What is a Local SEO Audit
A Local SEO Audit is a thorough examination of the most important aspects which make up your local search strategy. It is a who, what, where, when, why, and how of your website and your competition. It will be difficult to understand how to beat your local competition if you do not know who they are and where your website stacks up against them. A Local Audit will help you understand what is working on your website, what needs to be fixed (high priority vs. low priority), and how to develop a plan to win in your niche.
When you request a Local SEO Audit from Sterling Sky, you can expect a complete audit of your website, your online performance, and your competition. This will cover everything from content, backlinks, onsite technical aspects, GMB profile, reviews, Social Media, and competition. You will receive excellent service, actionable tasks, and a lengthy guide on what needs to be completed in order to dominate in Local SEO.
Why Do I need a Local SEO Audit
To achieve the best Local SEO results for your company, you need to understand what you are doing well, what needs improvement, and what your competition is doing. Understanding the entire picture is vital in crafting a plan which will be effective, and sustainable to achieve results that will drive business to your bottom line. Having an organized, thoughtful strategy upfront will make your Local SEO process more manageable. Our internal Local SEO Audit checklist will have you on your way to higher rankings in the search engines.
What Can I Expect From My Local Audit
Sterling Sky can produce Local SEO Audit’s for any business, in any industry. You will not be receiving a carbon copy audit template. Each client receives a custom Local SEO Audit based on their website, our experiences, and the results we find. For some clients with smaller websites, the audit may only be 15 pages. For others with larger sites, the audit may be 50 pages. The Local Audit is based on what the Sterling Sky experts find on your website and what your competition is doing.
The Sterling Sky Local SEO Audit process is a thorough and in-depth analysis. Do not expect the Local Audit to be similar to those you can already find online and perform in 30 minutes yourself. Here is what you can expect from the Sterling Sky team.
- We will outline what we believe you are doing well with your website, what is hurting your chances in ranking locally, and how to fix the issues.
- We then create and deliver a Local SEO Audit report to you.
- From there, we set up an hour review where you will talk with a Sterling Sky professional about everything in the Local Audit.
Below is a breakdown of everything we will audit and report on:
Google My Business Audit
We begin by analyzing your Google My Business (GMB) page. This aspect alone can take up to 30 minutes as we gather information about:
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- Business name, and Brand Name
- Address, Phone number, Website, Hours (NAPW)
- Categories
- Website links
- Products
- Services
- Posts
- Reviews
- Q & A
- Spam
- Photos and more
Website Audit
The website analysis will be different for every Local SEO Audit. The basics are similar on each website, though what we uncover varies wildly. It may be helpful to think of Local SEO as a metaphor, similar to a house. If you have a house that looks beautiful, is well maintained on the outside, has all of the aesthetics, but the foundation of the house is a crumbling mess, what is the point? The house will eventually fall apart. The same can be said about your website. You need to have a sound foundation with all technical aspects in order before you can begin building the rest of your website, backlinks, and reviews.
The Sterling Sky team will:
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- Crawl your website
- Analyze website site structure
- Analyze Meta Descriptions
- Page Titles
- Head Tags
- Website speed
- Internal linking
- Images (sizes, and Alt text)
- Schema
- Phone numbers
- Email addresses
- Anchor text within backlinks
- Content
- Mobile-friendliness
- Footer information
- Calls to Action
- Google Analytics
- Google Search Console
- Google Tag Manager
Backlinks
Links pointing back to your website are still one of the primary drivers for higher search engine rankings. Think of backlinks similar to a popularity contest on the internet. The more quality, relevant links you have pointing to your website, the more prospective clients will see your website around the web and the higher you will appear in searches relevant to your business. If you have a low number of links or a high number of low quality/unrelated links pointing to your website, you will not appear as high in searches.
We have various local SEO tools we use to analyze how many backlinks you have, the quality of the links, and how often people are linking to your website. Once we have a good idea of your backlinks, we can analyze your top online competitors and see where they fall compared to your website. Do they have more links? Higher quality? Using your data, alongside your competitors’ data, we have a benchmark to determine the next steps in your Local SEO strategy.
