local-impact-auditor

LOCAL-IMPACT Auditor — Proprietary Scoring Framework

You are executing the LOCAL-IMPACT scoring framework — a 60-item assessment of local business presence, visibility, and competitiveness. This is the primary scoring framework for local SEO health.

Framework: LOCAL-IMPACT (Local Optimization, Consistency, Authority & Listing — Impact Performance Assessment & Competitive Tracking) Items: 60 | Scale: 0–3 per item | Max Raw: 180 | Normalized: 0–100 | Version: 2025.1

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Prerequisites

Before scoring, confirm you have:

• Business name, website URL, target location
• Google Business Profile URL (or search business name + location on Google Maps)
• At least 3 competitor GBP URLs for comparison
• Access to or output from prior audit phases in {AUDIT_DIR}/

If missing, collect before proceeding. Read {AUDIT_DIR}/intake-data.md for all context.

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Framework Reference

Load the complete rubric from references/local-impact-benchmark.md.

Scoring Dimensions

Code	Dimension	Items	Max	Key Tools
L	Listing Quality	10	30	Google Maps, GBP dashboard, BrightLocal
O	Online Reviews	10	30	BrightLocal, Podium, ReviewTrackers
C	Citation Consistency	10	30	BrightLocal, Whitespark, Yext
A	Authority Signals	10	30	Ahrefs, Majestic, Moz Link Explorer
L2	Local Content	5	15	Screaming Frog, GSC, site_crawler.py
I	Integrated Visibility	5	15	Apple Maps, Bing Places, Otterly.ai
P	Performance	5	15	PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, Lighthouse
T	Tracking	5	15	GA4, GSC, CallRail, Hotjar

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Step 1: Research Phase — Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence Gathering

Dimension L — Listing Quality (GBP Completeness)

Primary tool: Google Business Profile dashboard or Google Maps listing 2025 GBP Completeness Checklist:

1. Business name (exact legal name, no keyword stuffing) — GSC brand signal
2. Primary category + all relevant secondary categories (2025: up to 10)
3. Description — 750 character max, keyword-rich first 250 chars
4. Service areas (if service-area business) vs. storefront address
5. Hours of operation including special/holiday hours
6. Phone number (local area code preferred over 1-800)
7. Website URL (tracking parameter: ?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=gbp)
8. Products/Services with prices, descriptions (every service listed)
9. Photos: minimum 10 exterior + 10 interior + 5 team + 5 work examples (2025 benchmark: 50+ total)
10. GBP Posts: minimum 1 active post per week (offers, updates, events)
11. Q&A section: minimum 5 seeded Q&As with keyword-rich answers
12. Attributes: all applicable attributes checked (women-owned, veteran-owned, accessibility, etc.)
13. Messaging enabled (if applicable to business type)
14. Menu/Service menu (for restaurants/salons/etc.)

Benchmark thresholds:

• 100% complete: all 13 elements present → Score 3
• 8–12 elements: → Score 2
• 4–7 elements: → Score 1
• <4 elements: → Score 0

Dimension O — Online Reviews

Primary tools: BrightLocal Review Dashboard, Google Maps, Podium, ReviewTrackers 2025 Review Benchmarks (Local Pack Competitiveness):

Metric	Score 3 (Excellent)	Score 2 (Good)	Score 1 (Weak)	Score 0 (Absent)
Google rating	≥4.5 stars	4.0–4.4 stars	3.5–3.9 stars	<3.5 stars
Google review count	≥50 reviews	25–49 reviews	10–24 reviews	<10 reviews
Review velocity	≥4 new/month	2–3 new/month	1 new/month	<1 per month
Response rate	≥90% responded	70–89%	50–69%	<50%
Response time	<24 hours	24–72 hours	3–7 days	>7 days
Review platforms	4+ platforms	3 platforms	2 platforms	1 platform only

Multi-platform check: Google, Yelp, Facebook, TripAdvisor, BBB, Houzz, Healthgrades, Avvo (per industry) AI visibility angle: Google AI Overviews pulls review ratings — businesses with <4.0 stars are rarely featured

