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React SEO: Best Practices To Make It SEO-friendly

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has become essential to any online presence. It not only impacts the success of a product or service in the marketplace but also affects the revenue and efficiency of any business owner, directly or indirectly. React websites face unique challenges when it comes to SEO due to the complex nature of the framework.  

With mobile users accounting for nearly 59% of all global website traffic, businesses recognize the importance of having effective digital marketing strategies that can expand their reach and draw in a larger audience than originally anticipated. Single Page Applications (SPAs) offer a viable solution to this problem, allowing companies to boost their reach and gain access to untapped markets.

Understanding Google Bot WebPage Crawling 

Learn how to make React SEO work for you

To optimize the SEO of a React web app, it is essential to comprehend how Google bots work and the common difficulties React solutions encounter. Google utilizes bots to rank websites, scanning your website’s pages and discovering new ones. You can avoid having too many bot requests by specifying the pages you want to be crawled in the robots.txt file. 

React applications are single-page applications, making it hard for the bots to crawl the pages. Technologies like React Helmet and server-side rendering can be used to ensure that the bots can access and index the pages effectively. It is also important to structure the React web app to enable bots to access the content easily. It can be done by organizing the content logically and using the appropriate HTML tags.

Google Bot crawls webpages by following the links on a page and then downloading the page it finds. It is done by using a process known as web crawling. The bot then reads the content of the page and stores it in an index, which is then used by the search engine to provide relevant results when a search query is made. It is important to note that the bot only reads the HTML code, not the JavaScript code, which can make it difficult for React websites to be indexed correctly.

Why is SEO Compatibility Important?

Search engine positions are incredibly vital nowadays. Studies show that 95% of all web users go to websites displayed on the initial page of Google’s results. If you want your app to be noticed by those who will utilize it, you must enhance it to be search engine friendly.

A recent study revealed that the top 5 search engine results page (SERP) listings account for over 65% of all web traffic. It demonstrates the significance of achieving a high ranking on Google.

Major SEO Challenges for React SPA Pages

When the crawler first visits a React single-page application, it is greeted with a blank page. The application elements appear on the screen as the HTML and JavaScript codes are slowly loaded.

In addition, various other issues must be addressed for a React single-page application to succeed. Let us discuss some issues:

1. Site mapping

A sitemap is a document outlining the structure of a website, including its videos, pages, and other branches. It helps Google easily crawl through the site and understand its contents. Unfortunately, React does not have a built-in method for generating a sitemap. If you use React Router to manage a route, you must find an external tool to generate a sitemap, which may require some effort.

2. Blank First Pass Subject 

React apps are known to rely heavily on JavaScript, which can make them difficult for search engines to crawl and index. It is because React uses an “app shell” model, where the HTML page does not contain meaningful content, and instead, JavaScript must be executed to display the page’s content. 

It means that when Googlebot visits the page, it sees an empty page, and only after the page is rendered does it get the content. It can create a significant delay in indexing thousands of pages.

3. Metadata of the Webpage 

Meta tags are helpful for social media sites and Google to show correct thumbnails, titles, and descriptions for a certain page. However, these websites rely on the tag of the web page to acquire this data. 

When a website or app does not use JavaScript for the landing page, React renders all the content, including the Meta tags. It makes it difficult for individual pages to modify their metadata as the app shell stays the same for the entire website or app.

4. Loading Period and User Interface 

Completing JavaScript tasks can be incredibly time-consuming, from fetching to executing to parsing. It is even more challenging when network calls must be made to gather the desired information, resulting in extended loading times for users. 

When assessing page rankings, Google considers this as long loading times can adversely affect the user experience and result in a lower ranking.

Methods to Make React SEO-friendly 

making react SEO friendly

React websites can be optimized for SEO during development, ensuring they are search engine friendly. Incorporating React for SEO best practices into the design and coding of websites will help to boost their rankings and draw in more organic traffic. Let us discuss some of the tricks to developing React apps with an SEO-friendly approach.

1. Prerendering Technique

Prerendering is a good way to ensure that a React single-page application complies with search engine protocols. It involves pre-generating and storing the HTML and CSS scripts and storing them in the cache memory. 

An algorithm then checks if the website request is from a user or a Googlebot. The browser will load the HTML file as usual if it is a user. If it is a bot, the HTML script stored in the cache memory is rendered instead, significantly reducing the loading time and eliminating the possibility of a blank page appearing.

Pros: 

  • Simple implementation
  • Compatible with trending websites innovations 
  • Requires less codebase variation
  • Executes every JavaScript file by translating it into static HTML.

Cons: 

  • No free services 
  • It takes longer time for large data files
  • You need to generate a new version of the page each time you change its content.

2. Isomorphic React Practices 

Isomorphic JavaScript Technology can automatically recognize if JavaScript is enabled or disabled on the server side. If disabled, Isomorphic JavaScript can take over on the server side and deliver the resulting high-quality content to the client-side server.

Once the page is loaded, all the necessary content and features are instantly available. With JavaScript enabled, the website behaves like a dynamic application, with multiple components that load quickly. It results in a smoother user experience compared to a regular website, providing a more enjoyable single-page application experience.

3. Server-side Rendering 

To develop a React Web application, you must know the distinctions between client-side and server-side rendering. Client-side rendering involves the browser receiving empty HTML files with limited or no content. In contrast, server-side rendering is a process where the server responds to a request with a completely rendered HTML page. Having a grasp of these two concepts is essential for creating a React Web application.

JavaScript code downloads the content from the servers and makes it available on the user’s screen. However, client-side rendering can create difficulties for search engine optimization (SEO) as Google’s web crawlers can either not see the content or see less content that has not been indexed correctly.

In contrast, server-side rendering provides browsers and Google Bots with HTML files that come with the complete content. This makes it easier for Google Bots to index and achieve higher rankings.

Pros: 

  • It offers optimization for social media pages 
  • Top-notch SEO compatibility 
  • Provides immediate page availability 
  • Improves UI features and functioning

Cons: 

  • Slower webpage transition 
  • Complicated catching functions
  • Costly than other methods

Tricks to Maintain the SEO Compatibility of React Webpages 

SEO compatibility of React

When crafting a SPA, developers can utilize one of the popular JavaScript frameworks such as React, Angular, or Vue. According to a recent survey, React is the most popular. Here are some of the tricks to develop SEO-friendly React websites. Let us start with the following:

  • Utilizing the URL Cases 

Google bots can be tripped up by pages with different URLs depending on the case of the letters, such as /envision and /or Invision. To avoid this issue, it’s best practice to use lowercase when creating URLs.

  • Less Use of <a href> 

A common mistake in developing SPAs is to use a <div> or a <button> to modify the URL. Although this is not a fault of React itself, it can pose a problem to search engines like Google. Google bots process URLs and look for additional URLs to crawl through <a href> elements. If the <a href> element is missing, Google bots won’t crawl the URLs and pass on PageRank. To ensure Google bots can identify and crawl the URLs, it is important to include <a href> elements for the bots to detect.

