An outside audit like Second Opinion only sees what's public: your website, your public Google profile, and how your pages load. It can't see your analytics, your Google Business Profile dashboard, what happens after a customer calls or fills in a form, or anything behind a login. When a check can't be verified from outside, the report marks it unavailable instead of guessing, and an unavailable check never counts as a failure.
Second Opinion reads your business the way a stranger's computer would. Your website, your public Google profile, how fast your pages load on a phone. Everything we check is something anyone on the internet could look at.
That's the strength of it. It's also the limit, and I'd rather tell you where the limit is than pretend it isn't there.
The four things we can't see
- Your analytics. How many people visit, where they come from, and what they do once they're there. That lives in your analytics or your website builder's dashboard, behind your login.
- Your Google profile's dashboard. We see your public listing. We can't see how many people called from it, asked for directions, or what Google is telling you behind the scenes.
- What happens after someone reaches out. How fast calls get answered, whether forms reach a real inbox, how many leads turn into jobs. That's usually where the money is.
- Anything behind a login. Customer portals, booking systems, members' areas. If a visitor has to sign in to see it, so would we.
What we do instead of guessing
When a check can't be verified from outside, the report says so. The check is marked unavailable, with a note on who can act: you, us, or try again later. It never counts as a failure, and it never pretends to be a finding.
If several checks come back unavailable, it's usually a firewall or a security setting turning away automated visitors. That's a limit of our check, not a problem with your business.
The paid report adds one more outside view: it asks AI assistants to search for your service in your town and shows you how often they named you. That's still from the outside.. it's what a customer would see, not what your dashboard knows.
Why this matters
Because the most useful answers usually live on the inside. An audit can tell you your phone number doesn't match everywhere. It can't tell you that half your calls go to voicemail on Saturdays. Both cost you jobs. Only one of them shows up from out here.
How to look inside, yourself
An hour with your own accounts.
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Open your Google profile performance
Sign in to your Google Business Profile and look for Performance. It shows calls, direction requests, and website clicks from your listing over recent months.
That's the number an outside audit can't give you, and it's the clearest picture of whether your profile is pulling its weight.
You know roughly how many calls and website clicks your Google profile sent you last month.
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Check where your website visitors come from
If you have Google Analytics, or your website builder has a stats page, look at where visitors come from: search, maps, social media, or people typing your name directly.
If you have neither, that's worth fixing before anything else on this list. You can't improve what you can't see.
You can say which source sends your website the most visitors, or you know that you don't have that data yet.
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Test your own front door
Fill in your own contact form and see where it lands. Call your own number at a time you're usually busy. Notice what happens.
It's the five-minute version of a mystery shop, and it's the step most businesses never take.
Your test form reached a real inbox, and your test call was answered or returned the same day.
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Put the two views side by side
Lay the outside view (your report) next to the inside view (your own numbers). Where they disagree is usually where the opportunity is.
You have your report and your own numbers side by side, and you've written down where they disagree.