The last time you needed to find a plumber, electrician, repair shop, lawyer, doctor, or restaurant, how did you phrase your search?
If you are like others, then you probably used what you want to find with the city that you are in.
Your location can influence search queries on Google. If you live in California, then you are not going to use a doctor that is located in New York.
That is why it is so vital that sites use local SEO when it comes to marketing. The recent adjustments to the Google algorithm have made local SEO a big influencer for SERPs.
Local SEO is just another part of SEO, but it will mainly focus on optimizing your site to be found in local search results.
For instance, if you live in Chicago and you need to find a new doctor, you could search
- Doctor in Chicago
- Chicago doctor
- Doctor near me
Whenever you need a doctor, the first place that you will tend to go is Google. Any business needs to push for local SEO for their site.
Build a City Page to Boost Your Local SEO for Your Business
If you want to climb up the rankings in Local SEO results on Google, you will need to focus on strong content focused locally using keywords, link building, and on-page optimization.
One of the best ways to increase your local SEO is to build city pages to help grow your pages. For instance, a Chicago electrician would love to get business from the surrounding cities.
Even though the electrician has a physical address in Chicago, they can add city pages to their site and gain more business from the surrounding cities.
Keep in mind that these pages will need to have unique content. Google will penalize websites with duplicated content, so you cannot just change a word or two for each location.
However, businesses can benefit from optimized, quality pages with a boost in their organic traffic that turns into leads and then into revenue.
It would help if you kept this in mind when you decide to create city pages:
- Try to include more than 300 words of local content on each page.
- Use hyper-local keywords in the content as much as possible, but please be careful not to overuse them because filling keywords will also be penalized by Google.
- Also, write your content for others, not just climb SERPs. In other words, your content should add value in a relatively readable and helpful way.
- Adding local customer recommendations on the location page can help build trust. The more recommended books, the better.
Merge Location Data Points in the City Page
Ensure location data points in the city page content to help improve the target area’s ranking.
The data point will signal to Google the target area within your city page like the electrician in Illinois. If you want to set up a city page near Chicago, Illinois, to attract businesses around you, you want to include famous landmarks or destinations in Chicago in your content.
Some options to keep in mind on your city page:
- Museum or zoo
- Stadium
- Top restaurant
- School District
The more data points you can include, the better you can consolidate the target area. And you also want to add an external link to these destinations, which can also help improve your SEO ranking.
Internal Links and Backlinks are Essential
Backlinks are still important for local SEO. A link back to your website can help you determine Google’s ranking authority.
A website with high-quality content and high authority that links to your website can improve your ranking. These backlinks to your website can promote your SEO efforts.
Besides, internal links on your website can benefit your business. You should link the relevant internal page to the city page. The ranking of the city page on your website may increase as the ranking of internal links to other pages on your website rises. Internal links also show your relevance and authority, thereby adding value to readers.
Use internal links to discuss more the products and services you offer, and there may be more in-depth explanations of benefits. Use internal links in the blog content that may be relevant to your city page.
Internal and external links increase the credibility of your website and increase your authority and ranking.
Online Reviews and Recommendations can Help Local SEO
Customers landing on your city page will be looking for recommendations and online reviews of your products or services to understand better the products or services you can provide.
For many businesses, especially e-commerce and service-based industries, online reviews have become essential. Online reviews can help improve your credibility and trust, but they can also improve SEO results. Online reviews play an important role in Google’s ranking of local businesses. The more the number and quality of reviews a business gets, the more benefits it can get through local SEO.
Google also recommends that you respond to every online comment to help build trust with customers and improve your local SEO work.
Ensure that you have your company listed on different review platforms like Facebook, Yelp, Angie’s List, Google My Business, and other platforms.
Reviews will show Google that you have a business that is high quality and is consumer relevant. Your business should make reviews a priority as part of your marketing strategy. If you need help, you can use various services to help.
Conclusion
One of the most essential parts of search engine marketing (SEM) strategies is to use Local SEO. Every single business should think about ways that it can improve its local SEO and look for opportunities to expand its coverage.
Setting up a city page is a great way to start strengthening your local SEO efforts, but make sure you focus on high-quality content, not just filling.
Keep the following in mind: If you can’t find your company online via Google search, you are invisible.
If you need help to develop a local SEO strategy for your business and increase potential customers and revenue, please contact Sages Marketing today.
