- Check NAP on all platforms
- Review social networks that you’re active on
- Analysis of reviews
- Website audit
- GMB audit
Thanks to the ever growing online competition, it’s important that you go the extra mile to ensure that your business stays on top against your local competitors. If you follow the steps below, you will find that local SEO will have a major impact on your presence, both online and offline, leading to an increase in sales and website traffic.
Even with a well built, and beautifully designed website, you may find your online and local impact severely lacking if you don’t invest time into SEO. If you don’t know where to start, read our guide to learn how to perform your own local SEO audit.
Name, address and phone number (NAP)
It’s true that having consistent information across every platform is core to a local SEO strategy. Which is why this must be checked before we even begin working on the more intricate aspects of SEO. You should scope out your own website first of all, and check that your Company’s name, address and phone number is correct. The next step after this is to check all of your active social media accounts and review the information that you’ve published. Check both your profile bio as well as your social media posts to ensure that all information is accurate.
As a final step, you should check all online business directories, review sites as well as Google My Business to ensure that all is correct. Since these are 3rd party sites, it can be a bit more difficult to make amendments, however it is worth going through the effort. If you’re not sure where your business is listed, it’s worth doing a Google search for “[business name] reviews” and look through your business profiles.
This is absolutely necessary as Google values current and accurate information to give its users the best possible online experience. If incorrect NAP information is published, it could lead to a poor user experience from Google’s point of view, and lead to a decrease in your local rankings.
Review social media platforms
Make a list of all your social media platforms and check through each one individually. SEO and social media have a lot of crossover, so it’s important that each of your profiles contain the correct information.
- Ensure that NAP is correct on each profile
- Ensure your profile information is totally filled out
- Ensure that you are actively posting
- Have you used the best possible images for your profile?
- Are you responding to as many messages, comments and reviews as possible?
Review management
Reviews can make or break your local SEO efforts, so this is a vital step that must not be skipped. If you know how to use reviews to your advantage, they can be such a powerful tool when it comes to boosting your site up the rankings. If a website has many good, trustworthy reviews, they can positively impact a user’s decision to work with your company.
When auditing your business’ reviews, start by checking out Google My Business as well as 3rd party review sites. Check that the reviews you’ve received are both unique and positive, if they aren’t, then you should work on a strategy to remedy this. Adding review management to your SEO strategy will be worth the effort.
Onsite auditing
Now comes the content checks, and general technical audits on your website. This can seem overwhelming, but a good place to start is with comprehensive keyword research. Fundamentally, keywords determine the overall strength of your website and webpages. No matter what SEO strategy you decide on, it must include keyword analysis as a top priority.
- On your choice of platform (Google Search Console, SEM Rush), input your website URL and find out what keyterms you are already ranking for.
- Check which competitors are ranking for said keywords. Simply enter the keyword into Google and check out the pages that are rankings above you. Then, you can do the same, but add your location after the keyterm. This will show you who is above you on a local level. These are your digital competitors.
- Following this, perform some analysis on your competitors. Scan the webpages that are ranking above you, and figure out what it is that puts them above you. You should be checking the amount of times the keyword was used in their content, the structure of the page title, structured data, and the number of backlinks they have.
Google My Business Auditing
Having a prevalent Google My Business listing can put your site at the top of the search results page instantly. This is a quick win for all businesses who want to push their business to the top in their local area.
Firstly, you should check whether you have a profile set up, if you don’t you should make one as soon as possible. Then, fill out every information box that is available to you in order to maximise the likelihood that you appear in the Local Pack.
Ensure that your company’s name, address and phone number are accurate across all platforms, and ensure that they are spelled correctly.
Select as many categories that relate to your products and services as possible. It is absolutely vital that you do this as it’s an easy opportunity to to appear on the first page of Google.