Evolve, LLC — Free Visibility Audit
Smashburger — Albany, NY
Here’s where Smashburger stands in the Albany market for burger restaurants. Every number below is pulled from live data — Google Maps, geographic ranking scans, and citation directories.
Agency Audit Overview & KPIs
|
Core Visibility 17/70 Critical Status |
AI Visibility 8/30 Critical Status |
|
Gaps Found 7 |
Critical Priority 4 |
Total · Critical Status 25/100 |
Both scores land at Critical Status — and they’re telling you the same story from two different angles. Core Visibility at 17/70 means Smashburger is functionally invisible on Google Maps across Albany, trailing independent local competitors who have far fewer resources but far better local optimization. AI Visibility at 8/30 means when customers ask ChatGPT or Gemini for burger recommendations in Albany, Smashburger has almost nothing for those systems to cite. Your national brand should be an advantage here — it’s not translating into local digital presence.
Score Breakdown
| Dimension | Score | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Google Maps Presence | 5/10 | Claimed profile with 96 reviews, but 4.1 rating falls below the 4.3 threshold where Google starts favoring a listing in the local pack. |
| Website Organic Ranking | 1/10 | 0% of scanned pins show Smashburger in the top 3, and 63% show no ranking at all — functionally invisible across the Albany map grid. |
| Review Authority | 3/10 | Matches Herbie’s Burgers on rating (both 4.1) but trails drastically on volume: 96 reviews vs. Herbie’s 656 on Lark St alone. |
| Content & GEO Readiness | 3/10 | Website is a national corporate site with zero Albany-specific content — no local landing page, no location-optimized titles or meta descriptions, and zero structured data markup. |
| Competitive Position | 1/10 | Smashburger holds #1 on 0% of scanned pins; Nash & Smashed holds #1 on 0% of them — they own the Albany burger map. |
| Review Velocity | 1/10 | Herbie’s Burgers has 6.8× more reviews (656 vs. 96) — that gap is growing, not shrinking, and Google reads momentum. |
| Topical Authority Coverage | 3/10 | The site has national content (menu pages, “What Is A Smash Burger?” articles) but nothing targeting Albany-area searches — no local blog posts, neighborhood guides, or event content. |
| Total | 17/70 | Critical Status |
Where You Rank Across Albany
A live 11×11 grid scan of Google Maps ranking around your business. Green = top 3. Yellow = top 10. Red = not ranking.
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Ranking Breakdown — 95 pins scanned
31% rank #11–20
63% not ranking
Smashburger doesn’t currently rank #1 anywhere on the 95-pin scanned grid. On 63% of those pins — nearly two-thirds of the Albany search area — Smashburger doesn’t appear at all, not even in the top 20. Only 6% of pins show you in the top 10, and zero show you in the top 3. The average ranking position across pins where you DO appear is 17.8 out of 20 — barely scraping the bottom of the visible results. Meanwhile, Nash & Smashed holds the #1 position on 36 of 95 pins (38% of the grid), and Herbie’s Burgers (Western Ave) holds #1 on 15 pins. Between those two independents, they own the top spot across more than half the Albany map. When someone near your restaurant searches “burger restaurants near me,” Google is sending them everywhere except Smashburger. This is the single most visible gap in your entire local presence.
3 Critical Gaps Holding You Back
1. Invisible Across Albany’s Burger Map — 0% Top 3, 63% Completely Missing
Out of 95 geographic search points scanned across Albany, Smashburger doesn’t appear in the top 3 on a single one. On 63% of those points, you don’t appear at all — not even in position 20. Your average position where you DO show up is 17.8, meaning you’re buried at the bottom of results that most people never scroll to.
By contrast, Nash & Smashed holds #1 on 38% of pins with just 63 reviews. Herbie’s Burgers appears in the top 20 on 88% of all scanned points. These independents are outranking a national chain because they’ve built local signals that Smashburger hasn’t.
Business impact: With roughly 50 local monthly searches for “burger restaurants near me” in Albany alone — and dozens more keyword variations — every day that Smashburger doesn’t appear in the top 3 is a day that Nash & Smashed, Herbie’s, and Holy Burger capture those customers by default.
2. Citation Desert — 0 Correct Listings Across 20 Directories Checked
Of 20 directories scanned, 18 have no Smashburger listing at all — including Bing, Yellow Pages, Foursquare, Apple Maps, and the BBB. The only 2 found listings (Yelp and Whereto) both have incorrect business names. Yelp shows this location as “605 Smash” rather than “Smashburger,” which may reflect a previous brand or an entirely separate business at this address.
Business impact: Google cross-references business information across directories to confirm legitimacy and consistency. With zero correct citations, Google has almost no third-party signals confirming that Smashburger exists at 560 Madison Ave — making it easy to deprioritize you in favor of competitors who show up correctly on 20+ directories.
3. Zero Schema Markup — Competitors Already Have It
Smashburger’s website has no structured data markup of any kind — no LocalBusiness, no Organization, no FAQPage, no AggregateRating. The site has zero JSON-LD blocks. Meanwhile, Herbie’s Burgers already has LocalBusiness + PostalAddress + WebSite schema, and Holy Burger Albany has LocalBusiness + WebSite schema. Both competitors are giving Google and AI search systems structured, machine-readable data about who they are and where they operate.
Business impact: Schema markup is the machine-readable language that search engines and AI tools use to understand your business. Without it, Google has to guess that smashburger.com relates to a physical restaurant at 560 Madison Ave in Albany — and right now, it’s guessing wrong.
VERIFY WITH CLIENT
The Yelp listing at your address (560 Madison Ave) appears under the name “605 Smash” rather than “Smashburger.” Is this location a rebrand from a previous name? Or is “605 Smash” a separate business that previously operated at this address? The answer determines whether this Yelp listing should be claimed and updated, or reported as a duplicate.