Dimension C — Citation Consistency

Primary tools: BrightLocal Citation Audit, Whitespark Citation Finder, Yext Knowledge Network NAP Consistency Check:

• Name: Exact match across all directories (no abbreviations, no "LLC" variations)
• Address: Street number, street name, suite formatting consistent (Ste vs Suite vs #)
• Phone: Same format (+1-XXX-XXX-XXXX vs (XXX) XXX-XXXX — pick one)

Tier 1 Citations (must be present): Data Axle (formerly Infogroup), Neustar/Localeze, Acxiom, Foursquare — these feed hundreds of downstream directories

Tier 2 Citations (local pack important): Google Business Profile, Yelp, Facebook, BBB, Apple Maps, Bing Places, Foursquare, Yellow Pages, MapQuest

Inconsistency threshold: >3 NAP inconsistencies across top 50 citations → Score 0–1

Dimension A — Authority Signals

Primary tools: Ahrefs Site Explorer, Majestic (Trust Flow / Citation Flow), Moz Domain Authority Local Authority Benchmarks:

Signal	Score 3	Score 2	Score 1	Score 0
Domain Rating (Ahrefs DR)	>30	15–30	5–14	<5
Local referring domains	>25 local RDs	10–25	3–9	<3
Chamber of Commerce link	Present	—	—	Absent
BBB accreditation	Accredited	Listed	—	Not listed
.edu / .gov links	Any present	—	—	None
Industry association links	3+	1–2	—	None

Local link types to check: Chamber of Commerce, local newspaper mentions, city/county business directories, industry associations, local sponsorships

Dimension L2 — Local Content Quality

Primary tools: Screaming Frog, {DATA_DIR}/crawl/ (site_crawler.py output), GSC Content Thresholds:

• Service pages: ≥800 words, unique content per service, service-area keywords integrated
• Location pages (multi-location): ≥600 words, unique to each location (not templated)
• Blog/local content: Regular publishing (min 2×/month), community-relevant topics
• Schema: LocalBusiness + Service + FAQPage + Review schema on key pages
• Internal linking: Service pages linked from homepage + location pages

Dimension I — Integrated Visibility

Tools: Apple Maps Connect, Bing Places for Business, Otterly.ai (AI mention tracking) 2025 Visibility Checklist:

• Apple Maps claimed and verified (Siri voice search source)
• Bing Places verified (powers Copilot local results)
• Google Maps embed on contact/location page
• Voice search readiness: FAQ content with conversational phrasing
• AI Overview presence: Test "near me" queries in Google — does business appear?
• ChatGPT / Perplexity citation: Search business name in AI assistants
• Social media profiles: Facebook, Instagram linked + active (within 30 days)

Dimension P — Performance

Primary tools: Google PageSpeed Insights (pagespeed.web.dev), GTmetrix, Chrome DevTools Lighthouse 2025 Core Web Vitals Thresholds:

Metric	Score 3	Score 2	Score 1	Score 0
LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)	<1.8s	1.8–2.5s	2.5–4.0s	>4.0s
INP (Interaction to Next Paint)	<100ms	100–200ms	200–500ms	>500ms
CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift)	<0.05	0.05–0.10	0.10–0.25	>0.25
Mobile PageSpeed score	>90	70–90	50–69	<50
TTFB (Time to First Byte)	<400ms	400–800ms	800–1800ms	>1800ms

Note: INP replaced FID as a Core Web Vital in March 2024.

Dimension T — Tracking Setup

Primary tools: GA4, Google Search Console, CallRail/WhatConverts (call tracking) Tracking Checklist:

• GA4 installed + configured (goals, conversions set up)
• GSC verified + sitemap submitted + no coverage errors
• Call tracking active (CallRail, WhatConverts, or similar)
• GBP Insights reviewed monthly (calls, directions, website clicks)
• Conversion tracking: form submissions, calls, bookings tracked as GA4 events
• UTM parameters on GBP website link

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Step 2: Score Each Item (0–3 Scale)

For each of the 60 items in references/local-impact-benchmark.md, assign:

Score	Label	Meaning
0	Absent	Not implemented at all
1	Weak	Partially implemented, significant gaps
2	Good	Implemented correctly, minor improvements possible
3	Excellent	Fully optimised, best-in-class implementation

Record evidence for every score — no unsupported scores.

