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Everything You Need to Know [+ How to Perform One]

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Everything You Need to Know [+ How to Perform One]

How can you be sure that your business is taking advantage of every opportunity to attract local customers? One way is to perform a local SEO audit — a thorough assessment of your search engines rankings and the actions you should take to improve or maintain your local online presence.

While a local SEO audit may seem daunting if you’ve never done one before, it can actually be completed in seven easy steps — and there are several tools that can make yours quick and efficient.

A local SEO audit can be done on its own or as part of an overall digital audit.

Local SEO Audit Guide

Our guide to completing a local SEO audit is broken down into the following steps:

  1. Keyword research
  2. Website audit
  3. Google Business Profile analysis
  4. Local business citation analysis
  5. Client/customer review performance
  6. Analytics review
  7. Competitor analysis

How to Do a Local SEO Audit

1. SEO Keyword Research

Figure out the keywords your potential customers are typing into search engines to find businesses like yours. Different customers will use different keywords to find what they are looking for, so make sure the keywords you optimize for aren’t too narrow.

To broaden your keyword list, think about where your customers could be in the buyer’s journey. If they’re in the early stages, they’re likely searching “Where can I find X near me?” or “X in [city, state].”

While you may already know a few keywords and phrases to optimize for, using SEO tools like Ahrefs and Keyword Finder will help you find even more long and short tail keywords you may have never thought of.

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Remember, the majority of search engine users rarely click on the second page for information, so optimizing your website for SERPs is key to attracting new customers and generating conversions.

2. Website Audit

Now that you know the keywords you need to optimize for, you’re ready to conduct a website audit — an analysis of your website’s structure, content, and overall experience.

A website audit considers:

Page Optimization

Optimizing a web page means ensuring a page is well-structured, unique, and focused on relevant keywords. When a search engine like Google crawls through a webpage, it looks for signals to determine the page’s focus and what search inquiries it can rank for.

Issues with page optimization can include:

  • Missing or lengthy title tags
  • Missing headlines
  • Missing, lengthy, or duplicate meta data

To optimize your page, include keyword-focused headlines, page titles, headings, URLs, and meta descriptions. If images are important to your business or website, use image alt text and file names that include relevant keywords.

Featured Snippets

Featured snippets are special boxes that include highlighted excerpts of texts and appear at the very top of search results. Below is a featured snippet that appears when you Google “What color is the sun.”

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Example of features snippet in Google. Featured snippets can boost local SEO

A featured snippet will bring your web page to the top of search results. To increase the chances of SERPs pulling your page as a featured snippet:

  • Publish authoritative and relevant content.
  • Ensure your local business details, events, products, FAQs are easily found on your site.

Internal Linking

Make sure your site’s pages link to other parts of your website and that those links are not dead or outdated. Cross linking to other parts of your website can boost multiple pages at a time — and it will help search engines determine the flow of your website and its ability to direct users to the answers they need.

Duplicate Content

Google prioritizes original content in its rankings. If your website contains duplicate content, you can either update your page so that it only has original content, delete duplicate pages, or include a canonical tag to let Google know your site contains pages taken from another site.

Step 3: Google Business Profile

A Google Business Profile (GBP) is a box that appears when people look up your business or service. This box contains your business’ name, address, hours, and other key information customers would want to know. An updated GBP will boost your business’ visibility on Google Maps and will increase organic search results.

Notice the GBP below includes the business name, primary business category, hours of operation, address, services and more.

Example of a Google Business Profile and how it can improve local SEO

Once you’ve created your GBP, check to make sure all the information regarding your business is up to date. This establishes credibility and will encourage Google to rank your business higher in local search results.

Step 4: Local Business Citation Analysis

Local citations are any online mentions of your business’ name, address, and phone number. It’s important to have this information featured in local directories, such as your local chamber of commerce or websites like Yellow Pages.

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Make sure all of this information is up-to-date. If you’ve changed locations, names, or numbers, all references to your business must reflect that. If your local citations are out of date, your credibility could take a hit, and search engines will likely lower your ranking.

Step 5: Client/Customer Review Analysis

Reviews play a huge role not only in local search rankings but in acquiring new customers. According to a 2022 survey by Brightlocal, 84% of consumers said reviews are “important” or “very important” when deciding to try out a new business or service provider.

