Local SEO in 2019

Local SEO has been an important staple for many years now, and 2019 is going to be no different.

There are a lot of guides offering advice on how to best create a strong local listing, but what happens when someone clicks on your site from your GMB listing? How are you going to ensure that you are doing everything you can to take them from a casual click to a paying customer?

UX (Usability Experience) and Local SEO

UX is one of those areas that tend to scare people because they think it is going to be complicated or too involved, and sometimes it is. But, there is no reason why you can’t follow some basics to make sure you are covering the best practices. You don’t need to start off by hiring an SEO consultant – there is quite a lot you can do yourself.

Understand your visitors.

By installing HotJar, Crazy Egg or Yandex Metrica, you immediately open up a world of knowledge. Using these tools allows you to watch live recorded sessions of visitors on your website. By doing this, you get to understand if there are areas of concern.

Watch out for people who are scrolling erratically. They are often searching for something that they can’t find. Remember, when we look at sites, we skim read until we find what we want.

Also watch out for visitors who have made their way through to your shopping cart or contact page. If they aren’t completing an action here (you will never get 100% who will) then you need to watch carefully if they are looking for something.

Page speed is key

Anyone who has used a website will know how frustrating it can be when pages load slowly – this frustration is can be even worse when you are on a mobile device. This topic has been discussed so many times, yet still, some businesses seem to think that a 10+ second load time is acceptable.

Some of the tests I have completed myself show sites with load times well in excess of 20+ seconds. This is surprisingly common. Just because 4G might be available, doesn’t mean that most people will actually get that.

It is recommended that you test mobile load speeds on a 3G connection to get a more ‘real world’ view of what your site load speeds are like.

Don’t hide information

There is nothing worse than hunting around for information – again made worse if you are on a mobile device with a limited screen size.

It is advisable to try and always follow best practice advice here and keep all of the important information prominent. If you are an e-commerce site, then make sure the shopping cart is visible at all times. It is normal for this to be sat at the bottom of the page and static, even when the page is being scrolled.

The same goes for site pages that carry important information about contacting you. Why would you not pre-empt some questions like “what are your opening times” or “what is your phone number”.

You might be surprised by the number of sites that don’t make this information easy to find.