# /how-it-works

How it works 

# From a brand name to a scored report.
 PlaceOptimizer runs the same audit pipeline Invarya uses for its clients — fully automated, no setup, India-first. 

 The pipeline 
## Four steps from brand name to scored report.
 No setup, no dashboard to learn. You give us a brand; we hand back the audit.

 - 01 
### Discover
 We find every Google Business Profile Google has indexed for your brand across India — by city, by category, by name — including the listings you forgot you had and the duplicates you never created. Discovery runs against what Google currently returns rather than a list you supply, which is the point: the listings doing you damage are usually the ones nobody on your team knows exist.
- 02 
### Audit
 Each listing runs through an automated checklist across seven categories: NAP consistency, hours, primary category, photos, descriptions, rating and review depth, and duplicate-pin candidates — the signals Google actually reads. Every finding carries a severity, and the severity is what costs you: fifteen points off that location for a critical issue, seven for a warning, two for an informational note.
- 03 
### Score
 Every signal rolls into a single 0–100 Brand Health Score, with the highest-impact issues ranked first so your team knows exactly where to start. The brand figure is not just an average of your locations: network-wide inconsistency is penalised on top, so scattered business names, drifting categories, duplicate candidates and a cluster of sub-3.5-star outlets each cost the brand score again.
- 04 
### Report
 You receive a client-facing HTML + PDF report covering every location, plus a one-page executive snapshot email for the decision-maker — the same artifacts Invarya sends its clients. Every issue in it names the check that failed, the value we found and the value we expected, so a deduction is auditable rather than asserted — your team can verify any line against the live listing before acting on it.
 

 
## How to run a PlaceOptimizer audit end to end
 Turn a brand name into a scored Google Business Profile audit in four steps: discover every listing, run a checklist across seven categories, score 0–100, and report.

 - 1 
### Discover every listing
 PlaceOptimizer finds every Google Business Profile your brand owns across India from just the brand name — no account to connect, because it reads publicly available data.
- 2 
### Audit each location
 Each listing runs against an audit checklist spanning seven categories — basic information, hours, ratings and review depth, photos, category accuracy, cross-location consistency, and listing health with duplicate-pin candidates.
- 3 
### Score the brand 0–100
 Every signal is weighted by severity into a per-location score, and the locations roll up into a single 0–100 Brand Health Score with the highest-impact issues surfaced first.
- 4 
### Report and act
 You receive a client-ready HTML and PDF report covering every location and issue, plus a one-page executive snapshot summarising the score and top fixes.
 

 Why it matters 
## Listing hygiene is the cheapest local-SEO win there is.
 “ Multi-location brands that actively manage their Google Business Profiles see up to 70% more direction requests from local search. — Google, The Value of Google My Business 87% of consumers used Google to evaluate local businesses in 2024 — more than any other channel. [1] 

 2.7× more likely a business is considered reputable when its Google Business Profile is complete. [2] 

 70% more likely customers are to visit a business that has a complete, actively managed profile. [2] 

 

 - ### Local search is where the intent is.
 When someone searches a category "near me", the Map pack decides who they call, visit, or skip. A weak profile is invisible at the exact moment of intent. That moment is also the cheapest customer you will ever acquire: the searcher has already decided what they want and only needs to pick where, so the listing is doing the selling rather than any campaign you paid for.
- ### Multi-location makes it harder, not easier.
 Every new location multiplies the surface area for drift — a wrong category here, missing hours there. Consistency at 5 locations is manual; at 50 it is impossible by hand. The scoring reflects that: inconsistency is penalised at the network level as well as per outlet, so a handful of locations disagreeing on the business name costs the brand score even when each individual listing looks fine on its own.
- ### The fixes are concrete and compounding.
 Unlike vague "do more SEO" advice, listing issues are specific and fixable — and each fix compounds into trust Google rewards over time. Because every deduction has a published weight, you can also predict what a fix is worth before doing it: closing one critical issue is worth fifteen points on that location, which makes the work arguable in a budget meeting rather than a matter of faith.
 

 
## Sources
 - [1] BrightLocal, Local Consumer Review Survey 2024 — how consumers use online reviews.
- [2] Google, The Value of a Complete Google Business Profile.
 

 FAQ 
## Frequently asked questions
 - ### How long does an audit take?
 A public free audit completes in minutes — discovery, the automated checklist, scoring, and report generation run end to end without any setup from you.
- ### Do I need to connect my Google account?
 No. The audit reads publicly available Google Business Profile data, so there is nothing to connect or authorise to get your first scored report.
- ### How many locations can it cover?
 The free audit is pinned to a sensible default scope to stay free and capped. Full multi-location coverage across a large network is what the paid plans are for — see pricing.
- ### What exactly is in the audit checklist?
 The checklist spans seven categories: basic information, business hours, ratings and review depth, photo coverage, category accuracy, cross-location consistency (name, primary category, website, phone format), and listing health with duplicate-pin candidates — the automated part scored per location. Signals like review recency and owner-response rate are flagged as manual verification, not automated.
 

 
## Keep exploring
 Listings Audit What the audit checklist looks at, per location. Read more Free audit Run the pipeline on your own brand right now. Read more Pricing What full multi-location coverage costs, in INR. Read more 

 
## Run the pipeline on your own brand.
 Free, capped, and no card required.

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