Everything you need to know about localised pages for SEO
Are you keen to attract more customers from a specific geographic area, such as a nearby city or town? The work you need to carry out to make sure your website appears in local search results when people search for products and services in that area is called local SEO. In this blog, I’m going to share why localised SEO pages are so important for businesses selling into specific geographical areas and how you can create them for your website.
What are localised landing pages?
Local landing pages are simply web pages that are designed to target a specific geographic location, such as a city, town or region. Location pages help you rank in organic search results and come up in Google maps when people search the area they relate to. As well as containing information about the products or services you offer to people living there, they must include the keywords and phrases people in that area are most likely to search for. That ticks the box from the Google web crawler’s perspective - why you want to rank and where you want to rank!
They are essential for businesses with a physical location such as doctors and dentists, bars, cafes and restaurants, hairdressers, beauticians, pet services and more. They are also very useful for multi-location businesses, for example a florist chain with shops in multiple towns, to help customers find their local store.
Why do local landing pages matter?
As I mentioned briefly in the introduction, local landing pages are key for anybody who wants to improve their website’s visibility in search results for location-specific queries - people searching for products and services available in their local area. Thinking back to my example about florists for a moment - if you’re a florist in Cheltenham and you’re not coming up when people search for ‘Mother’s Day bouquet in Cheltenham’, you’ll be missing out on lots of work! By creating a landing page that’s optimised for the location you want to sell into, you’ll greatly increase your chances of appearing in local search results. The traffic you get as a result of your localised page is also likely to be good quality, with the people you’re appearing in front of already showing strong intent. They actively want to find a business that does what you do in the location you operate in, and that means higher conversion rates!
What do you need to include on a localised landing page?
For any SEO work you undertake it’s important that the content you create - the copy, headings, subheadings and so on - is unique, and for localised landing pages this becomes even more important. You need to ensure it’s as easy as possible for Google’s crawlers to differentiate the page from others on your website and your competitors. Don’t be tempted to copy and paste content from other pages or closely copy a competitor.
Then, think about the keywords you need to include to ensure you’re coming up in relevant search results. Your keywords need to reflect what people will type into that search bar, so consider any local slang or abbreviations for places and things. For example, people searching for a ‘chippy in Blackpool’ rather than a ‘fish and chip shop in Blackpool’! The next thing to consider is accuracy - if you don’t know the local area all that well make sure you double-check place names, colloquial terms and any other specific information you include.
Just like any other website page, make sure you have a call to action on your localised web page. This should give someone the chance to connect directly with the business in their area, s
uch as ‘call us’ or ‘book an appointment’. You can also boost brand trust by including a testimonial from a happy customer – ideally one living in the local area you’re trying to target.
Measuring your success
If you’re putting in the hard work to improve your chances of appearing in local search results, you want to make sure that work is paying off. One way to do this is to link your Google Business Profile from your localised SEO page to help track your results. If you struggle at all with website admin tasks like these then just drop me a line to see how I can help.