What is a local SEO audit?
An examination of how your webpage fares in terms of being listed on search engine results and how its positioning can be improved to result in higher sales and transformations is referred to as a neighborhood SEO review. The audit evaluates the positive and negative aspects of your website, allowing you to make necessary changes that will encourage more people to visit.
How to Do a Local SEO Audit
1. SEO Keyword Research
Discover the words and phrases your prospective customers put in search engines to locate companies similar to yours. The terms customers type in to locate what they need can vary, so be careful not to have a restricted range of keywords that you optimize for.
Expand your list of keywords by pondering where customers might be along the buying process. If they have just started looking, they may be inquiring “What is the closest place to me that sells X?” or “Where can I purchase X in [city, state]?”.
It is possible that you are already familiar with a couple of SEO words and terms but by employing SEO tools such as Ahrefs and Keyword Finder, you can discover much more specific, long and short term keywords than ever before.
Taking into account that the vast majority of search engine users rarely proceed beyond the first page of results, improving your website to be more visible in search engines is essential to appeal to new clients and achieve conversions.
2. Website Audit
You have the keywords you need to optimize for, so now you can do a website assessment, taking a look at your website’s design, material, and overall presentation.
A website audit considers:
Page Optimization
Making sure a web page is orderly, distinct, and centers on pertinent key words is referred to as optimizing the page. When Google or another search engine goes through a website, it looks for clues to see what the page is about and how it can be ranked in relation to search queries.
Issues with page optimization can include:
- Missing or lengthy title tags
- Missing headlines
- Missing, lengthy, or duplicate meta data
Making sure your page is optimized means putting in keyword-rich headlines, page titles, headings, URLs, and meta descriptions. Incorporate key words into alt text and file names if visuals are necessary for your company or website.
Featured Snippets
A highlighted excerpt of text appears at the top of search results in the form of a distinct box, known as a featured snippet. The following is a highlighted result which appears when you search “What hue is the sun?”
Internal Linking
Ensure that your website’s pages are connected to other sections of the website, and that these connections are still active and up-to-date. Connecting different areas of your website together can help many pages succeed performance-wise at the same time. It also supports search engines in understanding the organization of your website and its capability to direct visitors to their desired information.
Duplicate Content
Google prioritizes original content in its rankings. You can remedy duplicate content on your website by either revising the page so that it only has original substance, taking out duplicate pages, or appending a canonical tag to tell Google your site has pages borrowed from elsewhere.
Step 3: Google Business Profile
When people search for your business or service, they will see a Google Business Profile (GBP) box displayed. This box contains essential data pertaining to your company, such as its name, address, list of operating hours, and other relevant information customers would seek. A new version of the GBP will help gain your business more exposure on Google Maps and consequently result in more organic search engine outcomes.
Be aware that the GBP includes the company name, core business field, working hours, address, facilities and more.
A Google Business Profile works like a website and is a highly noticeable representation of many local businesses.
It is essential to have an accurate and thorough business profile to gain visibility in Google Maps and appear in organic search results.
A Google Business Profile audit should focus on the accuracy and completeness of the various components within the profile including:
- Business information and location details.
- Correct primary business category.
- Hours of operation.
- Correct pin location in Google Maps.
- Proper categorization as a physical location or service area business.
- Products.
- Services.
- Photos.
- Offers.
- Updates.
- Events.
- Appointment link(s).
- Informational content.
The more detailed the profile, the higher its chances of being seen as a dependable local source and of obtaining a proper ranking in the search results.
If you have made the declaration and have been given authorization to manage your GBP, you can get access to and alter your information immediately from within the search results.
Step 4: Local Business Citation Analysis
Mentions of your business’ name, location, and contact information on the web are referred to as local citations. It’s worth noting to include this info in local listings, like the chamber of commerce or websites like the Yellow Pages.
Make sure all of this information is up-to-date. If your business has moved, changed its name, or has different contact information, all of the corresponding details must be updated to reflect the new information. If the contact information on your business’ local listings is incorrect or outdated, this could decrease your reputation, as well as cause search engines to rank your business lower in search results.
Step 5: Client/Customer Review Analysis
Reviews have a major effect not just in local search positions but also in obtaining new patrons. A Brightlocal poll conducted in 2022 showed that the majority of respondents (84%) felt that reviews were crucial in helping them determine if they wanted to try out a new business or service.
With that in mind, analyze your reviews. Are they mostly positive or negative? Do you have enough reviews to determine a pattern? How often are you responding to reviews?
The significance of the prior statement is particularly noteworthy as reacting to comments shows Google that you take part in activities and are open to feedback, which impacts your ranking.
Offer customers a discount or other special incentive to encourage them to post a review online. Some businesses provide rewards like gift cards or a percentage discount on future purchases.
