matters for Your Brand

Accuracy and Completeness: This sounds basic, but you’d be surprised how many businesses mess it up! Semrush helps you make sure all your essential information is filled out completely and accurately. This means your Name, Address, Phone Number NAP, website, business description, and operating hours need to be spot-on. Even small inconsistencies can hurt your visibility. You also need to select the right business category so Google knows exactly what you offer and for which searches to display your business. And don’t forget those helpful attributes like “pet-friendly” or “outdoor seating” – they really make your profile pop!
Photos and Posts: People love visuals! Semrush helps you see if your GBP is lacking in the photo department and even lets you create and schedule engaging GBP posts right from the platform. Good photos can significantly boost engagement with your profile.
Semrush GBP Optimization Tools: The platform provides specific reports that show you your GBP performance, including views, interactions, and average ratings. It even offers AI-powered recommendations and post-scheduling features to keep your profile fresh and engaging without constant manual effort.

By keeping your GBP in tip-top shape, you’re telling Google that your business is legitimate, active, and relevant, which is exactly what you want for higher local rankings.

Taming Your Local Citations with Semrush Listing Management

Beyond your Google Business Profile, there are literally dozens of other online directories, social media platforms, and review sites where your business information can, and should, appear. These mentions are called “local citations,” and consistency is absolutely key here. Imagine Google seeing your business listed with different phone numbers or addresses across various sites—it gets confused, and that can hurt your local SEO.

This is where Semrush’s Listing Management tool truly shines. It’s a lifesaver for making sure your Name, Address, and Phone Number NAP details are consistent everywhere:

Scanning for Existing Listings and Errors: You just input your business name and location, and the tool goes to work, scanning a huge network of directories. It’ll show you exactly where your business is listed, if there are any inconsistencies, or if you’re missing from key platforms. It gives you a detailed report, often with an overall score of your online presence and what needs fixing.
Distributing Accurate Info: Once you’ve confirmed your correct business details within Semrush, the tool can automatically distribute and sync that information across its extensive network of directories. This means you don’t have to manually update each listing one by one, saving you a ton of time and ensuring consistency.
Suppressing Duplicates: Sometimes, old or incorrect business listings can pop up, creating duplicate entries that confuse search engines. Semrush’s Listing Management helps you identify and suppress these duplicates, ensuring that only accurate information is out there.
Importance of Consistency: Having accurate and consistent NAP information across all your listings helps search engines like Google verify your business’s legitimacy. This builds trust with search engines and potential customers, directly impacting your local SEO rankings. According to Semrush, listing your business in these directories “improves your local SEO and visibility, helps you build credibility online, and increases your coverage.”

Keeping your online listings optimized and harmonized across platforms with Semrush helps you be visible to customers wherever they are, even for voice and AI searches. What’s the Deal with Transparent PNGs Anyway?

Unearthing Local Keywords: What Are People Really Searching For?

You might think keyword research is keyword research, but local keyword research has a special flavor. It’s about figuring out the specific phrases people in your target area use when they’re looking for businesses like yours. They might add “near me,” a specific city, or even a neighborhood to their search.

Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool is your best friend here:

Finding Local-Specific Terms: You can pop in a general keyword related to your service or product, like “bakery,” and then apply a location filter. The tool will then show you a broad range of local-specific keywords, along with their search volume and difficulty. For example, searching “bakery” and filtering by “New York City” might give you “best cupcakes in NYC” or “New York City bakery”.
Identifying Long-Tail Keywords and Local Intent: Don’t just go for the big, obvious keywords. Long-tail keywords, like “gluten-free vegan bakery Brooklyn” or “24-hour tire repair near me,” often have lower competition and can bring in highly targeted traffic from people who know exactly what they want. Semrush helps you analyze search intent, so you can tailor your content to what users are actually looking for.
Competitor Keyword Analysis Keyword Gap Tool: This is a brilliant feature. You can compare your website’s keyword profile against your top local competitors using Semrush’s Keyword Gap tool. It reveals keywords your competitors rank for that you’re missing entirely, or where they’re ranking higher. This gives you a direct line to new content and optimization opportunities.

