Approximately 46% of Google searches are carried out with local intent. In terms of your business, this means local customers are regularly searching for products and services situated close to their home and workplace.
So in this article, we will explore how to build and improve your Local SEO on your WordPress website to ensure that your customers find you and not your competitors.
Although there is some crossover with broader SEO strategies, local SEO is specific and unique to your location. To get your WordPress SEO performing at its best, you need to employ a professional strategy and approach. Doing so will ensure that your site ranks at the top of search engine results (SERPs). In other words, when a customer types in the name of your service in Google, your website and your details will appear above anyone else.
How do you go about building and improving your WordPress and Local SEO? Your content should be your priority. Google puts its users first, which means that any site that posts poor quality content that is full of spam, overstuffed with keywords, plagiarised or of inferior quality will suffer in the rankings. Sites that cheat the way to the top could potentially get penalised and, in the worse cases, removed from Google SERPs.
When writing your content, you need to ensure you are writing with your customer in mind. You should already have a good idea who your customers are through your market research; picture them when writing content and you can’t go too far wrong.
If it helps, ask yourself if your content is answering your customers’ pain points? Does it offer a solution to their search queries or, teach them something new or inspiring? Remember, content isn’t limited to words. Your customers will also enjoy videos, infographics, polls and presentations. As a WordPress experts, we can help when it comes to technical on-site SEO and how to optimise your page.
As with content, links need to be valuable and useful. Backlinks can really help boost rankings and encourage Google to understand what your site is all about. Ethical links from trusted and established sources are the way to go, and the more relevant they are to your business the better! While it’s tempting to try to get as many links as possible, they will not necessarily boost your page ranking. It takes time and clever management to build a solid reputation. Conversely, getting a bad reputation takes very little time and can spread quickly.
Fortunately, we understand how to get the best from your links so that your Local SEO rank improves thanks to correct geographical tagging. We can also install SEO plugins and correct and fix any broken links.
From July 2018, Google began prioritising mobile-friendly sites (over purely desktop-friendly ones). Where mobile-friendly used to be a second thought or ‘nice to have’, it’s now a necessity. As with your desktop site, your mobile site needs to be fast loading and unhampered by large files or images. Accelerated Mobile Pages can also be used to enhance speed.
Secondly, you need to make sure that your WordPress site translates to mobile use. It’s easy to see if your content and functions fit on the page and look good. If not, we can help you to change the design and by doing so, improve your Local SEO ranking.
Customer’s don’t hang around when it comes to making decisions. If your WordPress site takes too long to load your customer will search elsewhere. Our WordPress Code Review Service will identify slow code that is not SEO optimised. It also pays to delete any old elements that are slowing down your website’s speed. It’s a matter of going through your site and seeing where things such as JavaScript, redundant databases and outdated functions are slowing it down.
If you use a lot of images, you will need to check their sizes and compress any large files; these are the chief culprit when it comes to a site’s speed.
As WordPress is so user-friendly, it’s tempting to download and use a plethora of plugins. As helpful as they are, having too many running on your site can be detrimental to its performance. We recommend ‘spring cleaning’ your plugins and deleting any that are no longer in use.
We can monitor and analyse your site’s speed and detect where and what is slowing it down. Once addressed, your local SEO ranking will also pick up momentum!
Google My Business is a free resource which you shouldn’t overlook. It’s an ideal platform for listing all your business details including address, opening hours and importantly, customer reviews.
Google Reviews and visible engagement are key to building trust within your local customer base. It’s possible to include plugins in your WordPress site that will link to your Google My Business page as well as a link back to your website.
All the information on your Google My Business page will help to build up a solid profile within local search results. Ensure that your Google My Business page is not only optimised but that it works in tandem with your WordPress website, garnering the best results possible.
We understand how important your WordPress website is to your business and can help you to get the best results. A great SEO partner will support your performance marketing strategy and Local SEO efforts. Contact us today to find out how we can improve your ranking and more.