Step 6: Analytics Review
Utilize programs like Google Analytics to observe how well your web pages are doing and figure out which of them are working properly and which ones require added assistance. When using Google Analytics (or any analytics tool of your choice) pay attention to:
- Your top-visited pages and whether those pages are visible on your site
- Organic search
- Page performance
- The path visitors take to purchase on your site
See if other websites are linking to your site and if you can create any backlinks. Inbound links are connections from any external website to your website or pages. If a credible and trustworthy website connects to yours regularly, then this could favorably impact the search engine results. Nevertheless, referrals from shady webpages can do more damage than benefit.
Step 7: Competitor Analysis
Finally, it’s time to check on your competitors. Put the words that you intend to increase visibility for in a search engine and make an inventory of those in the same market as you. You only need to have five items on the list, it doesn’t have to be any longer than that.
Investigate the pound sterling value, appraisals, social media utilization, nearby postings, and their rankings concerning those watchwords. By using a tool such as Ahrefs, you can look at the other terms and phrases that a website is optimized for and consider incorporating these keywords into your own SEO strategy.
8. Local Business Listing/Citation Audit
Search engines are able to verify that a business is in their designated area and trusty through their local business listings and citations.
Being included in reputed local reference books, review websites, commercial registers (e.g. Chamber of Commerce), or nearby partner sites is critical.
An audit of listings and citations of your local business can be conducted either automatically or manually, depending on the size and extent of the business.
Business listing and citation management applications can be used to find, keep track of, and update all the essential citations with the right Name, Address, Phone Number, and additional pertinent business facts found on bigger databases (e.g. website address, business description).
If you only have a few centers and enough time, a quick and easy way to see where your listings are currently situated is to search for your business on the internet.
The primary three to four pages of search results ought to demonstrate the same thing.
In order to gain an insight into your current level of visibility, it is possible to conduct a search with the terms and phrases you researched and want to be found for.
The directories and database entries that are the most useful will be the ones that show up in the results for the searched terms.
It is necessary to be sure to track down and correct any repeat entries to prevent both buyers and search engines from being bamboozled by outmoded, wrong info.
9. Local Content Audit
It has been noticed that people hunt around differently and need diverse sorts of information based on what stage of the purchasing process they are in.
A strong digital presence in the local community should feature content designed and distributed accordinly for people to view at each step of the process, in order to increase recognition and understanding.
You want to make sure that your customers are able to easily locate you during their search.
An audit of content can be performed to guarantee that there is available material for each of the stages that your audience might go through.
The content of information may be shared on social media or other external networks, or published on your website to educate potential buyers regarding the products, services, and distinct qualities you offer at the start of their process of making a purchase.
This material is meant to respond to the questions of why, how, and which kind that potential customers may have.
Content created for transactions is meant to appeal to shoppers who already have an idea of what they need but are considering from whom or where they should make their purchase.
10. Google Search Console Review
Google Search Console is an extremely useful and free service providing data associated with assessment of keyword use and content operation, examination of indexing, authentication of schema/well-rendered results, keeping track of the mobile/desktop experience and protection/manual measures.
A full examination of local SEO needs to involve examining and evaluating the information in order to recognize and respond to any pros, cons, possibilities, and perils revealed in every portion.
Webmasters and administrators should take extra care to check for any problems connected to pages being skipped in the search engine’s crawl and indexing processes, or any manual actions that might have been set off by questionable techniques, as both could drastically reduce a website’s visibility in search results.
Google Search Console sends warnings for any issues that arise and provides daily performance updates, but an audit will guarantee nothing has gone unnoticed.
11. Backlink Audit
Inbound links, similar to citations, are any links from other external sites that are connected to your website pages.
The connections between sites are still a major component in evaluating the trustworthiness of a website since they present authenticity if they are coming from dependable and related sources.
In spite of its potential advantages, getting links from unrelated or unreliable websites can hurt your SEO more than help it, and occasionally these links could be generated without you being aware of them.
It is sensible to carry out a backlink inspection approximately every half-year to one year depending on the magnitude and extent of your webpage.
There are both free and paid services out there which can be used to examine backlinks. Google Search Console offers a link monitoring service which is useful to get started with.
When auditing outside sites that are connected to yours, it’s essential that you establish any unfamiliar ones, or any which look untrustworthy or unrelated to your local business.
It may be necessary to ask for the link to be taken down depending on where it is from, what type of connection it is, and what it links to.
An efficient backlink audit has the aim of both finding connections through likely advantageous backlink sources, and forming links that can help to enhance your ranking and recognition.
For local companies, it is beneficial to have reliable local links in order to confirm their physical location.
Potential backlink sources can be researched in a variety of locations:
- Free and paid backlink research tools such as Ahrefs, Semrush, or Majestic. Identify any domains where your primary competition has acquired backlinks, but you have not.
- Any non-competitive sites appearing in the organic search results for your primary keywords are, by definition, good potential backlink sources. Look for directories you can be listed in, blogs or articles you can comment on or publications you can submit articles to.
- Referral sources in Google Analytics may reveal domains where you already have links and may be able to acquire more.
This kind of material could include critiques, recommendations, or comparisons to similar products.
Making sure that when people click from Google looking for your brand name or any other similar words, they reach a helpful page that demonstrates how you are a top choice in the industry.