By understanding these local search terms, you can optimize your website content and GBP to directly address what your potential customers are looking for, leading to more relevant traffic.

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Keeping an Eye on the Competition: Semrush Competitor Analysis

In the local business world, knowing what your local rivals are doing is just as important as knowing your own strengths. Semrush makes this easy and insightful.

Finding Your Real Local Competitors: It’s not always the big national brands. Often, your direct competitors are other local businesses in your area. Semrush’s Organic Research tool can help you identify which sites are ranking for the local keywords you’re targeting. This helps you focus on who you’re actually up against.
Using Organic Research and Keyword Gap: Once you’ve identified these local competitors, you can plug their domains into the Organic Research tool to see their top keywords, estimated traffic, and even what their site looks like in search results. Then, as we mentioned, the Keyword Gap tool is fantastic for a side-by-side comparison, showing you which keywords you’re both ranking for, which ones you’re missing, and where they might be outperforming you.
Analyzing Their On-Page and Backlink Strategies: Go a step further. Look at your competitors’ websites. What are their title tags and meta descriptions like for local pages? Do they have dedicated location pages? Semrush also lets you check out their backlink profiles to see where they’re getting their links from. This can uncover opportunities for your own link-building efforts.
Map Rank Tracker for Competitor Map Rankings: This is a fantastic Semrush Local feature. The Map Rank Tracker allows you to monitor your Google Maps rankings with “pinpoint precision” and, crucially, to see how your competitors are performing in Google Maps from every corner of your city. This visual grid helps you spot areas where your competitors are strong and where you might have an opening.

By benchmarking against your competitors, you can refine your own local SEO strategy, identify gaps, and adapt to stay ahead in the local search results.

Reputation Management: Building Trust, One Review at a Time

Online reviews are a huge deal for local businesses. Think about it: when you’re looking for a new restaurant or service, what’s one of the first things you check? Reviews! Positive reviews build trust and credibility, while negative ones can quickly turn potential customers away. Google itself considers review sentiment and quantity when ranking businesses.

Semrush’s Review Management tool in the Local Toolkit makes this crucial task much, much easier: Power Up Your LinkedIn Game: How Semrush Can Transform Your Professional Presence

Centralized Monitoring: Instead of hopping between Google, Yelp, Facebook, and other platforms, Semrush collects all your reviews into one easy-to-use dashboard. This means you can see everything at a glance, track trends over time, and keep an eye on your average star rating.
Responding with AI Suggestions: Timely responses to reviews show customers that you care, and they can even positively influence your local SEO performance. But sometimes, you’re just swamped! Semrush helps by offering AI-generated reply suggestions and even auto-replies for your Google Business Profile reviews. This is a massive time-saver and ensures you maintain an active, caring presence online.
Encouraging New Reviews: The tool also helps you track your review response rate and monitor customer sentiment. While Semrush can’t directly get you reviews, it helps manage the process, allowing you to focus on encouraging satisfied customers to leave positive feedback through other means, like direct links or post-service emails.

Managing your online reputation effectively with Semrush isn’t just about damage control. it’s about actively building a strong, trustworthy brand that customers feel good about choosing.

On-Page SEO for Local Businesses: Making Your Website Shine

Your website is your online storefront, and for local SEO, it needs to be optimized so search engines understand what you do and where you do it. This isn’t just about throwing keywords on a page. it’s about providing valuable information that helps both users and search engines.

