5 Local SEO Mistakes That Will Cost You Money

Advantage Intelligent Marketing

Local search engine optimization (local SEO) is an essential part of any business’ online presence. It helps customers find your company on the web, which increases traffic and sales. But there are several common mistakes that local businesses make in their local SEO efforts. If you will just avoid the common local seo mistakes then you’ll be doing your company a huge favor.

Not Using Keywords in Title Tags

One of the biggest mistakes local businesses make is not using keywords in their title tags. This is one of the first things Google looks at when ranking pages. If you use keywords in your title tag, you will appear higher in search results.

The <title> element is used to define the title of the document, which appears in the browser’s titlebar or in the tab of the window. It should contain only text, not HTML tags.

Title tags are essential for SEO. They should include keywords relevant to your content. This will help Google understand which page is most likely to interest users.

Here are some tips for creating good titles:

• Go for a longer, descriptive title (avoid one- or two-word titles)
• Search engines will display about 50-60 characters of the title, so try not to have titles longer than that
• Do not use just a list of words as the title (this may reduce the page’s position in search results)

Source: HTML Title Tag
W3Schools.com

Not Including Alt Text in Images

Another mistake local businesses make is not adding alt text to images. This is especially true for photos. Without alt text, people who cannot see images won’t be able to find your business.

Search engines can’t read your photos like the they can thee words on your page. They depend on the alt tags to determine what the picture is about.

In code an image looks like this:

<img src=”img_man.jpg” alt=”Man in a jacket” width=”500″ height=”600″>

You would hope that this image is about a man in a jacket. Now I know this example may seem simple, but the use of the alt tag is relevant no matter what the subject.

Some users of mobile devices turn off images to save on data charges. I know it’s hard to believe that some of us don’t have unlimited data but it’s true.

Use alt tags and leave the local seo mistakes for the compitition.

Not Having a Mobile Friendly Website

If you haven’t made your website mobile friendly yet, now is the perfect time to do so. Google has announced that mobile searches will soon surpass desktop searches. In fact, by 2020, mobile search queries will account for more than half of all internet searches. So, if you aren’t making sure your site is optimized for mobile users, you could miss out on a lot of potential customers.

It never ceases to amaze me as I do research on my client’s so-called competition how many of them don’t havee websites that are easily viewed on mobile devices. Have they not looked around at all the people walking down the street with that crook in their neck from staring at their mobile phone?

Test every page on your site using not only a cellphone, but also a tablet. Make sure that words don’t get hyphenated and that pictures don’t require scrolling sideways. This is one of the local seo mistakes for which Google and other search engines will really ding you.

Not Optimizing For Voice Search

Mobile optimization isn’t just about having a responsive design; it also includes ensuring that your site is optimized for voice search. This means that you need to ensure that your site is easy to navigate with minimal typing. It also means that you should use clear language and avoid using jargon.

“Hey Siri” on Apple iOS devices, “Hey Google” on Google Assistant devices and “Alexa” on Amazon devices will all start the voice search. Using simple to understand language will get your ranking higher on these devices. You may not have ever even taken this into account as one of the possible local seeo mistakes, but I assure you that the easier to read pages score better with voice searches.

Not Adding Social Links

If you aren’t adding social links to your website, then you are leaving money on the table. These links allow people to share your content across multiple platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, etc. They also help improve your rankings in search engines.

“Word of mouth” can be your best advertisement, but not if you don’t make it easy. Popular Content Management Software like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal will all have helper software to take care of this task automatically. Make sure the button is easily seen and that it creates the “Share” with everything in place. Their is no better complement than someone sharing your site with their friends!

Conclusion

As you can surmise, making these local seo mistakes is quite easy. However, all of these mistakes are easily rectified. It would be better to develop the website avoiding these common mistakes, but it’s not too late to fix them if your site is already published.

There are free tools that can analyze your site for SEO (semrush.com, neilpatel.com, moz.com). You’ll find that most free tools also have a paid version that will include better details or more suggestions.

We use a paid tool because we do these optimizations everyday. We would be happy to perform a free analysis of your website to check for these local seo mistakes or any other issues that may be hurting your search results.