  • Constantly Solving the 404 Code

If you encounter an error on any page, it will likely display a 404 code. To fix this, it is best to update the files in server.js and route.js as soon as possible. Doing this can drive more traffic to your website or web app.

Final Words

Single-page React applications provide excellent performance, smooth interactions similar to native applications, a lighter server load, and easy web development. SEO issues should not prevent you from leveraging the React library, as strategies are in place to combat this problem. Additionally, search engine crawlers are becoming more sophisticated yearly, so SEO optimization may eventually become a non-issue when using React.

Author Bio – Jigar Agrawal

Jigar Agrawal is Digital Marketing Manager at eSparkBizTechnologies. He is passionate about anything related to Digital Marketing. Wants to unlock the world of technology and Social Media where every day there is a chance for new possibilities as well as innovation.

Google Business Categories List and How to Choose Them for 2023

With more than 3 billion searches a day, Google needs to regulate them somehow so all those queries would find the right destination. What helps the search engine with a proper organization is Google’s local business categories. They have over 3000 selections to choose from the Google business categories list.

Yes, this is that tiny yet essential detail business owners and SEO specialists often forget when fighting for high ranks in Google.

Back in 2018, when Moz surveyed local search ranking factors, business categories appeared as a core element to have for ranking well in maps and the local pack. By picking up the right local business categories, you allow Google to categorize your business right for potential customers to find you. More than that, the primary category you choose for your business makes a big difference, influencing your online visibility and reputation.

With that said, you understand that Google sets a high value on local business categories. You know they can help a website rank higher in local search. But what is a local business category, exactly? And how to choose it for your business page?

Keep on reading to find this out.

What are Google’s local business categories?

“A local business category” is a term describing the type of your business at listing sites like Yelp, Google My Business, social media business pages, etc. It’s a classification used to group local businesses with similar characteristics and help search engines define when to show them based on a user’s search.

You select local business categories when creating your business page in Google My Business. If you already have the page there, you can easily edit those categories from your dashboard.

Google Business category list selection

Each time you create a local business listing, you’ll need to choose how to categorize your business there. Google allows you to choose up to ten categories, but you still have to decide on a primary one. Choosing the wrong local business category can hurt your ranks in Google’s local results pack.

That’s what your business looks like in Google search when you add it to listings and assign its primary category right:

example of how the GMB category displays on Google's local finder

Local business category associations have been among the top-ranking factors for a long time already. Google’s guidelines encourage you to choose them carefully, ranking them as the #3 factor for local packs. When choosing categories, make sure you avoid repetitions and be as accurate as possible: the wrong categorization leads to irrelevant search results and rankings.

The problem with local business categories in Google

First, they are more than 2,000 to choose from. 

Second, Google constantly changes, removes, or renames, and adds new entries to the Google business categories list. So it happens that, despite such diversity, it may not be easy for a business to find a category that would represent them best.

The best decision would be to choose as many closest categories as possible, right? Not quite. While Google guidelines allow you to choose up to 10 local business categories, they indicate that the fewer but higher specific, the better. That’s what they say:

“To keep your business information accurate and live, make sure that you:

  • Use as few categories as possible to describe your overall core business from the provided list.
  • Choose categories that are as specific as possible, but representative of your main business.
  • Do not use categories solely as keywords or to describe attributes of your business.
  • Do not use categories that pertain to other businesses that are nearby or related, such as a business physically contained within your business or an entity that contains your business.”

But here goes a controversion:

Based on those “as specific as possible” and “as few as possible,” you may think that one or two highly specific categories will allow you to rank higher. That’s not so.

Also, it seems that you can’t choose both general and specific local business categories, to avoid redundancy. For example, the first result in the rankings below didn’t use any categories with keywords but still was specific enough to appear in the search:

GMB ranking controversion

It seems complicated, no?

What you need to know about local business categories

When working with local business categories for better SEO content and rankings, remember the following:

  1. Google changes the names of categories all the time.
  2. It removes old categories and adds new ones.
  3. Categories have different names for different countries.
  4. The primary category gives you more ranking power.
  5. New categories can improve your ranking.
  6. It’s not true that having a few categories on your local business listing weakens your ranking.
  7. With more than 2,000 categories and subcategories available, they may appear differently in Google search results and your Google My Business dashboard.
business categories list is always changing

The image and info are taken from Search Engine Land.

So, how to choose a primary local business category from the Google business category list to rank right and high? How many categories to add to your local business listing besides a primary one, and how to decide if they are specific enough for Google to understand? How to know when Google updates its categories list and when you need to update your categories as well? And what other business listings, besides those from Google, to consider for specifying your local business categories?

Stay with us to learn more.

How to pick a primary business category?

A primary category is vitally important: it influences your visibility in search engines for all related terms. For some, it seems obvious how to choose it: just pick what you are, right? But everything is not that simple.

Google recommends you choose a primary category that would describe your business as a whole. While it’s easy to do for businesses with a narrow focus, those with a broad focus or multi-location ones may get misplaced.

So:

  • If your business is narrow-focused and single-location, just choose your specific category from the list. (Example: “divorce attorney,” “boat dealer,” “nuclear engineer,” etc.)
  • If your business is single-location but broad-focused (water conditioner installation, plumbing, etc.), you need to decide what part of it to prioritize for search engines. Choose a primary category accordingly: think of where you want to grow, but make sure that your persuasive content, backlinks, and citations align with that business category as well.
  • If you work with a multi-location business, choose primary categories for each so they wouldn’t compete with each other. (For locations that are close to each other, their business listings may compete in Google search if they have the same category.) The more specific category you can get for each location, the better. Also, test different options to find the best category combination that brings both shows in Google and high-quality traffic.

Depending on the business, you may want to edit a primary local business category when seasons change. For example, your coffee shop focuses on hot drinks and bakery in winter but on iced tea and lemonade in summer. Changing a primary category to suit the seasonality will yield some dividends too.

Some other points to consider:

What to do if your business is co-located with another (unrelated) business? Create a unique Google My Business page for each, and categorize them accordingly.

What to do if there’s no category for my business in Google’s category list? Choose a broader one that describes your business best. With more than 3,000 categories available, finding the right one for your business shouldn’t be that difficult.

How many categories a business should have?

First things first:

Google allows you to add up to 10 selections from the Google categories business list, but it doesn’t mean you need to use them all in the first flush of enthusiasm to cover as many related terms as possible.

Actually, some experts say that “adding a bunch of unrelated categories to your GMB listing will definitely have a negative impact on your local rankings.”

how many GMB business categories should a listing have

Founder of Whitespark, Darren Shaw specializes in SEO and local search ranking factors. This year, he shared the results of the experiment with Google business categories list in search listings, proving you shouldn’t add too many (unrelated!) categories to GMB:

a chart example of dip in keywords and ranking when adding crazy categories and then a recovery when they were removed

So, as you probably understand, a primary business category matters but secondary ones are still necessary and important to your business relevance and rankings in search engines. That is why don’t limit yourself to a primary category: be as specific as possible and add 3-4 secondary categories to your local business listing card.