With that in mind, analyze your reviews. Are they mostly positive or negative? Do you have enough reviews to determine a pattern? How often are you responding to reviews?

That last point is especially important because responding to reviews shows Google that you’re an active and responsive business, which plays a role in your ranking.

To obtain more reviews, encourage clients to leave a review online by issuing a special promotion. Some businesses offer incentives such as gift cards or a certain percentage off the customer’s next purchase.

Step 6: Analytics Review

Use tools like Google Analytics to track the success of your web pages and assess which of your pages are performing well and which need more support. When using Google Analytics (or any analytics tool of your choice) pay attention to:

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  • Your top-visited pages and whether those pages are visible on your site
  • Organic search
  • Page performance
  • The path visitors take to purchase on your site

Also, check to see if other domains are referring to your website and if there is an opportunity for backlinks. Backlinks are any links to your website or pages from third-party websites. If a relevant and reputable website frequently links to yours, that could boost search results. However, links from non-reputable websites can do more harm than good.

Step 7: Competitor Analysis

Finally, it’s time to check on your competitors. Type the keywords you plan to optimize for into Google and make a list of competitors in your niche. The list doesn’t have to be long — at least five would be enough.

Then look up their GBP, reviews, social media activity, local listings, and how well they rank for those keywords. SEO tools like Ahrefs also offer features that allow you to see what other keywords their websites are optimized for, so you can consider those keywords for your own strategy.

Local SEO Audit Tools

Many of the steps listed above can be done manually, but there are plenty of tools that can save time and effort when performing a local SEO audit such as:

HubSpot

HubSpot offers SEO tools that provide actionable recommendations to optimize your website for SEO, show which pages need to be updated, offer topic suggestions, access to monthly search data, and more. Its integrated tools also allow you to create clusters and blog content around core topics — strengthening your authority in your niche and boosting your search rankings.

Screenshot of HubSpot, which can be helpful in conducting local SEO audits

Ahrefs

Ahrefs has many features that help you track SEO performance and research your competitors’ backlinks and keyword performance. You can also find new keywords with its Keyword Explorer feature and perform site audits that scan for SEO issues

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Screenshot of Ahrefs, which can be used to conduct local SEO audits

Google My Business

This tool can help you discover local competitors, compare your performance, and monitor and respond to reviews on your site. It also comes with a “Book an Appointment” feature that can boost engagement with your business.

Screenshot of Google My Business, which can improve local SEO auditsGoogle Analytics

Google Analytics shows how many people visit your website. It also records organic traffic, bounce rate, third party referrals, and demographic data to help you build detailed buyer personas.

Screenshot of Google Analytics, which can be used in local SEO auditsGeoRanker

This tool tracks the rankings of websites by location and this information via heat maps. This is great for determining how well your site ranks in your community and planning targeted campaigns to improve or maintain your ranking.

Screenshot of GeoRanker, which can be used in local SEO auditsLocal SEO audits are key to assessing how well your website connects to your target audience. By ensuring your website is up-to-date, keyword optimized, and easily accessible, you can bring more customers to your storefront and boost revenue.

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How To Combine PR and Content Marketing Superpowers To Achieve Business Goals

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A figure pulls open a dress shirt to reveal the term PR on a Superman-like costume, reflecting the superpower resulting from combining content and PR.

A transformative shift is happening, and it’s not AI.

The aisle between public relations and content marketing is rapidly narrowing. If you’re smart about the convergence, you can forever enhance your brand’s storytelling.

The goals and roles of content marketing and PR overlap more and more. The job descriptions look awfully similar. Shrinking budgets and a shrewd eye for efficiency mean you and your PR pals could face the chopping block if you don’t streamline operations and deliver on the company’s goals (because marketing communications is always first to be axed, right?).

Yikes. Let’s take a big, deep breath. This is not a threat. It’s an opportunity.

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Reach across the aisle to PR and streamline content creation, improve distribution strategies, and get back to the heart of what you both are meant to do: Build strong relationships and tell impactful stories.

So, before you panic-post that open-to-work banner on LinkedIn, consider these tips from content marketing, PR, and journalism pros who’ve figured out how to thrive in an increasingly narrowing content ecosystem.

1. See journalists as your audience

Savvy pros know the ability to tell an impactful story — and support it with publish-ready collateral — grounds successful media relationships. And as a content marketer, your skills in storytelling and connecting with audiences, including journalists, naturally support your PR pals’ media outreach.

