Where to Start with SEO in a Local Market?
Starting Your SEO Campaign in a Local Market (Ex: Web Design & Web Applications)
First thing is first, you need more content on your website. For example, let’s take a look at a set of keywords you are looking to rank for. This can apply to virtually any industry out there. If you want to start ranking for the keywords:
- Web App Development
- Web App Developers
- Web App Design
- Custom Web Development
- Web Applications
You need to start writing large blog posts on those topics (700-1500 Words) per blog post and these example landing pages should be the same word count.
Landing Pages Targeting Web Applications and Web App Development
You have a couple options when it comes to creating your landing pages. You should always start out with a proper silo structure of the content for landing pages (https://www.bruceclay.com/seo/silo.htm). Basically, creating a more organized site architecture.
Services Main Page for Web App Development:
In our example for Web App Development in Sacramento, we first want to create our main landing page found here (Custom Web Development). From that page, we want to link to all of our internal pages that are targeting similar keywords. Each of these pages that we are linking to will have a 200-300 word short description on the main services page and then they will link the individual topic page. So, you will end up with one main service page and a variety of sub-service pages.
Example service pages:
- 700-1000 Words: domainname.com/web-apps/mod-x-web-app-development
- 700-1000 Words: domainname.com/web-apps/custom-web-applications (switch up the keywords)
- 700-1000 Words: domainname.com/web-apps/directory-web-app-development
- 700-1000 Words: domainname.com/web-apps/social-web-app-development
Repeat X 10 or however many keywords you want to target.
Locations (however many cities you want to target):
Service Area (Couple Options)
Option1.
- 700-1000 Words: domainname.com/web-apps/roseville
- 700-1000 Words: domainname.com/web-apps/sacramento
- 700-1000 Words: domainname.com/web-apps/rocklin
Option2. (whatever syntax you prefer – just keep them consistent)
- 700-1000 Words: domainname.com/web-applications-roseville
- 700-1000 Words: domainname.com/web-app-devlopment-sacramento
- 700-1000 Words: domainname.com/web-app-design-rocklin
You can start to get an idea of the possibilities in targeting a local market with big landing pages. This is a strategy that is also known as Content Marketing or Inbound Marketing. You can go as hard as you want on these local target market landing pages. The goal is to have about 50-75 landing pages that are search term specific. (Logo Design El Dorado Hills, Web Design El Dorado Hills, eCommerce Web Design El Dorado Hills, Etc.)
Guidelines for Writing an SEO friendly Local Market Landing Page
Example Topic: Web Apps El Dorado Hills
Notes: Use Short Paragraphs, Internally link to other pages that are RELEVANT, use bullet lists and numbered lists, and make it easy to scan. Do not use 8-10 line paragraphs. 4-5 lines at most are the best for creating content pages that are easy for the reader to skim, scan, and process.
- H1 = Web Apps El Dorado Hills
- H2 = Custom Web Applications & Web App Development in El Dorado Hills, CA
- 200-300 Words (1-2 Internal Links or where it fits, don’t force it – also use bullet lists or number lists and make it easy to skim)
- H3 = Benefits of Custom Web Applications
- 200-300 Words (1-2 Internal Links or where it fits, don’t force it – also use bullet lists or number lists and make it easy to skim)
- H3 = Web Applications are Scalable
- 200-300 Words (1-2 Internal Links or where it fits, don’t force it – also use bullet lists or number lists and make it easy to skim)
- H3 = Custom Web App Design with Stunning Graphic Elements
- 200-300 Words (1-2 Internal Links or where it fits, don’t force it – also use bullet lists or number lists and make it easy to skim)
- H4 = BrenanGreene.com Specializes in Custom Web Applications
- 200 Words (Conclusion and overview on the service and brief sales pitch)
Meta Title:
Web Apps El Dorado Hills, Web Applications & Web App Development in El Dorado Hills, CA
Meta Description:
Web Apps El Dorado Hills, Web Applications & Web App Development in El Dorado Hills, CA
We specialize in Web App Development, Web App Design and Custom Web Application Integrations in El Dorado Hills, CA
Meta KW:
No need, Google is not pulling them anymore. This is optional but we never use Keywords in the backend of a page anymore. As long as you have something that someone can learn from, you will have a good piece of content and Google will want to index that piece of content.
Blog Posts Need to be part of your Local Market SEO Campaign
Anything that is relevant to Web App Development will be great for helping your landing pages rank higher.
Follow the same guidelines on writing a landing page except make your blog posts educational, compelling and interesting. In all of these blog posts, you want to link back to your service landing pages with anchor text heavy ahrefs (HTML LINK), contextually.
So you would have: “Here at Brenan Greene in El Dorado Hills, we specialize in a wide variety of “Custom Web Applications” and “Magento eCommerce Web Design” services in the El Dorado Hills area. We also provide a wide variety of “web application integration services” that range from… x, y and z. Whatever your knowledge is, you will want to expand on until you have educated your reader on a topic, concept or strategy.
- Why Magento is the Best eCommerce Software
- 10 Reasons Magento is better than WordPress
- WordPress Vs. Joomla, Drupal, and Magento
- Why Custom Web Applications are better than Open Source
- Web Application Development for Directories
These are all great examples of blog post topics. Blog Once a week and you will own your industry and target market. Once a month is reasonable as well.
Backlinks are Always a huge factor in your local market SEO campaign
Join as many chambers as you can afford. Also, any associations you can think of that offers a follow link, join it. Also, you can pick off anyone’s links by searching their domain name in either ahrefs.com, moz.com/ose, and semrush.com. Find what links they have and then head over to the website and see how they got the link. If it’s an article, it was more than likely a guest post they paid for which you can do as well. The more links you have, the more it will build your domain authority and page authority and the higher you will rank.
Linking to different pages
Don’t always link to your home page, start linking to other pages like service pages, and start building the authority of that page. After two-three links to that page from other websites, you will start to rank in no time for the keywords you are looking to rank for.
Anchor Heavy Links
Anchor text is really important when linking back to your website. Most of your links should be your domain name or your business name as to not look spammy. But, you want a fair mix of anchor heavy links like “Application Development Sacramento” and “Web Apps Sacramento”.
Citations are very important for Ranking in Google Maps on a Local Level
You want anywhere from 100-300 citations to start ranking well in the maps section on Google.
Here are some good resources to find the best citations for your market.
- https://moz.com/learn/local/citations-by-category
- https://whitespark.ca/best-citations-by-category/
- https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/10322/the-ultimate-list-50-local-business-directories.aspx
If you do all of this (content, links, citations) you will kill it. This is the basic recipe for SEO. There is much more that goes into advanced SEO like page structure, 301’s, link bait, guest posts, strategy, etc. but if you start here and do all of this, you will rank for whatever you want.
Let us know if you have any questions.
