Getting found in local SEO search, by local people is not as simple as just adding you’re your business name, address and phone number in the footer of your website and including navigation links! While those techniques still work as the bare minimum of what you should do as a local business, if you want to increase your chances of moving up the local rankings, you must focus on generating content.

Here is an example: You are the owner of a local bakery in Toronto and want to rank for a keyword “best croissant”! You know you make the best croissants in your local town, following your grandma’s recipe. It may be rather difficult for you to compete with the big brands for keywords such as “best croissant”, but you can rank for long tail keywords such as “best croissants in Toronto” I guarantee it will be easier to rank in Toronto that it would be in Paris!

Generating quality content is an effective method to rank in search engines for less competitive keywords, when done frequently with a certain consistency.

You may say – What kind of content? Or, I am too busy working and don’t have time to sit and write content!

Why not start by using your cell phone? Document what is happening at your store, snap a picture or shoot a video, go live in social media and get in front of your customers.
What I have noticed time after time, is that more local businesses respond faster when I reach out in social media than if I call their line!

Now, back to the types of content that help boost your local rankings. I hope reading this article you will learn a thing or two about a few content ideas that work.

If your business has a brick and mortar location or multiple locations, then create a landing page specific for each location. A well optimized landing page acts like a lead magnet and helps increase online conversions. As a small business keep in mind that you want to maintain the domain authority with Google, so it is recommended to create a separate landing page rather than build a separate website. As you grow your business, you can think about creating silo pages for specific countries and cities you plan to expand. On that same note, a good exercise is, to do the research to get to know consumer behavior (buyer persona) in the locations you plan to expand.

FAQ pages are the type of pages I visit the most in local websites! Why? Because I often find the answers to my questions, not considering how much time I save by not being on hold on the phone. I now simply ask my Google assistant first, when looking for an answer. Did you know that nearly two thirds of consumers use voice search when looking for local businesses, in the past year? That’s according to a study by BrightLocal.

The same result I get by asking Siri.

Reward your local customer’s loyalty by offering them discounts. Promote to locals and personalize your messages. They love being treated exclusively. Create a landing page just for local customers and drive traffic by promoting it with an email campaign, social media and local advertising. Here are a few tips on how to increase website traffic

Organize local events at your location. Set it up under Facebook events as more and more people now rely on checking Facebook to find out what is happening in their community. Don’t forget to promote your event! How? I see many events popping up in social media feed, but when I want to find out more, there is no information whatsoever in the website! Really? Remember those landing pages? They can be useful for announcing events also.

If hosting an event is not up your ally, considering sponsoring a local event. Sponsoring events is also a great idea to get some traffic from back links.

If budget is a problem, then write a post about what is happening in your community.

Another way of telling a story is by publishing articles, customer success stories, events, product updates in your business blog. According to a study by Hubspot, brands who blog generate 67% more leads that those who don’t. Stories can be told in different ways and finding your authentic way to do that, ensures your content is original. Google reward those websites that publish relevant quality content in regular basis.

I know you are thinking, I am not good at writing or finding topics to write about and blogging takes a lot of my time. Well, think about a new announcement or answering a few questions to help your customers better understand your industry or solve a problem. Shoot a video or a short film.

Reach out to local influencers and ask them to share your content with their network. Find out if there are topics or areas of interest you share and how you could support each other. Mutually beneficial relationships go a long way.

Would love to hear from you, find out if we are a good fit to work together, create an action plan on how meet your goals