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Local SEO Content: Improve Your Local Presence

Want to rank for searches within a specific city? The solution is simple; Be city-specific with the content you publish. Local SEO content is an excellent way to get search engines to recognize the city in which you want to improve your local search presence.

What is local SEO content?

Local SEO content is content that is optimized for a city-specific keyword. The content within your page will identify unique elements that relate the content to a specific city.

By identifying popular landmarks, places, addresses or anything unique to the locality, your page and your website become more closely associated with searches that originate from your target location.

There are a few different types of content that work well to optimize for your city, county, state or province. Here are seven of the more popular types that you’re most likely to see used on a website.

Expert round up from professionals in your city

An expert roundup is a form of evergreen content where you combine the quotes from a group of professionals. Confining the area in which you collect your quotes will make your content local to your city.

You can generate a lot of good local backlinks from different local experts that will in turn boost the competitive ability of your website within your city. People will link to your content when they are featured in it.

This type of content can be combined with an infographic to really improve the likelihood of your project being shared within your industry. An example of this is 12 Web Design Trends In 2020 By Toronto Experts.

In this example, 18 experts shared their opinions on the top web design trends for 2020. The infographic was shared and used on a few of the participant’s sites, which accounted for a boost in local traffic.

You can read the details in a local SEO strategy case study.

Local client surveys

Create a survey for your clients that will help you understand how to serve them better as well as create extremely targeted content. Original data is one of the most valuable assets you can obtain in terms of content creation. Focus your survey on your local clientele to create highly optimized content.

One of the benefits of generating your own data is that you can promote your content to other companies in your niche. When you have something no one else it becomes a linkable asset. Other websites will be much more likely to use your data as a resource when the information is coming straight from your own research.

Host a local event

If you’re planning on hosting an event, no matter how small or large, you should be writing about it on your blog. Include the name, address and times of the event and use structured data mark up on your page.

Hosting your own local event creates an opportunity to publish highly optimized content to your city. As search engines index your site, the amount of local content you’ve published contributes to a stronger local presence.

Sponsor a local event

If your business covers service areas or you simply don’t have the resources to host an event, there are plenty of opportunities to sponsor a local event.

Simply getting a link to your website on the sites that are promoting the local event is worth the local optimization points. These events should take place in the city you’re optimizing for and you can write about the event on your blog to promote awareness.

Here’s an example of a Meetup group in Toronto that has six sponsors listed on their Meetup page.

This Toronto Meetup group has sponsors that can use this material for local SEO content

You can look for opportunities to sponsor events on sites like Meetup, Eventbrite and your local chamber of commerce.

Location pages

If your website operates in multiple locations, a location page for that city will give you the best opportunity to rank highly for city-specific search terms.

Location pages can be optimized to provide more relevance to the target location. With a page dedicated to a specific city, you can optimize for the city in the metadata as well as include city-specific references within your content.

Here’s an example of the Toronto location page for Roto-Rooter. You can see the URL includes the province and city. The title (h1 tag) is also Toronto, On.

Roto-Rooter Toronto location page as an example of local SEO content

If you have an address located within that city, your NAP details should be included in your on-page optimization. Including structured data mark up will ensure search engines know your page is dedicated to a specific city.

Write about local events and activities

Publish content on local events and activities that relate to your business. Give your audience updates on current events that affect your locality and how it relates to your business. 

Content that makes city-specific references and links builds your local notoriety for both users and search engines.  

FAQ page and/or section

Publish a frequently asked questions page to win positions on the SERP (search engine results page) and drive more traffic to your site.

You can use a FAQ page to target featured snippets and PAA boxes. The sweet spot to appear in these SERP features are answers to commonly asked questions that fall within the 40-60-word count.

Use h-tags to mark up your questions.

You can even add FAQ sections to location pages or any page where it makes sense. Use structured data to mark up your content. This will make your page eligible for rich results when it ranks on the first page of Google.

Create a local SEO content strategy

Every business will have different opportunities available for working out an effective local content strategy. Identify the best traffic opportunities as well as the best link building opportunities to harmonize your efforts.

Develop a strong local presence to capitalize on some of the highest converting traffic available. Make sure your content includes a local element to build your brand recognition in your locality.

