You don't need an SEO agency, a subscription tool, or a spare weekend to find out whether your business is findable. You need five minutes, a phone, and a private/incognito window so your own search history doesn't flatter the results.
Check 1: Search your exact business name
Type your business name in. You should be the first result, and the Google Business panel on the right should be yours, accurate, and complete. If a competitor's profile shows up instead, or your panel has the wrong hours or no photos, that's the first thing to fix — and it's free.
Check 2: Search "[your category] near me" and "[category] in [town]"
For example, "barber in Sheffield" or "emergency plumber near me". You probably won't rank first — that's competitive — but the real question is: do you appear at all in the first two pages, or in the local map pack?
Check 3: Search the question a customer would actually ask
This is the one people skip. Customers don't search the way you describe yourself. Try three or four real, conversational questions a customer might ask. If your site never comes up, your copy is written for you, not for them.
Check 4: Open your own site on your phone
Half of all local searches happen on a phone, often with a thumb and not much patience. Load your site on mobile data, not wifi. Does it load in a couple of seconds? Is your phone number tappable? Can someone find your hours and location without pinching and zooming?
The three fixes that move the needle
One: complete your Google Business profile. Hours, phone, website, category, and a dozen real photos. Free, biggest lever for local visibility, and most businesses half-finish it.
Two: put your name, address and phone in plain text in your footer, formatted identically to your Google profile. Schema markup helps engines read it; plain consistent text is the foundation.
Three: get listed in the five directories that matter for your trade. For most that's Google, your trade body's directory, one or two reputable review sites, and a relevant niche listing.
Do it once a quarter
Set a recurring reminder. Run this five-minute audit at the start of each quarter, fix whatever's drifted, and you'll stay ahead of most of your competitors — who, statistically, have never run it once.