Local SEO Content Strategy

[ltebby]

Hi Everyone,
I am looking at building a localised SEO content strategy for my website. We are a managed IT services business that provide UK coverage.
However, I want to target businesses in local areas where we have existing clients or in areas that strategically it would make sense to have more clients.
As a proof of concept, I am creating a separate landing page per county. Each landing page will have localised targeted content which includes the placenames of prominent locations with that county.
Essentially, it will feature 4 services that we provide to businesses in that county, 4 client case studies from existing clients in that county, some text explaining what to expect from working with us, a quote from a field service engineer based in that county about what it is like to live, work and service clients in that county and some regional imagery from around the county.
Is this a good strategy to help improve google rankings and is this a good local SEO strategy?

[kmcready · Accepted solution]

Hey @ltebby , this is a very good question about a local SEO strategy. I'm actually in the process of doing the same thing for a client of mine.

So, local SEO is a bit different than regular SEO. It mainly focuses on three key factors to show up in Google's Map Pack: Prominence, Relevance, and Distance.

• Prominence is how well-known your company is in terms of your domain, local presence, reviews, etc...
• Relevance is how relevant your profile is compared to the searcher's query
• Distance is how far you are from the searcher's location

Besides those three ranking factors a few other elements are important:

• Quality, keyword-rich reviews
• Localized content and landing pages
• Inbound links (especially from other local companies)
• Directory listings

But one of the biggest things is a consistent NAP (name, address, phone) across the internet. It helps Google understand your company info and connect other third-party data to your organization's knowledge graph as an entity.

So, that was a little context for local SEO. But in terms of creating a strategy, you have a solid foundation for what you are trying to do.

Are you a service area business (SAB) where you visit customers at their location, a physical location where customers come to you, or a mix of both (hybrid)?

Either way, here's what I would do if I were you:

• Create a Google My Business profile for each county you are servicing (assuming this is a service area business without an address customers can come to).
• List out your services on your GMB profile, even variations that customers might type in to search.
• Ensure your profile is fully accurate and up to date, linking to each specific landing page per location
• Add a logo and a cover image that contains your company's signage (aka brand and logo) - if you're and SAB, I'd take a picture of your truck/van/car with any signage on it within the service area. That way they look different for each profile.
• Create localized GMB content, offers, updates, and such
• Ensure your Name, address, and phone appear on each landing page - a different localized phone number per location helps but they can all route to a single number
• List out the individual service area locations on those landing pages with each of the services too
• Testimonials and customer reviews are big social proof
• Get listed on local business directories, Yelp, Nextdoor, etc...

Also, there's something called "Google's Local Service Ads" that not too many companies use but sits at the top of Google for service related queries. Businesses can sign up for these and its a Pay Per Lead (PPL) platform. Basically whenever anyone clicks your ad, calls/emails/takes action, you pay a few bucks for that. Rather than anyone clicking an ad link you pay for and then leaving. You only pay if they are a lead.

https://ads.google.com/local-services-ads/

Besides that, keep trying to generate quality ratings and reviews, publish localized content, and images.

That should be a good start.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Kevin

[kmcready · Accepted solution]

Hey @ltebby this is almost the exact situation I'm dealing with for a company I'm currently working with. Google really wants you to specify your local service areas and have to be roughly a 2-hour drive apart (overlapping service areas isn't a great signal - but not world-ending).

Now, if you're providing local services to local customers in specific/distinct service areas, I do suggest you make separate Google My Business profiles (GMBs) for each unique service area.

For example: You have your main GMB in Bridgwater, Somerset and can call it [Company Name] Bridgewater with the corporate address, phone, etc... Then your smaller "service hubs" can have their own GMB such as [Company Name] Launceston.

If you are service counties, which have many towns and cities within them, you can just have it be [Company Name] [County Name], then in the GMB profile, establish the major areas you service in that location using the service area ZIP / Postal Code listings section on GMB.

So that's how you can handle the GMBs, break them up into county-based service areas and mention the major areas you serve in the description and list of postal codes. Each GMB would then use its own specific landing page (try to include UTM parameters for tracking) as its "website" link.

In terms of landing pages, I suggest aligning your GMBs with your landing pages, I dont think it's necessary to create ~400 to account for all the little towns and villages within each county. As you did on the GMB, you can do the same on the landing page. Just list out the service area in terms of towns/cities, and try to include a service area map. Unless you provide different services in all of these different towns/villages, the county level should work for now.

You can begin with at least 1 major county you service (outside of your Bridgewater area) and see how it works. Create a GMB, optimize it, build a landing page and track results.

Here's an example of something I worked on:

https://bettervet.com/locations/tx/austin

This is a pretty solid example to follow in terms of the type of information that needs to be on these service-area landing pages.

Finally, to answer your questions:

Q: Is it worth building out the site and online presence this way for local service areas?

A: In a way YES. Google wants local-based service areas to be true to the areas they service in terms of keywords, locations, areas served and specific local-based content. Like I said, just start with one major area first and see how it works before committing to building out the entire structure.

