Imagine this: You manage a small local business, and your website is there to assist you. You might be doing okay, but things could be better.
If your website had a little more online visibility, you may attract more clients and make more money, making you feel more successful.
But how do you go about doing it?
You might not even need to conceive this scenario because it might already be your reality. Or maybe someone in this world is coming to you for assistance.
The answer may be evident to you: local business + website Equals local SEO. That’s pretty easy. But how do you even begin?
You must be aware of a website’s shortcomings, strengths, and areas for growth before you can start working to raise its rankings.
This data needs to be gathered through a comprehensive local SEO assessment.
Consider a local SEO audit as a doctor inspecting a patient before prescribing a course of action. What should you check while assessing a local company’s website and internet presence?
Let’s get going.
1. Verify Any Google Penalties
The first stage is the spot to start looking for a secret opening that could boost your rankings. Does Google currently have any penalties imposed on your website?
Your website must be connected to Google Search Console to check for penalties. If it isn’t, you or the site’s owner must click and validate it first.
Select the website you are auditing in the Search property by logging in as the site owner to Google Search Console.
Next, select Manual actions under Security & Manual Actions in the sidebar on the left.
Great news if it displays “No issues detected”!
You have your first set of issues to address if it says anything else.
2. Conduct A Keyword Analysis
This is the thrilling beginning of your exploration of local SEO’s untapped potential. You can learn a lot and get better at a lot in this step!
You will need a list of the keywords you want to rank for this step.
Some of those keywords are presumably ones you can infer on your own.
For instance, “bakery shops in London” is already one suitable keyword option if you own a bakery in London.
Once you have identified your keywords, examine them for the following two things:
- Your current position for the relevant keywords.
- User search objectives.
Let’s start by learning about keyword rankings.
How to Find Keyword Positions
You must determine whether your website is shown on a search engine results page (SERP). Ultimately, you want to be on page 1 or in the 3-Pack.
You can try searching for each keyword in your keyword list individually on Google, but using an SEO tool to scan them all at once will be quicker.
Use WebCEO’s Rank Tracking tool to browse your site ranks.
- Then select +Add Keywords.
- Enter all the search terms you want to look up.
- To create a report, select Save and Scan.
We need this tool for local SEO because it has settings that let us scan specific areas.
Even more intriguing search results, such as the local pack, hotels, or Knowledge Panel, can be found.
When you get the data, check the Position and SERP columns to see how your site performs.
Additionally, it doesn’t hurt to look at the Local monthly searches column, which displays the frequency with which individuals enter such phrases into Google.
Press the Manage columns button to include any missing columns from the report.
Let’s examine your keywords in light of user search intent now.
Finding Keyword Search Intent: A Guide
Understanding what online users enter into Google to obtain relevant search results is the essence of search intent.
An example of a “Transactional” search might be a customer entering “purchase blue iced baby boy sugar cookies in London.” Make sure your keywords support commercial or transactional intent.
So, consider these inquiries.
- Are you employing any keywords that have no relation to the website or the services it offers?
- Are the keywords you’ve chosen long- or short-tail? Long-tailed ones are frequently more focused and, consequently, more efficient. If you aren’t a big shot, it’s pretty challenging to rank for a short-tailed keyword.
- Words like where, closest, and near me are among the keywords. Such phrases are frequently used in location-based searches; therefore, including them in your keyword list is a standard local SEO strategy.
You now have the knowledge you need to change your content strategy to improve your website rankings because you are more aware of your position inside keyword searches and the intent behind those terms.
3. Verify your Google My Business page
Do you or your client have a Google Business Profile (GBP) listing?
If not, your local SEO will suffer greatly. This is a fantastic hidden opportunity because fixing it would boost local search efforts significantly!
In that case, sign in to the Google Business Profile to learn:
Does Your Google Business Profile Miss Any Information?
A blank field creates a gap in your local SEO in GBP. Complete all fields with correct, current information about the company:
- Name. \sDescription. \sCategories. \sAddress.
- Dates, times, and so forth.
- Observe the character restrictions, too.
Do Your Google Business Profile Include & Use Keywords Appropriately?
Your GBP’s keywords, particularly local ones, play a significant role in your ranking.
They can guarantee that your company will appear in Google’s fiercely competitive local pack.
The catch is that you can’t just put them in the title and call it a day because that isn’t allowed by Google’s rules, which insist that you use the company’s actual name.
However, more creative business owners add keywords to their names. It’s a legitimate loophole that complies with the rules and the ranking formula.
Making the name sound natural should be your primary concern.
The GBP categories should also contain pertinent keywords. Although recommended, including them in the description is optional.
Have you uploaded any photos or other images to your GBP?
You can add a wide range of photographs to your Google Business Profile, and it is better to have more.
- Every company requires a logo.
- Cover image: Required. It appears in Google’s search results.
- Exterior images: If potential customers know how your business looks, they will quickly discover you.
