4.2 KiB
DOP Cold Audit — Multi-Location — Above the Gate Dentistry (Diamond Springs + El Dorado Hills)
Audited: 2026-08-09 · By: DOP (Leonard) · Evidence standard: cold-audit-protocol.md Metro: El Dorado County, CA — TWO physical locations Site: https://abovethegate.com/ (⚠️ 403 Forbidden to curl + browser at audit time — bot-blocked)
Why this target
Above the Gate Dentistry is a genuine multi-location practice: two offices in El Dorado County —
- Diamond Springs: (916) 656-0050
- El Dorado Hills: (916) 299-8983
This is the vertical where DOP has no competitor case study (Bizl had none for multi-location) — making it the highest-value first-party evidence to build.
Queries tested (high-intent)
- "dentist Diamond Springs El Dorado Hills CA"
- "family dentist El Dorado Hills CA"
- "dentist near me Cameron Park CA"
Results — AI/search answer presence
- Q1 (Diamond Springs/EDH dentist): Above the Gate ranks position 2 (its own homepage) behind Diamond Springs Dental Center. Both phones visible in snippet.
- Q2 (family dentist EDH): Above the Gate absent from top 5 — Yelp EDH dentists + Diamond Springs Dental dominate.
- Q3 (Cameron Park): absent (no Cameron Park office).
Signal scores (0–5, human-verified)
| Signal | Score | Tier | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| GBP completeness | 2 | T2 (proxy) | Two GBP listings inferred (2 phones, 2 cities) but NOT directly inspectable (Google IP-blocked). |
| Foursquare claim | 0 | Unverified | Not checked (site 403; Foursquare outage). |
| Website schema | 0 | T1 | Could NOT retrieve — site returned HTTP 403 to curl and browser. Schema status UNKNOWN. |
| AI-answer presence | 2 | T2 | Surfaces for its own brand+dual-city query; absent for single-city "family dentist EDH." |
| Citation consistency (NAP) | 2 | T1/T2 | Two distinct phone numbers for two locations is correct practice — BUT risk: if either GBP or a directory merges them, or if the site schema publishes one address/phone, AI inference can misattribute. Not verifiable this pass (site blocked). |
Concrete gaps found (honest)
- Site fully bot-blocked (403): No schema, no page content retrievable from this environment. This is itself a finding — if AI crawlers (or the site's own CDN) are blocked the same way, the practice's structured data may be invisible to AI-answer engines. Verify the 403 is IP-specific, not a blanket block.
- Multi-location NAP-split risk (structural): Two locations = two GBP entities, two phones, two citations. The classic failure mode is inconsistent
address/geoacross the two GBP listings and the site'sLocalBusiness/Dentistschema (if each location lacks its own schema node, AI may collapse both into one ambiguous entity). This MUST be verified by inspecting the live site schema (currently blocked) + both GBP profiles. - Geo gap for El Dorado Hills "family dentist": ranks for dual-city brand query but not the high-intent single-city EDH query — suggests the EDH location's page/schema is under-optimized vs Diamond Springs.
Verdict
Above the Gate is the proof case DOP needs: a real multi-location practice with a structural NAP-split risk that automated tools routinely get wrong. The 403 block prevented full evidence capture this pass — re-audit with a residential/whitelisted IP or direct GBP access to complete Tier-1 schema + GBP verification. Until then, the multi-location gap is partially evidenced (Tier-2 search + phone split) but not Tier-1 closed.
Evidence references
- Site (blocked): https://abovethegate.com/ — HTTP 403 (curl + browser, 2026-08-09)
- Search snippet (Tier-2): web_search "dentist Diamond Springs El Dorado Hills CA" → shows both phones
- GBP: NOT inspected (Google IP-blocked); two listings inferred from dual phone numbers
- Foursquare: NOT inspected (outage)
Honesty note
This audit is incomplete by environment constraint, not by method. The two-phone/dual-city signal is real (Tier-2). The schema + GBP Tier-1 confirmation is PENDING a re-audit that can reach the site. Do NOT present this as a finished multi-location audit to a client — frame it as "structural risk identified, full verification scheduled."