What a local SEO audit for a kennel or dog boarder should cover

If you run a kennel, a home boarding business or a dog day-care, most of your new customers start the same way: they search for dog boarding in your town, look at the map results, and message the first business that looks trustworthy and available. A local SEO audit checks whether you are one of the businesses they see, and whether you convert them when they land. This is the checklist I work through, written for the owner rather than for another SEO.

1. Your Google Business Profile

This is the listing that appears in the map results, and for most boarders it does more work than the website. I check:

• The primary category is the most specific one that is true, such as a dog boarding service, rather than a generic pet business.
• The business name is your real name as it appears on your signage and paperwork, with no town or keywords added.
• Opening hours, special hours and the service area are filled in and match reality, including bank holidays.
• Photos are your own, recent, and show the place dogs will actually stay.
• Reviews are recent and answered, with a short link you can send customers so asking is easy.

Most of these fields are quick to fix and often left half empty. I cover them one by one in the Business Profile fields people leave blank.

2. Does the website answer the search?

Someone typing “dog boarding” and your town wants to know four things quickly: do you offer it, where are you, what does it cost or how do I find out, and how do I ask. I look at whether:

• There is a page for each service people search for, such as boarding, day-care or home boarding, rather than everything on one page.
• Each page’s title and main heading say what the service is and where, in plain words.
• The practical answers are on the page: who you take, what you need to see (vaccinations, for example), how a stay works and how far ahead to book.
• There is one obvious way to enquire that works on a phone with one thumb, and the form really does reach you. I always test it.

3. Trust

Boarding is a trust purchase, so I check what a nervous owner would look for. Real photographs of the facilities and the dogs, who the person looking after them is, how many dogs you take, and your licence details if you hold one (in England, boarding businesses are licensed by the local council, and showing your licence number and the council that issued it reassures people).

4. Consistency

Your business name, address and phone number should be written the same way on your website, your Business Profile and any directories or social profiles. Small differences are not a disaster, but they make it harder for search engines to be sure it is one business.

5. The technical basics

On a phone: does the site load quickly, is the text readable without zooming, are the buttons large enough to press? Is the site served over HTTPS? Does Google have your main pages indexed, and is there a sitemap? These are quick to check in Google Search Console and a page speed test.

6. Who you are up against

I search the main terms in a private window, from your area, and look at who appears in the map results and the organic results. It tells you what a good listing looks like in your town and which gaps are worth closing first.

7. Measuring it

An audit is only useful if you can tell whether it worked. I set up three simple numbers: the clicks and impressions from search in Google Search Console, the calls and direction requests in your Business Profile, and the number of enquiry form entries over time.

What this looks like in practice

I did this for my own business, Pet Getaway, a home dog boarding service in Hindley, Wigan. Between 27 February and 26 May 2026, Google Search Console recorded 466 clicks and 11.1K impressions from web search. Since the two forms were created in early February 2026, up to late May, the enquiry form collected 77 submissions and the pet application form 38 (form submissions, not confirmed bookings). In a private-window search in late May 2026 the site was the first organic result for “dog boarding wigan”. That is one business in one town, so treat it as an example rather than a promise. The full numbers and their sources are in the Pet Getaway case study.

What to do next

If you would like this checked on your own site and listing, that is what my local SEO work starts with. You can send me a short message with your business and your town, and I will reply with an honest view of what is worth fixing first.