Your Top 2 AI Visibility Gaps
ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity are becoming discovery tools for local restaurants. Here’s where Smashburger is invisible to them right now.
Structured Data & Schema
0 / 7 — Failing
Smashburger’s website has zero structured data — no LocalBusiness, no Organization, no FAQPage, no AggregateRating, no schema markup of any kind. Two of your Albany competitors (Herbie’s Burgers and Holy Burger) already have LocalBusiness schema that tells AI systems exactly who they are and where they operate.
Business impact: When someone asks an AI assistant for burger places in Albany, those systems have no structured way to identify Smashburger as a local option — your competitors’ schema gives them a data advantage you haven’t built yet.
Content Structure for AI Citation
1 / 6 — Failing
The homepage content is almost entirely promotional (“The All Day, Every Day Menu Starting at $4.99”) with no factual, quotable content blocks that AI tools can extract and cite. There are no question-format headings, no direct Q&A pairs, and no structured informational sections — the content is built for human scrolling, not AI extraction.
Business impact: Even when AI tools can reach your site, there’s nothing formatted in a way they can quote — Smashburger gets skipped in AI-generated local restaurant recommendations because there’s nothing citation-worthy to pull from.
Want the full 6-pillar AI Visibility breakdown? See what Medium and Full audits include →
Competitive Snapshot
| Business | Rating | Reviews | Top-20 Pins | #1 Wins |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smashburger ← | 4.1 | 96 | 35/95 (37%) | 0 |
| Herbie’s Burgers (Lark St) | 4.1 | 656 | 84/95 (88%) | 0 |
| Holy Burger Albany | 4.5 | 391 | 83/95 (87%) | 0 |
| Herbie’s Burgers (Western Ave) | 4.4 | 489 | 80/95 (84%) | 15 |
The pattern is stark: every major Albany burger competitor appears on 80%+ of map search points while Smashburger appears on just 37%. Herbie’s Burgers operates two locations in the area and has accumulated 1,145 total reviews across them — nearly 12× your count. Nash & Smashed (not shown above, 4.7 stars, 63 reviews) dominates the #1 position on 36 pins despite having fewer reviews than Smashburger — proving that local optimization matters more than brand size.
Citation Breakdown
| Directories Checked | 20 |
| Correct NAP Listings | 0 / 20 (0%) |
| Found with Errors | 2 (Yelp, Whereto — incorrect name) |
| Not Found at All | 18 |
This is a citation desert. Smashburger has zero correct NAP (Name, Address, Phone) citations across every major directory — Bing, Yellow Pages, Foursquare, Apple Maps, Hotfrog, and 13 others show no listing at all. The only two directories where a listing was found both have the wrong business name. Every correct citation is a trust signal Google uses to rank you locally. Right now, Smashburger has none.
Accessibility & ADA Readiness
100/100 mobile · 100/100 desktop — your site already passes most automated accessibility checks — strong foundation.
This is a genuine bright spot. Perfect automated accessibility scores are rare, and Smashburger’s corporate site delivers here. A Medium audit ($49) digs deeper into WCAG-aligned compliance patterns that automated tools can’t fully catch.
3 Quick Wins — This Week
1. Claim and Correct the Yelp Listing
A Yelp listing exists at your address (560 Madison Ave) under the name “605 Smash.” If this is your location under a previous name, claim it and update: name → “Smashburger,” phone → your current number, website → smashburger.com. If it’s a different business that previously operated here, report the duplicate to Yelp. Yelp is one of only 2 directories where any listing was found — fixing it creates your first correct citation in Albany.
2. Submit Listings to Bing Places, Yellow Pages, Foursquare, and Apple Maps
18 of 20 directories have no Smashburger listing at all. Start with the four highest-impact directories: Bing Places for Business (feeds Bing, Cortana, and Alexa), Yellow Pages, Foursquare, and Apple Maps. Each submission takes 5–10 minutes. Use the exact GBP name (“Smashburger”), address (560 Madison Ave, Albany, NY 12208), and the smashburger.com website URL. Consistent NAP across even 4–5 directories starts building the citation trust Google needs to rank you.
3. Respond to Your Most Recent Google Reviews This Week
With 96 reviews and a 4.1 rating, every review interaction signals engagement to Google. Go to your Google Business Profile and respond to the 5–10 most recent reviews — thanking positive reviewers by name and addressing any negative feedback with a specific, professional response. Google weights response rate and recency heavily in local pack ranking. This takes 20–30 minutes and immediately improves your profile’s activity signals against Herbie’s (656 reviews) and Holy Burger (391 reviews).
What a Full Audit Reveals
This free snapshot identifies the critical gaps — but a deeper audit maps the complete path forward. A Medium audit ($49) adds the full 6-pillar AI Visibility (AISO) scorecard showing exactly where your site fails for ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity — pillar by pillar, with strategic interpretation of each. It also includes keyword gap analysis against your top competitors, search intent mapping across informational/commercial/transactional/local queries, a SERP positioning snapshot for your most important keywords, URL structure and site architecture audit, and a phased Quick Wins roadmap with prioritized actions. A Full audit ($199) adds a 5-competitor AISO benchmark table, Lighthouse technical performance deep-dive, on-page SEO audit with title/meta rewrites, 30/60/90-day strategic roadmap with dependency mapping, a 12-month content calendar, and a branded PDF deliverable you can hand to any team or agency to execute.
Want to Turn These Gaps Into Growth?
This snapshot only scratches the surface. Book a free strategy call with Jim at Evolve — we’ll walk through your numbers, answer your questions, and map out exactly what it takes to start winning in your market.
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Analysis prepared using live Google Maps data, geographic ranking scans, and competitive research. Generated June 2026.