Create A Custom SEO Strategy For Long-term Growth

Establishing an effective, custom SEO strategy for your business is more important now than it ever has been. The global pandemic has created a strong awareness of the options that exist to people in a contactless environment.

Many people will continue to explore those options long after the pandemic is over. As online searches continue to surge, companies are experiencing a large increase in the demand for their products.

The benefits of SEO have never been greater. A top-ranking in the search results for important keywords can contribute to the largest source of leads and new clients your business acquires.

Many companies relying on the in-store experience have felt the impact, while those positioned at the top of the search results have experienced a boost in brand recognition and overall sales.

The bottom line is that your business needs to be prepared for more digital solutions in a contactless environment. A custom SEO strategy is one of your best solutions to ensuring long-term growth.

Why is SEO important in 2020?

Despite the inevitable end of a global pandemic, the behavioural patterns of the typical consumer has been changed forever. Online searches have surged creating massive traffic opportunities for companies to capitalize on to increase revenue.

So many have turned to online shopping for the first time. As people become more accustomed to researching and making purchases online the trend in online sales will continue to skyrocket.

Ecommerce is booming and will continue its rapid expansion of total sales. The numbers this year will break all records and extend past initial projections.

ecommerce predictions suggest increased importance of a custom SEO strategy
image source: https://www.emarketer.com/content/us-ecommerce-2020

How can you position your company to benefit from the inevitable shift in the way we do business?

Position your website to receive increased search traffic to capture more leads and new clients. Execute a custom SEO campaign designed to drive traffic from keywords that are important to your business.

What is an SEO campaign?

An SEO campaign is a process that improves your website’s search visibility through improved rankings in keyword searches. It results in attracting visitors who are a match to what your business offers in products and services.

An SEO campaign provides the blueprint for developing your site in the major keyword topics that surround the inner workings of your business. As you build content that answers questions and educates visitors, your site becomes increasingly relevant to keyword searches.

As a result, your website appears in keyword-related searches from users at different stages of the buyer journey.

The buyer journey details the different types of content that need to be created in an SEO strategy
image source: https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/what-is-the-buyers-journey

The goal is to create a website that has the ability to drive traffic, educate prospects and convert visitors to clients.

How to customize your SEO strategy and build an effective SEO campaign

The main focus of an SEO campaign is on the keywords you target and the content you publish. The largest ranking factor is being the best result to a search query. An SEO campaign builds the relevance of your page to the keyword topics and targets.

Understand your audience by researching your target keyword

Establishing search intent is crucial to understanding what it is that Google is using to rank pages highly in a search result. Keyword research is the first area that establishes the foundation of an effective SEO strategy.

What is the user truly expecting to find when they type in a search query?

Whenever you’re considering a keyword to target, the first action is to use that keyword in a search. The SERP (search engine result page) contains a lot of information that will point to what is needed to rank for the search term.

Reverse engineer the way other pages have achieved a top ranking to provide clues on how your site will outperform your competition.

Perform a SERP analysis

For every keyword search you will find the following on the SERP:

  • The level of competition that competes for the first page
  • The type of content that is being used to rank
  • How pages are optimized to perform
  • How many links are pointing to the ranking pages
  • How Google displays the search result
  • The commercial value of the search term

Establish intent

The first assessment is whether this term is a perfect fit for your company. If the pages that rank are all competitors that are offering the same product or service it confirms the relevance of the keyword to your business.

If there is a mix of results, consider a more specific search term to avoid unwanted traffic that wouldn’t be interested in your content.

Assess the competition

Using software and keyword tools becomes necessary in order to establish the authority competing pages have built. By identifying the number of links each page has pointing to it, where those links came from and whether they will benefit your site is the first indication of how realistic your keyword is to rank.

Build a list of alternative keywords

A search result can display many different features that are clues to what users are searching for when they search for your keyword. Establish commonly used phrases and keyword alternatives to build a better understanding of what the bigger picture is to the user’s true intent.

Read more on how to choose the perfect keywords for your site

Prioritize your target keywords

Keyword research will result in a large list of keywords, keyword synonyms and related search phrases. Prioritize your list in order of importance. Group your keywords based on search intent.

The result should be a keyword strategy that addresses the most important aspects of your keyword topic. This is the initial blueprint of a keyword strategy that lays the foundation for your content strategy.