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Step 3: Veto Check (2025 Updated)

Apply BEFORE calculating final score. Highest applicable cap wins.

Veto	Condition	Score Cap	Rationale
V01	GBP not claimed or verified	15	Unverified GBP cannot rank in local pack
V02	Website not indexed by Google	10	No indexation = no organic presence
V03	Active Google manual penalty	10	Penalty suppresses all rankings
V04	NAP wrong on website + GBP + majority of citations	20	NAP inconsistency destroys trust signals
V05	Zero Google reviews	25	No social proof — cannot compete locally
V06	No SSL certificate	20	Security requirement since 2018; Chrome warns users

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Step 4: Calculate Final Score

raw_score = sum of all 60 item scores           # Max: 180
normalized = (raw_score / 180) * 100            # Max: 100
veto_cap = min(triggered veto caps, default=100)
final_score = min(normalized, veto_cap)         # Final: 0–100

Use python3 scripts/score_calculator.py --both --li-file {AUDIT_DIR}/local-impact-scores.md to compute automatically.

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Step 5: Competitor Scoring

Score each top competitor on the same 60 items (abbreviated — focus on observable signals):

• Use Google Maps, GBP listing, site search, Ahrefs free data, BrightLocal free scan
• Focus on dimensions L, O, C, A — these are the most observable externally
• Minimum: score all 6 veto checks per competitor

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Step 6: Identify Quick Wins

Quick wins = items currently at score 0 or 1 that can reach score 3 in <2 hours:

Quick Win	Current Score	Effort	Expected Gain	Priority Score (I×F)
Add GBP Q&A (10 seeded questions)	0	30 min	+3 pts L	5×5=25
Upload 20+ GBP photos	0–1	45 min	+3 pts L	5×5=25
Respond to all existing reviews	0–1	1–2 hrs	+3 pts O	5×5=25
Submit to Data Axle + Neustar	0	1 hr	+6 pts C	5×4=20
Install call tracking (CallRail)	0	1 hr	+3 pts T	4×5=20
Verify Apple Maps + Bing Places	0	30 min	+3 pts I	4×5=20
Add schema markup (LocalBusiness)	0–1	2 hrs	+3 pts A	5×4=20

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Output Format

Write structured output to {AUDIT_DIR}/local-impact-scores.md:

---
skill: cross-cutting/local-impact-auditor
phase: scoring
date: [YYYY-MM-DD]
business: [Business Name]
url: [URL]
score: [X/100]
status: complete
---

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 LOCAL-IMPACT SCORECARD — 2025 Edition
 Business: [Name]
 URL: [URL]
 Location: [City, State]
 Date: [Date]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

 OVERALL SCORE: [X] / 100    Grade: [A-F]

 Dimension Breakdown:
 L  Listing Quality      [XX/30]  ████████░░  [X%]  — [key gap]
 O  Online Reviews        [XX/30]  ███████░░░  [X%]  — [key gap]
 C  Citation Consistency  [XX/30]  █████░░░░░  [X%]  — [key gap]
 A  Authority Signals     [XX/30]  ████████░░  [X%]  — [key gap]
 L2 Local Content         [XX/15]  ██████░░░░  [X%]  — [key gap]
 I  Integrated Visibility [XX/15]  ███████░░░  [X%]  — [key gap]
 P  Performance           [XX/15]  ████████░░  [X%]  — [key gap]
 T  Tracking              [XX/15]  █████░░░░░  [X%]  — [key gap]

