The Footprint Audit Checklist: How to See What the Web Says About You

There's a simple reason most businesses never fix their online presence: they can't see it. You experience your business from the inside, where everything is current and correct. Your customers experience it from the outside, through a scattered patchwork of listings, reviews, search results, and AI answers — and that patchwork has almost certainly drifted out of sync without you noticing.

This audit is about closing that gap. Set aside thirty focused minutes, open a blank document to take notes, and walk through each step below as if you were a stranger checking you out for the first time. The goal isn't to fix anything yet — it's simply to see clearly. You can't repair what you've never looked at.

Step one: search your own name

Open a fresh browser window and search your business name on Google. Don't just glance — study the whole first page as a stranger would. What does the answer box or AI overview say about you, if anything? Is your business profile showing, and are the hours and phone number right? What questions appear under "people also ask"? Note anything that's wrong, outdated, or surprising. This first page is the impression most people form before they ever reach your website.

Step two: check your core details everywhere

Now hunt down the places that list your name, address, and phone number — your website, Google Business Profile, Yelp, industry directories, and any others you can find by searching your name plus your city. Write each one down and compare them line by line. Does the phone number match exactly? The address, suite number, and hours? Even small inconsistencies confuse both customers and the AI tools reading these sources, so flag every mismatch you spot.

Step three: hunt for ghosts

Next, look for listings that shouldn't exist anymore: an old location, a duplicate profile, an entry under a former business name. Search variations of your name and old addresses to flush them out. These ghosts contradict your real information and quietly send customers and AI tools the wrong signals. Make a list of every outdated or duplicate entry you find — these are often the single biggest source of confusion about a business.

Step four: read your reviews like a machine would

Look at your reviews not as praise or criticism, but as raw material a system reads to summarize you. How recent is your most recent review? Is there a repeated theme — good or bad — that an AI tool would likely pick up and repeat? Are there complaints sitting unanswered? Note the overall picture your reviews paint, because that picture is what gets folded into how you're described elsewhere.

Step five: ask the AI tools directly

Finally, go straight to the source. Open ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity and ask each one the same simple questions: "What can you tell me about [your business]?" and "Is [your business] a good choice for [what you do]?" Compare the three answers. Are they accurate? Do they agree with each other? Do they mention services you no longer offer, or miss ones you do? This is the clearest window you'll get into what a buyer hears when they ask about you — and it's often where the surprises hide.

What to do with your notes

When you're done, you'll have a document that no one has ever assembled before: a single, honest map of what the web actually says about you. Look for the patterns. The same wrong phone number in three places, an old description echoing across tools, a dormant profile dragging down an otherwise strong presence. These are your priorities.

You don't have to fix it all today. The hard part — seeing clearly — is already done. From here it's just steady work: correct the details at their source, claim or clean up the stray listings, refresh what's gone stale, and recheck in a few months. The businesses that get described accurately aren't the ones that never had problems. They're the ones that took the time to look.