Sep 13, 2021
Leverage These Insights to Turn Your Agency Team Into Local SEO Rockstars
Local SEO requires a different approach than general search engine optimization campaigns. To become a true rockstar among other competing agencies, you have to apply global-sized thinking to local execution.
As a digital performance partner for digital marketing agencies serving many local markets across the United States, we’ve learned quite a bit about local SEO along the way. We’re going to share some agency insights to help you best leverage your white label digital partnership to become a truly major player in your client’s local market.
1. Gather as Much Local Intel as Possible
Research the general region where your client’s business is located. Then, conduct research on their municipality, county, the other surrounding counties, and eventually the state. Be sure to also read up on local government regulations that may impact the way your client conducts their business.
Other aspects of local intel you might want to research can include, but are not limited to:
Seasonal climate conditions that may affect business
Proximity to major cities and local economic hubs
Median household income of the local population
Other demographic data of local residents (i.e., Age, race, education level, etc.)
Top local employers where potential customers might work
2. Research Local Competitors In-Depth
Perform a local search related to your client’s business. For example, if your client is a medical provider in Ocean County, New Jersey, you can search “doctors office in Toms River” and view a variety of local competitors’ websites and Google MyBusiness listings.
Perform a thorough review of these competitors’ websites. Look for aspects of these sites that might be outperforming your client’s digital presence. Look for factors like:
Do the competitors have more content on their pages?
Do the competitors have better quality content?
Do they have a more intuitive user experience design?
Are they using links more effectively on their website?
Do they have more consistently optimized meta descriptions and headers than your client?
These surface-level aspects of a website can provide you with a detailed initial overview of your client’s competitors. This will aid you in developing a strategy to elevate your client’s own website to remain viably competitive in their market.
You can also use site examining tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs to take a deeper look into competitors’ websites to gather more granular data. These tools can provide you with advanced intel like:
A website’s text-to-HTML ratio
Number of broken links found on the website
Instances of duplicate on-page copy
Keywords that competitors are currently ranking for on organic search
3. Make Sure Your Client’s Digital Presence Has Updated Location Information
Businesses that target local audiences often have their information displayed on a variety of different digital channels. These can include their own website, social media profiles, Google MyBusiness listings, directory portals, and more.
Take an inventory of each channel that lists your client’s business information. Ensure that all of their contact information, address, and business hours, and website URL are up-to-date on each property. If one or more are inaccurate, be sure to address this immediately.
4. Identify Directory Opportunities Your Client is Missing Out On
Online directories with local listings dominate local organic search results. These portals are considered of the highest authority by search engine algorithms, which means they face little difficulty achieving a top-3 ranking.
Directories generate a large amount of organic referral traffic for your client’s website. If their site is not in the top-5 organic results for a specific keyword, but their Yelp listing is, this can result in many Yelp visitors clicking through to your client’s website if they want to learn more about their business.
If your client is missing key directory listings for their local market and general industry, take inventory of them and plan to add their business to these channels as soon as possible. This will play an instrumental role in supplementing your organic traffic generation with referral links.
5. Build a Local Keyword Strategy
“(Product or service) near me” is the king of local SEO keywords. Whenever a user includes the qualifier “near me” in their search term, Google leverages the device’s location function to provide local results.
On your client’s website, be sure to tastefully call out specific locations in their content. This will indicate to Google that the business serves local customers in that specific area. For example, the H1 heading on a physical therapist’s homepage in Lincoln, Nebraska might be “Top Physical Therapy Center in Lincoln, NE” with the focus keyword being “physical therapy Lincoln NE”.
6. Be A Digital Neighbor
People often support local businesses because they are owned and operated by their neighbors. In a similar vein, operate your client’s online channels like a digital neighbor. On their Google properties, social profiles, and directory listings, perform regular actions like:
Respond to reviews from all customers, no matter the rating.
Post notices of any changes in business hours, unusual closures, holiday schedules, etc.
Link to new content on the client’s website, such as blog posts, to channels that allow you to post updates like Facebook and Google MyBusiness.
Respond to questions, comments, and messages on these properties and provide links to the client’s website if the page can help satisfy a user’s needs.
Share images of the business to the client’s Google MyBusiness profile, directory listings, and social media channels. These will also aid your client in ranking for image results on search engines.
Scale Your Agency To True Local SEO Rockstardom
Local SEO is a far more nuanced variation of search engine optimization that requires consistent experience to become a true rockstar. At Conduit, we’ve built a team of expert certified SEO analysts and managers that have built countless local SEO campaign strategies for agency clients all across North America and around the globe.
As digital performance partners, we help agencies scale by meeting their needs with a full suite of services to round out their own in-house core offerings. If you’re ready to scale to becoming a true local SEO rockstar, contact us today to learn more about our white label SEO services.
