Should local business checks run on your site?
It checks whether your public business details call for local business tests.
What Check Engine measures
The check looks for business markup, physical addresses, contact and location links, and local wording. It accounts for software sites and addresses belonging to listed people or businesses. If no pages load successfully, or all need scripts for their main content, local status can stay unknown. Otherwise it explains whether the site appears local. For example, a directory can list physical shops while its publisher operates entirely online.
The check reads the site's business context and readable contact details. A directory may publish other businesses' addresses. Review whose premises each address describes.
How to read the result
Applicable and not-applicable outcomes are passes. An undetermined outcome is a notice. A pass here describes scope, not a judgement that every local business detail is complete or correct.
Why it matters
Local requirements depend on what the site actually represents. A scope decision helps avoid asking an online-only product for a map while still allowing useful checks on a site that publishes real local business data.
How to fix it
Read the details behind the scope result. Correct misleading business markup or location text if it describes the wrong organisation. If the site is a browser-built shell, improve readable content before expecting a confident scope decision. Review individual local findings separately once the business context is established.
Where an audit looks for your address
What we found in field audits
Problems in Local business SEO were found on 12 of the 14 sites we audited. These are area totals. Read the field-audit method.
Method note
backend/seo_engine/checks/local_seo.py, local_gate, revision 0bb8e8d3.
Common questions
Can a directory list shops without being a local business itself?
Yes. The test considers listed people or businesses separately from the publisher. A directory can operate online while listing physical locations.
Can local-business applicability remain unknown?
Yes. If no pages load successfully, local scope can remain undetermined. Script-dependent main content can also limit the decision.
Does a local-business applicability pass mean my contact details are complete?
No. It is a scope result. An undetermined outcome gets a notice rather than establishing that contact details are complete.