What is a local SEO audit, specifically?
Are you looking to increase your visibility in local search results? A local SEO audit is a great way to get started. A local SEO audit is a comprehensive review of your website’s local SEO and general online presence in your local area to identify how your local SEO can improve to help you rank higher in local search engine results. It can help you identify potential issues, such as missing or incorrect information in your local listings or outdated content on your website. With the right local SEO audit, you can make sure your website is optimised for local search and get the most out of your online presence.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through the basics of a local SEO audit, from understanding the benefits to analysing your website and local listings. We’ll also provide tips on how to improve your local SEO and get the most out of your audit. By the end of this guide, you’ll have a better understanding of local SEO audits and how to make them work for you.
Just like any good SEO strategy should involve frequent SEO audits, any good local SEO strategy has local SEO auditing at the epicentre. Auditing your website’s local SEO is an essential part of any successful local SEO strategy. ultimately, auditing your SEO for a local area helps businesses identify any potential issues that could be preventing them from ranking higher in local search engine results.
A local SEO audit is a comprehensive analysis of a website’s performance and potential for success. It is a standard practice in the digital marketing industry to conduct these audits in order to improve website rankings, increase traffic, and maximise revenue. A local SEO audit can be conducted by an SEO company or a digital agency. These audits typically include:
- On-page optimisation
- Off-page optimisation
- Technical analysis of site speed, load time, and server uptime
- Internal link analysis
- Content analysis of website content and keyword research
- Competitive research
The importance of local SEO
We understand that local SEO may not be important for your business. After all, if you are just selling socks or something more extravagant like viking drinking horns, the reality is that you don’t care where your customer is.
However, if your business has a local presence and premises, and it is important to you to target customers in a specific area, then without local SEO your business will be irrelevant online.
Local SEO is important for a number of reasons:
- Local SEO ranking visibility: Ultimately, local SEO efforts help your business and brand rank for more keywords and higher for those keywords in the local area that you are targetting.
- Increased local website traffic from local SEO: Once you rank for more keywords locally and higher for those keywords through your local SEO efforts, you will get more traffic from people searching in the local area for what you want them to find you for. Local SEO is really that simple!
- Increased local reputation: Through ranking high in your location and being seen more in your location, your business’ reputation becomes cemented as an authority and expert in what you do. After all, why would you be seen so much and rank so high if you were not trustworthy? Focusing on local SEO and frequently completing local SEO audits can ensure that your business becomes a well-known reputable brand.
- Increased revenue directly from local SEO: The formula in local SEO is as follows: Increased rankings in your local area > increased traffic from your local area > increased trust from your local area > increased customers from your local area > increased customer retention and word of mouth from your local area > monopolise your local area. Hopefully you can see how local SEO can generate your business extra revenue.
- Local SEO provides a competitive edge: With more and more businesses going online, having a strong local SEO presence can give a business a stronger competitive.
- Local SEO is cost-effective short term and long term: Local SEO is often more cost-effective than traditional forms of advertising like print or broadcast because it targets customers who are already searching for products or services in the area.
What are the benefits of conducting a local SEO audit?
A local SEO audit helps businesses understand how their website is performing in the local search engine results pages (SERPs), which can help them improve their rankings and revenue. Local SEO audits are an important part of any digital marketing campaign. They provide a lot of benefits for businesses. This includes increased visibility, higher ranking in local searches and improved conversion rates. Keeping up with auditing your local SEO is a great way to get more leads, ultimately.
How to conduct an effective local SEO audit
A local SEO audit should be conducted by a professional who has experience in local SEO. Agencies that do SEO should be focused on local businesses in order to give you a correct local SEO analysis – as opposed to an e-commerce SEO agency auditing the SEO for your local company. You should provide your SEO agency with access to tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console and Google Business with a list of targeted keywords that you are targeting. An effective local SEO audit should include the following elements:
Local SEO audits also allow businesses to identify which keywords they should focus on to get more organic traffic to their website. A good search engine marketer completing a local SEO audit will ensure they are:
- Analysing the website’s traffic sources.
- Identifying what keywords are driving traffic to the website.
- Evaluating the organisation’s website hierarchy.
- Identifying the current meta tags
- Comparing the company website to other similar companies in the area. You also need to know where their competitors are ranking in the search engine result pages (SERPs). This can be done by using tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs.
- Identifying the target audience for the website.
- Identifying the design and content elements that should be optimised for their target audience.
How to set up your business for local SEO success
When it comes to setting up your business for successful local SEO, there are three factors that you should consider: location, keyword research, and content.
Location: Location is one of the most important factors in determining how well your company ranks on Google. Location-based keywords are often more relevant than generic keywords and they can help you rank in more locations than just one.
Keyword research: Keyword research is an integral part of SEO and it’s important to know what type of keywords your website will be competing against. If you’re not sure about which keywords to target, use tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs to get data about what your competitors are targeting and which words people are using when searching for those products or services.
Content: Content is king when it comes to ranking on Google – do not forget about this! Make sure that you have strong and compelling content on your website.
What do you need in order to complete a good local SEO audit?
As already discussed, local SEO Audits help businesses in determining their strengths and weaknesses. They can also help them to identify what they need to work on, as well as find opportunities for improvement.
Alongside these factors, it is also important to have an understanding of the local market, a clear understanding of the company’s overall goals, information about the company’s budget and a clear presentation of the potential client. This information will help to create a more effective local SEO audit that is fully in line with the company’s overall goals.
Here are 5 things that are needed to conduct a local SEO audit:
- A list of the keywords and phrases to be audited
- The website’s URL or a website URL that is similar in content, which can be audited for each keyword or phrase
- Competitors’ websites (to see how they are ranking)
- Other markets/cities where you compete against (to see what they are doing)
- Keyword data across organic, paid search and social media platforms (to compare your performance)
Local SEO audit facts:
- A local SEO audit is an analysis of a website’s local search engine optimisation performance.
- A local SEO audit evaluates how well a website is optimised for local search engine results.
- It can identify areas of improvement that can help a website rank higher in local search engine results.
- A local SEO audit can help businesses target potential customers in their local area.
- The audit should include an analysis of the website’s content, structure, and technical aspects.
- It should also include an analysis of the website’s backlinks, local citations, and local listings.
- The audit should also include an analysis of the website’s competition in the local market.
- A local SEO audit should be conducted regularly to ensure that the website is up-to-date with the latest local SEO trends.
- The audit should also include an analysis of the website’s mobile optimisation and usability.
- The audit should also include an analysis of the website’s social media presence in the local market.
- Auditing local SEO involves analysing the presence and consistency of the business’s Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP) across the web.
- The number and quality of a business’ online reviews are also a key audit check in a local SEO audit. These can be local reviews on your Google Business profile.
- Optimising a website for local search keywords can help a business increase visibility in local search results.
- Local SEO audits can help businesses improve their online reputation and earn more visibility in the local search results, which can lead to more customers and increased revenue from your local area specifically.
- Local SEO audits should be performed on a regular basis to ensure that a business’ online presence stays up-to-date and competitive.
- Failing to keep NAP information consistent across the web can hurt a business’s local SEO ranking.
- Google Business (formerly Google My Business or GMB) listings are a crucial part of local SEO and should be claimed, verified, and fully filled out to improve local SEO.
- Local SEO audits are important for businesses with a physical location that rely on local customers.
- Local SEO audits should be tailored to the specific industry and the target location.
- Failure to fix technical issues on a website can also negatively impact local SEO ranking.