Building an online presence requires more than just having a website. If your business has one or more locations, you’ll need local SEO to attract prospective customers.
Local SEO may seem simple, but it goes beyond launching a campaign. You must monitor and refine your strategy, too. That’s where a local SEO audit comes in. It’s one of your most crucial tasks to ensure your business ranks high for local keywords.
Today, we’ll guide you through the basics of local SEO audits. Read on to learn about these audits, why they matter, and how and when to conduct them.
What is a Local SEO Audit?
A local SEO audit assesses your brand’s visibility and performance on local search and relevant assets, including:
- Your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business)
- Local citations or mentions of your business on various sites
- Online directory listings
- Your website structure (how you’ve organized website content)
- On-page SEO
- Link building to increase site authority
Local SEO audits cover three essential aspects: proximity, prominence, and relevance. Proximity describes the distance between prospective customers and your business, while prominence refers to online visibility. Finally, relevance focuses on your brand’s connection to a specific keyword.
Why Conduct a Local SEO Audit?
Reviewing your local SEO performance lets you identify what’s working, what’s missing, and what needs improvement. It ensures people see your business after typing your target keywords (terms like “plumber near me” or “best pizza in [city]”) into Google’s search box.
Local SEO audits are critical as Google rolls out algorithm updates throughout the year, like its people-first updates in 2022. These changes can pull you down search result pages or decrease your site traffic. When you conduct regular audits, you’ll see how Google’s search algorithm updates have affected your local SEO efforts and know how to fix specific problems.
To make local SEO audits easier, treat them like an organized health check. This way, you can spot notable issues and address them appropriately.
How to Perform a Local SEO Audit
Like traditional SEO and website audits, local SEO audits are done step by step. Here’s how to assess and improve your local search performance.
See If Your Site Has Google Penalties
Older research cited by BrightLocal claims that 5% of websites send a reconsideration request to Google after addressing penalties. Most local business sites deal with their penalties and hope that Google moves them up the SERPs (search engine results pages). When you start your local SEO audits with site penalty checks, you avoid such a scenario.
Remember, though: Sometimes, lower rankings don’t equate to Google penalties, so you may find it challenging to establish whether you’ve been penalized. You might drop off page one of Google’s SERPs for thin content, deceitful mobile redirects, or user-generated spam.
Penalized websites receive Google Search Console notifications mentioning their specific penalty. Alternatively, you can access the Manual Actions Report from the dashboard. You’ll see in this report what your site has been penalized for.
Perform Local Keyword Research
Local search terms constantly change, meaning you must conduct frequent keyword research. You can add new keywords to your current strategy to rank for relevant keywords and local searches.
Screenshots from Google Ads & Google Trends
If you have a Google Ads account, try using Google Keyword Planner. This tool will list your business’s best keywords and search volume. There’s also Google Trends—type a specific keyword or topic into the search bar and hit enter to see related keywords and their search volume.
Check Your Website Rankings
Improving your current keyword rankings proves faster and easier than achieving new ones. Access the “Search results” (Performance) report in Google Search Console to see these rankings. It’ll list the keywords you’re ranking for and their average positions. Ideally, you’d want to work on local search terms in positions five to 15.
Also, check the “CTR” (click-through rate) column. CTR describes the percentage of impressions (how often your website listing has been seen) that resulted in clicks. The lower your CTR is, the more likely your site has a slightly optimized title tag and meta description.
Review Your Site’s Technical SEO
Technical SEO also affects your website’s search engine performance and user experience. Hence, it should be included in your local SEO audit.
Check the following sections in Google Search Console for this step of your audit.
Assess Your Backlink Profile
Link quality and quantity can also move your website up or down SERPs. This makes analyzing your backlink profile important when auditing your local SEO performance.
One way to assess your backlink profile is to find potentially harmful backlinks. Again, Google can penalize your site if it follows improper or spammy linking practices. Semrush has a Backlink Audit tool that checks your backlinks for “toxic markers” and scores them based on how harmful they are. After identifying a “toxic” backlink, you can ask the site owner to remove it or send a disavow file to Google.
You should also compare your backlink profile to competitor profiles. Natural or “earned” backlinks equal endorsements to Google. The more backlinks your competitors have, the harder it’ll be to beat them. Link-building tactics, including sponsorships, partnerships, and guest blogging, will help you outrank your competitors by earning more high-quality links.
Audit Your Online Listings & Citations
Online listings and citations typically include your business name, address, and phone number (NAP). When you’re listed on online directories, you give prospective customers more ways to find your business online. Moreover, directory listings allow you to reach more people, increasing your Google Business Profile and website rankings.
Once you’ve assessed your online listings and citations, update any outdated information shown on them. Incorrect and inconsistent listings can hurt your credibility and search rankings. Use automated tools or services like Moz Local to manage your listings.
Check Your Google Business Profile
Many businesses maintain a Google Business Profile for online listings. This profile tells Google and local consumers a lot about your business, including its NAP information, operating hours, products or services sold, and more.
The Google Business Profile platform is updated occasionally, so you must learn about and address these changes. After all, GBP is crucial to your local search visibility.
During your audit, follow the following steps to ensure you follow best practices.
- Select the category and sub-category that best describes your business.
- See whether posts are being uploaded regularly.
- Analyze your Google Business Profile Insights.
- Ensure your contact information, address, and opening hours are correct.
- Check if your business email address is still monitored.
- See whether the Question and Answer feature is being used.
- Ensure videos are successfully uploaded to your profile.
- Review your images.
- Respond to any unanswered reviews.
Check Customer Reviews & Ratings
Are you receiving regular, positive reviews? Are you responding to feedback promptly and professionally? This part of your local SEO audit answers these questions.
When auditing customer reviews and ratings, you should have a list of the top review platforms for your business. Visit these sites and note your average rating across them.
Next, search for reviews without responses and record how many good reviews you get against unsatisfactory ones. Identify and note any issues raised in the reviews you’ve gained, as well.
A customer review audit also involves spotting fake reviews that can harm credibility. Make sure to report them every chance you get. Then, list review sites where you get no reviews. They offer excellent opportunities for improving your local SEO strategy.
When’s the Best Time for Local SEO Audits?
You should conduct local SEO audits at least once a year. This can help you keep up with new SEO trends, although audits should be scheduled after significant algorithm updates.
Reviewing your local SEO efforts frequently keeps you visible and competitive as local search evolves. We encourage you to stay up-to-date on emerging SEO trends to know how to improve your current performance and strategy.
Drive Results with a Solid Local SEO Strategy
Local SEO audits shouldn’t be done once and forgotten. They’re like regular health checks for your online presence, giving you much-needed insights to outrank your competitors, build trust, and grow your business. By conducting local SEO audits, you take one step closer to long-term success in the ever-changing world of online search.
Does your current local SEO strategy need refining? Contact Growth Rocket’s local SEO specialists or visit our blog for expert help today.
