SEO audits by industry
What we actually found when we audited local business websites, broken down by trade. Each page carries its own measured data rather than the same advice with a different noun.
The spread between industries is wider than the spread within them. Law firms and dental practices average 87 to 89 out of 100, while beauty salons sit near 75 and hairdressers below 70. That gap is rarely about budget. It is about who built the site: professional services usually commissioned a developer, while personal services and trades are far more likely to be running a template or a page generated by a booking platform.
Ordered below from the weakest average score to the strongest, because the weakest are where the work is most obvious and the improvement most dramatic. Every figure is measured (October 2026) from ppclift's own audits, counting each website once; the research post sets out the method and its limits.
By trade, weakest first
Hairdressers And Barbers
19 sites audited · average 68.2/100 · most common: title tag length
Beauty Salons
42 sites audited · average 75.5/100 · most common: title tag length
Car Repair Workshops
36 sites audited · average 76.7/100 · most common: title tag length
Restaurants And Cafes
1,301 sites audited · average 78.0/100 · most common: title tag length
Pharmacies
44 sites audited · average 78.7/100 · most common: no structured data
Medical Practices
58 sites audited · average 79.3/100 · most common: images missing alt text
Accounting Firms
136 sites audited · average 79.6/100 · most common: images missing alt text
Clothing Stores
100 sites audited · average 82.1/100 · most common: title tag length
Real Estate Agencies
31 sites audited · average 83.9/100 · most common: title tag length
Car Dealerships
55 sites audited · average 84.1/100 · most common: title tag length
Dental Practices
460 sites audited · average 87.0/100 · most common: title tag length
Law Firms
42 sites audited · average 88.8/100 · most common: title tag length
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Doing this for a client? These averages come from real audits. ppclift is SEO lead generation software that audits every local business in a suburb at once, so you can find SEO clients who already need this work. Free plan, no card.