Believe it or not, many clients ask many of the same questions. We’re always happy to answer any quandaries our dealers may pose; but today, we’re covering some FAQs to help everyone have a better understanding of Local SEO.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Welcome back to another Wednesday Workshop from DealerOn. Throughout the course of a week, there are certain questions our team gets asked pretty routinely by many different clients.
We’re happy to answer every question as it comes up; but we wanted to take some time to answer some of the most frequently asked questions our clients pose to help everyone have a better understanding of local SEO.
A question we often get is about the appropriate length for on-page content. I always say it should be as long as it needs to be to address the needs of your customers, without adding extra fluff and random stuff.
But, let’s go a step further. While this concept isn’t new, Google has recently reiterated that word count is NOT a ranking factor. Focus on satisfying search intent, and not on writing the next great American novel on your website.
We are frequently asked if outbound links from your site to other sites affect SEO as well. Google has not outright said one way or the other, the important thing to remember is that outbound links are helpful to your users.
So don’t forget: search engines ultimately care about how your content addresses user queries. Don’t worry about whether or not links pointing away from your site improve search visibility… Focus on how these links impact customer experience.
The next question also focuses on links. Many of our clients have heard of domain authority, but they don’t know how it applies to local. If you’re already lost, domain authority is a score — it estimates how well your site will appear in search based on the quality and quantity of links it receives.
This score ranges from one to 100. Generally, the higher the score the better you’ll rank. This isn’t always true for local SEO. Understanding how domain authority can impact you is a good start, but what you really need to focus on is where these links are coming from.
For local SEO, it is far better to have a few locally relevant links than many non-local links. You want to maintain search visibility in your city; and this is much easier to do when the links themselves tell search engines that you matter to a specific region.
The next question revolves around on-page content. Clients often ask which on-page element is most important in attaining search visibility. Many SEOs agree that the title tag is the most important structural element on a page.
They not only tell search engines what your page is about, but they are also the first thing people see in search engine results pages, web browsers, and social networks. Make sure your title tags are properly optimized in terms of structure and keyword usage.
Finally, this is the biggest question we get asked: many clients want to know why their website’s search rankings fluctuate so much. The answer is unfortunately a tad complex.
Not only do search engines personalize search results to each user, they also take into account other factors, such as: your search history, your physical location in relation to the business, total number of results displayed on the page, the competition of the keyword or query, and much more.
Don’t worry if your rankings fluctuate a bit every few days, or even several times a day. Long-term trends are still much more telling.
That’s all the time we have for today’s Wednesday workshop. If you have additional questions or comments, leave ‘em down below and we’ll get back to you shortly. Thanks for watching. We’ll see you next week with another Wednesday Workshop from DealerOn.