For example, your primary business category is “Divorce Attorney.” Then, your secondary ones may be as follows: “Lawyer,” “Law Office,” and “Family Law Attorney.”

  • The #1 rules here: the more specific you are, the fewer businesses you’ll compete for customers.
  • The #2 rule here: add the least number of secondary categories possible. The more you have, the weaker each of them gets in a search for businesses.
  • The #3 rule here: describe a business, not its services. Example: if you have a restaurant with a bar, don’t choose “Bar” as your secondary category.

How to choose the right secondary categories

If in doubt about what local business categories to choose, try Mike Blumenthal’s Google Places Category Tool. Type your niche in the search box, choose a location, see the list of relevant categories, and pick up to four most specific to your business.

This tool provides you with the Google business categories list and Yelp’s, so you can use it when planning to add your business to both listings.

Another option to try for choosing the most appropriate secondary categories is the Google Keyword Planner. Add all the potential business categories into the tool and check those with the most local searches. If they are relevant to what you want to focus on for business promotion, use them.

Looking for your Google My Business category? Click below for the complete list!

Local business listings to try besides Google

Google My Business is not the only option to consider when working on business optimization for better SEO and visibility. With free business listings available, you may want to create a business profile there too.

Online communities, free business listing websites, and directories are many; and the more you choose, the greater your online footprint will be for customers to find you. But keep calm and resist the temptation of listing your business everywhere you can. Choose the most relevant platforms where your target audience “lives,” and add as much information about your business as possible to profiles there.

Here’s a short list of the most popular listings websites for your local business:

  1. Yelp. This is the third most popular review website on the web, so you might want to consider it for placing your business; especially if you work in the niche of restaurants.
  2. Facebook. With more than 65 million local business pages on Facebook, this social media network is still very popular among entrepreneurs and marketers. So why not consider creating a Facebook business page for better visibility and conversion?
  3. Instagram. Studies have it, 82% of customers search for a brand on social media before they buy. A visual representation of your business on Instagram will help you market to younger demographics too.
  4. Yahoo. With Google as the king of search, Yahoo still can bring you billions of potential customers every month. As well as Google, Yahoo displays local business listings in the search results, so you may want to get there as well.
  5. BBB. The Better Business Bureau is your choice to add a business if you work with local law firms or nonprofit organizations. So, create an account, search for your business, and (1) claim your listing if your business is already there or (2) submit a request to add your business to BBB if it’s not there.
instructions on how to add your business to the BBB website
  1. Bing. Bing Places for Business is where you can access your local business listings and categories. 
  2. LinkedIn. Use this professional network to present your business as a reputable owner with relevant experience. It works best for finance-related businesses, so create your business profile there if appropriate.
  3. Whitepages. With over 5 billion records, this directory is a must to consider for listing your business. Their lists appear across all of their API customers’ websites, which can add tons of visibility to your page.
  4. Yellow Pages. Believe it or not, 60 million people still search for businesses at YP.com. So why not create your local business listing there?
landing page for yellow pages business listings

Need more? Check the list of 25 free business listings websites from Womply, with short descriptions and guidelines on how to list your local business there, and choose those most relevant for your business category.

Conclusion

Correct categorization of your local business in Google has always been a top factor for high rankings. It impacts search results and your overall online presence for customers to find you and know about you. So, when building your local business listings, double-check your primary and secondary business categories there.

Business listings such as Google My Business and others have been designed to send you customers. And local business categories are your instrument to help Google classify your business right.

By choosing an accurate category, you’ll make it easier for robots to find you and show you in search results for people who need your products or services. You’ll show up on Google Maps and in the local pack. People will find you on the top review websites, and follow your business page on social media to build community and trust…

…And you’ll definitely see the positive result when checking and analyzing your backlink profile!

Author:

Lesley Vos is a professional copywriter and guest contributor to publications on digital marketing, SEO, and content creation. Feel free to check her work here.

Local SEO vs Global SEO: What’s the Difference?

When you design a website, you have to decide which target market you are trying to reach. There are two types of SEO that can help you achieve this: Local SEO vs. Global SEO.

A good SEO strategy is essential for any business that wants to be successful online. But what’s the difference between local SEO and global SEO? And which one is right for you?

Here’s a look at the difference between the two, and how they can help you achieve your website goals.

The Search Engine

Before we get into the difference between local and global SEO, let’s take a quick look at how search engines work.

A search engine is a tool that allows users to find websites and information on the internet. When you type a query into a search engine, it uses algorithms to find the best results for you. These algorithms are constantly changing, which is why SEO is an ongoing process.

The search engine result pages (SERPs) are made up of organic results and paid results. Organic results are the websites the search engine has determined most relevant to your query. The paid results, on the other hand, are the websites that have paid to appear in the SERPs for a specific query.

The majority of clicks go to organic results, so it’s important to focus on SEO if you want your website to be successful.

What is Global SEO?

Global SEO is the process of optimizing your website for global search results. This means that when people search for keywords related to your business, your website will appear in the search results regardless of their location.

For example, if you’re a business that sells shoes, you want to appear in the search results when someone types “shoes” into the search engine.

It doesn’t matter if they’re searching from the United States, Canada, Australia, or any other country—you want your website to be one of the first results.

To do this, you need to optimize your website for global search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. This can be a challenge because you have to compete with other businesses that are also trying to rank for the same keywords.

But if you can get your website to rank high in the global search results, you’ll be able to reach a larger audience and increase your chances of getting more website visitors.

What Is Local SEO?

Local SEO is the process of optimizing your website for local search results.

If you have a brick-and-mortar business, or if you serve a specific geographic area, then local SEO is essential.

When people search for keywords related to your business, you want your website to appear in the local search results. For example, if you own a bakery in Los Angeles, and someone searches for “bakery Los Angeles,” your website will appear in the search results.

Local SEO is important for any business that wants to be visible to local customers. And it’s especially important for businesses that have a brick-and-mortar location.

If you want people to be able to find your business when they search for relevant keywords, then you need to optimize your website for local SEO.

Why are the SEO Strategies Different?

global SEO has no regional limitations
[Source: Unsplash]

The strategies are different because the goals are different.

Local SEO is focused on getting your website to rank high in the local search results. When people search for keywords related to your business, your website will appear in the search results regardless of their location.

Global SEO is focused on getting your website to rank high in the global search results. This means that when people search for keywords related to your business, your website will appear in the search results regardless of their location.

How to Find the Local Traffic?

To find your local traffic, you need to use keyword research tools like Google AdWords Keyword Planner and Google Trends. Enter your keywords into these tools, and they will tell you how many people are searching for those keywords in your area.

You can also use these tools to find related keywords that you can target with your SEO efforts.

