How to Quickly Audit Your Local SEO Presence
In this internet era, almost everyone will run a web search to find a plumber, a doctor, a gardener, or the closest fast food restaurant. This is why local SEO presence is critical, especially now that mobile devices are making internet search more convenient.
Imagine this: businesses that show at the top of the search results enjoy 33% of the entire search traffic. If you’re not ranking well, let alone performing SEO efforts, you’re missing a big chunk of potential sales.
Why local SEO differs
Unlike the general idea of SEO, local SEO is a much precise and spot-on take on optimization. This is where the magic keyword “XYZ near me” comes into play. Internet users will be looking for local providers that they can easily contact and relate to.
Here’s another statistic: 88% of the time, internet users who search for a specific business will call or visit the top-ranking companies within the same day.
For you to enjoy this, you need to perform a local SEO audit, so you know where you stand. Here’s how you can do it.
- Start auditing your citations and listings
You can do this by searching for a keyword related to your business. It can be “restaurant near me” or “pressure cleaners near me”.
Look at the results that Google will show and see if your listing ends up as one of the top results. If yours didn’t appear, you might need to recheck your listings or get re-listed with the right NAP and other information.
- Audit your keywords and metadata
For starters, make sure that the keywords used for each post is optimized on your meta description and SEO title.
If you’re a newbie, you can start with seven keywords that you want to rank locally. Preferably, it should contain your business location (e.g. barbecue joint Dallas TX).
Moreover, you should use H2 tags for subheadings and H3 tags for additional headers on your posts. Remember, H1 headers should only be used on your main header and nothing else.
- Audit your social media pages
If you want to be seen locally, you need to bank on your social media accounts. The Facebook reviews of your business can be synced on your Google My Business account.
Also, you should never miss Pinterest. It’s a massive platform that enhances image search, which can link back to certain pages of your website that you wish to rank.
Aside from that, make sure that your social media account is engaging and that you’re answering customer responses and messages.
- Audit your local content
This goes hand in hand with your keyword audit. Make sure that you use the optimal keyword density and you’ve optimized it in the right places.
Also, write high-quality copy. It should never be thin, spun, aggregated, or plagiarized from other websites.
- Perform a backlink and spam audit
Lastly, you should perform a backlink audit. Backlinks are strong ranking signals as it says a lot about how trustworthy your site is.
For ease, use the Moz Tool Explorer backlink analysis tool. This is free and it will give you information about your site’s backlink statistics.
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