Q: Is local SEO a viable strategy going forward?

A: 100% YES. The main reason why is when someone types in "business IT services bridgewater" they are already looking to find a solution - rather than be informed about the subject. Similar to how people order food, when they type in "pizza near me", they want to order pizza, not just check the list and leave. These "near me" searches are very customer/client focused as people wouldn't type them in for information. Comparing this to a traditional website with a landing page, blog, and services pages which can draw in website visitors that are outside of your service area (meaning they aren't ideal clients). Although the blog section is good to establish your brand as an authority in the subject.

I hope this helps, I really try to include as much relevant information in my answers as possible to help out. If you want to chat more, just email me: kevin@kevinmcready.com (new website design is still in the works - literally built this in a weekend lol).

[kmcready · Accepted solution]

Hey @ltebby , this is a very good question about a local SEO strategy. I'm actually in the process of doing the same thing for a client of mine.

So, local SEO is a bit different than regular SEO. It mainly focuses on three key factors to show up in Google's Map Pack: Prominence, Relevance, and Distance.

• Prominence is how well-known your company is in terms of your domain, local presence, reviews, etc...
• Relevance is how relevant your profile is compared to the searcher's query
• Distance is how far you are from the searcher's location

Besides those three ranking factors a few other elements are important:

• Quality, keyword-rich reviews
• Localized content and landing pages
• Inbound links (especially from other local companies)
• Directory listings

But one of the biggest things is a consistent NAP (name, address, phone) across the internet. It helps Google understand your company info and connect other third-party data to your organization's knowledge graph as an entity.

So, that was a little context for local SEO. But in terms of creating a strategy, you have a solid foundation for what you are trying to do.

Are you a service area business (SAB) where you visit customers at their location, a physical location where customers come to you, or a mix of both (hybrid)?

Either way, here's what I would do if I were you:

• Create a Google My Business profile for each county you are servicing (assuming this is a service area business without an address customers can come to).
• List out your services on your GMB profile, even variations that customers might type in to search.
• Ensure your profile is fully accurate and up to date, linking to each specific landing page per location
• Add a logo and a cover image that contains your company's signage (aka brand and logo) - if you're and SAB, I'd take a picture of your truck/van/car with any signage on it within the service area. That way they look different for each profile.
• Create localized GMB content, offers, updates, and such
• Ensure your Name, address, and phone appear on each landing page - a different localized phone number per location helps but they can all route to a single number
• List out the individual service area locations on those landing pages with each of the services too
• Testimonials and customer reviews are big social proof
• Get listed on local business directories, Yelp, Nextdoor, etc...

Also, there's something called "Google's Local Service Ads" that not too many companies use but sits at the top of Google for service related queries. Businesses can sign up for these and its a Pay Per Lead (PPL) platform. Basically whenever anyone clicks your ad, calls/emails/takes action, you pay a few bucks for that. Rather than anyone clicking an ad link you pay for and then leaving. You only pay if they are a lead.

https://ads.google.com/local-services-ads/

Besides that, keep trying to generate quality ratings and reviews, publish localized content, and images.

That should be a good start.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Kevin

[MKhalid71]

Hey kevin

 i want to apply the same strategy to rank my site which is totally virtual businees in a specific country, will it work for me .

saudiemailhost.com   

This is my client and i want to rank in saudi arbia , kindly visit the site and suggest me some insights for this website, should i keep the services on separate pages.

My strategy is 

> Optimized Landing page in a specific location like email hosting in sadui arabia

> Create services pages for each service and optimized by placing realted service keywords

> Then Listing GMB and optimized it overall by geomatics images, multiple location etc.

Thanks and waiting for a valuable replay

‎ 

[kmcready · Accepted solution]

Hey @MKhalid71 this is a great question! So, when considering a national vs local SEO approach, you need to understand who your target audience is and how they are looking for your products or services. 

An entirely digital company and service is feasible for a local SEO if it's targeting local customers and/or companies.

If you ARE only providing web hosting services to customers in a designated area, then you should try local SEO. With that you should have the following things:

• A fully optimized Google My Business profile that includes everything about your company - name, address, phone, hours of operation, website, services, products, etc...
• A locations page that showcases the services you provide in each location (even if it's templated) where you can target keywords like "[city] web hosting services]
• A contact page with a local phone number
• Services pages that detail everything you do

If you are targeting a more national audience then go with the traditional SaaS-style approach of marketing your products or services in relevant platforms.

[MKhalid71]

And i have another site https://mksapk.com/  

If i want to rank it , should local seo work for such like site or i should go with normal SEO .

Thanks and waiting for a positive reply

[kmcready]

This website is just a collection of mobile apps. There's nothing local about this content, I'd stick with a national SEO approach.

Hope this helps!