Once you know which keywords to target, you can start optimizing your website for local SEO.

To better understand your audience, customer behavior, and the competition in your area, you can always turn to the best big data company. That way, you can develop a comprehensive and effective local SEO strategy.

How to Optimize for Local SEO

There are a few things you can do to optimize your website for local SEO. First, make sure your website is responsive. This means that it should be viewable on all devices, including mobile phones and tablets.

Second, claim your business listing on Google My Business. This is a free listing that allows you to control how your business appears in Google’s local search results.

Third, add your location to your website. Include your city, state, and zip code on your contact page, and make sure your location is included in your website’s title tags and meta descriptions.

Fourth, create local content. This means writing blog posts about topics that are relevant to your location. For example, if you own a bakery in Los Angeles, you could write a blog post about the best bakeries in Los Angeles.

Fifth, build local links. This can be done by listing your business in online directories, or by working with other businesses in your area to create cross-promotional content.

Local SEO is an important part of any business’s SEO strategy. If you want people in your area to find your business when they search for relevant keywords, then you need to make sure your website is optimized for local SEO.

How to Optimize for Global SEO

In order to optimize your website for global search, you need to do two things: create high-quality content and build links from high-authority websites.

Content is still king when it comes to SEO, so your first step should be to create informative, well-written, and keyword-rich content. Once you have strong content on your website, you need to start building links from other websites.

Link building can be done in a number of ways, but some of the most effective methods include guest blogging, infographics, and directories.

Guest blogging is when you write a blog post for another website in your industry. This is a great way to get your name and your website in front of a new audience.

Infographics are visual representations of information. They are popular because they are easy to share and they can help you rank for multiple keywords.

Directories are online listings of businesses in a particular industry. Getting listed in directories can help you build links and improve your visibility in the search results.

Global SEO is a bit more complex than local SEO, but it is still an important part of any business’s SEO strategy. If you want people from all over the world to find your website, then you need to make sure your website is optimized for global SEO.

The Effect SEO Strategies Have on Each Other

The main difference between local SEO vs global SEO is the focus of the optimization efforts. However, the strategies are not mutually exclusive. In fact, it’s often beneficial to use both strategies together.

For example, if you want to rank high in the local search results, you need to make sure your website is responsive and that you have claimed your business listing on Google My Business.

But you also need to create local content and build local links.

Similarly, if you want to rank high in the global search results, you need to make sure your website is responsive and that you have included your location in your title tags and meta descriptions.

But you also need to create high-quality content and build links from high-authority websites. The bottom line is that both local SEO vs global SEO is important, and you should use both strategies if you want to achieve the best results.

Where to Start?

local SEO relies more on local links
[Source: Unsplash]

The first step is to assess your current SEO efforts. Are you focusing on local SEO or global SEO? 

If you’re not sure, then take a look at your website and see if it’s optimized for both local and global search. Once you know where to focus your efforts, you can start implementing the strategies we’ve outlined above.

Depending on the size of your business and your budget, you may want to consider hiring an SEO agency to help you with your optimization efforts.

An experienced agency will be able to help you assess your current SEO strategy and make recommendations for how you can improve your results.

The type of business you own could also tell you whether you need global or local SEO.

If you have a physical location that people can visit, then you need to make sure your website is optimized for local SEO. However, if you don’t have a physical location or if your customers are located all over the world, then you need to focus on global SEO.

No matter what type of business you have, it’s important to use both local and global SEO to ensure that your website is visible in the search results.

Having a strong SEO strategy is essential for any business that wants to be successful online.

Conclusion

Local SEO vs Global SEO are two different but equally important types of SEO. Depending on your business, your goals, and your budget, you may want to focus on one or both types of SEO.

If you’re not sure where to start, take a moment to assess your current SEO efforts and see where you can improve.

Authors bio:

Harold Ader is a digital marketing specialist and freelance blogger from Manchester, writing exclusively for DigitalStrategyOne. In his spare time, you can find him in the garden or kitchen.

Twitter, Facebook

7 Advanced SEO Strategies To Grow Website Traffic

Everyone has a website these days, but not everyone is ranking on the first page. How do you send droves of traffic to your website when thousands of others are competing for the same keywords? Here are some well-known advanced SEO strategies that are proven to increase website traffic for more leads and new clients.

  1. Repurpose content
  2. Re-evaluate your keyword strategy
  3. Build high-quality links
  4. Update, Merge, Delete
  5. Invest in video marketing
  6. Optimize, optimize, optimize…
  7. Optimize for local traffic
Reasons to repurpose content as an expert SEO tactic

Repurpose content

Choose one of your top-performing pages and repurpose the content into another form to take advantage of existing interest and the traffic already flowing to the page.

What does this mean exactly?

Let’s say you have a blog post on 7Advances SEO Strategies that get a high volume of search traffic. Use the content from that post and turn it into a video, podcast, infographic, slideshow or anything you believe will get a good response from your audience.

Why does repurposing content generate more traffic?

Using an alternative form of content gives you another way to deliver your content. Users all have different preferences on how they choose to consume content and so by providing multiple versions you open up new channels of interest.

Those that may have skipped through or skipped your blog post entirely may choose to watch a video or listen to an audio version.

The bonus of repurposing content that it’s not as hard to do as producing content from scratch. A good deal of the work is already done since you have a finished product. The content is already there it’s just a matter of putting it together in a way that users can consume.

Repurpose your blog post into a new infographic

Turning a blog post into an infographic is a popular method of repurposing content. Visualized data has a much higher retention rate for people because it is a combination of images and facts. Images help visitors retain the most important points of a blog post.

Step one: The first step is to determine your key data points. 

What do you want readers to remember when they see your blog post? This will form the skeleton of your infographic.

Step two: Organize your infographic with sections and headers. 

The key to a good looking infographic is to make it look extremely organized. If everything is balanced and aesthetical it will make more sense to users when they read through the content.

Step three: Keep your text brief and to the point. 

The idea behind making the infographic is to give your audience the most important data points. Don’t try to transpose the entire blog post onto your image. Otherwise, they could just read the blog post.

Step four: Include notes for the designers. 

Be as descriptive as possible when making notes for the designers. You want your ideas to materialize as close to your vision as possible. Tell designers exactly what to do when it comes to branding, colours and images.

Here is an infographic from Venngage that walks you through these exact steps:

Infographic on how to repurpose content which is considered one of the advanced SEO strategies

Publish a video

Hey, have you heard about that new website called YouTube?! It should be obvious by now that if you’re going to publish a video, you’ll want to do it on YouTube. Not only is it the second-largest search engine in the world, but also, videos rank on Google all the time for high volume keywords. 

(Click here to learn about video trends in 2021)

Add YouTube traffic to your monthly search volume

Drive traffic from both Google and YouTube by publishing a video optimized for an important keyword that will drive traffic. YouTube is not as competitive as Google when it comes to ranking for keywords, which is something, you can capitalize on.