Develop your Content Strategy

The approach you take on building content should be to provide as much information about your business by building a resource of information. The content you publish should answer common questions, provide insight and educate based on satisfying the intent of the keywords you target.

As your site becomes more successful in ranking for these terms, it increases the trust search engines place on your website for keyword related searches.

Map your content to match your keyword strategy

A visual representation of a keyword strategy is known as a topic cluster. Google ranks pages based on topical relevance. Connecting the ideas and concepts of your main keyword topic builds more relevance to your site and to the pages that are interlinked.

topic clusters concept to structure your content in an SEO campaign
Image source: https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/what-are-topic-clusters

The pillar pages of your site will target the most important keywords. The clustered content will target more specific searches that serve connect visitors to your business by addressing the various details surrounding your keyword topic.

Read about how to implement pillar pages

Publish content that performs

The content you publish needs to serve the user’s purpose. If there are massive guides that are published on the first page of results for your keyword, it indicates the level of detail that’s required.

The Skyscraper method is a common approach to making sure your content is 10 times better than anything that ranks.

Using this approach ensures you cover the topics and subtopics necessary to address the intent of a search.

Read about how to write SEO content that ranks highly

As a local business, publishing local SEO content is a strategy that enhances your local search appearance.

Optimize for traffic opportunities

When your page ranks at the top of a result, it ranks for a number of different keywords. People use a number of different terms in a search-even though they are searching for the same content. Part of your content strategy includes optimizing for additional terms as well as traffic opportunities that exist in Google features.

Featured snippets and PAA boxes, for example, are considered and traffic opportunities because they are features that attract a percentage of clicks on the search engine result page.

featured snippet and PAA box are traffic opportunities in your content strategy

Optimize to appear in these features for additional traffic to the same page for multiple related search terms.

Link building strategy

Link building is necessary to get votes of confidence in the quality of your content. Well-placed links to your content build credibility and authority in your niche and industry.

There are a number of different link building methods you can employ, but regardless of what you choose the strategy should appear as natural as possible.

A common tactic employed is to assess your competitor’s links. By identifying where their links come from, you can pick up on a few links for your site.

Not every link on a competing page will be good for your ranking. In fact, there may be links pointing to their site that don’t help them and are hurting their ranking potential.

Choose to pursue links from websites that have traffic and whose visitors will be genuinely interested in your content. This approach helps to identify the sites that have a strong relation to yours and also get more people on your site that has a strong possibility to become clients.

Reach out to similar niche and authority sites

Most SEO campaigns require some level of outreach. In order to get links in the most natural way, it’s common to reach out to website owners who publish similar content.

The success of your link building depends largely on the quality of your content. When you have good content worth sharing people won’t mind linking to it.

Achieve goals and benchmark your success with your SEO strategy

Every SEO campaign should end with the goal of driving traffic to your site from keyword searches that serve a role in your overall keyword strategy.

Creating content that ranks is a primary function of traffic generation. With the right keyword strategy, your website will thrive from the flow of visitors that convert to clients.

Customize your SEO campaign to achieve keyword related goals and drive traffic that converts.

The Benefits of SEO: The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Search engine optimization is one of the top choices for business owners who are interested in the growth of their company. The benefits of SEO are quite numerous however the reality is that this online marketing strategy has become more of a necessity than a luxury.

The number of companies that actively invest in SEO is growing. In fact, 61% of businesses have stated that SEO will have a place in their budget in 2020 (up from 44% in 2018). With more companies investing in SEO, the leaders will keep leading and putting distance behind those who aren’t following suit.

SEO isn’t a quick process and with most SEO companies you have to pay before you play. At the end of the day, the benefits will far outweigh the cost as the process is essentially adding value to your website on a regular basis.

Here is an infographic on how the process works.

Here are a few benefits of SEO that will put your mind at ease when you make that inevitable decision to invest in the future of your company.

#1-Increased traffic to your website

In order to drive traffic to your website, your pages need to rank highly. It also helps to have a lot of relevant backlinks that can send your site traffic from relevant sources.

There should be no doubt anymore that search engine optimization is a necessary function for competing in the search results. Google recommends that website owners seek the help of an SEO professional to ensure the correct development of a website.

Implementing a custom SEO strategy will target your audience, optimize your content to get a higher ranking and drive more traffic.

