Online marketing is changing how brick and mortar businesses and service providers that target customers in a specific geographic area get in front of their audiences. Social media marketing, email newsletters, Google Hangouts, and investments in SEO are helping small, local businesses build stronger relationships with customers while developing a steady flow of leads. A good content marketing strategy – specifically, an active business blog – is one of the key strategies that successful businesses use to establish expertise and raise their SEO profile. But writing consistently good content that’s effective for SEO and resonates with a local audience can be a challenge. Here are four tips that our writers use to help our clients dramatically increase their online presence.
Strategically target local keywords
One of the biggest mistakes that local businesses make it failing to use keywords that 
indicate their area of service in their content. Your local area should be a priority keyword that’s included in your site’s title tags, in your content, and in blog titles at regular intervals. It’s important that this appears in an organic way, rather than defaulting to keyword stuffing. For example, consider a sentence such as “Looking for a great cleaning company in Boston? We’ve been proudly serving Massachusetts businesses from Back Bay to Beacon Hill for over 20 years.” It’s possible to work in local priority keywords while creating content that flows well and is easy to read.
Develop a content mix that includes a local focus
For every business, there is top line content that your clients are going to be interested in. In the cleaning example about, this might include articles on quick ways to spruce up an office before a client visit, what to look for in a commercial cleaning service, the latest janitorial trends, or how to transition your company to green cleaning products. But it’s also important to look for opportunities to highlight topics of interest to a local audience. For example, does the winter weather in your area present special challenges for cleaning mud and snow or do you live in a warm area where businesses struggle with dust and sand? Has a company started distributing new cleaning products in your area that customers love? Will your team be at a local event demonstrating the right way to clean a grill? Whatever your business, find the local angle and ensure that drives at least half of your content.
Feature other organizations and experts from your area
You probably have a terrific professional network in your general area that you could leverage for interviews and other content creation. For example, if you own a local exterminating business, you probably frequently work with a local laboratory, cleaning services, dry cleaners, and even experts from nearby universities when combatting issues such as bedbugs. You could feature short interviews with these people discussing how testing is conducted (laboratory), what it really takes to remove bedbugs from clothes (dry cleaners), and why we’re experiencing a bedbug resurgence (local professor). These sources are likely to share the press and interviews within their own networks, expanding your exposure and giving you a clear local focus.
Take advantage of seasons and events
Every area operates on its own calendar. The seasons pass and winter’s inclement weather or the unrelenting heat of summer brings special concerns. In other cases, specific locations have community events and traditions, festivals, and tourist seasons that ebb and flow. Using these anchors are jumping off points to great, relevant local content. For example, a regional events marketing firm might publish titles such as “7 Lessons on Grassroots Event Marketing from the Chicago Strawberry Festival,” “Your Back to School Event Checklist,” or “How Ski Prep Season is a Great Metaphor for a New Event Launch.”
Consistently writing great content requires three things: creativity, clear objectives, and a connection to your audience. Strong local content can help you rank well in search engines and build relationships with your audience. If you’re struggling to move forward with your own local content marketing and SEO strategy, contact us today to learn more about how Be Locally SEO’s writing team can help grow your business.