- Interior pictures: If guests know what is inside in advance, they will feel more at ease.
- Team photos: another reassuring element. Bonus points if you have reviews highlighting specific staff; pictures of them can make them local celebrities.
- Photos of the goods or services: Customers need to know what to anticipate.
Of course, all images ought to be of the highest calibre.
Videos are another form of vision that should be included. If there are, keep an eye on them to see if you can see any issues.
What Type Of Posting Activity Is This?
GBP enables you to write posts to interact with your intended audience. Take a peek at the page’s posting activity.
The minimal minimum for posting is once every month, therefore consider the following:
- How frequently does the owner of GBP post?
- What sort of information is posted?
- Do they interact with the clients?
- Do they advertise sales and events?
Frequently and varied posting can ensure practical usage of this feature. Additionally beneficial are postings with links, images, and geo-mentions.
4. Identify On-Page SEO Problems
Because on-page optimization is so crucial, there’s a tremendous hidden possibility here, especially if your rivals aren’t using it.
Even though there is a lot of labour involved and space for error, if you get everything right, you’ll succeed!
Take care of issues without delay. The report On-Site Issues Overview by WebCEO lists all of them.
This tool will scan every website page simultaneously, allowing you to identify every on-page SEO mistake.
Here are the key points to watch out for in a local SEO audit:
- Broken pictures
- A sitemap is absent.
- An unreadable robots.txt file.
- Photos without ALT attributes.
- Title and description tags that are too long, are duplicated or are absent.
Naturally, the report’s other flaws should be considered. They are all detrimental to website rankings.
5. Conduct A Backlink Analysis
The most potent ranking component is backlink popularity, which presents a hidden potential to outrank your rivals.
Even when you have done everything else correctly, backlinks have the power to make or ruin your SEO. No SEO audit is complete without a backlink analysis, and local SEO is no different.
So move quickly. Use WebCEO’s Backlink Checker to analyse your link profile.
Examining your backlink profile is necessary after your report is complete.
Do you have more or fewer backlinks? Of course, quality prevails over quantity, but a consistent downward trend in backlinks could be better.
- Do you gather links from sites that are pertinent to your niche? The excellent backlinks to improve the authority and rating of your website are those of this nature.
- Are you gathering spammy backlinks from questionable websites? If so, they must be removed—either by having them taken out or by disavowing them.
- What anchor do texts appear most frequently in your backlinks? Numerous anchors that correspond to your selected keywords would be excellent because anchor texts serve as your ranking keywords. While still considered anchors, there are better options than textless anchors.
You will be able to correct the problems with your customer’s link-building strategy using the results of this investigation.
6. Examine Your Online Credibility
A local company’s standing with customers determines whether it survives or not. That the internet exists is a good thing. There is no better place to learn what others think of you and to obsess over it.
Hopefully, once you’re done with this process, your clients will continue to sleep soundly. In what areas should you look?
Gather testimonials for your website and possible keywords.
Every respectable local company should be compiling client testimonials for its website. Make sure to pay attention to both positive and negative remarks, as well as any specific instructions. A review contains terms for which your site is ranked constructive.
You should also pay attention to the reviews part of Google Business Profile. Additionally, look there if your customer has added listings for their company to any review websites.
Be sure to include ratings in your reviews.
Star ratings are typically presented on the same page as reviews. When used together, they are excellent for SEO.
However, it’s also typical for company directories to separate user reviews from rating scores.
The quickest approach to view your client’s ratings is if their website shows in Google’s local pack. Of course, a complete local SEO audit will call for more data from other sources.
Receive Notifications Whenever Your Brand Is Mentioned
Everyone wants their company’s brand to be well-known. The issue is that there is a limit to how much you can Google independently and how much you can hear with your ears.
Thank goodness there are resources for spreading the message online.
With WebCEO’s Web Buzz Monitoring tool, you can uncover every mention of you online, including who, where, what, and when. Just use the keywords associated with the nearby company whose SEO you are examining (its name will do best). The tool will display the tweets and websites where it has been mentioned.
Boost Social Media Participation
You need to look at the social media accounts your client has developed for their company if they have (as anyone should).
How can you tell if they are efficiently run? Give your opinion by responding to the following questions:
- How frequently are fresh updates posted?
- What format do the updates follow? Text, pictures, movies, polls, or something else?
- How many likes, shares, upvotes, comments, etc., do they receive from users?
- What words do users provide in response to the updates?
- How rapid is the user response from your client?
As a general rule, it’s beneficial for a social media page to have lots of activity (both from the owner and users). Write down any issues you discover there.
DMA SEO Social Media Marketing would be able to ensure consistent and relevant publicity such that your services will be able to reach the public eye efficiently.
Small businesses like yours may improve every aspect of their search engine optimization with D’Marketing Agency assistance in order to rank better on search engines.
Wondering what we do? To find out more about our approach to search engine optimization, Contact D’Marketing Agency. When you’re ready, contact us so we can help with your SEO.