If you’re shy about being on camera, use the images from your infographic to make a video/infographic. You’ll need to be the narrator and be super engaging if you’re not going to show your face on the video.

Tips for optimizing your video

Make sure your main keyword is in the title, filename and tags. Take your video optimization to the next level by including a keyword-rich video transcript in the description. Add Chapters within your description to break up your video into segments. Take note of the top ranking videos and duplicate the tags they use since it also plays a big role in how YouTube sees your video.

This image highlights where keywords are located in YouTube video optimization. This is an advanced SEO tactics that will earn you a lot of traffic

Keep in mind that if people get bored and leave your video before it finishes, it will sink your YouTube ranking. Make sure there are no flat and boring segments. If you can’t help but be super boring then make your videos into short clips. Engagement is the key here.

Publish a slideshow

Slideshows are. away to repurpose content
Slideshare logo

If you’re going to go as far as publishing a video, you can easily import it to Slideshare to publish a slideshow. That’s not the only option for creating a slideshow. PowerPoint presentations convert perfectly and you can always make a slideshow from scratch.

Slideshows allow you to separate your content from the masses by providing a form of multimedia that isn’t as common as infographics and videos. They require user interaction which entices visitors to stay on your page longer and boosts engagement statistics.

Slideshare also has an average of about 80 million unique visitors a month with approximately 38 million registered users. This option can serve as an excellent source of traffic for B2B marketing.

Create bite-sized information for social media marketing

Divide your blog post into the most important points and post pieces of it on your social media one piece at a time. This can give your posts a longer lifespan for capturing interest and driving traffic to the blog post on your website. Oberlo does this really well with its infographics like this stat that was cut from their social media marketing infographic.

Example of making bite sized info for social media. Another advanced SEO tactis

Rather than one post of your entire blog article, you can use multiple posts that are more like teasers to get people to visit your page to read the whole thing. Not to sound like a broken record, but infographics are perfect for this type of social media marketing.

If you’ve turned your blog post into an infographic already you can use each segment as a social media post. Each post will be one of the main data points you’ve chosen for your infographic. With this already done you already have images and the most important messages ready to post.

Save time, resources and boost traffic with repurposed content

If you’re producing content regularly, repurposing content should be a regular part of your routine. It’s not easy to go through years of producing content regularly without experiencing overlap in topic and ideation.

Why not improve the quality of existing content and expand the reach it has by using multiple sources of traffic?

Re-evaluate your keyword strategy

There’s a common misconception that your keyword strategy is a “one and done” type of task. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Your keyword strategy should be re-evaluated periodically to expand on areas that are working to improve your bottom line.

Re-optimize for keyword variations

If there are keywords that are bringing in high converting visitors, you’ll need to pay closer attention to those phrases to build more content surrounding those issues and topics.

Why settle for one high-converting keyword when you can optimize for four or five similar phrases that work to produce the same results? There are many cases where you can get the same page to rank for more keyword variations by making small adjustments to optimize the page. To capitalize on those opportunities, you have to be aware of the keywords that are working to boost your business.

Publish relevant content

The content you publish is heavily influenced by the topics that are important to your audience as well as weighing in the business value the target keywords represent to your company. What you decided were the most popular keywords 5 years ago, heck, even one year ago may have changed in priority and almost most definitely in volume.

It’s important to stay updated on what is being searched the most to continue producing relevant content for your audience. Refreshing your keyword strategy is a way to ensure you’re up to date and delivering fresh and relevant content that drives traffic.

Steal ideas from your competition

An effective keyword strategy is not complete without doing a competitive analysis. Just as you may review popular terms being searched by your audience, you also want to check in on your competition to what terms they’re driving traffic from as well.

You can get ideas by running a competing URL through analytic software to see the both paid and organic traffic that is flowing through their site.

SEMRush software screenshot

If they’re executing an optimized PPC campaign, then paid traffic can speak volumes about what terms are making money for their company. Why else would they be paying for traffic if they weren’t making money from it?

The organic traffic that’s being driven is an indication of the content that’s being produced. If there are keywords they rank for that you don’t, take a closer look at the pages that rank to analyze the content and see if it’s a good fit for your audience.

If there’s business value in the search terms, you have new keywords and fresh content ideas to add to your keyword/content strategy.

A keyword strategy is a living entity

Think of your keyword strategy as something that is constantly evolving. Just as your rose bush needs priming and pruning, your keyword is also in need of fine-tuning to get the best results. Don’t stop adding keywords that work and taking some away those that don’t from your overall strategy. As your website develops over the years, re-evaluating your keyword strategy maintains relevant content and boosts traffic.

There’s no doubt that one of the advanced SEO strategies, high-quality backlinks increases the traffic to your website. Consider what makes a high-quality link and it’s a guaranteed fact that if you’re acquiring high-quality backlinks, you’re increasing search visibility.

If the link is on a highly relevant website that receives a lot of traffic, you’ll receive referral traffic with highly engaged visitors.

If the website has massive domain authority then that domain authority is transferred to your website, thereby raising your ranking ability. With improved rankings, the click-through rate from the SERP skyrockets.

IMage showing the CTR for SERP positions

To be in the top 5 (top 3 positions are the bulk of the traffic) you need backlinks. The argument of what comes first, the chicken or the egg can be applied to this situation. Some debate that being in the top 3 ranked position leads to more backlinks, whereas others might say you need to acquire the backlinks to get to the top 3 positions.

Chart showing the relationship between backlinks and Google Ranking

Regardless of how you see it, it’s important to make high-quality link building a part of your routine for developing websites that rank at the top of the search results.

What’s the best way to build high-quality backlinks?

In an ideal world, the content on your website would naturally attract high-quality backlinks. Producing good content is a non-negotiable requirement to compete in the top 3 spots, but it’s not enough to acquire backlinks in a reasonable amount of time.

For a page to accumulate a high number of backlinks naturally, people have to know about it. It needs to be promoted through the proper channels and (ironically) have links built to it to get traffic flowing. Here are a few ways to build links to your pages to get your content in front of the right audience.

Outreach campaigns

This is one of the few methods reproducing natural link building at an accelerated rate. The concept of natural link building is people find your page, they like it so much that they link to it from their web properties.

In its simplest form, outreach campaigns are you reaching out to other website owners and telling them about your content and hope they like it enough to link to it. The major problem with this tactic is that it gets an abysmal conversion rate. Most simple outreach campaigns average an 8% conversion rate.

Here are a few themed outreach campaigns that boost your conversion rates to result in more links built to your page.

Broken link building

Broken link building is identifying broken links on your prospects page, contacting them to inform them of it and offering your link as a substitute for that link.

This tends to get a higher conversion rate because website owners care about the user experience of their pages. If there is a link that leads a user to a deleted page then it’s considered the link is contributing to a bad user experience.

By offering a page with content that is similar to what used to be there, you have more leverage by offering more value in linking to your website.

Read more on how to execute a broken link building campaign here.

