The Digital Presence Score, explained.
DPS is how we measure the way a local business shows up online: two scores from 0 to 100, measured the same way every time, so you can see what actually moved.
Two scores. Eleven axes. One method.
The Digital Presence Score is our own methodology for measuring how a business shows up wherever customers look it up: Google search and Maps, your Business Profile, directories, review sites, social, your website, and the sites that talk about you.
It measures 11 axes, each scored from 0 to 100, and groups them into two scores. Every score records where its data came from and when, so the next audit is measured the same way and the comparison is honest.
Controlled and Earned. Never blended.
One blended number hides which half is the problem. So there are always two, reported side by side.
What you can change directly.
Your Google profile, your website, your listings, your social profiles, how often you publish. You or we can fix these, and the score moves when the fix lands.
What the market grants.
Reviews, links, mentions, search visibility, engagement. These build at the pace customers and other sites give them. We measure them honestly — we never promise them.
A sample scorecard.
Pick any axis to see what it measures, what it looked like for the sample business, and how to improve it.
How complete and accurate your Google Business Profile is: services, hours, photos, categories, and the product catalog.
In the sample: 82/100 — 9 of 11 field groups populated. Services detail missing on 4 offerings; product catalog empty.
How to improve it: Fill in every field group, list each service with a description, and keep hours and photos current.
From our illustrative sample audit. Download the full sample (PDF)
How to improve each one.
Controlled Presence
How complete and accurate your Google Business Profile is: services, hours, photos, categories, and the product catalog.
Improve it: Fill in every field group, list each service with a description, and keep hours and photos current.
Whether your own site says clearly what you do and where: titles, meta descriptions, schema markup, and thin pages.
Improve it: Give every page a specific title and description, add schema, and expand pages that say too little.
How often you publish across your site, your Google profile, and social.
Improve it: Publish on a steady schedule. Consistency matters more than volume.
Whether you have claimed your listings across 40+ directories, and whether your name, address, and phone match everywhere.
Improve it: Claim the major directories and fix every mismatch against one master record.
Whether your bios, links, photos, and hours are consistent on every social profile.
Improve it: Match your bio, link, photo, and hours across every profile you keep.
The technical signals machines read first: robots.txt, sitemap, AI-crawler access, and share-card tags.
Improve it: Keep the sitemap clean, let AI crawlers in, and fill in share-card tags on every page.
Earned Presence
Review volume, average rating, and recency across the platforms customers read.
Improve it: Ask after every job and answer every review. Volume builds at the pace customers leave them.
Which other sites link to you, and how much those sites are trusted.
Improve it: Earn links from local and trade sources: suppliers, associations, local press. Never buy them.
Where you are talked about on other sites, with or without a link.
Improve it: Show up where your community talks: local news, podcasts, sponsorships, trade groups.
Where you appear when people search for your name, and for the service you sell in your area.
Improve it: Most of this follows the Controlled work: a complete profile, clear pages, and more reviews.
Whether your audience actually responds: comments, shares, and replies relative to followers.
Improve it: Post things your customers care about — real jobs, real crew — and answer when they reply.
How the score is weighted, checked, and compared.
Equal weights, every industry
Each axis counts equally within its score. An HVAC contractor and a dental practice are weighted the same way today. We’ll only adjust by industry once we have enough audits in that industry to show it matters — and we’ll say so here when we do.
Hard to game
When a signal looks manufactured, it counts for less. It’s down-weighted, not thrown out, because a rule that deletes signals is its own thing to game. Earned axes are the hardest to fake on purpose.
No score on thin data
If we can’t measure enough of a score’s axes, we don’t report that score. A number built on too little data would look precise and mean nothing.
Change you can trust
Each audit is compared with the last one, axis by axis, using the same method. Moves of three points or less are treated as noise. The change past that is the real result.
Find out where you stand.
The $500 audit gives you both scores, all 11 axes, and a ranked list of what to fix first. The report is yours whether you work with us or not.
Questions about the method? See the audit FAQ