Strategic storytelling creates content focused on what the audience needs and wants. Sharing content on your blog or social media builds relationships with journalists who source those channels for story ideas, event updates, and subject matter experts.

“Embedding PR strategies in your content marketing pieces informs your audience and can easily be picked up by media,” says Alex Sanchez, chief experience officer at BeWell, New Mexico’s Health Insurance Marketplace. “We have seen reporters do this many times, pulling stories from our blogs and putting them in the nightly news — most of the time without even reaching out to us.”

Acacia James, weekend producer/morning associate producer at WTOP radio in Washington, D.C., says blogs and social media posts are helpful to her work. “If I see a story idea, and I see that they’re willing to share information, it’s easier to contact them — and we can also backlink their content. It’s huge for us to be able to use every avenue.” 

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Kirby Winn, manager of PR at ImpactLife, says reporters and assignment editors are key consumers of their content. “And I don’t mean a news release that just hit their inbox. They’re going to our blog and consuming our stories, just like any other audience member,” he says. “Our organization has put more focus into content marketing in the past few years — it supports a media pitch so well and highlights the stories we have to tell.”

Storytelling attracts earned media that might not pick up the generic news topic. “It’s one thing to pitch a general story about how we help consumers sign up for low-cost health insurance,” Alex says. “Now, imagine a single mom who just got a plan after years of thinking it was too expensive. She had a terrible car accident, and the $60,000 ER bill that would have ruined her financially was covered. Now that’s a story journalists will want to cover, and that will be relatable to their audience and ours.” 

2. Learn the media outlet’s audience

Seventy-three percent of reporters say one-fourth or less of the stories pitched are relevant to their audiences, according to Cision’s 2023 State of the Media Report (registration required).

PR pros are known for building relationships with journalists, while content marketers thrive in building communities around content. Merge these best practices to build desirable content that works for your target audience and the media’s audiences simultaneously.

WTOP’s Acacia James says sources who show they’re ready to share helpful, relevant content often win pitches for coverage. “In radio, we do a lot of research on who is listening to us, and we’re focused on a prototype called ‘Mike and Jen’ — normal, everyday people in Generation X … So when we get press releases and pitches, we ask, ‘How interested will Mike and Jen be in this story?’” 

3. Deliver the full content package (and make journalists’ jobs easier)

Cranking out content to their media outlet’s standards has never been tougher for journalists. Newsrooms are significantly understaffed, and anything you can do to make their lives easier will be appreciated and potentially rewarded with coverage. Content marketers are built to think about all the elements to tell the story through multiple mediums and channels.

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“Today’s content marketing pretty much provides a package to the media outlet,” says So Young Pak, director of media relations at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. “PR is doing a lot of storytelling work in advance of media publication. We (and content marketing) work together to provide the elements to go with each story — photos, subject matter experts, patients, videos, and data points, if needed.”   

At WTOP, the successful content package includes audio. “As a radio station, we are focused on high-quality sound,” Acacia James says. “Savvy sources know to record and send us voice memos, and then we pull cuts from the audio … You will naturally want to do someone a favor if they did you one — like providing helpful soundbites, audio, and newsworthy stories.”  

While production value matters to some media, you shouldn’t stress about it. “In the past decade, how we work with reporters has changed. Back in the day, if they couldn’t be there in person, they weren’t going to interview your expert,” says Jason Carlton, an accredited PR professional and manager of marketing and communications at Intermountain Health. “During COVID, we had to switch to virtual interviewing. Now, many journalists are OK with running a Teams or Zoom interview they’ve done with an expert on the news.”

BeWell’s Alex Sanchez agrees. “I’ve heard old school PR folks cringe at the idea of putting up a Zoom video instead of getting traditional video interviews. It doesn’t really matter to consumers. Focus on the story, on the timeliness, and the relevance. Consumers want authenticity, not super stylized, stiff content.”

4. Unite great minds to maximize efficiency

Everyone needs to set aside the debate about which team — PR or content marketing — gets credit for the resulting media coverage.

At MedStar Washington Hospital Center, So Young and colleagues adopt a collaborative mindset on multichannel stories. “We can get the interview and gather information for all the different pieces — blog, audio, video, press release, internal newsletter, or magazine. That way, we’re not trying to figure things out individually, and the subject matter experts only have to have that conversation once,” she says.

