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Many factors contribute to your domain’s search visibility, overall trust, and authority. Ongoing publication of content is an important factor in the success of an SEO process, but this content needs to be specifically honed to rank for locally relevant search results. Optimize your content with keywords: include your location, the services or products you provide, and what makes your company stand out. By becoming a local authority within your industry, you can increase the trust people place on your brand.
The first step to creating successful content is to ensure it’s relevant to the local region you’re ranking for. To get started, consider publishing content surrounding local events in your area, even if your company isn’t directly involved. Or, you can create content that addresses the current state of your industry within your area. Feel free to play around with additional ideas you may have, as long as you remain relevant in what you publish, and include geographic keywords in your content.
In order to translate your unique content into greater local SEO results, you should distribute your content across multiple channels, including a business blog for your company. We have a few suggestions for where you can begin circulating your content:
Local Directories and Third-Party Applications
One aspect of a local SEO campaign includes getting your business listed on review sites and third-party directories. Being listed on sites like Yelp and CitySearch can help your local SEO efforts, but it proves even more effective to actively post on your business page of these sites. Within these posts, mention or link to your local content pieces where they could be found relevant (like responding to a customer review).
Your Business Social Media Platforms
Social signals are sent to search engines every time someone follows or shares your social media content. Social media is a very effective vehicle of content circulation, but can be optimized even further for locally specific content. In addition to posting your own local content on your social media sites, try sharing content by other local businesses within your target area. Start by researching some neighborhood-based Facebook groups to get some ideas of where to start. This can help to create connections with your neighbors, and most likely, they will reciprocate the favor and publish content you create. Establishing this network of local businesses (and their followers) will increase your local relevance, and expand the reach of your content.
Local News Sources
Local news stations are often seeking out stories and newsworthy publications, making it more likely for your content to get published locally than at a national level. Every neighborhood has news, even if it addresses a small population. People in your community want to read about what’s going on in their neighborhood- so report on a story, or give your opinion on one that has people buzzing. The majority of local news stations have already established trust and authority with the residents of your region, this creates additional trust signals for your business when you’re published by them.
Guest Blogs by Your Neighbors
Guest blogging is a great way to rotate in a new perspective for your business’s local content. Reach out to other local business owners, active community residents, and community leaders to see if they would be interested in writing a blog post you can publish.
If you’d rather create the content yourself, consider interviewing the aforementioned groups of people as the basis your content pieces. Any published interactions with local leaders will help you gain additional audience members within your region. Most likely, the person you interview will distribute your content piece throughout their networks, increasing your overall reach. Establishing these relationships will create a larger local network, and can also establish potential opportunities for you to publish your material on other business’s sites. Your local authority will increase with the additional links to your site, improving your overall local seo campaign.
Neighborhood Websites and Forum Pages
It’s relatively easy to find websites dedicated to your community, but the challenge arises when ensuring the authority of the page, and finding where your content could be most relevant. Avoid posting on sites just for the benefit of additional links to your business- ensure you’re posting where your content would be beneficial to users. Try starting with the website of a large local event in your area- create an event guide including restaurants to try, where to stay if you’re not local, and highlights of your neighborhood’s best amenities.
No events coming up soon? Keep that local authority going by creating top 10 lists of the best places to eat, grab cocktails, or spend your weekend downtime. Top lists are consistently trending and are unique to each area, adding to the relevancy of the piece. By showing you stay informed and take pride in your neighborhood, people will return to your site for that local authority.
Be Creative in Your Content
These outlets mentioned serve as a jumping off point, but feel free to explore other options for distributing your local content. Remember to always carefully consider your site’s authority before you post outside of your domain. Avoid publishing on outdated local community sites that could harm your domain authority, and be sure to utilize as many different channels as possible to circulate your content. Improving your local SEO involves increasing your presence across all areas of the internet.
If you found this blog interesting you might also want to check out “Why Does My Business Need a Blog for Increased SEO?“