Unlinked mentions

This form of outreach is themed to contacting website owners or authors who have mentioned your brand without linking to it. This receives a higher conversion rate on average because if your brand was worth mentioning, to begin with, most website owners won’t have a problem linking to your website.

Read more on how to execute an Unlinked Mentions link building campaign here.

Link reclamation

This type of campaign targets website owners that have linked to your website, but for some reason, your link was deleted. Links are deleted all the time, whether it by mistake, through updates or moved pages-it happens.

You can save a high percentage of lost links by simply reaching out to owners and asking them to replace your link.

Guest posting

This form of link building is probably among one of the top choices for business owners and SEO companies because it allows the opportunity for branding. Publishing an article on a popular website allows a company to demonstrate their expertise to an outside audience as well as a link back to their website.

Guest posting can land some high-quality backlinks when the websites you link from are highly relevant and have high domain authority.

Editorial links are also considered the crème de la crème of all the types of links you can get.

Read more on how to Guest Post here.

Update, merge, delete old blog posts

As a way to keep your blog content fresh, relevant and ranking highly, it’s important to update, merge and delete underperforming content. This is one of the advanced SEO strategies to add to a periodic routine for improved search visibility and high volumes of traffic.

Chart showing the impact of one of the advanced SEO strategies Hubspot used which was updating old blog posts

First off, Google prefers fresh content to stale content. There are some niches where fresh content is a ranking factor because of the continuous changes that can occur in the niche.

SEO is a prime example of a niche where things can change dramatically over a year. In many cases, there’s content that becomes irrelevant and out-dated making it completely obsolete.

Update old blog posts

Look for opportunities to update older blog posts that have slowly lost the traffic it once generated. The chances are that newer posts have been published that cover more information, cover new information, are more updated or just have more multimedia and value-added features.

Merge underwhelming blog posts

There are often situations where you’ve published blog posts that target similar keywords and answer similar search intent. If these blog posts are not ranking in the top 5 spots on the first page, you merge the two to create a monster blog post with more capability of ranking highly.

Combine the content of both pages to make your article a more comprehensive version. You will need to choose which page to keep and which one to delete based on the keywords within the URL and the backlinks that point to each page. It’s necessary to use a 301 redirect to tell search engines that content has moved from the deleted page to the merged page.

Google has made 301 redirects very clean in terms of transferring power from one URL to another, however, err on the cautious side and consider keeping the page that has more backlinks pointing to it. You can also use the volume of traffic and the keywords in the URL as part of choosing which page to delete.

Delete old posts with no traffic

It’s been proven that deleting pages that do not receive traffic can help increase your overall website rankings. Find pages that don’t rank well, or don’t drive traffic and delete the ones that aren’t contributing to your business.

The reasons to delete pages from your blog should match the following criteria:

  • The page has not received traffic within 90 days.
  • No backlinks are pointing to the page.
  • It’s a low-quality blog post.
  • There’s no business value associated with the post.

Use a 301 direct redirect to send users to new pages in case external links are pointing to those pages. You also want to save the link juice and send it to a similar page on your website.

Invest in video marketing

Video marketing boasts a slew of statistics that are pretty hard to ignore. One reason that stands out is that videos increase conversions by 80% when you add them to a landing page. This is backed by the fact that almost 90% of marketers are using video marketing in their digital marketing strategy.

Capitalize on social media traffic

Videos have been the preferred form of content for some time now by over 70% of people. The beauty of publishing a video is that once it’s on YouTube not only can you benefit from YouTube traffic but you can use it across multiple social media websites as well.

Facebook reports that video is the most shared form of content. Facebook stories, Insta stories are proving to be some of the most popular ways to get users’ attention.

Incorporate “Stories” for high engagement rates

The FOMO effect (Fear Of Missing Out) seems to be strong with most social media users. The idea of losing out on the opportunity to view a video (as such is the case with Stories) has proven effective for generating higher engagement rates.

Increase ranking on Google search

There’s evidence to support that incorporating video on your ranking pages can help push your ranking higher. Higher engagement statistics create a positive ranking signal and if you’re already ranking on the first page, it could be the added boost that pushes your website towards the first position.

Rankbrain image of the AI assessing user engagement and assigning rank

Rankbrain factors in the user engagement statistics of a page to help determine what page satisfies search intent at the highest level. The most noticeable engagement statistic that increases is the average time spent on a page after adding a video. With more users spending more time on your page, the message is being sent that they are enjoying the content you’ve created, making your page more popular.

Increase traffic from Google SERP features

Your video can also appear in video carousels, the video tab on Google search, featured snippets, and the PAA box. As long as you have a link from your video to your web page, your video provides additional traffic to your website.

Optimize, optimize, optimize…

There’s always room to enhance optimization and get your page to generate more traffic. Optimization can occur in a few different areas both on-page content and building off-page.

Target featured snippets

Featured snippets are continuously appearing more frequently on Google, which is creating more opportunities for traffic and branding. Optimizing your content to appear in this feature is an absolute must when it receives the highest CTR. The fact that Google displays your website as the featured result contributes to the excellent branding of your company as industry leaders.

To learn more about optimizing for featured snippets click here.

Target PAA boxes

People Also Ask Boxes can also add a substantial number of visitors to your monthly volume of search traffic. If you rank for one of the questions in the PAA box, there’s a good chance you rank for several variations of that question.

You can optimize for the PAA box by answering popular questions that appear in the box. Tag your question using an h2 or h3 tag and use short, succinctly summarized answers directly after the question.

Optimize for search intent

Optimizing for search intent is a continual process. Make sure your content adequately covers the same topics as any of the competing pages in the top 10 results.

You can create a better page by expanding your topic coverage or improving your multimedia.

Optimize using anchor text links

The number of optimized anchor text links pointing to a page affects the page’s optimization. You can enhance the overall optimization of a page for a specific keyword by concentrating or diluting the anchor text ratio of the keyword you’re targeting.

(Read more on anchor text optimization here.)

Optimize for local traffic

Capitalize on high converting local traffic by optimizing your website with a local SEO strategy. Whether you have a brick and mortar business or not, it makes sense to pick up on searches being made within your area that can land you some extra business.

Creating a Google My Business profile is non-negotiable. It’s one of the easiest things to do-although optimizing your profile can be a little more involved.

Local SEO strategy includes Google My Business (image is the logo)

How to optimize your GMB profile

The first order of business is to fill out the basic information about your business. Make sure you enter data on every single field that’s available. The more information you provide to Google, the more searches your listing can appear for.

Small details count

Some businesses fail to enter their store hours. Let’s say that your store is open late yet if someone searches “X type of stores open late” you won’t appear because you didn’t enter store hours. Make the effort to include the small and simple details since they can land you more traffic.

Categories

Choose the categories that most applicable to your business. Search for important keywords you want your website to rank on the first page. Double-check what categories the companies listed in the local pack have declared. The difference between being a men’s tailor and a men’s clothing store can have an impact on how high your listing is ranked for specific keywords.

