We Audited Our Own Site — Here Are the Real Results
Anthony (Tony) Velte
Founder & Principal · Author of 12+ books
We audited localstardigital.com with our own SignalScore methodology and scored 95/100 on the automated quick diagnostic and 73.5/100 on the full six-dimension GEO audit — strong technical foundations, real gaps in Brand Authority and content depth. We are publishing the actual numbers because if our methodology cannot work on our own site, it should not be sold.
The Quick Diagnostic: 95/100
Our SignalScore quick diagnostic runs 19 automated checks across 5 dimensions: Technical, Citability, E-E-A-T (content quality), Schema (structured data), and AI Crawler Access. localstardigital.com scored 95 out of 100. 18 of 19 checks passed.
Here is how we scored across the 5 dimensions:
- Technical: 100 — HTTPS, fast loading, mobile-optimized, proper encoding
- Citability: 100 — Meta descriptions, structured headings, sufficient content depth
- Schema: 100 — Organization, LocalBusiness, FAQPage, BreadcrumbList, and WebSite schemas all present (see the Schema.org vocabulary reference for each type)
- AI Crawler Access: 100 — robots.txt explicitly allows GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, and 7 other AI crawlers
- E-E-A-T: 80 — Strong author identity and contact info, but the one failed check was external citations
The One Check We Failed
The external citations check looks for outbound links to authoritative sources. Our homepage had zero external references at the time of the audit. This matters because AI platforms trust content more when it cites other credible sources — the same way a research paper gains credibility from its references. We are fixing this by adding source links to the industry statistics we cite from Gartner and BrightEdge.
The Full GEO Audit: 73.5/100
The quick diagnostic checks what we can measure automatically. The full GEO audit goes deeper — evaluating brand authority, platform presence, content depth, and competitive positioning. Our full audit score was 73.5 out of 100, rated "Good" with clear room for improvement.
Full audit scores by dimension:
- Technical GEO: 88/100 — Strong foundation with SSR, security headers, and AI-friendly robots.txt
- Schema & Structured Data: 85/100 — Comprehensive schema coverage across all page types
- AI Citability: 78/100 — Good FAQ coverage and cited statistics, but limited content volume
- Platform Optimization: 75/100 — Excellent llms.txt, but no Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools yet
- Content E-E-A-T: 72/100 — Strong founder credentials, but only 3 blog posts and no published case study data
- Brand Authority: 52/100 — No Google Business Profile, no external citations, no social media presence yet
What Brought Our Score Down
Brand Authority at 52/100 was our weakest dimension. The reasons are straightforward: we are a new agency. We do not yet have a Google Business Profile, external press mentions, directory listings, or social media content. These are signals that AI platforms use to verify that a business is real and trustworthy. We are working on all of them.
Content E-E-A-T at 72/100 reflects our content volume — three blog posts is a start, but topical authority requires consistent publishing over time. Our founder credentials are strong (12+ published books, 30 years enterprise technology), but AI platforms also want to see depth in the form of multiple pieces covering a topic from different angles.
What We Are Doing About It
Our improvement plan based on the audit findings:
- Create our Google Business Profile (the single biggest lever for brand authority)
- Set up Google Search Console and submit our sitemap
- Publish 2-3 more blog posts per month to build topical authority
- Add external citation links to the industry statistics we reference
- Seek our first external mentions through industry directories and local press
- Publish case study data from our founding clients once they have 90 days of results
Why We Published This
Most agencies would never publish an audit showing a 52/100 in any dimension. We did it because transparency is how we build trust. If we cannot be honest about our own scores, why would you trust us with yours? Our methodology works — the 95/100 quick diagnostic proves the technical foundation is solid. The 73.5 full audit score shows where the real work is: building brand authority, publishing more content, and earning external recognition. That is exactly the same journey every local business goes through.
Want to see how your business scores? Use our free SignalScore diagnostic on the homepage — enter your URL and get your results in seconds. No email required.
May 2026 Update — Brand Authority Now Actively Assessed
Since this post originally published in March 2026, we have formalized the sixth SignalScore dimension — Brand Authority — as a manually-assessed component of every engagement. Previously, our quick diagnostic measured five dimensions automatically (Technical, Citability, E-E-A-T, Schema, AI Crawler Access). Brand Authority — the dimension that tracks how often your business is referenced across third-party sources AI looks to for credible local recommendations — carries the heaviest weight outside of Citability (20%), but it cannot be evaluated by automated crawling alone. It requires human assessment of review presence, citation patterns, mention quality, and authoritative-source alignment.
Our own Brand Authority assessment in May 2026 reinforced what the original full audit suggested: this is the highest-leverage area for us to work on. We continue to apply the same discipline to our own site that we apply to client work — every quarter, we re-audit, document what changed, and adjust strategy. If the methodology cannot show measurable progress on our own site over time, we will not sell it to anyone else.
Frequently Asked Questions
A SignalScore audit measures how visible your business is to AI search platforms across six weighted dimensions: Citability, Content Quality / E-E-A-T, Technical Health, Schema, AI Crawler Access, and Brand Authority. Five dimensions are measured continuously by our automated diagnostic (a 19-check scan). Brand Authority is assessed manually as part of every engagement because it requires evaluating mention quality across third-party sources — something automation alone cannot do well.
Scores above 75 are rated "Good" — the site has a solid foundation for AI visibility. Scores above 90 are "Excellent." Most local businesses start between 20 and 50 before optimization. Our own site scored 95 on the quick diagnostic and 73.5 on the full audit, which reflects strong technical foundations with room to grow in brand authority and content depth.
Yes. The quick SignalScore diagnostic is available on our homepage for free — enter your URL and get results in about 10 seconds. No email or account required. The full audit, which includes brand authority and competitive analysis, is part of our Growth, Authority, and Strategic engagements.
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