Local SEO Troubleshooting
So is panic the order of the day when your local site’s ranking begin to fall? We all depend on ranking well in our local area, and when that ranking falls or worse, disappears entirely, it’s easy to panic.
So what do you do when your rankings begin to drop? What was a steady stream of leads and customers has turned into a trickle, and you don’t have a hint why.
Quite often it’s a simple solution, and calls for an easy fix that can restore you in days. Other times it may be more in-depth. Let’s take a peek at a few of the reasons why your local rankings may have taken a hit, and what you can do about it.
Several reasons why your local rankings may have fallen
- Not Following Google Places Quality Guidelines – Google is very good at giving you a guide of just what they expect of a site they would list in their local listings. You’ll find it here. Ignore these guidelines and you run the risk of disappearing from the search results!
- Inaccurate or inconsistent NAP Information – If you have information that is out of date, incorrect or otherwise misleading, Google will rightly assume you don’t really know what you’re doing. Make sure that all your name, address and phone (NAP) information is correct. There are several tools to help with this task.
- Duplicate content – A problem that sites with multiple locations encounter is that they like to use the same content for all their locations. Make it your business to appeal to that specific location as much as you can, so that Google doesn’t see your site as trying to rank the same page multiple times.
- No updating or recent activity – If you haven’t done any updating of your pages for some time, you may find yourself a victim of just not keeping up with your competition. Keep your content fresh and current, and make it your business (because it is!) to keep seeking citations and positive reviews to help you rank well.