More Killer Hazards To Avoid Damaging Your Local SEO - Pennink Productions

by Liz Seyi Digital marketing manager

No conversation about local business digital marketing can go on for long without some mention of local search engine optimisation (SEO). Indeed, if anything, the circumstances of the past year or so have caused many firms – especially those forced to close ‘high-street’ presences for periods of lockdown – to look even more closely at local SEO.

But if you’ve been putting more effort and money into your brand’s online shop-front since the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, you might have also found yourself frustrated by a lack of progress in the search engines. Or maybe your rankings have even fallen despite a concerted SEO campaign?

Whatever the situation for you, don’t worry. There’s almost certainly an explanation or two for it. Let’s look at some of the possible causes of your own business’s lack of local SEO performance.

Out-of-date or inaccurate Google My Business listing

First of all, you do definitely have an entry for your firm in Google My Business, right? We’ve talked often enough before on the PENNInk Productions blog about the importance of Google My Business, or GMB. So, we’ll simply say here how crucial it is to ensure your target customers have all of the details they need about you when they see your listing.

Such details should include your current business hours – so that would-be customers don’t turn up to a shuttered store – but also photos of the inside and outside of your business, and information on accessibility and parking. Google loves complete and up-to-date GMB listings, so if your local rankings aren’t as impressive as you’d hoped, this is one of the first things you ought to check.

You haven’t updated your GMB listing for a while

While we’re on the subject of things Google loves, it’s also worth bearing in mind that the search engine’s algorithms tend to reserve the highest rankings for listings that show strong engagement.

You can help boost that engagement level for your own firm by adding new posts and photos to your GMB listing on a regular basis. Just one original photo and text-based post a week should do the job, not least for showing both search engines and human users that your business is an active one.

You’re facing more local competition in your niche

This point might seem almost too obvious to mention, but it’s also a factor that many online business owners can overlook at this time of rapid change for everyone. Remember that it’s not just you who might have been anxious to invest in local business digital marketing in response to the coronavirus pandemic; a lot of your rivals nearby are likely to have been doing the same.

Even before the pandemic, new businesses were constantly commencing local SEO campaigns and plenty will be doing the same afterwards, so you need to keep on working on yours if you are to stay ahead of competitors.

Lack of separate information for different locations

If your business operates from multiple locations, you should be taking advantage of this with your local business digital marketing.

Are you currently using the same content for these different premises, whether on your website or in online listings? If so, your target customers may not be receiving the most accurate and relevant information from you – and your rankings for location-oriented searches might not be as good as they could be.

Your website content has recently been updated

Wait a minute: isn’t updating the content on your site supposed to be a good thing for your brand’s search rankings? The short answer is… yes. But if you have recently, for example, worked through your site’s pages adding new keywords you’ve discovered – including to titles and meta descriptions – it’s perfectly possible that your rankings might have dropped as a consequence.

If this has happened to you, don’t panic. It sometimes takes time for search engine spiders to crawl and re-rank your business website in accordance with the new text-based content you might have introduced. Our advice is to wait a few months; if the situation hasn’t improved by then, it’s a good idea to take a look at other things that could be adversely affecting your local rankings.

At this time of all times, it may be tricky to keep on top of your local business digital marketing by yourself; after all, haven’t you got your core business to focus on as you look to emerge from lockdown? In that case, don’t fret; the PENNInk Productions team is available to provide advice and support on the next steps, when you get in touch with us via phone or email.