As a business owner, you know how important it is to grow and retain a strong customer base. One of the best things you can do to reach a wider audience is to create and share informative, valuable content on your website. Known as content marketing, this strategic approach helps drive traffic to your website. You are an expert in what you do, so use your knowledge to draw people in. In this post, Virtucom Group shares some of the key pillars of content marketing for local businesses.
Any standard Google search will result in hundreds – if not thousands – of results. And plenty of these results are confusing, poorly written, or don’t answer the searcher’s question.
When you’re developing new content to put on your website, you should have a clear set of topics that you cover, with multiple pages that reference each topic. This is important because many leading search engines have shifted their algorithms so that topic-based content ranks higher in search results. Based on the keywords in the user’s search, the algorithm will make an inference about the topical context and deliver results that best fit a specific query.
You certainly don’t want to be repetitive, but you’ll get more traffic if you use topic clusters. Let’s say you run a local business that provides landscaping and snowplowing services. You might have one landing page for landscaping and another for plowing. Your blog should have multiple posts that are related to each topic and have internal links.
For example, you might have a blog post that offers a few tips about getting your backyard ready for spring. That post should link back to your landscaping service page. This internal linking strategy helps the search engine understand the topical focus of your content and makes it easier for users to find you in search results.
A keyword is simply any term, phrase, or question that a customer might type into a search engine. For example, if a person is looking for a hair salon in their area, they might search keywords such as:
It’s important to note that with the rise of voice assistant technology like Alexa and Google Home, more and more of us are phrasing our internet searches as questions. So instead of searching “local HVAC service” on a phone, a user might say, “Alexa, how often should I have my HVAC system serviced?”
By using keywords organically throughout your website, you’ll make it easier to connect with potential customers. A good keyword strategy improves your ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs), so end users are more likely to find your business and click on your website.
When you perform a Google search, you’ve likely noticed that each search result is displayed in the same format:
The meta description is simply a couple of lines of text, which is inserted in the HTML code of a webpage. Since this description displays in search engine results, it’s an opportunity to share what information the webpage provides or what questions it might answer. A good meta description convinces end users to click on a website link, helping to drive business to the page. Since you have a limited number of words, your meta description needs to be clear, concise, and compelling. It should include one or two of the keywords that your target audience would use in a search.
As a local business, you need to connect with a specific audience. That might be people in your city, county, or state. Thus, it’s helpful for both customers and search engines to include a geographic focus in your content. Whenever someone in your target geographic area conducts a search that is related to your products or services, you’ll rank higher in SERPs if you specify the area that you serve.
If you’d like to improve your marketing efforts but aren’t sure where to start, Virtucom Group can help. With an experienced team of writers and editors, we excel at creating engaging ecommerce content that helps you reach your target audience. Based in Syracuse, New York, Virtucom Group works with small businesses across the United States. For more information on content marketing for local business needs or to schedule a consultation, contact us today.