Buyers are using search engines to look for local businesses every day, and local searches constitute 46% of all searches on Google.
These buyers use local keywords to look for local businesses and only businesses that have web pages ranking for these keywords will show up in search results.
If you want your business to show up in local search results, you need to rank high for relevant local keywords. The most effective way to rank high for relevant local keywords is through local content marketing.
We mean the consistent output of local content on your blog, website landing pages, and other channels.
In this article, we will show you 9 types of local content that you can create to help you rank higher for relevant local keywords and succeed at local SEO.
Every day, 58% of smartphone users search Google for information about local businesses, and these searchers expect local businesses to have landing pages optimized for local customers.
A landing page is the primary entry point of your website or the lead page of a section of your website. This includes your homepage, lead capture product/service pages, blog homepage, and any other page where visitors will land when accessing your website.
These landing pages must contain information that will help local searchers understand what your business is all about.
They must include useful information that a searcher will expect to find on that page. They must also include the right local keywords to ensure the pages will show up in search results for relevant queries.
Your homepage, in particular, is your most important landing page and is the page that will often show up in search results.
Your homepage design should make a good first impression and include the following information:
Your content should be written with your customers in mind and contain practical and easily digestible information.
If you own a multi-location business, you will have to create separate landing pages for each location.
Creating landing pages for each location is important because you want to rank for the specific keywords of each location.
For example, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services which is a national real estate company has location-specific landing pages for each geographical area where it has offices. The image above shows their Michigan location page.
Your FAQ page will serve as a resource center that answers all the pressing questions of your customers & potential buyers. It can also help boost your local SEO.
A comprehensive and well-written FAQ page shows customers that you care and your answers can also appear as Featured Snippets in local search results.
For example, G.L.C. Lawn, Landscaping and Snow Removal created a FAQ page (image below) to answer the most pressing questions of their potential customers.
After you set up your landing page and FAQ page, the next type of content you should create are profiles on all the major local directory listings.
Many of these directories show up in local search results, and when they show up, buyers will discover your business profile.
For example, if you search Google for “plumbers in Flat Rock Michigan” – the majority of the web pages that appear on the first page will be relevant directory listings.
The most important of these profiles is your Google Business Profile (GBP). Claiming your Google Business profile will ensure Google displays up-to-date profile information about your business in search results. A good example of this is the Garage Door Guy of Downriver (image below):
For each of your profiles, make sure you include the following information:
You must also ensure that your information is consistent across all your profiles especially your contact & business address information.
This is one type of local SEO content you must create. Maintaining a consistent output of localized blog content is a sure way to rise quickly in local search rankings.
To be successful with your blog, you must research local keywords. Optimizing your blog content with the right local keywords will ensure local customers will discover your content.
To find local keywords, you can use the Google Keyword Planner. To get keywords, input terms that are relevant to your business into the search bar, and you will get a list of potential keywords.
Sort through the list and identify keywords that are relevant to your industrial niche and have high search volumes. Make a list of these keywords and combine them with your city/town. For example, “Lawn Maintenance in Downriver”.
Finally, input each keyword into Buzzsumo to see the trending topics around the keyword and use those topics as inspiration for your blog.
For example, Brownstown Lawn Care Services regularly publishes local content on lawn care, snow removal tips, and garden maintenance.
If you are still not sure about what you should publish on your blog, you can use the following ideas to get started:
Case studies are another type of content that can help you with local SEO. Case studies serve as real-life testimonials of the impact of your products/services on your customers and they tend to be highly shareable content.
The more people share your case studies, the more exposure you get for your brand. The image below shows a good example of a case study:
To get content for your case study, you can conduct customer interviews and flesh out a compelling story with the information you obtained from your customer. Your story should explain the prevailing pain points that pushed the customer to use your products/services, and show how your products/services helped the customer to resolve the pain points.
A well-written case study typically contains the following parts:
Apart from creating content for your blog, you also need to branch out and publish guest posts on other websites.
Guest blogging helps you build local backlinks which can have a tremendous impact on your local search rankings.
Research shows that the highest-ranked web page on the first page of search results tends to have 4X the backlinks of the other web pages. Also, 95% of web pages do not have any backlinks.
Given how effective backlinks can be in helping you rank high in local search, and the fact that most websites are not investing in building backlinks – publishing guest posts to build backlinks can give you a massive advantage over your competition.
However, getting guest posting opportunities will take some effort on your part.
Fortunately, you can use Google to find local websites that will let you publish guest posts. Type in this keyword combination into Google “city/town/region – website – guest post”.
For example: if you type “Detroit website guest post” into Google you will get the results shown in the image below.
Press releases can benefit your local SEO efforts if you do them right. They will not only generate buzz about your brand, they will also drive traffic to your site.
Some SEO experts will tell you that press releases cannot affect your search rankings since Google does not use press release content in ranking websites.
This point of view misses the bigger picture.
Google stopped attaching value to press releases after websites started misusing them to boost their search rankings. Brands were publishing all kinds of press releases and using them to get backlinks from news sites.
When Google discovered this, it started punishing sites with these links forcing news sites use nofollow links for press releases.
However, this doesn’t mean press releases cannot help your local SEO efforts. If your press release is sent for the right reasons, it will help your local SEO indirectly by attracting the interest of readers and motivating them to flock to your website.
Examples of good press release content are:
If you are not already actively promoting your business on social media platforms, now is the time to start. These platforms provide an avenue to engage with your local audience and drive traffic to your website.
Identify the social channels that are popular with your target audience and create profiles for your business on those platforms. A good example is Vic’s Casual Dining Facebook page shown in the image below:
Video is everywhere and its impact on the decision-making process of buyers is stronger than ever. Research shows that video constitutes 82% of all internet traffic and 64% of buyers are more likely to choose a product that has been promoted through video marketing.
To capitalize on video marketing to promote your brand, you can consider videos like:
Upload your videos to YouTube and geotag your videos to ensure local searchers will discover them on the platform. You should also embed your videos in your blog posts and upload them to your social media profiles.
When these videos gain traction among your audience and they share them with their friends, they will generate awareness about your brand and attract traffic to your site.
With these 9 different types of local content, you can use any of them to boost your local SEO efforts and build your brand reputation. Now it’s up to you to implement the ideas above and start going up local search rankings.
Level Up is a leading edge digital marketing company in Rockwood, Michigan. We deliver revenue-generating results for clients with our customized marketing solutions. Our team of web designers, SEO specialists, content writers and social media experts want to help you create a Next Level marketing strategy to help GROW your local business online. Give us a call today at (888) 754-5164 to speak with a marketing strategist.
