If you want to rank highly in the search engines and get more traffic, then you need to be doing a local SEO audit. But what is this process, and why is it necessary?

A local SEO audit consists of an assessment of your website’s performance for optimizing for the location in which your business operates. This includes mapping out your on-site content, overall site architecture, as well as monitoring and adjusting keyword rankings, page quality scores, and relevancy.

All these factors are important to get higher rankings in Google. Here’s how to do a local SEO audit and improve your rankings. 

What is a Local SEO Audit?

A local SEO audit is a process of assessing a website’s performance for optimizing for the location in which a business operates. This includes mapping out on-site content, overall site architecture, as well as monitoring and adjusting keyword rankings, page quality scores, and relevancy. All these factors are important to get higher rankings in Google. 

The Importance of Tracking Your Rankings

One of the most important factors in local SEO is tracking your rankings. You need to know where you rank in the search results pages, so you can work on improving your keyword ranking. A lot of times, you may be ranking highly for one or two keywords but not so well for others, especially if you are not getting enough traffic.

To track your rankings, use a tool like Google Search Console or a third-party service like Moz or SEMrush. They will show you your current page ranking and also give you an idea of how much it has changed over time. That way, you can see if your efforts are paying off and make any adjustments as needed to improve your rankings.

Another thing to keep in mind is that local SEO is all about location optimization. It’s important to make sure that any keywords on which you want to rank are relevant to the geographic area in which your business operates.

This means that instead of targeting things like “organic beef” or “protein shake mix” when people search for these terms in New York City, it would be more appropriate to target “organic beef near me” or “protein shake mix near me.” 

How to do a Local SEO Audit

The first step to doing a local SEO audit is to login to Google My Business. This will help you identify the location of your business, as well as any additional contact information. You will also find out what your website’s current ranking is for this information, which can give you some clues about how your site may be performing.

Next, go to SEMrush or another search engine analytical tool and log in. From there, you will be able to see the current rankings for key phrases related to your business that are relevant for your location. You should also take note of the keyword density (number of keywords per page) on each page on your website.

If you have more than three individual pages with a high keyword density, consider combining these pages into one. Now that you’ve completed the first part of a local SEO audit, it’s time to analyze your on-site content and architecture.

On-site content refers to all content written about or about related to your business that is found only on your website (not external links). On-site content includes all pages that are not just dedicated to text or images but any other multimedia files such as videos and sound clips too.

As mentioned before, if there are more than three pages with a high keyword density then try combining them into one general page instead of having individual ones for each specific topic. It also means adding new content frequently so Google never thinks that it’s outdated! The 

Map out on-site content

First, you need to map out your on-site content. This includes creating pages with relevant location-based keywords and optimizing these pages for search engines. You also want to make sure that every page has a business name and address in the header.

The next step is to identify which pages are the most relevant, or valuable, based on keyword research. From there, you want to see if you have enough links from other websites pointing back to those high-value pages. If not, then you can start reaching out to other local businesses for backlinks.

In conclusion, a local SEO audit is an important part of ranking highly in Google and driving traffic to your website. It’s worth investing time into this process so that your website ranks higher and starts bringing in more customers! 

Assess site architecture

One of the first steps to do in a local SEO audit is to assess site architecture. This means looking at your website as a whole, evaluating how it is set up, and assessing its content. You want to ensure that your website has good page structure and that it’s not overly complicated and difficult to navigate.

A site with poor navigation will not rank as highly as one with good navigation. The homepage should ideally be clean, simple, and well-organized with everything you want to be displayed clearly on the page.

Readable content is also important; users should be able to enjoy reading your content without getting distracted by things like ads or running videos. 

Identify your keywords and optimize them

Before you can do anything, you need to identify the keywords relevant to your business. These are the words people would use when searching for your product or service.

For example, if you run a car repair shop in Denver, then some of your keywords might be “Denver Car Repair,” “Auto Repair,” and “Denver Mechanic.”

Once you know the keywords relevant to your business, it’s time to optimize them. This means that you want to find ways to work these keywords into your content (for example: adding them as anchor text) and make sure they are at the beginning of your title tags. When writing posts, also include them in your meta description and subheadings.

Include these same keywords within other pages on your website; this will help search engines better understand what topics are covered on your site. Remember, Google values relevance so don’t forget to include synonyms and related terms as well. 

Conclusion

The definitive guide to local SEO audits.

A local SEO audit is the first step to ranking higher in search engine results pages. If you don’t know what you’re up against, it’s hard to take steps to improve your rankings.

The goal of a local SEO audit is to identify what your strengths and weaknesses are and pinpoint the areas where you need to make improvements. It also helps you to see if you need to make changes to your on-page content or site architecture.

There are four main steps to a successful SEO audit: map out on-site content, assess site architecture, identify keywords and optimize them, and track your rankings.

Is your site ready for a local SEO audit? Contact us for a FREE SEO audit.