#2-Increased development in your niche

A great deal of SEO is publishing content about the major topics and subtopics of your website or company. The process for publishing SEO optimized blog posts identifies areas in which users are showing interest. By addressing the most commonly searched problems by providing solutions, you develop your website to be a major resource in your niche.

As you build on the quality and quantity of content assets on your site it triggers more appearances in the search results for keyword related queries. This drives more relevant traffic that converts at a higher rate.

#3-Brand recognition

Most people prefer to buy from a brand they trust and recognize. Search engine optimization creates more keyword appearances for search terms that are related to your niche. The more a user comes across your website while doing their research, the more likely they are to trust your company.

#4-More new clients

The domino effect is in play when you increase rankings for important keywords to your business. The higher your page ranks, the more traffic is generated. Increase the number of visitors on your site and that results in more leads and new clients.

#5-Reach a targeted audience

One of the biggest aspects of creating SEO content is keyword research. A consultant goes through a series of routine checks to make sure a keyword will drive the right traffic. During the process, many related search terms and topics become apparent and thus become included in the strategy for optimizing a page for a keyword topic.

#6-Higher user engagement

If you’ve done your research correctly, your pages should contain all of the topics that a user is looking for when they search for your keyword. Competitive analysis of the ranking pages will identify what content or multimedia is working best to hold the audience’s attention.

#7-More leads on a consistent basis

The primary reason to optimize your website is to drive more traffic that is interested in what you’re offering. As you develop more content that is specifically for users on each stage of the buyer journey, your site becomes more capable of converting visitors along their journey. The results are more leads on a regular basis.

#8-Improves site structure

The structure of your website plays a role is the experience your users have-which, in turn, sends ranking signals to search engines. It’s important to have a site that allows a user to navigate easily from wherever they are on your website.

When a site is organized by topic, it makes things easier for users to experience more depth within your topic. The organizational structure referred to as topic clusters contribute to higher rankings for a specific keyword topic.

#9-Blueprint for growth

An SEO campaign will target a specific keyword and develop a page or multiple pages around that topic. A great deal of research goes into identifying the best keywords to fit the website’s strategy.

One of the greatest benefits of SEO is having a plan in place for driving traffic. When your company has an established blueprint for achieving specific goals, success can be measured, adjusted and accelerated.

#10-Increased revenue

New leads, new clients and increased revenue all fit into the same overarching goal. The whole point in investing money into your website is to make more money from the increased traffic.

One of the benefits of SEO is the fact it provides one of the best ROI’s in the marketing industry. What could be better being found by users who are actually looking for what you offer?

Conversions are higher than those of paid advertising. However, unlike PPC campaigns, when you stop paying for SEO services, your site continues to drive traffic, leads and new clients to your business.

#11-Alternate stream of income

For companies whose sales have traditionally been in person, SEO can offer an alternate stream of income once they make products available for purchase on-site.

This additional revenue can overcome the inconvenience of distance for many potential clients. This can open up entirely new markets that would have otherwise been unattainable.

#12-Contactless service

Selling products online allows companies to continue making sales; even while regular store hours are closed. A website that ranks for transactional keywords can make money 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Ecommerce is a quarantine-proof business if your products are also quarantine-proof. Another one of the benefits of SEO is that it connects customers and vendors despite any types of restrictions or limitations placed on physical interactions.

#13-Reach a larger audience

Search engine optimization allows your business to expand your audience. There are no physical limits. As long as your products or services are consumable by a global audience, the world is at your fingertips.

#14-Improve your online presence

When your company, brand or any keyword related search is made, you want your website to come up in the search results. Improve your online presence for anything related to your niche through a variety of platforms and practices. Options include but are not limited to content marketing, guest posting on high authority sites, expanding your social network, starting a YouTube channel.

#15-Enhance your local presence

As a local business, you want your neighbourhood to know about your company and think of your business when they need something you offer. Local SEO is all about improving your search visibility for localized searches of your products and services.

At least half of all searches made on Google are to obtain information on a local business. Local SEO in Toronto contributes to as much as 80% of businesses total revenue. This is one aspect of SEO that can’t be ignored by companies that offer local services.

#16-Explore a variety of traffic sources

Search engine optimization gives you the option to explore different sources of traffic. There are different search engines to optimize for, paid ads, local pack ranking, SERP features and social media marketing. YouTube, Amazon and even Facebook and other social sites are considered their own search engines, which gives companies more options for sources of traffic.