Add citations

To rank as a local business you need to have links from local websites and local directories. List your business in the top directories that are well known, such as Bing. You can transfer your GMB profile directly to a Bing account.

Use other websites like Yelp, Yellow Pages, Foursquare to get local traction in the search results. See more on the local link building here.

Increase traffic systematically using expert SEO tactics

The traffic generation ideas mentioned above are considered advanced SEO strategies and can be used to increase the volume of traffic your website receives regularly.

If you don’t have time to implement these SEO strategies yourself, feel free to send us a message for professional assistance. We’ll give you a full site analysis free of charge and let you know which of these tactics will help you generate the most traffic to your website.

Local SEO For Small Businesses [2020 Update]

Generate sales and new clients within your city with local SEO for small businesses. We live in an age where digital marketing is a massive source for driving new business. More than 90% of people will use their phones to research and make a purchase. Capitalize on the power of local SEO for small businesses and dominate the search engine results in your city.

Local SEO for small businesses is not just about ranking on Google. Although Google controls most of the search engine market, there are still many other ways people search for local businesses such as Yelp, Bing, Yahoo!, etc. For this reason, this article will mainly focus on ranking on Google, but also on using alternative ways to supplement your streams of traffic.

This guide will take you on a step-by-step tutorial on how to get your business up to speed as well as how to compete and outperform your competition in the localized search results.

Google My Business Setup

Setting up your GMB account is fairly straightforward. You’ll need a Google My Business account so head over to Google My Business to get the process started.

Google My Business homepage to get you started managing a part of your local SEO for small businesses

You’ll be walked through a series of steps to create your profile with all of your business information. Although you can always switch the primary category you initially select, you should know that choosing the most appropriate category can greatly affect your search visibility. If you choose the wrong category, Google may not associate your business with relevant keyword searches.

You can confirm you’re in the correct category by searching Google for your keywords and then scanning the competing GMB listings to see what category they’ve selected. If you see a lot of your competitors with the same category, it’s a safe bet that’s the same one you should be choosing.

For example, if you’re a landscaping company, you have a few options to choose from such as Landscaper, Landscaping design and Landscaping architect. Make sure the category you choose puts you in competition with companies that offer similar services.

Landscaping companies in Google local finder

In order to make any changes or additions to your profile, you’ll need to verify your listing which is done via phone call or postcard.

When entering the address for your business make sure you submit the actual business address of your company. You may need to move the marker on the map if Google got it worng-so double check just to be sure.

Google Map and Marker selection for your business to have accurate details in your local SEO for small businesses

If you’re a service area business, you can use your home address. Just select the option that indicates you deliver to your customers.

I deliver good to customers option on GMB

If you don’t offer services at your home and therefore don’t want your home address displayed, there is a button you can select that will hide your address and display your service areas.

Hide my address option on GMB

If you happen to have partners in your business or have multiple physical addresses, choose the one that’s closest to the centre of your target city. This will promote more appearances by being centred in a more densely populated area-even if you’re selecting a service area business.

Optimize your account

Optimizing your account is as simple as filling in every field that you can possibly provide information. When a search is made on Google, the information from your GMB profile is pulled to associate your company with keyword related searches. 

Make the effort to include as much information as possible to give your website the most opportunities to appear in localized search results.

Upload photos to GMB

This may seem like an unimportant aspect of building your profile, yet it’s one of the most viewed components when customers are researching your company. Include as many images of the interior and exterior of your place of business.

Dentist interior and exterior images uploaded to GMB for local search engine optimization

Upload product images or examples of work you’ve performed to give your potential clients a sneak peek at what your company offers.

Publish microposts

There is a small correlation between staying active on Google posts and driving more traffic. Although posting regularly may not improve your actual ranking in the local finder, it does help to take up more real estate in the search results.

Example of GMB posts from Local SEO Company Toronto knowledge panel
Note: Image with checklist is where the posts are taking up space.

Increase the click-through rate to your website by publishing microposts to your profile on a weekly basis. A high res image and catchy title will help to improve your CTR.

Bing Places For Business

When you’ve verified your profile on Google, claim your business on Bing places for business. Bing’s search engine only accounts for less than 10% of all local searches in Canada, but why not welcome the additional traffic to your website?

Search engine market share in Canada as of July 2020

Once you’ve begun the process of claiming your business, Bing will search for your business to see if a listing already exists. If you don’t see your business listing you can go ahead with creating a new profile.

You’ll be given the option to import data from GMB. This will save you time in creating your profile and ensure your profile information remains consistent (no typos). Choose the option to have your data imported and sync your accounts.

Apple Maps

Think about how many iPhones are in circulation. Apple sold over 40 million iPhones in Q1 of 2020. Although most people may prefer to use Google Maps, Apple Mpas is the default system for providing directions whenever you ask Siri. There should be no doubt about it, listing your business in Apple Maps will result in additional traffic to your website.

There are millions of searches that are being made through the Apple Map platform, so why not capitalize on the searches that are being made in your city? You’ll need an Apple ID to register your business.

Apple Maps is a sourc eof traffic in your local SEO strategy for small business

Structured citations

A structured citation is an instance of your business details being posted to a website. It is considered structured if there are specified fields to enter your name address and phone number (and website). Directory listings, profile links, review websites are examples of where you can find structured citations.

Listing your business in directories has a twofold effect on your website:

  1. Structured citations strengthen your position on Google’s Local Pack/Finder.
  2. Directories provide relevant local referral traffic.

Structured citations confirm your NAP details (name address and phone number). Google verifies the validity of your NAP details with credible citations, and as a result, your search presence in the Local Finder/Local Pack improves.

Choose major citation websites as well as niche-specific and location-specific to create a positive ranking signal for your website in city-specific searches.

Major citation websites

Major citations for your industry and country can be found on Whitespark.ca You don’t need to add them all at once. In fact, it may be better to limit yourself to adding 10-15 a month.

Niche-specific citations

Identify a minimum of 3 niche-specific directories to enlist your business as a start. You can use a simple Google search to find the most relevant directories. A popular search would be:

[your keyword] + business directories

Search result for gardening business directories to find structured citations

The results may not be within your location, however, the search should uncover some of the larger niche directories in your industry. Choose three to start and perform your next search for local directories.

Location-specific directories

Search for the most popular city-specific directories with a simple Google search:

[your city] + business directories

PRO TIP: Download the Mozbar browser extension to filter out the low-quality websites along with those that are heavily spammed. The Mozbar will indicate the domain authority (DA) which you should keep at a minimum of 15 DA at the lowest. Spam scores are naturally high for directories so you may need to concede in this area.

Here’s a search for Toronto business directories in which the result are displayed with the Mozbar:

Example of search result for finding Toronto business directories to ise as citations in a local SEo strategy for your small business

At a glance, you can see that only the first and third results would qualify as citation prospects. The second search result shows a DA of only 14 (The PA is the page authority).

