DIY Guide To Dominating Local SEO

Is it your time to become the number one supplier in town? Is it your time to show your competitors who’s the boss? Is it your time to claim what’s rightfully yours?

Yes. Yes and Yes.

Now is the time to dominate the local SEO scene for your particular niche or industry. So…where do you start?

#1 Content Marketing for Local SEO

Content Marketing is becoming increasingly important for business of all sizes and in all markets. Google loves all that shiny, new, relevant content.

If your website is just static and never has any new content then over time Google will just ignore you.

So what you need is targeted content marketing, the kind that taps into the basic wants and needs, the core desires, of those local SEO searchers

You can add that content to your blog, promote it on social media, use it to build relationships with bloggers an people who can promote it to their audience.

So Content Marketing is the place where online search, blogging and social media all meet.

If you’re still scratching your head then a good place to start is with our Definitive Guide to eCommerce Content Marketing infographic which takes you step by step through the process.

Here, take a look:

The main takeaways here are that Content Marketing is a predictable, repeatable process that anyone can master.

If you’re really stuck with Content Marketing there are loads of types of content that are proven to increase traffic and conversions (i.e. people who come to your website and become clients). Here are five particularly effective types of content:

• Definitive Guides

• How To Guides

• Buyer’s Guides

• List Based Content

• Case Studies

#2 Target Focused Geographic Areas

Are you using Google Analytics geo-targeting feature?

Pretty much it’s just looking at the large map of your geographic area to figure out which smaller areas are giving you the most traffic.

Let’s say you’re in LA.

That’s a huge metropolitan area and has tons of smaller municipalities, suburbs, and locales.

That’s why focusing your local SEO content and local SEO marketing to a demographic area as large as LA doesn’t make a lot of sense.

You’ll need to drill down further, targeting all those smaller circles around LA so you can get even more traffic to your site.

So consider writing content for places like Glendale, Huntington Park, Burbank, Pasadena, and other geographic areas in the larger area.

Once you have this list of areas you can add these to your pages, either in the URLs (the website address) as well as in the text of each page.

It’s just another way to get ahead of the competition by focusing on areas they ignore.

#3 Create Product and Service Specific Pages

Often local business websites have ‘thin’ content. What we mean by this is that the website includes the very basic information about the business.

That’s a mistake.

Why? Because Google wants more content. It wants to see specific pages talking about specific products or services.

For example, let’s say that you are a local plumber. You offer a range of call-out services for emergencies but you also have project services like kitchen plumbing installation, bathroom installation, boiler installation, heating installation, external drainage, etc...

Instead of having just one ‘Services’ page listing them, create a page for each.

This way you are casting a wider net with Google. You are creating service specific pages that reflect what people are actually searching on.

Also, make the pages quite long - say between 500 to 1500 words. That might sound like a lot, but think about it. If we sat down for a coffee and you started to explain what you do for each service you could probably talk for hours.

So just have that imaginary conversation with your prospects, listen to the questions they have and that will give you that content.

That's all there is to it - just list out all of the products and services you offer and create a page for each with loads of useful information.

#4 Encourage Reviews

You love your customers and you want them to know that. When they do, they’ll return that love.

Today, returning that love means leaving reviews.

For local SEO, reviews are critical.

We know from an August 2015 post that “88% Of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.”

Sites that have reviews move up the search results like no other. When it comes to local listings, this is even more true.

You have a lot of different ways to gain local SEO traffic. Reviews are one of the best ways because people see them right on the main Google search page:

 If you type in New York City pizza this listing is one of the first to come up. A big reason for that are the 242 customer reviews the place has.

For comparison’s sake, look at the other top restaurants that came up for that search query:

As you can see, the restaurant we chose doesn’t have the most reviews. The third result has 800 more reviews!

The reason that restaurant came up first is because the average of its reviews is 4.4 stars while the other restaurant has 4.0 stars.

So review quality is more important than the number of reviews.

Again, you love your customers – make sure they know it!

A word of caution though. Don’t try to game the system with either fake reviews or by getting tons of reviews in a short space of time. Either of these can get your business banned from the listings.

Just take your time and do it slowly but surely and you’ll be just fine.

#5 Study the Competition

You can learn so much about what your customers want if you just look at your competition.

• What are they putting on their blog?

• What product promos are they doing this month or season?

• What are their social efforts and how is this keyed to their site? 

When you look at those things you’ll get a clear idea of what the market expects. You’ll also get an idea of what you’re not doing, or perhaps things that are working that you should try.

Beside that, you’ll see your competition’s contact page, how they list their NAP info, and what they’re doing for local SEO efforts.

That goes doubly so for their blog. Take a look at what content is put up, how often, and how many comments it gets.

Are they targeting to specific audiences and needs or just going with general talking points you could see on the other side of the country?

Study all of these things so you can do them better than the competition.

Conclusion

Local SEO is something you can dominate.

Just remember to do the basics right. That means getting listed in local listings like Google, Bing and Yahoo and getting plenty of NAP Citations.

It means optimizing your pages and making sure you have plenty of content on specific product and service pages.

You’ll need to get geo-specific and focus in on the areas you cover rather than trying to cover a major city.

Also, be aware that people are searching for you on their phones and mobile devices nowadays so make sure your website passes the mobile test.

Content is important too and Google loves all that fresh, relevant content.

You’re going to need to get reviews too - especially in Google.

I hope you find that useful and good luck on your journey to the top!