📍 What Is a GBP Audit?
A GBP Audit checks your Google Business Profile (GBP) and highlights what is complete, what is missing, and what could be improved. A strong profile helps your business appear in local search results and Google Maps, and helps customers trust what they see.
The audit looks at areas such as business information, categories, descriptions, photos, reviews, and other profile details that can affect local visibility.
✅ Before You Start
Check these items first. They prevent most audit problems:
- You have an active Search Atlas account and are logged in.
- Your Google Business Profile is verified in Google.
- You know the exact business name and location you want to audit.
- The Google account you use has access to the profile (owner or manager).
🚀 How to Run a GBP Audit
- Log in to the Search Atlas platform.
- Open the Google Business Profile tools from the main navigation.
- Connect your Google account if prompted, and approve the requested permissions.
- Select the business location you want to review.
- Start the audit and wait for it to finish. Larger profiles may take a little longer.
- Review the results on screen once they appear.
Menu names can change as we improve the platform. If you cannot find the tool, use the platform search or the chat widget (see the last section).
📊 How to Read Your Results
Your results are designed to show you what to fix first. Look for:
- Completed items: parts of your profile that are set up well.
- Missing or incomplete items: fields that are empty or could be stronger, such as a description, hours, or photos.
- Recommendations: suggested actions to improve your profile.
Start with the simplest fixes, like accurate business details, then move on to larger improvements like new photos or review management.
🛠️ Common Fixes After an Audit
- Business information: make sure your name, address, phone number, and website match what customers see everywhere else.
- Categories: choose a primary category that best describes your main service, then add relevant secondary ones.
- Description: write a clear, natural summary of what you offer and where you operate.
- Photos: add recent, high-quality images of your location, team, products, or work.
- Reviews: reply to reviews, especially recent ones, and ask happy customers to leave feedback.
- Hours and services: keep opening hours, holiday hours, and service lists current.
Make profile changes in your Google Business Profile. Then run the audit again to confirm they were picked up.
🔄 If Your Audit Does Not Load or Looks Wrong
Try these steps in order:
- Refresh the page and run the audit again.
- Check your Google connection. Disconnect and reconnect your Google account if the profile does not appear.
- Confirm access. The connected Google account must have owner or manager rights to the profile.
- Verify the profile. Unverified or suspended profiles may return limited or no data.
- Allow time for updates. Changes made in Google can take a while to show in the audit.
- Try another browser or a private window to rule out extensions or cached data.
❓ Why Might My Results Differ From What I See on Google?
- Recent edits may not have been picked up yet.
- Google may be showing pending changes that are still under review.
- You may be auditing a different location or a duplicate listing.
- Search results can vary by device, location, and time.
If the details still do not match after you re-run the audit, note which items differ. This helps our team look into it faster.
💬 Getting Help From a Human Teammate
If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be instantly connected with a member of our team.
To get the quickest resolution, include these details in your first message:
- The business name and location you are auditing.
- What you expected to happen and what actually happened.
- Any error message you saw, or a description of it.
- The steps you already tried from this article.
Tip: chats can close automatically after a period of inactivity. If yours closed before your question was resolved, just open the chat widget again, type human teammate, and briefly restate your issue. Staying in the chat window while you wait helps keep the conversation open.