How to Optimize Content for Local SEO

Whether you operate a large enterprise that primarily does business online, a small company that utilizes a brick and mortar location, or somewhere in between, you need to capture the attention of as many potential clients in your local area as possible. While traditional efforts might include billboards, radio and TV ads, mail campaigns, and local news listings, they leave out one of the most crucial – a strategic digital campaign. Digital marketing tactics designed to attract local users can offer a real boost to your local marketing strategy. One of the best ways to leverage this is by optimizing content for local SEO.

What Is Local SEO and How Can It Help?

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process of optimizing all aspects of your business’s website to appear before users searching for products and services within your niche. You’ll utilize important keywords in meta content as well as on-page content like headers, page copy, blogs, and more to ensure Google’s search engine algorithms boost your content up high and in front of the eyes of the very people searching for you. In that same vein, local SEO endeavors to use these strategies to target users in your area.

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Ranking high for local keywords popular in your area and engaging in linking strategies that connect you to local news and important area entities are primary strategies for optimizing local search. You’ll become more visible to the very people looking to access products and services like yours within your area. First, however, you’ll need to optimize your content for local SEO.

How to Ensure Your Content Boosts Your Local SEO

Web pages geared towards a local audience differ from general or e-commerce websites in a few ways. Primarily – especially if you sell items or conduct services from a brick and mortar location – your local landing page should help users in your area find your location or utilize your services. Even if you sell items on your website, your local SEO efforts should effectively target users nearby.

If this all seems easier said than done, you’re right – it will take some effort to ensure you’re reaching the right audience. Here are two tips to get started:

• Perform a local audience analysis. First things first – you can’t target a particular audience until you know a little about them. Determine your key demographics and select a priority to target first. Then, research their characteristics, like important influencers, common barriers to success, and more.
• Conduct keyword research. Once you know who you’re targeting, use Google’s Keyword Planner to find ideal keywords for your area. For example, many people conduct local searches based on the specific city, town, or neighborhood name – or even complete searches with “near me.” For example, “lawyers near me Toledo, OH” is a popular search phrase used by those in northwest Ohio looking for a local attorney. Using these and other locally prominent keywords is a great way to boost SEO with lower-competition keywords you know you can use to rank high on Google’s search engine results page (SERP).

Focus Your Content Locally

Now that you have a good idea of your target audience and some keywords specially selected to reach them, you’ll need to incorporate them in a way that appeals to the local consumers near you. The days of stuffing as many relevant keywords into page headers and web copy are long gone. To effectively reach people near you (and avoid content flags from Google’s crawlers), you’ll need to produce high-quality content that is engaging and useful for the people you want to read it.

Consider these content types:

1. Local news write ups. Whether you’re announcing a new location, promoting a local event you’re spearheading, or simply reporting local news, a local news write up is a great way to link your company with your local area. More importantly, you can create link backs to local authorities or news sites and provide relevant content for your users.

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1. Promote industry-centered content. No matter your industry, you want to highlight your importance to your local audience – and fill users in on innovations and other key industry happenings. A locally-oriented blog write up about industry happenings significant to your industry can achieve both aspects.
2. Location landing pages. If you have more than one location (or serve multiple communities), constructing an individual location page for each is key to increasing your local visibility in all the areas you serve. Include local place names and relevant keywords to help your web copy rank high locally.
3. Answer local FAQs. Even the best writers struggle to incorporate common key phrases like “find [product] near me” into the average blog post. Utilizing FAQs that not only reiterate these difficult key phrases but provide users with a useful resource to answer common questions can achieve two important local SEO goals at once.
4. Share your content on social media. People connect with your business by searching for your products and services online – but they also use social media to connect with friends, family members, and local entities they support and trust. Be sure to regularly update your social media and use it to share local happenings and your other web content in a way that encourages shares and likes from your local audience.

Need Help With Local SEO?

Perhaps even more so than traditional SEO, local SEO can be tricky to nail down. If you need help optimizing your web copy, blog content, link back structure, and more to capture your local audience, contact Toledo SEO for Growth.

Get Started Today

Let’s get to work. Call (419) 540.4437 or email toledoseoforgrowth@gmail.com to get started today.

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Toledo SEO for Growth offers a wide range of digital marketing solutions for companies of all sizes, including business-to-consumer and business-to-business brands. Contact us today for more details about how we can help you enhance your local SEO strategy for voice search., call (419) 540.4437 or email toledoseoforgrowth@gmail.com.