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Regular, cross-team meetings are essential to understand the best channels for reaching key audiences, including the media. A story that began life as a press release might reap SEO and earned media gold if it’s strategized as a blog, video, and media pitch.

“At Intermountain Health, we have individual teams for media relations, marketing, social media, and hospital communications. That setup works well because it allows us to bring in the people who are the given experts in those areas,” says Intermountain’s Jason Carlton. “Together, we decide if a story is best for the blog, a media pitch, or a mix of channels — that way, we avoid duplicating work and the risk of diluting the story’s impact.”

5. Measure what matters

Cutting through the noise to earn media mentions requires keen attention to metrics. Since content marketing and PR metrics overlap, synthesizing the data in your team meetings can save time while streamlining your storytelling efforts.

“For content marketers, using analytical tools such as GA4 can help measure the effectiveness of their content campaigns and landing pages to determine meaningful KPIs such as organic traffic, keyword rankings, lead generation, and conversion rates,” says John Martino, director of digital marketing for Visiting Angels. “PR teams can use media coverage and social interactions to assess user engagement and brand awareness. A unified and omnichannel approach can help both teams demonstrate their value in enhancing brand visibility, engagement, and overall business success.”

To track your shared goals, launch a shared dashboard that helps tell the combined “story of your stories” to internal and executive teams. Among the metrics to monitor:

  • Page views: Obviously, this queen of metrics continues to be important across PR and content marketing. Take your analysis to the next level by evaluating which niche audiences are contributing to these views to further hone your storytelling targets, including media outlets.
  • Earned media mentions: Through a media tracker service or good old Google Alerts, you can tally the echo of your content marketing and PR. Look at your site’s referral traffic report to identify media outlets that send traffic to your blog or other web pages.
  • Organic search queries: Dive into your analytics platform to surface organic search queries that lead to visitors. Build from those questions to develop stories that further resonate with your audience and your targeted media.
  • On-page actions: When visitors show up on your content, what are they doing? What do they click? Where do they go next? Building next-step pathways is your bread and butter in content marketing — and PR can use them as a natural pipeline for media to pick up more stories, angles, and quotes.

But perhaps the biggest metric to track is team satisfaction. Who on the collaborative team had the most fun writing blogs, producing videos, or calling the news stations? Lean into the natural skills and passions of your team members to distribute work properly, maximize the team output, and improve relationships with the media, your audience, and internal teams.

“It’s really trying to understand the problem to solve — the needle to move — and determining a plan that will help them achieve their goal,” Jason says. “If you don’t have those measurable objectives, you’re not going to know whether you made a difference.”

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Don’t fear the merger

Whether you deliberately work together or not, content marketing and public relations are tied together. ImpactLife’s Kirby Winn explains, “As soon as we begin to talk about (ourselves) to a reporter who doesn’t know us, they are certainly going to check out our stories.”

But consciously uniting PR and content marketing will ease the challenges you both face. Working together allows you to save time, eliminate duplicate work, and gain free time to tell more stories and drive them into impactful media placements.

Register to attend Content Marketing World in San Diego. Use the code BLOG100 to save $100. Can’t attend in person this year? Check out the Digital Pass for access to on-demand session recordings from the live event through the end of the year.

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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

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Trends in Content Localization – Moz

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Trends in Content Localization - Moz

Multinational fast food chains are one of the best-known examples of recognizing that product menus may sometimes have to change significantly to serve distinct audiences. The above video is just a short run-through of the same business selling smokehouse burgers, kofta, paneer, and rice bowls in an effort to appeal to people in a variety of places. I can’t personally judge the validity of these representations, but what I can see is that, in such cases, you don’t merely localize your content but the products on which your content is founded.

Sometimes, even the branding of businesses is different around the world; what we call Burger King in America is Hungry Jack’s in Australia, Lays potato chips here are Sabritas in Mexico, and DiGiorno frozen pizza is familiar in the US, but Canada knows it as Delissio.

Tales of product tailoring failures often become famous, likely because some of them may seem humorous from a distance, but cultural sensitivity should always be taken seriously. If a brand you are marketing is on its way to becoming a large global seller, the best insurance against reputation damage and revenue loss as a result of cultural insensitivity is to employ regional and cultural experts whose first-hand and lived experiences can steward the organization in acting with awareness and respect.

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

AI and startups? It just makes sense.

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