location-specific content

Do you own a local business? Do you want to market it more effectively? Are you confused about how to rank well for your physical location? If so, you’re not alone! There are currently more than 23 million small businesses in the country, many of which have a brick-and-mortar location! And these small businesses are more impactful than you might imagine: they account for 54% of all sales in the U.S. economy and have created more than 8 million jobs since 1990. To put this another way: small businesses are powerful, and they deserve a marketing approach that understands that. This is where location-specific marketing comes in. By strengthening the presence of a company in a local environment, location-specific marketing makes it easier for brands to earn local customers and become household names. When you learn to write location-specific web pages for your company, everyone wins. Today, we’re going to talk about how you can ensure you’re creating valuable content for your local business – content that takes all your hard work, dedication, and commitment into consideration. Read on. Why Local Web Content Matters: Understanding the Big Picture It’s no secret that Google’s algorithms are getting smarter each year. As such, local business owners can’t afford to stay stuck in the stone age when it comes to their web content. Instead, you need plenty of “tricks” in your content creation arsenal. If you’re still not convinced that location-specific pages are that important, here are some local content stats to consider: More than 63% of smartphone users frequently use apps that require the input of the user’s physical location. This means that tailoring your content to be geo-specific can help them find you. More than 50% of people who visit Google Maps will select one of the top three SERP results. This is a major perk for the companies that manage to rank in those spots. In 2011, more than 60% of marketers reported that geo-targeted ads offered a stronger ROI than the alternatives. That number has only grown since then, thanks in large part to the mobile revolution. Hyper-local search engine marketing is cheaper and more efficient than broader approaches. Within the last ten years, the role of website content has grown incredibly. The world’s best-known search engines have realized that if they want online users to find the results they want, and the results that will be more relevant to them, they’ve got to start prioritizing local results, especially now that everyone and their brother has a smartphone. The Goal of Creating Location-Specific Web Pages Local content serves dozens of purposes. On the one hand, it educates your users, on the other, it provides a serious SEO boost. Here are the top things you can look forward to when you start investing heavily in your location-specific content strategy: More qualified site visitors More inbound links to your website Higher levels of social shares More brand awareness More sales! Possibly the best thing about location-specific web content is that it can do several things at once and that these goals aren’t mutually exclusive. A great local content campaign will serve all these purposes and more, which will help you improve your company from the inside out. Ranking for Local Search in the Modern Day Ten years ago, getting your website to rank at the top of the SERPs was pretty simple. All you needed to do was stuff your pages with keywords, and “presto!” Your website was automatically the top result. If a budget wedding planner in Los Angeles wanted to be among the high-ranking sites, all they needed to do was stuff the term “budget wedding planner Los Angeles” into the body copy and headlines a few times. Seem simple enough? Get this: the phrase didn’t even have to be contextually relevant. Nope. In fact, creating grammatically incorrect, fluffy, empty content was all the rage in the late 90’s, and it didn’t hurt your image one bit. Something pretty much like this: Today, however, that trend has reversed. It’s 2017, and search engines and users are smarter and more discerning than they’ve ever been. This means that things like relevant content and good keyword research are essential in today’s world. While it’s true that users search for more local content than they have in the past, they’re not just looking for crappy fluff that doesn’t do anything but clog up their devices. Instead, they’re looking for contextually relevant, helpful, value-dense material that will lead them to great local establishments. And it’s your job to deliver it! How to Create Location-Specific Content: 10 Steps So you want to create location specific content, but you don’t know how. Hold onto your hats, though, because you’re about to learn! Here are ten professional steps to follow: 1. Stay Unique Just because you’re creating location-specific web pages doesn’t mean you get to go and be boring. Exactly the opposite, in fact! Location-specific web pages should be unique, especially if you’re targeting various locations. For example, say you’re a computer repair company with locations in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York. Even though the company behind those three places is the same, they geographies are so different that they’re virtually entire separate entities, and it’s critical to treat them as such. If all you do is swap out your geo-keyword (“computer repair in Los Angeles” for “Computer repair in New York,” for example), your readers are going to catch on, and you’re going to lose leads. Instead, you’ll need to create unique content for each page. For best results, aim to develop material that takes the individual factors of each location into account. 2. Focus On Web Pages, Rather Than Blogs We’ve all seen blogs trying hard to squeeze themselves into local SERPs. These blogs typically have titles such as the following: How to Select a Good Budget Wedding Planner in Los Angeles Why a Budget Wedding Planner Los Angeles Can Help You 10 Reasons to Hire a Budget Wedding Planner Los Angeles … Read more