How to benchmark your own local SEO in an hour
Not a score out of a hundred. Eight real numbers with a date next to them, all from Google's own free tools, so that in three months you can prove whether anything changed.
What a benchmark actually is
A benchmark is your own numbers, written down, with the date you took them. That is all. It is not a grade, and it is not a comparison with a national average that has nothing to do with a plumber in Casper.
It matters because six months into any SEO work, the only honest question is "is this better than when we started". Without a page of numbers from before, nobody can answer it, and every agency looks equally good.
Take an hour and do this before you hire anyone, including us.
The eight numbers
- Impressions in the last 28 days
- Clicks in the same period
- Average position for the same period
- Calls from your Business Profile
- Direction requests from your Business Profile
- Review count and average rating
- Speed, from PageSpeed Insights
- Pages Google has indexed
One page, eight lines, today's date at the top. A sheet is fine. A notebook is fine.
We'll pull the same eight numbers and send them to you, free, with what they mean.
Numbers one to three, from Search Console
Search Console is free, it is your own data, and if nobody has ever set it up for your site that is finding number one.
Open the Performance report and set the range to the last 28 days. Google's own definitions, so we are all counting the same thing:
| Number | What Google says it means |
|---|---|
| Impressions | How many times your site appeared in Search results. |
| Clicks | The number of times a user clicked your site from Google Search results. |
| Average position | The average position of the topmost result from your site. |
Write all three down. Then click the Queries tab and note the five phrases with the most impressions. Those are the searches you are already close on, and they are usually not the ones you assumed.
The definitions come from Google's documentation for that report.
Numbers four to six, from your Business Profile
For a local business these are closer to money than anything in Search Console, because a call is a call.
In your profile, open the performance section and take calls and direction requests for the last month. Google notes that this data exists only for verified profiles, so an unverified profile is finding number two.
Then count your reviews and note the average. Also note the date of the newest one. A profile whose last review is from last year tells its own story, and it is the cheapest thing on this list to fix.
Numbers seven and eight: speed and indexing
Run your homepage through PageSpeed Insights and write down the three field numbers. Google publishes what good looks like:
| Metric | In plain words | Google's "good" |
|---|---|---|
| LCP | How long the main thing on screen takes to appear | 2.5 seconds or less |
| INP | How quickly the page answers a tap | 200 milliseconds or less |
| CLS | How much the page jumps about while loading | 0.1 or less |
Google measures those at the 75th percentile of real visits, so a fast phone on your desk is not the test. The thresholds are on Google's Core Web Vitals page.
Last one. In Search Console, open the Page indexing report and write down how many pages are indexed and how many are not. If a page you sell from is in the second group, you have found the most expensive problem on the list.
Doing it again, monthly
Take the numbers on the same day every month. A benchmark is only worth anything when it is compared with itself.
Two habits make it useful. Take the readings on the same date each month, and write one line underneath about what changed on the site that month. Six months later that second column is what tells you which work did anything.
What not to do: check rankings daily from your own desk. Your position changes street by street, and the report that shows you at number one is measuring from your own office.
If you would rather have the readings taken and explained, the free consultation ends in exactly this page of numbers.
Questions owners ask us
Mostly from people who tried a tool first and got a grade instead of an answer.
Do I need a paid tool for this?
No. Every number here comes from a free Google tool and your own accounts. Paid tools are useful later for competitor data, not for measuring yourself.
What about the SEO score those tools give?
Each company invents its own. Two tools will grade the same site differently on the same day. Your own numbers, moving or not moving, are worth more than any of them.
How often should the numbers move?
Profile work often shows within weeks. Pages and links take longer. If nothing has moved after three months of real work, that is a conversation worth having with whoever is doing it.
Should I benchmark competitors too?
You can note their review count and rating, which are public. Their traffic is not, and any number a tool gives you for it is an estimate.
An hour now, saves an argument later
Eight numbers, one page, today's date. Whoever you hire, and whatever they promise, you will be able to check it.
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We'll pull the eight numbers from your own accounts and tell you which ones matter first.