Score it and know what to fix first

A list of twenty problems is paralysing. A score across a few areas, with the weakest one flagged, tells you exactly where to start, and stops you tinkering with the thing that doesn't matter while the thing that does sits broken.

Score the areas that decide local

Rate yourself out of five on each: Google Business Profile, reviews, citations and NAP, on-page and pages, links, and AI visibility. Your lowest score is almost always your biggest opportunity, because in local the algorithm rewards the business that's strong across the board, not brilliant in one place and empty in another.

Impact over effort

Not every fix is equal. Fixing your primary category or getting a review flow going moves you far more than tweaking a meta description. Rank your fixes by what they move versus what they cost, and do the cheap, high-impact ones this week.