How Blogging Can Skyrocket Your Local Search SEO

82% of shoppers conduct research on their smartphone before choosing to buy a product in-store, which means that businesses have to pay a lot more attention to listing well in local searches. If you run a business, there are many tactics at your disposal to help you achieve this, but blogging seems to be one of the most effective tools.

In this post, we will show you how to use your blog to skyrocket your local SEO. If you would like tips on the other methods, check out the infographic compiled by SEO Tribunal for more details.

Think Locally

What would the people in your town want information on? What kind of language would they use to look for that information? Your keyword phrases need to be more specific and closer to the natural language that your users would use.

So, consider “Where is the closest Italian restaurant?” instead of something like, “List the best Italian restaurants in London.” Think about all the potential questions that people may ask and the way that they would ask them. Then use those phrases in your content.

Get Location Specific

Let us say that your business is in London. Do you cover the whole London metropolitan area or specific suburbs? Use both the word London and the suburbs you are active in. Do they have any nicknames amongst locals? Use them as well.

And, don’t forget about neighboring areas and, if applicable, towns as well.

Cover Issues Important To The Community

Why not blog about upcoming events and then cover them as you would if you were a reporter? Create a resource for your audience by writing about local news, and you will go quite far. People will check in regularly and possibly share the news, which is all great news for your page.

Have Your Blog Linked To Your Domain

Instead of running site and blog separately, have your blog be a page on your site’s domain. That way, people linking to your blog are automatically linking to your site as well. And the increased credibility that your blog achieves also helps your website.

Give Information That Is Useful And Interesting

Every once in a while, it seems to be great to give a behind-the-scenes glance at what goes on in your business. It also seems to make sense to write about the products and services that you offer. This is, oddly enough, a bad approach.

You need to refocus and make your blog all about the audience. They are going to expect you to want to get in some sales pitches every now and again, but if that is the only thing you try to do, they won’t hang around for all that long.

Use your expertise in the industry to provide helpful advice. Let’s go back to the idea of the Italian restaurant as an example. Instead of going on about the menu, perhaps you could give a recipe or two for dishes you don’t make.

Or, what about an article on getting food stains out of your clothes, or dining etiquette, etc. Your website is all about your company. Your blog should be all about what your client will find interesting and useful.

Get Involved Online

Who are the other businesses in the area that would work well with your product? Say, for example, you have that article about getting food stains out of your clothes, what about linking to a local dry cleaner as well?

Read the blogs of local businesses in your community and get involved by commenting on their posts. The key is to make it obvious in the comments that you have read their post and not to leave generic comments.

This encourages reciprocal action on the part of other businesses as well. Together, you can build up a nice community online where you support one another.

Make Sure The Details Match

Every time you list your contact details online, you must make sure that you write the same details. The numbers and address on your blog, social media page, website, and local directories must all be the same. This improves the credibility of your site.

Create Content That Kills And Post Regularly

If you don’t have the time to write great content and to make sure that it is flawless, you need to hire someone to do this for you. Blogs are less formal than websites, but that does not mean you can slack off a lot.

If you have not put in a good effort, it will be immediately obvious and will hurt your blog’s credibility. Spend time crafting posts that you and your company can be proud of, rather than just writing when you have five minutes or so to spare – the effort will pay for itself in more organic traffic.