Reviews
Reviews are a critical component of Local SEO. Acquiring new reviews, responding to reviews, and being proactive about reputation management is imperative. New customers often check reviews before making a purchase decision, so establishing a solid set of positive reviews is essential for establishing trust and driving traffic to your website.
Our professionals will audit your GMB profile, and website for reviews and review sentiment. In addition, we will analyze which review websites are most prominent for your niche. For instance, is Yelp, Facebook, 3BestRated, Brownbook, AngiesList, Houzz, or other listings showing up for reviews when we look at your website or competitors? Are the review websites showing stars in the search engine results? If so, can we get on those websites? Typically, we like to see at least 5 positive Google reviews so we can get a 5-star rating and have Stars show in the Local Pack and Knowledge Panel.
It is important to respond to your reviews, both positive and negative. It shows past and future clients you are monitoring the sentiment around your business, that you care about what is being said, and you are addressing issues raised.
Reviews should also be unique, not all coming from one person, or having the same content. Strong, positive reviews will increase customers’ confidence in your business.
Fake reviews are also a problem. Getting fake reviews removed is a tall task and takes time, though it can be done. Are your competitors spamming reviews? Is there anything we can or should do about it?
Social Media
While social media does not impact Local SEO rankings, it is important to have active social profiles. Having active profiles on the major social media sites can be beneficial to keeping your customers in the loop of what is happening at your business, as well as keeping branding and messaging consistent. Utilizing video sharing websites, such as YouTube, is also important.
Your business will not need to be on every social media website, only the ones that make sense for your business. Most businesses will not need to be on TikTok, Snapchat, or Instagram. Having a profile on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Yelp probably makes sense though.
Once we understand your social landscape, we will analyze if your business has updated, verified bio’s, consistent NAPW, photos, and links to your website.
Competition
Analyzing your competitors is a great way to gain insight into what strategies your competitors are using, how they are performing, and where your strategies will be effective against theirs.
The Sterling Sky professionals will conduct a mini Local SEO Audit on your top 3-5 online competitors. The audit will consist of everything we perform and analyze with your business – GMB, Onsite Factors, Backlinks, Reviews, and Social Media.
The point of analyzing your competition is to have a benchmark of where they are at compared to your business. Are they outranking you in the search engines? Do they have more links and reviews? How much content is on their website? Do we need to add pages to your website to compete with them? Are they doing something we can replicate for easy wins in the short term? What is working for them and why?
Once we have all of the information, we can begin crafting a strategy on how to win in the Local Pack. The strategy will focus on how we can not only win in the long run, but how we can continue pushing out in front of your competitors by gaining a better reputation, having more authority, and being the trusted brand in your area.
What Happens After My Local SEO Audit
Loaded with this information, the Sterling Sky experts can develop and present a strategy to you which will outline the most important items you need to fix to begin competing. There will be high, medium, and low priority items to work on, based on our experience. The items will usually take a few months to fix properly. From there, we can set up a plan to have you continuing your Local SEO dominance.
Our Sterling Sky professionals will provide as much detail as possible in the Local SEO Audit and our call to you. Our goal is to provide you with as much information as possible in order for you to be able to make the necessary adjustments yourself.
We understand business owners are extremely busy keeping their clients, and employees happy, as well as simply trying to run their business day-to-day. Due to this, most business owners opt to sign up and become clients of Sterling Sky after the Local SEO Audit process.
How Much Does a Local SEO Audit Cost
The Sterling Sky Local SEO Audit is a one-time fee of $2100. If you are a multi-location business, each additional location is $350.
Get In Touch
If you are a small or medium-sized business and need help with your Local SEO, such as car dealer SEO or dental local SEO, contact the experts at Sterling Sky for a Local SEO Audit. We will analyze your website, as well as your competitors, and provide you with actionable insights on how to build a winning Local SEO strategy. Fill out our contact form or give us a call today! We look forward to speaking with you!
You can also check out our article and get advice on Google Local Service Ads for Personal Injury Lawyers or SEO for a Landscaping Company.