 Veto Checks:
 [✅/❌] V01: GBP Claimed & Verified
 [✅/❌] V02: Website Indexed by Google
 [✅/❌] V03: No Active Google Penalty
 [✅/❌] V04: NAP Consistent (website + GBP + citations)
 [✅/❌] V05: Has Google Reviews (>0)
 [✅/❌] V06: SSL Certificate Active

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 COMPETITOR COMPARISON
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 | Dimension  | Client | Comp 1 | Comp 2 | Comp 3 | Gap |
 |------------|--------|--------|--------|--------|-----|
 | Overall    |   XX   |   XX   |   XX   |   XX   |  ±  |
 | Listing    |   XX   |   XX   |   XX   |   XX   |  ±  |
 | Reviews    |   XX   |   XX   |   XX   |   XX   |  ±  |
 | Citations  |   XX   |   XX   |   XX   |   XX   |  ±  |
 | Authority  |   XX   |   XX   |   XX   |   XX   |  ±  |
 | Performance|   XX   |   XX   |   XX   |   XX   |  ±  |

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 TOP 5 IMPROVEMENT PRIORITIES
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 1. [Item ID]: [Description] — Score: X/3 — Impact: [High] — Effort: [X hrs] — Priority: [I×F]
 2. [Item ID]: [Description] — Score: X/3 — Impact: [High] — Effort: [X hrs] — Priority: [I×F]
 3. [Item ID]: [Description] — Score: X/3 — Impact: [Med]  — Effort: [X hrs] — Priority: [I×F]
 4. [Item ID]: [Description] — Score: X/3 — Impact: [Med]  — Effort: [X hrs] — Priority: [I×F]
 5. [Item ID]: [Description] — Score: X/3 — Impact: [Low]  — Effort: [X hrs] — Priority: [I×F]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 QUICK WINS (<2 hrs each, immediate gains)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 • [Action]: [Specific step] — Gain: +X pts — Effort: X min
 • [Action]: [Specific step] — Gain: +X pts — Effort: X min
 • [Action]: [Specific step] — Gain: +X pts — Effort: X min

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 AI VISIBILITY ASSESSMENT (2025)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 Google AI Overviews: [Appearing / Not appearing for target queries]
 Apple Siri (Maps): [Verified / Not verified]
 Bing Copilot: [Bing Places verified / Not verified]
 ChatGPT / Perplexity: [Cited / Not cited when searched by name]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

---

Data Output for Report Integration (YAML Block)

framework: LOCAL-IMPACT
version: 2025.1
date: [YYYY-MM-DD]
business: [name]
url: [url]
location: [city, state]
scores:
  overall: [0-100]
  grade: [A+-F]
  raw: [0-180]
  dimensions:
    L:  { raw: X, max: 30, pct: X, key_gap: "" }
    O:  { raw: X, max: 30, pct: X, key_gap: "" }
    C:  { raw: X, max: 30, pct: X, key_gap: "" }
    A:  { raw: X, max: 30, pct: X, key_gap: "" }
    L2: { raw: X, max: 15, pct: X, key_gap: "" }
    I:  { raw: X, max: 15, pct: X, key_gap: "" }
    P:  { raw: X, max: 15, pct: X, key_gap: "" }
    T:  { raw: X, max: 15, pct: X, key_gap: "" }
  vetoes_triggered: []
  final_cap: 100
  competitors:
    - name: [comp1]
      score: X
      key_advantage: ""
    - name: [comp2]
      score: X
      key_advantage: ""
    - name: [comp3]
      score: X
      key_advantage: ""
  quick_wins: []
  ai_visibility: { google_aio: false, apple_maps: false, bing: false, chatgpt: false }

---

Handoff

After scoring, save results to {AUDIT_DIR}/local-impact-scores.md for:

• output/report-generation — integrates into master report section 3
• output/pdf-report — renders LOCAL-IMPACT dashboard gauge in PDF cover
• cross-cutting/serp-trust-auditor — SEO Health Index = (LOCAL-IMPACT × 0.55) + (SERP-TRUST × 0.45)