LOCAL SEO WHITE

PAPER
Making your brand famous in your location
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter I
Introduction Managing Business Listings
and Social Pages

01 02
Chapter II Chapter III
Optimizing Websites for Targeting Local Markets
Local Audiences with Content

03 05
Chapter IV Chapter V
Building Quality Citations Managing Customer Reviews

07 08
Chapter VI
Conclusion

08
Local SEO White Paper | 1
 INTRODUCTION

All SEO aims to increase a business’ visibility to a targeted audience, but local SEO takes
targeting even further. By focusing on customers and prospects in a specific area, local
SEO can drive traffic to websites and physical establishments. Gaining an edge against
your local competitors is made possible through local SEO.

Restaurants, retail stores, law firms, car dealerships, and even dental or medical clinics
can benefit from local SEO.

An effective local campaign requires a combination of geo-targeted optimization and

content marketing, business listings and backlinks, and user-generated reviews.

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 Chapter I

MANAGING BUSINESS LISTINGS

AND SOCIAL PAGES

Google My Business may be the most popular listing website, but that doesn’t mean you
have to limit your local campaign to that. We claim, verify, and manage your business
listings on:

Google's Business Guidelines change quite often, it is therefore crucial we make sure
that the information on the business pages are correct and change as the business
changes.

Your local campaigns may also benefit from our social media services, which will cover
your Facebook and Twitter accounts. We keep these listings and pages updated for your
business.

Chapter II

OPTIMIZING WEBSITES FOR LOCAL AUDIENCES

Local SEO uses the same elements as traditional SEO does, but it requires a few
specifically targeted elements as well.

CONTACT INFORMATION AND BUSINESS HOURS

This is the information search engines, listings or directories, and customers often
look for when they first visit local business websites. A business’ operating hours and
contact information, which includes its physical address and phone number, should be
displayed on every page of its website.

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HYPER LOCAL KEYWORDS

Keywords and phrases containing the business’ location should appear in title tags,
meta descriptions, and content. Simply targeting a city or state may not be enough to
drive local leads. Going hyper local by targeting even more specific communities within
your city can help get more customers through your doors.

Our SEO teams analyze where local website traffic is coming from and use that data to
choose better geo-targeted keywords.

Chapter III

TARGETING LOCAL MARKETS WITH CONTENT

Content marketing for local campaigns requires the same amount of creativity and
quality for any other SEO campaign, but there needs to be a stronger emphasis on calls
to action, influence marketing, and topics relevant to the business’ location.

FEATURING LOCAL CREATING BRAND ESTABLISHING BUSINESS

TOPICS ADVOCATES IDENTITY

Our writers create Our writers don’t just sell We use schema markup
content based on what’s or announce your to make sure on your
relevant to your business products and services; website's local content is
and your location. Writing they encourage customer correctly identified by
about local trends or loyalty and create brand search engines.
even area-specific laws advocates. These
◦ Local Business Information
that are related to your customers who love your (Phone, Address, Business
industry is always a good brand can promote them Name, Opening Hours)
way to establish your through word of mouth ◦ Map Schema
◦ Product Information
authority as an by sharing content on
Schemas
information resource. social media. ◦ Images and Logo schemas

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 Chapter IV

BUILDING QUALITY CITATIONS

Quality backlinks is an important aspect of any SEO campaign, but citations are even
more important for local SEO. Citations are brand mentions made by customers or
other businesses on third-party websites. These brand mentions are key ranking factors
in local search.

Some of the most important and effective types of citations:

SOCIAL OR BLOG CONTENT:

Encouraging brand advocates and local influencers to talk about you
in their blogs and social media accounts is a good way to acquire
citations.

BUSINESS LISTINGS AND REVIEWS

Listings in business directories, local networks, and review sites in
themselves are citations. Managing these listings and getting more
customers to post positive reviews of your business can add more
citations.

GUEST POSTS AND MAGAZINE PUBLICATIONS

Getting other people to write about your business in an online
magazine or publishing your own articles and press releases can
increase your exposure and establish your brand as a leading
authority in your niche.

Our local SEO packages include citation building and link development services to help
get your brand’s name mentioned in social media, online publications, and more.

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 Chapter V

MANAGING CUSTOMER REVIEWS

Your local listings and social accounts need to have unique content that goes beyond
your business description, operating hours, and contact details. The best way to get this
type of content is through customer reviews.

Integrating links to your social media pages and business listings in your website,
publishing press releases about your new listings, and engaging customers through
online content can also get them to share their thoughts.

The best way to encourage positive reviews from your customers is by providing great
services and quality products, however it's not the only way.

Here are some of the techniques we use:

◦ Magazine/News Placement
◦ Blog Post Outreach
◦ Press Release Creation and Submission
◦ Video Creation and Submission

Chapter VI

CONCLUSION

With more search moving to mobile each day, it's imperative that local businesses adopt
a local SEO strategy. It's not a matter of simply increasing traffic to your site, it's about
staying geographically relevant to your audience and not losing out to your competitors.

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