The current COVID-19 pandemic and Search Engine algorithms are empowering local businesses more than ever before. In a recent report by Google, their “Think with Google” surveys report a titanic of searches that contain the phrases “near me” and “near me today/tonight”.
So what do you as a business owner need to take away from these findings? “Proximity, relevance, and prominence” is the motto of today’s Local SEO. This applies to making local content for local SEO ranking as well. Today, we’ll find out how.
So… how do you go about creating local content for Local SEO ranking?
The best local content comes from understanding your local community and target market. Only content that is locally relevant, catchy, useful, authentic, and subtle will drive your local traffic (By “subtle”, we mean every single meaning assigned to the word is applicable in local SEO). We have seen this with many businesses in and around Cambridge as well as our global clients.
Success stories featuring local customers, case studies, and any kind of content spotlighting local things people might be interested in are a few examples.
An important tip to creating local content for local SEO: Keep your content original and fault-free. Errors in spelling, grammar, sentence structures or facts, copied visual themes, and such other factors can convey the impression of poor organisation or you may seem fraudulent (even if you translate to the local language, as most people would search bilingual.
Link building & Keyword Research
SEO strategies are nothing if not for link-building and keyword research. Together, hyperlinks, backlinks, and keywords offer your page better SERP (Search Engine Results Page) visibility and inbound traffic alongside many other perks.
An ideal SEO expert will not only find the right ones for you but also place them well. On the flip side a poor attempt at SEO, of course may overkill your content by flooding ill-placed and cursory keywords and links, making it look fraudulent as such. So, there are two extremes. While doing keyword research or link-building, or hiring an expert SEO agency make sure that the work undertaken has better vision and foresight and works harder for your business.
In a recent survey, 100% of local SEO experts find link building effective for local search rankings and at least 89% of them prioritise the technique for local business success – we do too. It would be our privilege to get a free digital review done for your business because we love local businesses as much as Google does.
A Review speaks volumes, and can ‘be’ content!
Customer Review platforms such as Feefo, Trust Pilot, and Google My Business Reviews make you look distinguished and trustworthy. Google authoritatively says that encouraging customers to leave reviews will improve your business, which means reviews are more important than ever to local search. If asking customers personally for reviews is not feasible for you, hire an online review service like Feefo to do the heavy lifting for you.
And unlike you might think, reviews can be incorporated well into your local SEO through your websites content, guest content, and many different channels by a skillful marketer. The review only needs to be relevant to the content it is being integrated into. Reviews can be made of use within blogs, videos, ads, and all sorts of your content.
The advantage – even if your prospect is not looking for reviews and are only trying to make an informed decision, they will know that you are the best around.
What content should I make to rank higher on Local SEO?
Articles and other content that relate your niche and services to the locality you serve are most likely to grab an audience and make them stay for more. The specialties of your area and your products are best coupled in them ideally. This can include how your products and services are suitable or compliant with the local laws, climate, culture, etc.
The content should be more helpful and informative than promotional. Deeming content and taking people’s search queries trivial can be the gravest mistake a marketer will make. It becomes clearer if we apply the plainest logic. Although a website or content can engage a visitor for a while, which website do you go back to? Is it not the one that has helped you make an informed decision in the past?
People are there to read, know, and choose; not see adverts. Quality content also gives the impression that you know what you are doing. People would choose someone who provided the most information most clearly and concisely.
Promote yourself only when your service is relevant. Of course, you can include subtopics that are related to your service, because you are already a good authority in the niche in that area. Advice, tips, checklists, how-to articles, tutorials, and DIY ideas are good options.
Be the content people are looking for.
Articles and FAQs are effective options for blogs as they answer multiple questions that are picked easily by voice search engines and will appear on SERPs when a question is asked to the browser. They present multiple options, are more visible/readable on SERPs, and offer opportunities to include as many locally relevant elements.
Sponsored Content can be pivotal
Sponsored content makes your website ready for local search engine traffic. The advantage is that engaging “local influencers” or having a “local influencer marketing campaign” will not only have an impact not just upon their obvious audience/reach, but also upon the communities they represent to some minimum extent.
Now, you don’t always need the most prominent celebrities for your brand. Micro-influencers can be even more effective in this respect, as they are more relatable to the local audience, they are a part of the community, will have multiple channels, and can show how proper your brand is, for the locality.
Six best practices/ tips for creating your Local SEO content
- Be regular – people love it; Google loves it.
- Keyword localisation: This can include keyword research for your country and area, website localisation, making or adapting content for local languages/ vocabulary/ accents/ spellings etc. as well.
- Lead generation funnels and strategies, and dynamic site link extensions that work for local businesses can be constructed with expert SEO help.
- On-page elements like title tags, anchor texts, meta description, and body should include localised keywords.
- Be Google-friendly and Update-ready. Google is still the dominant authority regarding web browsing and searches. The company seems like it is winning at user satisfaction, democracy, and encouraging businesses of all sorts through its timely updates. Be on watch and ready to update your website and content as per Google norms frequently. Consider getting the Google Guarantee badge.
- Get found through Google My Business Page and Bing Places For Business.
To conclude
For various reasons, people are looking for people and places nearby and understand them. This used to be limited to services, but now people love local products as well more than ever.
Our job is to create content that suits the interests of prospects and be seen, it’s the reason your search for “local SEO” or “How do I create Local SEO Content” has landed you here.
Now that may be easier said than done, we summed up all the nuances involved in making locally relevant content for local SEO. While in this article we deal with only the content creation part of SEO, content needs to be integrated into SEO expertise to ensure effective traffic growth and audience retention., are you ready to increase your local SEO and local brand awareness? Then why not take advantage of a FREE website SEO Audit from our Cambridge SEO Experts here at One9Seven6.
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