How San Diego Businesses Use Local SEO To Improve Rankings

Rankings matter when you want increased brand awareness and more traffic for conversions. Multiple studies have already shown that appearing on the first page (or, better yet, the first spot) means a wealth of clicks for your page.

For this reason, a San Diego SEO agency uses many tactics to bring your site closer to the top for your chosen keywords. It:

• Optimizes the pages for mobile,
• Enhances content marketing for relevance and quality,
• Organizes your pages for easy navigation and indexability,
• Helps manage online reputation for better credibility, and
• Secures more quality backlinks for higher domain authority.

Let us talk about each of these points below. Let’s go!

Want to learn more about the Digital Authority Partners approach to SEO? Watch this video!

1. Optimizes the Pages for Mobile

Why do you need to optimize your website for mobile when people still search for local information online? The main answer is Google’s mobile-first indexing.

In 2019, the huge search engine rolled out a major update, saying it will now prioritize indexing the mobile version of a site’s content. Later, these indexed pages will become the primary basis for your ranking.

In other words, the better your mobile site is optimized, the higher your placement can be in the search results.

A San Diego SEO agency usually works with web developers to ensure that your site works well across mobile devices, browsers, and operating systems. Effective tactics include:

• Designing a responsive site, meaning it serves the same HTML for the same URL, regardless of the device used.
• Avoiding lazy load (or delaying displaying less-essential content) during user interaction because Google should be able to access your resources.
• Maintaining the same robot meta tags for mobile and desktop sites.
• Increasing page load speed with content delivery networks (CDNs) and setting up Accelerated Mobile Pages.
• Developing and updating the local pages according to user experience (UX) design principles and page experience.

2. Enhances Content Marketing for Relevance and Quality

As a San Diego business, you can also tap into local optimization to increase the value of your content marketing plan. In particular, this can improve your copies' user-intent relevance and quality.

You can achieve this objective by:

• Managing duplicate content
• Following the E-E-A-T guidelines

Duplicate content is a copy (e.g., a blog post) that appears at more than one unique URL. It may or may not be on the same website. Unless the purpose is to manipulate the search algorithms, this situation rarely causes a manual action or a penalty.

However, it remains a problem because it confuses search engines regarding which URLs to index and rank. This can result in the less-performing, outdated page showing up for your targeted keywords.

Duplicates are common in local businesses. For instance, an urgent-care clinic operating all over California might use the same copy for many locations. A local San Diego SEO team manages this duplication issue in several ways. It:

• Consolidates the data, retaining the best-performing page.
• Uses 301 redirects to lead users to a newer or more updated article.
• Determines a canonical URL and tells search engines which page to index.
• Completely deletes other duplicate content.

The agency also improves your performance in the local search by adhering to the E-E-A-T guidelines. The acronym means Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Content marketing techniques related to this include:

• Creating content that showcases your knowledge of the local market.
• Using visual assets, such as videos and images, to reveal your first-hand San Diego experience.
• Building relationships with local influencers to build trust and credibility.
• Incorporating reviews from customers who are using your services.
• Adding and optimizing your local business page in online directories and listings, most notably Google Business Profile.

3. Organizes Your Pages for Easy Navigation and Indexability

Thanks to RankBrain, Google can now understand even the most difficult queries and provide the most relevant answer. For example, it is less likely to give different answers for “smoothies in San Diego” and “best smoothie shops in San Diego.”

As a machine-learning algorithm, it learns from patterns, such as past search histories. However, to rank for your chosen keywords, you still need to show that all of the site elements are relevant to each other.

This is where a San Diego SEO agency is beneficial. They are professionals trained and experienced in creating an effective site architecture that promotes crawlability, indexability, and easy navigation.

They can:

• Help build your local schema markup. Research reveals that pages with this special code can rank higher than those that do not. It might even trigger a local map pack, placing your business above the organic search results.
• Create silos. A silo structure groups pages according to themes and categories, telling search engines how each relates to the others and the whole site. It also allows easy access for the bots.
• Use breadcrumb navigation. Breadcrumbs are the text paths that let users know where they are on the site. They help improve rankings by reducing the bounce rate and creating a more positive user experience.

4. Helps Manage Online Reputation for Better Credibility

Do you know that people are hardwired for negative bias? We remember traumatic, unpleasant experiences more than good ones. We also react more strongly to negative stimuli, including what we read. In marketing, it shows how people are more likely to believe a single scathing review than a few praises.

As a San Diego business, you cannot please everyone. However, you cannot ignore a few “isolated” bad comments about your products and services either. You can use local search optimization to help you manage your online reputation.

• Publish original content, especially videos and images, showcasing your business, people, products, and services.
• Use E-E-A-T to position yourself as a thought leader in your community and niche.
• Create an updated FAQ section.
• Build relationships with your audience by engaging them on social media platforms.
• Use technologies to track brand mentions and receive alerts on reviews.

5. Secures More Quality Backlinks for Higher Domain Authority

Domain authority (DA) is not a ranking factor. Instead, it is a score that forecasts your site’s performance in the search results. A high score indicates better placement for your targeted keywords.

However, DA still indirectly affects your ranking. A score of 60 or above usually suggests that your site is trustworthy and reputable. It also often correlates strongly with high traffic and reduced bounce rates.

A strategy to increase your domain authority is to boost your backlinks but aim for quality ones. You know backlinks are ideal if they:

• Come from domains with a high DA.
• Are relevant to your niche and content.
• Point to pages that already have good rankings.
• Have no broken links, viruses, or malicious codes.

In the same manner, manage the backlinks by disavowing those you know are thin-content sites, spammy, or from link farms.

Summing Up

Overall, local SEO supports your digital marketing efforts by raising brand awareness, maximizing your exposure, and elevating your online credibility and authority. All these help bolster your rankings in the search results.

The strategies above work more effectively, though, with the right team. Digital Authority Partners (DAP) is a San Diego agency that understands your market and niche and customizes your optimization plan. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your business.