Part 2: 45 Local SEO Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them by Miriam Ellis #386

Having a separate website for each service area spreads marketing efforts too thin, leads to thin or duplicate content, and creates name, address, and phone number inconsistencies that cause local ranking problems. It can also be fundamentally dishonest if a business is faking multiple locations.

According to the article covered in this episode, every page should include name, address, and phone number, either in the header or footer. A highly available contact page is also essential, and the hosts add that a contact form should be on every page so visitors never have to navigate away to reach you.

Transition slowly rather than doing a hard switch. The hosts recommend duplicating the site and moving traffic in increments, such as 20 percent at a time, so you do not lose all traffic at once. Keeping the site live during testing is critical, because taking it down and putting it back up can trigger Google to flag the site.