SEO for Auckland businesses

This article is a SEO guideline for Auckland located businesses that wish to improve their organic rankings and Google presence locally.

There are many variables associated with improving rankings and organic traffic and some of these can hinder the effectiveness of your SEO efforts form the outset.

These include:

• New domains which take longer to improve as they don’t have the trust and authority accumulated over time like older domains.
• Many of the free website build platforms (aka wix, weebly etc) don’t perform well organically and are unlikely ever to.
• Poor website architecture can negatively impact organic potential and performance.

SEO Auckland Checklist

Below is a step-by-step checklist for improving your local Auckland search rankings and performance in Google.

1. Google My Business Listing

You should have an address verified GMB listing. If you don’t wish to publish your physical address you can set your listing to show as servicing the Auckland region. Your listing needs ongoing attention to keep it optimised. See our article on how GMB works.

2. Google Reviews

Soliciting Google Reviews from your customers is a highly effective way to improve your presence in Google locally. Don’t be put off by the possibility of the odd negative review – responding in an open manner is the important part of conveying confidence to prospective customers. Read our article on how Google Reviews work.

3. Website structure and addressing

Try and ensure that you have a website URL addressing structure that is SEO friendly. The structure should ideally take a hierarchal form for each product or service type that you provide.

For example:

website-domain/product-category/product-page

The URL should use keywords and incorporate hyphens as separators. The website and its pages should only be accessible by one URL address.

4. Business phone and addressing details.

Ensure that your Auckland business address and phone no (exactly as per listed on your GMB listing) is on your website and ideally in the footer of each page. Phone no's should be directly clickable on a mobile.

5. Ensure you have the following web pages to help your credibility:

• About Us page (ideally with a photo of your team)
• Contact Us page
• Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy

6. Meta data

Ensure that you have unique Page titles and meta descriptions for each page and that these are aligned to the subject matter of the page. Refer to the rules for crafting effective Page titles and meta descriptions in our SEO guidelines. Do not use meta keywords.

7. Mobile friendly

Ideally your website design should be fully responsive and optimal for viewing on all devices including mobiles.

8. Page Load Speed

Website page Load performance is a ranking factor and you should check that your website performs optimally and especially on mobiles. You can check your website performance metrics at https://developers.google.com/...

9. Website hosting

Preferably arrange for a quality web hosting service located within the region of your target audience. Avoid hosting in a country that is different to your target audience country.

10. Business citations and listings

List your business details including website and Auckland address and phone no (exactly as per your GMB listing) on free business directories. There is little to no benefit in paying for business directory listings from an SEO perspective. Refer to our recommended list of NZ and Auckland business directories.

11. Content Strategy

Try and avoid seeing your website as a static brochure. Identify your best opportunity to regularly publish new content that would be of interest to your target audience. This could take the form of publishing details of work you have done or even an article blog. Content is the cornerstone of SEO and priority should be given to your content strategy and execution. See our article on content marketing.

12. Content freshness

If your website content is old and hasn’t been updated with 12 months, then it is worthwhile to complete an editing update.

See more information about our SEO services, or contact us for a consultation.