#17-Identify technical errors on site

Technical SEO can help your website by making pages accessible. Issues that affect your ranking are page speed, duplicate content and indexing issues. An SEO consultant will catch those problems and correct them before they snowball.

#18-Adapt to changes in the algorithm

Google is constantly updating its algorithm, which makes it impossible to stay at the top of a search result without proper maintenance. It is said the Google updates at least twice daily, with around four major updates a year.

An SEO professional can guide you in the right direction when major updates occur. If your ranking suddenly drops, you have someone to source the issue and get things back in order.

#19-Avoid/reverse search engine penalties

Many business owners will make mistakes that could cost them their website’s entire search visibility. For example, unnatural link building can result in your site’s removal from Google’s index altogether.

Ethical SEO experts are able to navigate around the penalties and filters that Google has set forth that would impede ranking and search visibility. It’s one of the benefits of SEO services provided by a professional. The steps to reverse a penalty are often more complicated than what an inexperienced person should undertake.

#20-Identify opportunities

The search results offer many different traffic opportunities that you can pick up on if you’re looking for them. SEO is the combined effort of a lot of smaller moving parts. Capitalizing on opportunities as they come can result in the top ranking, increased search visibility and a bigger bottom line.

How to Outsource Freelance Writers For SEO Content Creation at Your Website

You want your website to grow in traffic and become a brand.

You want it to win SERPs, get backlinks, and – sooner, rather than later – convert.

For that, you work hard on crafting your website. UX design, colour psychology, UTP, on-page SEO, and social proof are all very well; and you already know who can help you with that. But the most powerful weapon to help search engines see you and communicate your brand message to consumers is… yes, it’s texts. Outstanding SEO content that would not only contain tons of keywords but also engage people, translate your tone of voice, and encourage them to click and buy is what you need right here and on a regular basis.

Savvy freelance writers would solve the problem.

Benefits are many: You save time and money, you don’t spend resources on workplace organization and training of full-time employees, and you get compelling content that drives organic traffic and works on your brand reputation.

But there’s also a reverse of the coin:

Looking for freelancers, you may face irresponsible performers who miss deadlines, ignore instructions, write poor texts, or disappear once they find a client promising to pay $1 more than you. Outsource is about the interaction of expectations, collaboration, insights, and personal traits: As an SEO specialist or a business owner, you want them to be cheaper and faster, while they want to write longer and sell texts higher.

To balance the process for a win-win, learn how to outsource freelance writers for your SEO content and how to work with them like a boss.

Where to Look for SEO Freelance Writers

Corresponding websites are many. Freelancer, Upwork, Guru, People Per Hour, Fiverr – each of them has its own approach but the same essence: post a job description, start receiving proposals, compare candidates’ profiles as well as ratings, prices, and portfolios, and hire those fitting your expectations and business needs most.

Tip: Don’t ignore freelancers living and working outside of the US. They work just as well as native-speaking SEO writers but may cost you less, so pay attention to professional background and experience rather than the country.

Screenshot of Upwork for how to outsource freelance writers for SEO content

How to Choose an SEO Writer

Sad but true:

Most people believe they can write.

Indeed, five in ten are bloggers today, posting to Facebook or Instagram with hundreds of likes and shares, which inspires them to practice freelancing or remote work and earn extra money. Good luck to them.

But when you come to find a professional who would create compelling SEO content for your website, you have to thread your way through the tons of their profiles… And you simply get lost there.

How to save your time, nerves, and money? How to understand which writer can deliver your keywords, search intent, and business message, not just put words on paper?

Pay attention to these aspects:

  • A writer is able to meet deadlines.
  • A writer is creative, with writing style and voice, but also adaptable i.e. able to follow your instructions.
  • A writer’s texts are thoughtful and well researched.
  • A writer is flexible, able to deliver SEO content when you need it or revise it according to your feedback.
  • A writer is accurate and attentive to details: They know the principles of critical writing, format texts properly, avoid most common spelling and grammar mistakes, design content from scratch, and clearly understand what you want from them.

The questions gathered by Corey Wainwright at HubSpot will help you understand if a particular writer meets your business needs. Ask them before hiring.

How to Organize Your Work with SEO Writers

First and foremost:

Make it clear for a freelance writer what you want from them. In other words, craft guidelines right and avoid quirky mistakes while training a writer.

