For any SEO marketing strategy, where your website stands and what factors are affecting your website’s presence and ranking is important aspect. And for this, a comprehensive SEO audit is a needful step that covers several elements like broken links, link redirects, meta and image tags, and much more.
However, it doesn’t mean that you proceed with a one-size-fits-all SEO audit for any SEO-specific strategy.
Local SEO Audit – A Key Step in Preparing Your Local SEO Marketing Strategy
You should have one basic rule – when you are targeting local SEO then some factors are much more essential than others. And therefore local SEO audit is something that you have to prepare for well. Your local SEO strategy has to be right on the target, and all this starts with the local SEO audit. Ask any SEO company in India, or wherever you are located, and they will tell how you approach the local SEO is different than global SEO.
Here we are going to discuss some key elements of local SEO audit that you should focus on.
4 Key Areas of Your Local SEO Audit
1. Basic and Technical SEO Fixes
The first and foremost step is to know and identify if the basic SEO elements are right or not. And this includes all the aspects related to your local presence. You should look if the below aspects are right or need any change:
- Business address, phone numbers, and e-mail address, ensuring these are visible and clickable across all devices
- Opening and closing business hours on the website and directly profiles as well
Along with the above-mentioned factors, you should also look into:
- Use of structured data
It is needful so as to give a boost to local SEO on-page factors. You want Google and other search engines to understand what your business is all about, and which local area you service so as to bring in the desired audience. Structured data is basically a pre-defined structure that search engines identify and this data should include essential Name, addresses & Phone Number (NAP) information in prescribed data format. This information should be added to the website footer.
- The website is responsive and provides a user-friendly experience to mobile users as well
At present times, users are more comfortable finding a business or product locally on their mobile devices than on desktops. However, it doesn’t mean that you keep aside the desktop version factor at all. In fact, both of these devices are important for your local marketing strategy. And in the present times optimizing for mobile-friendly websites has become more important after Google has announced focusing on mobile-first indexing. Make sure that you test for mobile responsiveness when auditing your site for local SEO.
- Ensure that website’s load speed is quick
This is one factor that stands tall for any SEO strategy, be it global or local. And as we have stated earlier that local searches are likely to happen more often on mobile devices, your website load speed time becomes more important. After completing the audit for local SEO check for if the website load time is within the 3-second frame, and if not look at what elements you should work with to decrease load time.
2. Google My Business Profile Optimization
Google My Business profile is evergreen and important aspect for any local SEO aspect for any type and size business, across the globe. This has to be checked by looking into the following factors:
- Business profile
- Contact details
- Business address
- Business hours
- Customer reviews
All the above-stated information should be accurate and completed, and any discrepancy can prove to be a negative factor for your business.
Is your business category right? This should be precise and clear. Target your business profile to the definitive areas where you serve. You should include surrounding areas too, so as to bring in more and more customers.
3. Backlink Profiles
Backlinks are also an evergreen aspect and this is one area that you have to continually monitor and update. Ensure to check for backlinks that are locally relevant, and are pointing to your business website.
- Check out local directories (local citations)
- Check every listing is accurate with the entire business information
- Check for the local backlink profile of your top competitors to ensure whether you have enough quality backlinks
- Ensure that your local partners are also providing local link-building opportunities for you from their source
4. Click-Through-Rate (CTR) Optimization
CTR is equally important for overall, global SEO and your local SEO health. When you move up in CTR, your ranking gets a boost.
Implement a meta audit that helps to check for improved meta descriptions, page title tags, and other meta-features so you are able to map local search keywords. This helps to ensure that you create a value proposition, make your business unique, make it stand out from the rest and all this emphasizes your unique selling point, all of which in turn increases the CTR.
Conclusion:
Local SEO may seem focused on a specific area but it doesn’t mean that your SEO process is also limited, In fact, local SEO requires you to emphasize certain areas more effectively. And small, right efforts can make a big impact on your local SEO marketing strategy. Ensure that your service provider SEO company in India is focusing on all the above local SEO audit factors to include in their approach.