What’s wrong with my local business website?

That’s a question you should be regularly asking yourself – whether you’re enjoying great success from a recent campaign or feeling crushed by the almost zero results you’re getting from your tactics.

Regular check-ups are important because as a local business, you need to be constantly improving your reach and visibility. Competition is tougher than ever. On one side, there are the old-timers that have been serving the community you’re in for years or decades now and therefore already have a solid consumer base. On the other side, there are the up-and-coming startups armed with the energy and aggressiveness to dominate the market.

By looking your website over, auditing your tactics and checking for “mistakes” or “weaknesses,” you can strengthen your position and enjoy improved results. This process also helps you uncover and fix elements that might cause you to gain penalties.

Ask any leading Arizona SEO company, and they’ll tell you that the following are some common SEO errors to hunt for:

Contact information is MIA . People have more trust in local businesses that have their business address and landline clearly presented on strategic pages on their website. Proper contact information placement makes you easier to contact and find, and is a top signal for many that says you’re a legit business.

You’re not Google+ Verified. Prioritize establishing a Google+ verified account for your business and getting your site verified as this helps you rank better in your local niche. Also, verification badges or marks boost the confidence of potential buyers to try your offers.

You don’t have a solid citation strategy . Mentions of your business in other authority sites play a crucial role in making your business more visible and improving your local search rankings. Claiming your business in local listings and directories and working on getting reviews and partnerships with other local businesses are some of the tactics you may use.

Bad backlinks are lurking on your site . Shady backlinks make you an easy target for the penalties thrown by leading search engines. Fortunately, links that can get you in trouble can be hunted down fast with the use of site explorers and link auditing tools. Better yet, have your website checked by a professional SEO team for a more thorough audit.

Your niche is a tough one to crack . Sometimes it’s not you, but the industry you’re in. if it’s a highly competitive one, do-it-yourself local business website SEO fixes just won’t cut it. You need a well-planned, tailored SEO strategy that will allow you to put your content in front of your audience and your brand to get noticed by your target customers. Review your website, study the results you’re getting, and see if investing in the services of a specialist SEO expertis just the boost you need.