[ltebby]

Hi Kevin, 
Firstly, I would like to thank you for providing such valuable insights, tips and expertise in the level of detail of your response. You have opened my eyes even wider to the extent to which Google analyse a business and it's reputation as well as how that business serves it's clients.
I do have a Google My Business Profile for our head-office location is Bridgwater, Somerset and have defined a number of "local" towns, villages and cities which fall into a local catchment area.
However, we are a national service provider and our client are spread across the whole of the UK. But I wanted to use a local SEO strategy with specific landing pages for each county as a starting point. However, I am soon realising that this is in no way enough to satisfy Google.
My key concern, I guess it that I could invest a year or even two years putting together a separate Google My Business profiles, separate landing pages per town, village and city within each county we service, going to a number of clients and filming testamonial / case study videos and obtaining reviews and still be no closer to getting inbound leads via our website.
But I do see your point about creditability, authority, reputation and service areas. It is quite daunting given that I may want to do this for 10, 15 or even 20 counties each with 10, 15 or 20 towns, cities and villages. 400 landing pages seems really really excessive on a website for just 1 service we offer.
Is the reward really worth that level of time, money and effort?
Do you really think local SEO is a viable way forward?
Thanks,
Lee.

[kmcready · Accepted solution]

Hey @ltebby this is almost the exact situation I'm dealing with for a company I'm currently working with. Google really wants you to specify your local service areas and have to be roughly a 2-hour drive apart (overlapping service areas isn't a great signal - but not world-ending).

Now, if you're providing local services to local customers in specific/distinct service areas, I do suggest you make separate Google My Business profiles (GMBs) for each unique service area.

For example: You have your main GMB in Bridgwater, Somerset and can call it [Company Name] Bridgewater with the corporate address, phone, etc... Then your smaller "service hubs" can have their own GMB such as [Company Name] Launceston.

If you are service counties, which have many towns and cities within them, you can just have it be [Company Name] [County Name], then in the GMB profile, establish the major areas you service in that location using the service area ZIP / Postal Code listings section on GMB.

So that's how you can handle the GMBs, break them up into county-based service areas and mention the major areas you serve in the description and list of postal codes. Each GMB would then use its own specific landing page (try to include UTM parameters for tracking) as its "website" link.

In terms of landing pages, I suggest aligning your GMBs with your landing pages, I dont think it's necessary to create ~400 to account for all the little towns and villages within each county. As you did on the GMB, you can do the same on the landing page. Just list out the service area in terms of towns/cities, and try to include a service area map. Unless you provide different services in all of these different towns/villages, the county level should work for now.

You can begin with at least 1 major county you service (outside of your Bridgewater area) and see how it works. Create a GMB, optimize it, build a landing page and track results.

Here's an example of something I worked on:

https://bettervet.com/locations/tx/austin

This is a pretty solid example to follow in terms of the type of information that needs to be on these service-area landing pages.

Finally, to answer your questions:

Q: Is it worth building out the site and online presence this way for local service areas?

A: In a way YES. Google wants local-based service areas to be true to the areas they service in terms of keywords, locations, areas served and specific local-based content. Like I said, just start with one major area first and see how it works before committing to building out the entire structure.

Q: Is local SEO a viable strategy going forward?

A: 100% YES. The main reason why is when someone types in "business IT services bridgewater" they are already looking to find a solution - rather than be informed about the subject. Similar to how people order food, when they type in "pizza near me", they want to order pizza, not just check the list and leave. These "near me" searches are very customer/client focused as people wouldn't type them in for information. Comparing this to a traditional website with a landing page, blog, and services pages which can draw in website visitors that are outside of your service area (meaning they aren't ideal clients). Although the blog section is good to establish your brand as an authority in the subject.

I hope this helps, I really try to include as much relevant information in my answers as possible to help out. If you want to chat more, just email me: kevin@kevinmcready.com (new website design is still in the works - literally built this in a weekend lol).

[Jnix284]

@kmcready  really appreciate this insightful overview of local SEO, would love to have you join the SEO + Performance + CMS HUG to network with other SEO professionals!

[kmcready]

Hey @Jnix284 sounds great! Just signed up to join. Let me know how I can help and contribute, appreciate the invite.

[Jnix284]

Hi @kmcready awesome, glad to have you join! Still working on planning the first event, lining up the guest speaker before posting it, but would definitely be up to chat more about ideas for future events or if you'd like to join one of the panel discussions.

[kmcready]

@Jnix284 sounds good, just let me know how I can help. You can always email me: kevin@kevinmcready.com

[IZaghw]

Hey,

I'd be happy to help and take a look at your strategy at no charge.

Here is my page: https://smartpa.ge/CoXB
<>,
check me out.

And, if all is well, book my calendar whenever is convenient for you.

Cheers.

[ltebby]

I appreciate your offer and your input. At this stage, I am just trying to ascertain whether the strategy I have suggested in going to have a positive image on organic rankings and our potential to generate inbound leads from our website.
I want to concentrate my efforts in the best possible direction as I have a finite amount of time and want to work smart.

[kvlschaefer]

Hi @ltebby,

Thanks for reaching out to the SEO study group!

Let's invite our subject matter experts to this conversation.

Hi @kmcready, @Alex_Elborn, @ChristinaKay - Do you have any insight for @ltebby?

Thank you!

Best,

Kristen