A high local ranking on search engines entails more leads, conversions, and eventually, better profits. Content marketing is paramount in improving local SEO. When you do it right, your business gains several benefits. In this article, we dive deep into what those benefits are and how you can achieve them.

1. Higher rankings in local SERPs

Effective content marketing puts your business on the map, both literally and in terms of online visibility. Consistent efforts in publishing curated content for your target audience lead your business website to rank higher in local Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). And as a result, you will see a significant uptrend in website traffic and customer footfalls.

If you have multiple stores across multiple regions, then consider creating individual location pages. It’s easier to rank in your local area when you’ve got more than one location page. By implementing location-specific keywords on each web page, your business will appear in response to queries containing them.

2. Better voice search visibility

With almost everyone having a smartphone with a data connection in their pockets, the volume of voice searches is growing at a tremendous pace. Advancements in voice recognition technology and Natural Language Processing (NLP) make it easy for customers to find what they want online. An increasing number of individuals are using the voice search feature to search for what they want locally.

Creating a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section for your business helps optimize it for voice search. Include questions like “How do I prepare my dog for boarding?” along with its answers. Google will show those FAQs whenever a user voice-searches that exact question.

3. Connect with your audience at a deep level

As you’re looking to garner more traffic to your local business website, your content must match what is happening locally – in either your city, state, or country. By doing so, your audience will have a deeper connection with your brand. That, in turn, improves website traffic, leads, and eventually conversions.

You can connect with your local audience by knowing what events are happening and about to happen locally. Let’s say there is a traditional festival coming up. Creating content relevant to that festival while including your business products and services as backlinks can go a long way in improving your rankings.

4. Gain the trust of your local audience

Content marketing is different from advertising. The latter is often intrusive to users online, but the former is a welcome piece of information. By providing meaningful content to your niche audience, your local audience will trust the messages you want to convey to them. Because when people look for information online, your content will answer their search queries.

The best practice to make your content appear in SERPs is to write content specific to your business’s location. By adding location keywords such as “in New York” at the end of your content title, your business will appear more prominently on search engines. An example is “Where can you find the best tacos in New York?”.

5. Appear more credible to customers

There are various reputed business directories on the web. And many of them have high Domain Authority (DA). When these websites provide backlinks to your business website, your credibility skyrockets. Customers will affiliate your business with the authority of those directories, and consequently, will be likely to engage with you more.

You can gain backlinks from authoritative websites by writing listicles and guides. Not to mention, don’t forget to implement location-specific keywords in them. An example title of a guide would be “10 coffee shops that offer the best lattes in Philadelphia”.

6. Increase in customers

Whether you’re looking to attract website traffic from other businesses or individuals, content marketing helps garner both types of traffic. The more content you push out into the online world, the more customers you will have enquiring about the products and services you have to offer. Besides blogs and articles, case studies help attract prospects to your business.

Source: Facebook for Business

Publish rich case studies on products that your clients use. Talk about how your products and services helped those clients amp up their business potential. Potential customers who read them have a high chance of contacting you through your website.

7. Improvement in conversion rates

The conversion rates of any online business website depend on several factors. One significant factor is reviews. They are essential in helping customers decide on purchasing your products and services. When customers see your presence online, there is a good chance they will look up your reviews to figure out if your business is worth visiting or not.

Gather customer reviews by sending out review request links from your Google My Business profile. In addition to that, collect the best customer testimonials and display them on your landing page. They help boost your conversion rates.

8. Stronger local search visibility

By consistently publishing location-specific content that engages customers, your business website gains more exposure. As more users click on your content, Google begins giving your website priority. Ultimately, whenever users search for a phrase that contains keywords that match yours, then your content will appear. It improves local search visibility.

To gain a competitive edge in a region, conduct a keyword audit on your website. Look for opportunities wherein you can update previous keywords to new keywords that have a location in them. Doing so helps elevate your business’s local visibility.

9. Control product sales

Customers look for comprehensive information that gives them a clear picture of what to buy and not to buy. When the source of information is credible enough, customers tend to follow through and make purchases accordingly. By addressing key concerns your local audience has with your products and services, you can control what they spend their money on to a great extent.

You can influence the purchase decisions of customers with content. You can write about the reasons why they should opt for a specific product or a service. On top of that, you can write about its pros and cons. When your content gathers a lot of clicks, your content will help boost your local visibility. At the same time, it will impact purchase trends.

10. Leap in authority

Content that speaks to the specific needs of your target audience achieves a high clickthrough rate on search engines. When such content is educational, they will attract backlinks from high Domain Authority (DA) websites. All of this collectively results in a leap in your business website’s DA. And that improves your local SEO.

Your website’s DA is directly proportional to the content you publish from time to time. It’s not about how many blogs, videos, and image content you publish. What matters more is how relevant they are to your potential visitors.

11. Amplification of brand awareness

Customers are most often skeptical about reaching out to a business that is not very popular. They seldom engage with the ones they have never come across. On the flip side, content marketing plays a crucial role in getting your brand’s name across to a large audience. It helps improve brand awareness.

When you publish meaningful content that satisfies people’s queries in a specific region, your page ranks higher locally. As more people view your web page for answers, they will get to know about your brand. This way, content helps amplify your brand awareness in a particular location.

12. Grows followers on your social media

Most successful businesses have a large following on their social media profiles. A growing number of followers translates to increased engagement and higher credibility. To accumulate followers, you will need to post innovative content on social media platforms frequently. That is a content marketing strategy. Doing so keeps your profiles active and fresh to potential followers.

You can publish many types of content on different social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Create polls, upload contests, announce new products and services, and more. All of them improve your social media presence and, in turn, your local visibility.

13. Reduces workload for your customer service team

Good content marketing takes a significant chunk of workload off the hands of your customer service team. Subsequently, your support team can focus on resolving more sophisticated issues while the content on your website answers most customer queries. While it minimizes the workload for your team, publishing niche-related content also improves your local SEO.

Write brief articles about the most common problems your customers face. These articles can be an extension of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). For example, an individual searches something like “Trains to Paris.”, your content will appear.

14. Enriched engagement

Content marketing is a great tool for engaging online visitors. For local SEO, it works best when you aim to market your content on local websites. You can do this by publishing guest posts and other forms of content on them.

By determining the target location, you want to rank in; you can narrow down on local websites that belong to your niche and begin posting your content there. It is a fruitful way of building local links. This tactic also helps drive a good amount of traffic to your site.