Here’s how Semrush helps you fine-tune your website:

Optimizing Title Tags, Meta Descriptions, and Headings H1s: These are prime spots for your local keywords. Semrush’s On-Page SEO Checker can give you specific recommendations for each page, suggesting where to naturally include local keywords in your page titles, meta descriptions the snippet you see in search results, and main headings. This tells Google exactly what your page is about and for which local queries it should rank.
Location-Specific Content/Landing Pages: If you serve multiple areas or offer different services in different locations, dedicated landing pages are a must. Semrush can help you identify keywords for these pages and then analyze their optimization.
NAP Information on Your Website: Just like citations, your Name, Address, and Phone Number should be consistently displayed on your website, usually in the footer or on a dedicated contact page. Embedding a Google Maps widget on your landing pages also makes it easy for visitors to find you.
Local Business Schema Markup: This is a bit more technical, but super important! Schema markup is code you add to your website that helps search engines better understand your business’s information like your address, hours, services, and reviews. It helps you stand out in search results. Semrush’s Site Audit can help identify if your schema is implemented correctly.
Semrush On-Page SEO Checker: This tool analyzes your individual pages and provides specific, actionable suggestions for content improvements, relevant keyword inclusion, and technical fixes. It’s like having a personalized SEO consultant for every page on your site.

By focusing on these on-page elements, you’re making your website not only user-friendly but also highly appealing to search engines looking to connect local searchers with relevant businesses. SEO Tools for Keyword Research: Your Ultimate Guide to Uncovering What People Really Want!

The Technical Deep Dive: Semrush Site Audit for Local SEO

Even with perfectly optimized content and GBP, technical glitches on your website can quietly sabotage your local SEO efforts. Think of technical SEO as the foundation of your website – if it’s crumbling, the whole house struggles. Things like slow loading times, broken links, or pages that Google can’t even “read” will hurt your rankings and user experience.

This is where the comprehensive Semrush Site Audit tool comes into play:

Identifying Errors, Warnings, and Notices: The Site Audit tool crawls your entire website and checks for over 140 common technical and on-page SEO issues. It then categorizes them into errors most critical, warnings important, and notices suggestions. You’ll get clear insights into things like:
- Crawlability and Indexability: Can Google’s bots actually find and store all your important pages? This tool will tell you if robots.txt files or ‘noindex’ tags are blocking essential content.
- HTTPS Implementation: Is your website secure? HTTPS is a ranking factor, and Semrush checks for any issues with your SSL certificate.
- Page Speed and Core Web Vitals: Slow pages frustrate users and hurt rankings. Semrush highlights large images, render-blocking scripts, and other elements slowing down your site.
- Mobile Usability: With so many local searches happening on phones, your site must be mobile-friendly. Semrush flags issues like small text or content wider than the screen.
Internal Linking Analysis: This report helps you find internal linking issues, organize your site structure better, and ensure that “PageRank” authority flows effectively throughout your site.
Scheduling Regular Audits: SEO isn’t a one-and-done thing. Websites can develop issues over time. Semrush lets you schedule regular site audits, so you’ll get notifications in your inbox when new issues arise, helping you stay on top of your site’s health.

Addressing these technical issues found by the Semrush Site Audit can significantly improve your website’s performance, user experience, and ultimately, its visibility in local search results.

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Building Local Authority: Backlinks That Matter

Think of backlinks as votes of confidence from other websites. When a reputable local business or community organization links to your site, it tells Google that your business is trustworthy and authoritative. For local SEO, getting backlinks from local websites is particularly valuable.

Importance of Local Backlinks: Local backlinks can drive relevant traffic to your site and help you rank higher in web search results. They signal to Google that your business is an established and respected part of the local community.
Strategies for Acquiring Local Backlinks:
- Sponsor local events, sports teams, or charities and ask for a link.
- Provide testimonials for your local suppliers to feature on their websites.
- Host community events and list them on local event directories.
- Engage with local bloggers or news outlets for mentions or reviews.
- Post job opportunities on local job boards that link back to your site.
Semrush Backlink Audit and Backlink Gap Tools: Semrush offers powerful tools to analyze your backlink profile and find new opportunities:
- The Backlink Audit tool helps you identify and “disavow” tell Google to ignore any toxic or low-quality backlinks that could be harming your site.
- The Backlink Gap tool lets you compare your backlink profile with competitors, revealing websites that link to them but not to you. This is a golden opportunity to reach out and try to earn those links yourself!

