As we’ve previously discussed improving your local SEO can be the difference between getting a customer in your local area and losing customers to competitors.

We’ve discussed how you can easily improve your Local SEO to increase your digital presence and thus increase footfall in your own shop. However, what are the top mistakes that your competitors could be making and how do you avoid these in order to get more customers?

1. Avoid Forum Spamming

We have a lot of customers who come to us saying that they’ve looked to increase link building by posting their address in forums, blogs and facebook groups. However, they never see a positive increase in their local SEO. This is because they are often spamming these forums, not providing useful advice or a reason for these forum users to visit their site.

Avoid spamming forums with your address in the comments, as these don’t provide use, can make your brand seem annoying and disrespectful and will probably be removed from the site! Don’t damage your brand by annoying potential customers online. Once they’ve seen you spamming their comments, without providing advice or useful information you will tarnish your brand in their minds forever!

2. Don’t use BlackHat SEO

Many companies will promise increased SEO through ‘get rich quick’ like schemes. However, these can often do more damage than good.

One example of these techniques is ‘Blackhat SEO’. This technique exploits weaknesses in the search engine algorithm in order to make sure your site rans higher than others. However, because this is in direct conflict of the search engine rules the technique can often damage your SEO forever!

These techniques put your site at risk of being blocked on Google, which would be detrimental to your brand and destroy any chance of improving your SEO.

3. Avoid Using Low-Quality Content

Although we always say content is king, if you’re repeating content or creating low-quality posts this can tarnish your brand and reputation.

Many brands ‘spin’ content. This involves using software to rewrite other people’s content to post to yours. This content is rarely of high quality. Therefore, your followers will soon lose interest in the content you’re posting and avoid visiting your site.

Instead, research what your customers are Googling, and try to answer their questions in the content you create. Even better, take local events and industry news and write or video them giving your opinion on them. Post these to social media and your site to improve your local SEO and brand awareness.