Details to include in your guidelines:

  • Target. Tell a writer about your small business and its target audience, as it will help to create engaging content. Specify a type of content you need from a writer – informative, entertaining, or marketing. Also, explain what message it should communicate to the audience. Include all necessary keywords and search intent for a writer to understand your target audience better.
  • Task itself. Include information on formatting and visual elements: how to format headings, lists, citations; paragraphs length; what links to include if any; what words to avoid (if you have a brand style guide, share it with your freelance writer so they could understand your tone of voice better); experts and resources to refer; a deadline.
  • Comments. Share some content assets for illustrative purposes so a writer could see what you expect. Encourage SEO writers to check a completed task for plagiarism to avoid duplications and unintentional rewrite. Give contacts of whom they could address for comments.

To save time and resources, organize your work with freelance writers effectively.

  • Work in Google Docs, as it’s among the best resources to access and manage fast.
  • Create a separate folder for your freelancer to save all texts there.
  • Write a strategic plan, and share its part about the content with a writer so they could see deadlines in advance and organize their work time properly.
  • Create a separate doc with all keywords, formatting rules, and guidelines so a writer could refer to it whenever needed.
  • Discuss payment details in advance; and, plan deadlines smart: Save some time for revision and edits.

And last but not least:

Don’t forget to control your freelance writer’s work for better efficiency. How much time do they spend on one task? How many tasks do they complete within a definite period of time? How many are still pending a revision or already expired?

Screenshot of Google Calendar for controlling your outsourced SEO writer

Google Calendar and Google Sheets are free yet compelling tools to control an SEO writer. Add tasks, change their status, leave comments for a writer to revise texts accordingly, and analyze their working efficiency with formulas.

Also, you might want to try a specific software, developed for business campaigns management. It analyzes completed tasks, grades them, regulates communication processes, generates reports, calculates expenses for every writer, and more. 

Once organized, the work with freelance writers will save you tons of time and costs for SEO services. And nerves, which is sometimes worth more than monetary rewards, isn’t it?

Are you looking for SEO expert jobs? Find out more at Jooble.

How To Build Local Links To Attract More Clients

Local SEO is a crucial part of any business whose clients are mainly sourced from a specific location. In order to take advantage of high converting local traffic, it’s important to optimize your website for a specific location. Build local links to improve your local search presence and drive more clients to your site from a specific location.

Building citations from directories and encouraging clients to leave a Google review will only get you so far. It’s important to acquire as many local links as possible to fuel your site’s local ranking ability.

The more ties you have to a locality with quality links, the more you’re able to demonstrate authority in your keyword topic and city.

Link building involves acquiring a wide variety of links that aren’t necessarily from high domain authority sites. The most important aspect of local link building is that your links come from relevant sites (niche specific) and are related to the area.

Major directory local link building

The best way to pursue link building is to build links in a way that is natural and logical. When a company first opens its doors for business, among the first logical places to get listed is in the city directories that locals are using.

Google Local Finder

One of the major directories that are obvious is Google’s local finder. The local pack (the three listings that Google highlights in a local search) is an excellent source of traffic for generating local leads.

Build local links to rank highly in Google's local finder

You can sign up to be found in Google’s local finder by optimizing a Google My Business profile. Use as much information as possible so that your site will be eligible for as many different types of searches as possible.

Bing local places

Bing has the second-largest share of searches as far search engine market share goes. Listing your business here is not just for that fact, but for the validation that Bing provides to your Google listing. 

In order to optimize locally, your site should be sending as many ranking signals as possible. Confirming your name address and phone number across major directories strengthens your local ranking in Google’s local finder as well as localized search results.

Use the option to synchronize your Google My Business account information with Bing. Any changes made to your Google account will automatically be updated in Bing. Not only is this advantageous to maintaining your ranking signals through identical NAP details but it saves you time from filling out all the information again.

Yellow pages business | Local business marketing solutions

This is another major directory that your business will benefit from being listed. Yellow Pages has a dozen other affiliate sites that collect your information from their database. If you’re listed on Yellow Pages you automatically get listed in other directories that will add to validating your local presence.

City-specific directories

The next tier of directories you should pursue is those unique to the city in which you are ranking your website. Create a listing in directories that receive traffic and which people are actually using to find local places.