Some directories you will need to pay to join. These are probably good directories for your website but you don’t need to pay to get what you need from structured citations. Avoid it if you’re on a tight budget.

The second qualifying metric you want to double-check is the amount of organic traffic that flows through the directory. If a directory gets little to no organic traffic, it’s a red flag. You don’t want your website to link from graveyards or heavily spammed sites and organic traffic can tell you whether you’ll get some referral traffic on top of the citation.

There are many analytic tools you can use, but SEMRush offers a free version that gives you the numbers you need. Plug in the URL of the website and the overview will display the approximate organic traffic the website receives. 

SEMRush domain overview on organic traffic

This value indicates whether the website ranks organically for keywords and does in fact drive traffic that can be beneficial to your website FYI, the above directory would be a terrible directory to list your Toronto business.

On-page optimization

The optimization of your pages is crucial to appearing for city-specific searches. Create a strong competitive advantage by making sure your keyword is included in your metadata as well as within your content.

Local SEO keyword strategy isn’t extremely complicated as it’s basically [your product or service] + [your city], and similar variations. If someone needs a plumber in Toronto, they’re going to type “plumber Toronto” or “plumber in Toronto” or “Toronto plumber.”

If your business services one city, optimize your homepage to appear for your product/service plus your city. 

How to optimize your homepage

Make sure the most important pages are a click away for users landing on your homepage. Include a navigation bar that hosts the service and product pages that you want people to easily find. Highlight your most important products with blog posts that feature related content (preferably geared towards converting visitors to clients)

Include the NAP details (Name address and phone number) in the footer so the company address is present on every page of the website. Embed a Google map so users are able to click on the map for directions to your storefront.

If you operate a service area business then you may want to create location pages to give your website the most competitive advantage in appearing for each of the cities you service.

Location pages

Your company should have a separate page for every city you provide service in-especially if you have multiple physical locations. Each location page should be published with unique content. Never duplicate the same pages while only changing the city.

Example of how a hib page leads to a city-specific location page

A good location page will reference the city with landmarks or any unique identifying content that can be associated with that area. Include the address, phone number and a map of each location to create more local relevance and a stronger position in the search results.

A location page gives you the opportunity to include the keywords in the most important places such as the URL, title and meta description. This enhances on-page optimization which is a large factor for ranking local websites in localized search results.

Local content

Location pages are considered local content, but apart from your location page, you should be publishing regular content about your business and city. Here are a few examples of the types of content you can produce that positively impact your local search visibility.

Client surveys

You can survey your clients on just about anything related to your product or service. One of the major benefits of surveying your clients is identifying their personal preferences, like dislikes or even just getting their opinions about a particular issue.

Knowing the preferences of your clients are a huge asset to providing an exceptionally high level of customer service. You can cater to the needs of your more closely and discover areas that may be hurting your business. 

Additionally, a survey will contribute to creating high quality content based on the results. You clients would be absolutely interested in the experience of fellow clients using your product or service. 

Expert roundup

An expert roundup is another way to bring more attention to your company while building local alliances. If you’re strategic with your content you can get a lot of companies that aren’t direct competitors, but operate within your field of expertise to participate in a roundup.

This could be an expert opinion that you collect from each of a number of businesses on a trending topic. An on-site example of this can be seen in the infographic we designed titled, “12 Web Design Trends For 2020 By Toronto Experts”. 

Web design trends infographic sample on local expert roundup

As an all SEO company in Toronto, we are closely aligned with web design companies, however, we don’t offer the same services. In this expert roundup, we gathered the opinions of 18 different web design companies on what each expert was the most important web design trend in 2020. We then designed an infographic with an answer from every expert.

The infographic was not only shared by many of the experts who participated but attracted a large number of backlinks. 

Local events

Whenever there’s a local event worth mentioning, post it on your blog. The publication of local activities in your city creates strong ties to your locality. Be sure to include the relevant NAP details and link out to the local sites that are involved in the event.

Host a local event

If your company is hosting the event be sure to post the details on social media, local event websites and community bulletins. Get the word out to as many local people as possible to promote your business and create a few more backlinks to your website.

Post details on Eventbrite.ca if it’s large enough. You can also use Meetup.com if or a similar site if you’re holding regular meetings. Keep in mind that meetings don’t have to be in person. Virtual events are also fair game and equally worth writing about.

Sponsor a local event

You don’t need to hold an even all on your own. You can also look for events that are related to your area of expertise and apply to sponsor the event. Again, Meetup.com is a great site to use for finding events to sponsor, but you’re not limited to Meetp.com as there are a bunch of similar sites to choose from.

To find what events are looking for sponsors type in this search operator into Google:

site:meetup.com + inurl:sponsor

Search result with command operator for sponsor pages on meetup.com

The search results should be a list of pages that have the word sponsor in the URL. Here is an example of a sponsor page for a Toronto group:

Example of an actual sponsor page on meetup.com for local backlinks and local content

Choose events that are worth talking about on your blog. Although the bonus to sponsoring an event is you get a backlink to your site you still want there to be a strong relationship between the content of the meeting and your business.. 

Unstructured citations

When your website’s NAP details appear on a website that isn’t formatted specifically for listing company info, it’s considered an unstructured citation. This can be any one of the NAP details as seen here in the Kingstonist magazine for the Integrated Care Hub. This particular citation includes the name and address.

This does provide value however, obtaining a link from an unstructured citation is the most valuable of local backlinks.

Unstructured citations are found in local news websites, local business websites and local blog sites. These links are considered la crème de la crème of backlinks and will have the greatest positive impact on search visibility as far as quality backlinks go.

Publish local content to attract unstructured citations

Publishing local content will contribute to obtaining unstructured citations. For example, in your expert roundup you may be able to get a few businesses to link to your site within their content. 

Asking for a link is a much easier discussion with a website owner when the link you’re asking for points to an article that they’re featured in on your site.

Gain citations from local news sites

If your business is involved in activities that give back to the community, it might qualify as newsworthy content. For any charitable activities your company might be involved in, you can send a few local reporters a news tip on what your business is doing and see if there are any bites.

Local journalists will typically write about any community news as long as it’s not overly promotional and there’s something worth telling the community about.

Local blog site citations

There is a ton of people blogging in your area-unless of course you live in the North Pole. Find bloggers interested in talking about products, services or topic-worthy issues associated with your business.

If your business is in garden maintenance, find which blogs would publish a few amazing tips that no one heard of before. Many bloggers/influencers accept products in exchange for a review, mention or a link back to your website. Contact influencers and bloggers whose audience is the right fit for your business and they have a substantial following.

Maximize revenue with a local SEO strategy

There are a lot of moving parts to create an effective local SEO strategy, but the rewards are well worth the investment.

Remember that although Google may account for the bulk of the local traffic you receive, there are many other ways to add valuable streams of visitors to your website. Make use of all the options available to create high volumes of relevant local traffic to your site.