Free tool showing local businesses how customers really find them launched by Localeyes

A new tool letting businesses discover how customers find them online has been launched by Localeyes.

Called Lens, it checks a business's visibility across Google, Google Maps, AI assistants such as ChatGPT, paid search, social media and its own website in about a minute.

The free marketing audit tool has been launched by marketing agency Localeyes alongside its new full-service website, localeyes.co.uk.

It has been built-in house to help tackle the changing ways customers find local businesses. Alongside a Google search, people now check Google Maps, scroll social media and increasingly ask AI assistants such as ChatGPT for a recommendation. Despite these changes, most free website checkers still only look at the website itself, running a quick technical scan and handing back a score and a list of jargon.

Lens looks beyond the website to how a business is actually found. In about a minute, it audits six channels: search engine visibility, website performance, visibility in AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Google's AI answers, paid search, social media and local search on Google Maps. Each channel is scored out of 100, alongside an overall Lens score.

It also checks whether a business ranks locally, whether AI tools recommend it and whether competitors are advertising against it. The findings are explained in plain English, with what to fix first. A Localeyes digital consultant then talks the business owner through the full report, with no obligation and no hard sell.

Lens was built by Localeyes' own SEO and web team, and draws on the specialists now working together under the Localeyes name, including the teams previously behind MNA Digital and Connect Local.

With expertise across websites, SEO, paid search, social, newsbrand advertising, creative and event sponsorship in one team, the consultants who talk a business through its Lens report can draw on a specialist for every channel it covers.

Morgan Stevenson, Chief Growth Officer, Iconic Media Group, said: "Ask most business owners how customers find them and they'll say Google. Ask whether ChatGPT recommends them, whether they show up on Maps, or whether a competitor is advertising against them, and most won't know. That's what Lens is for.

“It takes a minute, it covers everywhere people are actually looking, and it tells you in plain English what to fix first. Then one of our consultants talks you through it properly. We built it ourselves because a page of technical jargon doesn't help anyone run their business."

Lens leads the new localeyes.co.uk, which replaces the brand's holding page with its full service offer. The site will continue to grow over the coming months, adding Localeyes' complete product range alongside sector-specific and local landing pages.

Localeyes is backed by more than 130 heritage local news brands across the UK and Ireland, which generate 130.6 million average monthly page views and reach 41.3 million social followers. The agency holds a 4.9 out of 5 rating on its marketing services.