5 Quick Website Fixes to Boost Your Local SEO

For small businesses in Newton-le-Willows and St Helens, your online presence is essential. But simply having a website isn’t enough. If your website isn’t optimised, your business could be missing out on local customers searching for your services right now.

Whether you’re just getting started with search engine optimisation or fine-tuning your SEO strategies, here are 5 quick website fixes to improve your search engine rankings and drive traffic to your website.

1. Optimise Your Content for Local Keywords

The foundation of good SEO is strong keyword research. If you want to show up for people searching locally, your content needs to include the right phrases. For example, instead of saying "great haircuts," you could target "barbershop in Newton-le-Willows" or "hair salon in St Helens."

Where to use local keywords:

• Page titles
• Meta descriptions
• Headings (H1, H2)
• Body content
• Image alt tags
• URLs (e.g., /barber-newton-le-willows)

2. Improve Your Website Speed and User Experience

Slow websites hurt both your rankings and your customers' patience. A fast, user friendly website improves engagement and conversions.

Quick wins:

• Compress large images.
• Minify your CSS and JavaScript.
• Use a fast web hosting company or a CDN.
• Enable browser caching.

Page speed is part of technical SEO and plays a key role in keeping visitors on your site.

3. Fix Broken Links and SEO Errors

Broken links frustrate visitors and damage your SEO marketing efforts. They make your site look poorly maintained and can confuse search engines.

Use tools like Google Search Console or Screaming Frog SEO Spider to:

• Fix broken internal and external links.
• Check for duplicate titles and missing meta descriptions.
• Audit your page SEO elements.

4. Update Your Google Business Profile and Local Citations

For local SEO in St Helens and Newton-le-Willows, your Google Business Profile is essential. Make sure it's complete and accurate:

• Correct business name, address, and phone number.
• Business categories and services.
• Up-to-date opening hours.
• High-quality images of your products, office, or team.

Encourage your customers to leave positive reviews. Reviews improve your visibility in the local search results and build trust.

5. Create Relevant Content and Build Backlinks

Adding new, relevant content to your site keeps it fresh and gives search engines more pages to index. Start a blog answering your customers' common questions. For example, if you’re an SEO agency, write about the basics of search engine optimisation and how to improve your online presence.

Also focus on backlinks. Reach out to local business networks, suppliers, and partners to get links back to your site. You could:

• Sponsor a local charity or event (and ask for a link).
• Write a guest blog for another local business.
• Share your expertise in a local news publication like the St Helens Star.
• Promote your content on social media to extend your reach.

Final Thoughts: Local SEO is a Long-Term Strategy

Boosting your local SEO isn’t about quick tricks—it’s about building a strong foundation and maintaining it over time. These five website fixes are easy to implement but have a big impact on your visibility.

If you're not sure where to start with your SEO business or you want expert help managing your next SEO campaign, reach out to us at The Web People. As a local SEO company in Newton-le-Willows, we help small and medium businesses improve their search engine rankings and drive traffic that converts.