You can search for city directories by typing in [your city] + directory. Vary your search by typing [your keyword] + [your city] to see what directories are ranking for that keyword. If a directory shows up in the first few pages of search results, it’s a good indication that there’s value in listing your business in it.

Niche-specific directories

The same concept should be applied to niche-specific directories. Be more selective about the directories in which you create a profile. Low-quality sites may have an adverse effect on your ranking. Search for niche-specific directories by typing in [your keyword] + directories to get a list of options.

Unstructured citations

These types of links are considered to be the most valuable for building a strong local link profile. An unstructured citation is a mention of your company on a site that doesn’t specifically have a place to fill it out.

You receive structured citations on directories, review sites and other sites that provide a specific place for listing your information.

If a company mentions your website on their blog, it’s an unstructured citation. It is much more difficult to acquire backlinks such as these which is why they are so valuable. They represent a true vote of confidence in the credibility of your company.

How to get an unstructured citation

It all boils down to outreach. To get another site in your city to mention your business, you need to ask the site owner to link to your site. This is most likely to happen from clients, vendors or businesses in a close vertical to your own. 

Obviously a direct competitor isn’t going to want to send traffic to your site. Look for companies in the same city that offer related services and products. You can form a coalition of sorts to help promote each other’s business with a link arrangement or content collaboration.

For example, if you own a restaurant the bakery in which you get your dinner rolls would have no problem linking to your site. They have a vested interest in your success so they are an excellent link prospect.

In many cases, you may need to be creative with the ways you acquire your backlinks. One option is to create content for another site’s blog. Infographics typically have more leverage because of their visual appeal.

Related reading: A Crash Course In Broken Link Building

Resource page link building

Discover local sites that have published resource pages that list links they have found useful to their business. Website owners will often link to their vendors, suppliers and other organizations that are related to their products and services.

You can use the search operator “inurl” when searching Google to display sites with a specific keyword in their URL. Most resource pages are titled “Resources”, “Links” or Resources and Useful Links” so the URL will typically reflect those keywords.

To find these pages type into Google searches such as:

[your keyword] inurl:links

or

[your keyword] inurl:resources

Resource page results for Toronto websites with keyword "software"

Choose sites that are relevant to your site and would be a good match for the link prospects list of resources. Having a resource page of your own can help leverage your success rate, however, keep in mind that too many link exchanges may trigger an unnatural link pattern.

Related reading: 9 Effective Backlinking Strategies for 2020

Local charities and organizations

There are many organizations that list the names and websites of sponsors who have contributed to their cause. Making a donation to these sites can earn you a spot on their list.

You can also donate products and services to those that will benefit from your offering. For example, if you’re a web designer you could offer to revamp a local charity website. The likelihood of the organization allowing you a link from their site goes way up with acts of generosity and kindness.

Job postings

Post a listing for a job offering on local sites. It’s an easy way to tie in your business with the city in which you’re trying to rank.

Host an event

Use sites like Meetup to host local events. Not only will you build local links from the event your posting on the site, but also it’s a way to build new connections with businesses in your area.

Local newspapers

If you have some newsworthy content to promote, local newspapers can be an effective source for local links. Whether it’s an event your hosting, or news that the community can benefit from, a link from a local newspaper will get your site in front of a local audience and contribute to your local ranking.

Review sites

Apart from the biggest review sites such as Yelp, every city has websites that are frequently viewed by locals who are researching businesses. Get your site listed here and encourage people to leave reviews about your services. These sites are specific to your city and will anchor your site as a local business in the area.

Build your local presence with local links

Local businesses do not typically have extensive high authority link profiles. It’s just not common for local businesses to invest large budgets into SEO content and link building campaigns. Most local businesses acquire natural links through directories and sites that are native to the city in which they do business.

Plan to build local links from a variety of the above-mentioned sources. Local links are the most powerful sources when it comes to appearing in local searches.

Related reading: Claim & Optimize Your Bing Places For Business Listing

Don’t overdo any one type of link and maintain a natural acquisition of links throughout your campaign. Building 100 directory links in one day is not a natural link velocity.

As one of the highest converting sources of traffic, the local search results will contribute to the revenue your business generates.

Increase the number of local clients your business acquires with local SEO services in Toronto. Build local links to improve your local ranking for keywords that are vital to your business.