Gaining new customers and keeping your existing audience satisfied requires consistent marketing and search engine optimization. It’s important that you consider all types of SEO and content marketing strategies as you focus on strengthening your brand and bringing more traffic to your website. While there are numerous forms of SEO, one that’s often overlooked is local SEO.
In the past, local SEO has been implemented through Google Business Profile optimization, locally run ads, and directory refinement. While these techniques are important aspects of any local SEO strategy, content is crucial if you want to appeal to as many potential customers as possible. Content marketing involves everything from posting blogs on local business websites to placing local terms and keywords in the content on your web pages.
When you want to appeal to new audiences and bring in more customers, focus on content marketing and SEO strategies that are tailored for local businesses. For example, you can distribute your content on local forums and partner with local businesses. In this guide, you’ll learn how to improve content marketing for local SEO.
Understanding Local SEO
No matter the size of your business, local SEO can be a boon to your digital marketing strategy. If your company isn’t optimized for local search, you likely won’t reach some of the customers in your area who might be willing to buy your products or services. Google has reported that around 46% of searches look for local information.
While any business can benefit from local SEO, it’s most effective for those with brick-and-mortar locations. If you’re able to reach customers in the areas surrounding your locations, you might bring more local traffic to your store and website. Search engines like Google rely on many different local signals, including citations, social profile pages, content, and links. Local search algorithms strive to deliver relevant results to customers in the area.
Google Business Profile (GBP) is a powerful platform that helps local business owners gain more visibility. You can edit a considerable amount of information on your Google Business Profile page, which users will see when they enter a query that leads to your business.
Along with a URL and description of your company, you can also add hours, delivery areas, videos, telephone numbers, photos, and links to your services. This page can be tied to Google Street View and Google Maps as well. One advantage of this tool is that users can make suggestions on ways that you can edit your business profile to make it more accurate. Check your page regularly to ensure you see these suggestions.
Creating Localized Content
When you have brick-and-mortar locations, it’s important that you create content that resonates with local audiences. Around 50% of smartphone users who performed a local search visited a business within 24 hours of doing so. Even if you have dozens of locations across the U.S., it’s a good idea to take advantage of local SEO to drive traffic. You should have a local SEO strategy for each location.
Numerous types of content perform well locally, which include events, customer testimonials, and local news. If you offer services, create location pages for every area your company supports. Here are a few examples of local content you should consider adding to your website:
- FAQ pages
- Blog articles with location keywords
- Testimonial pages
Keyword Research for Local Markets
Local keyword research involves finding words that people enter into search engines when looking for amenities, products, or services in their areas. For example, a local electrician should consider the keyword “electrician in Los Angeles”. People who perform local searches typically include the location or the phrase “near me”. Optimizing your content with these keywords should help you:
- Increase sales
- Improve visibility in search engines
- Boost traffic to your brick-and-mortar stores
- Bring more organic traffic to your site
There are many types of tools you can use to identify relevant local keywords. For example, Ubersuggest is a free tool that shows you local keywords by traffic, similar websites, and content ideas. You can also use Google Keyword Planner, which displays competitive local keywords and gives you everything you need to create a comprehensive keyword plan.
Before you begin to use local keywords, keep in mind that local user intent can be either explicit or implicit. Explicit keywords will include a spatial term or specify a location. A spatial term is something like “near me”. It shouldn’t be too difficult for you to find these keywords and include them in your local SEO strategy.
Implicit local keywords don’t include spatial terms or locations. However, the search engine still knows that the user is looking for something nearby. Examples of implicit local keywords are “restaurant”, “locksmith”, and “dentist”.
Optimizing Content for Local SEO
Once you perform keyword research, it’s important that you optimize your content for local SEO. There are numerous on-page SEO tactics that can help you make content that reaches your local audience, which include everything from optimizing meta tags to using location-based keywords. The types of on-page SEO techniques you should consider implementing include the following:
- Use proper headings throughout your content, such as H1, H2, and H3
- Write keyword-rich and valuable body content
- Create a concise meta description with a local keyword
- Place a target keyword in your URL and title tag
- Optimize the image alt text for any images in your local content
- Link internally to other local pages
- Use structured data
It’s also crucial that you maintain NAP consistency across all online platforms and directories. NAP stands for name, address, and phone number. These citations typically appear on social media profiles and business directories. When people look for your business, they’ll likely see this information, which is why it must be accurate.
Google uses NAP citations to verify that all your business information is correct. When Google notices that you maintain consistent NAP citations, they’ll become more confident that your company is trustworthy.
Leveraging Local Link Building
Local link building is an essential component of your content marketing strategy. You can obtain backlinks from other authoritative sources, which include local directories, news sites, and businesses. These backlinks will lead other users to your website, which will help you improve your credibility and authority. Backlinks also tell search engines that your company is relevant when it comes to local queries. In this scenario, the rankings for your site pages may improve.
To find the right local linking opportunities, research community websites and local businesses that are somewhat relevant to your target audience or industry. You can earn backlinks with these businesses by sponsoring events, participating in charity endeavors, or guest blogging.
The backlinks you share with other websites should include high-quality and informative content. Try to link local resources, in-depth guides, case studies, and infographics when possible. Make sure you provide value to your target audience and demonstrate that you’re a leader in the industry.
When you decide to contact local businesses and websites, create personalized emails. Introduce your business and yourself. Explain why your industry knowledge or content could be beneficial for their audience. You should also consider getting in touch with local bloggers and influencers via social media. Consider sharing their content or commenting on their posts. Eventually, you can ask them to link to your website or feature your product on their platform.
Content Distribution and Promotion
Once you create local content, it’s important to distribute and promote it properly. Some of the more effective channels for local content distribution are local forums, social media, and email newsletters. If you’ve cultivated a local email list, use it to send your content to your main audience. Search for local groups on social media that might be interested in your content.
There are also a couple of strategies you can utilize for promoting content to local audiences. As touched upon previously, local influencer collaborations can help you push your products or services to people who live in the communities and neighborhoods surrounding your business.
You should also create geo-targeted ads. Geo-targeting involves delivering content within a specific location for certain customers. You can choose to distribute this content to users based on demographics and behaviors. This form of marketing allows you to craft personalized messages that can produce high ROI and ample engagement.
Monitoring and Measuring Local SEO Success
You can garner long-lasting SEO success by constantly updating and improving your local SEO based on your analysis of the results. The key metrics you should track for local SEO performance include website traffic from local searches and local search rankings. Conversions and engagement metrics should also be analyzed. Monitor any changes to local search rankings for your main keywords to determine if your SEO strategy needs to be updated.
You can monitor and analyze your local SEO efforts with tools like Google Analytics and GMB Insights. Google Analytics allows you to monitor everything from conversion rates and bounce rates to session duration and page views. To measure various metrics of your Google Business Profile, select the “Performance” report. You can download this report to a spreadsheet, which allows you to analyze metrics like:
- Searches
- Direction requests
- Bookings
- Website clicks
- Calls
- Menus
- Total interactions
- Products
- Messages
Conclusion
From using the right keywords to taking advantage of local link building, content marketing can help you enhance your local SEO and increase awareness of your brand among customers who live or work in your area. Once you implement effective content marketing and local SEO strategies, you should experience an increase in foot traffic and sales.