By actively pursuing quality local backlinks, you’re strengthening your website’s authority and boosting your chances of ranking higher in competitive local searches.

Tracking Your Progress: Are You Moving the Needle?

So, you’ve put in all this hard work—optimizing your GBP, cleaning up citations, finding keywords, fixing technical issues. How do you know if it’s actually working? Tracking your progress is essential to refine your strategy and see the fruits of your labor.

Semrush gives you clear ways to monitor your local SEO performance: Mastering Semrush Keyword Planner: Your Ultimate Guide to Uncovering SEO Gold

Semrush Position Tracking: This tool is incredibly useful for seeing where your target keywords are ranking in your specific geographic area. You can track your daily online performance, including both core and long-tail keywords, and even see how you rank in the “local pack” those top 3 results in Google Maps. It helps you analyze whether your local keywords are improving or declining over time, allowing for data-driven adjustments.
Map Rank Tracker: Part of the Semrush Local toolkit, the Map Rank Tracker visually shows you your business’s performance on Google Maps. You can select up to 100 local keywords and set a map grid, with each pin representing a different search location. This lets you see exactly how you rank from various points in your city or neighborhood, giving you a powerful visual of your local visibility.
Overall Performance Dashboards: Semrush provides comprehensive dashboards that integrate data from all these tools, giving you an overall view of your local SEO health, your average star rating, and how you compare to your competitors. This makes it easy to present results and make informed decisions about where to focus your efforts next.

Regularly checking these reports is like having a compass for your local SEO journey, guiding you towards what’s working and what needs a tweak to keep you on the right path.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Semrush SEO score?

The Semrush SEO score, often referred to as the “Authority Score,” is a proprietary metric developed by Semrush that estimates a website’s overall authority and influence in search engines. It’s based on various factors like backlink data, organic search traffic, and keyword rankings. While it’s a helpful indicator for comparing your site against competitors, it’s not a direct Google ranking factor. A higher score generally means a stronger, more trusted website.

Is Semrush worth it for local SEO?

Absolutely, many businesses find Semrush incredibly valuable for local SEO. It provides a comprehensive suite of tools specifically designed to help local businesses with keyword research, competitor analysis, listing management, reputation management, technical SEO audits, and rank tracking—all tailored to specific geographic locations. While there are other local SEO tools out there, Semrush’s all-in-one platform saves time and provides a holistic view of your local online presence, making it a worthwhile investment for serious local businesses. How to Do Keyword Research with Semrush for Free (And Actually Get Results!)

How often should I do a local SEO audit?

You should aim to perform a comprehensive local SEO audit at least once a year to stay competitive and identify new opportunities. However, some aspects, like monitoring your Google Business Profile performance and reviews, should be checked much more frequently weekly or monthly. Technical SEO audits via Semrush’s Site Audit tool can also be scheduled regularly, like monthly, to catch issues before they become major problems.

Can Semrush help with Google Business Profile posts?

Yes, Semrush can definitely help with Google Business Profile posts! The Semrush Local Toolkit includes features for GBP Optimization that allow you to create and schedule engaging GBP posts. This means you can plan out your content, generate engaging post drafts using AI, and keep your profile fresh and active without having to log directly into your Google Business Profile every time.

What’s the difference between local SEO and regular SEO?

Regular SEO sometimes called “national” or “global” SEO focuses on optimizing your online presence to rank in search results across a broad geographic area or even worldwide. Local SEO, on the other hand, is all about optimizing your online presence to attract customers within a specific, limited geographic area, like a city, town, or neighborhood. While both use similar techniques keyword research, on-page optimization, backlinks, local SEO puts a heavy emphasis on location-specific factors like Google Business Profile optimization, local citations, and geo-targeted keywords.

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Mastering Your Local Presence: A Semrush Local SEO Audit Guide