How do you do Local SEO in a small town?

[TaylorRHawkins]

Good afternoon everyone!

I wanted to start a discourse on a subject that I think might benefit a few select readers.

What would be your best plan-of-action to successfully propose and execute a Local-SEO campaign for a small, local business in a rural town? The type of town that has next to zero local directories, the type of business that has hardly any (if any at all) "fresh mentions" on the internet, etc.

I'm interested to see how other SEOs would handle tackling this kind of campaign.

Can't wait to hear what people have to say! 
Thanks! 
Taylor

[BlueCorona]

Hi Taylor,

When working on SEO in a small, local area, it's likely that (depending on the size/population), Google won't have enough data to generate a local pack. This proves to be both good and bad for you because 1) you don't need to fight for the space in the local pack, but 2) now you need to dominate the organic search engine results.

In order to dominate these results, you need to focus both on on-site SEO AND off-site SEO.

Your on-site SEO should focus on targeting the local area. What can you do to really localize the content? Build out local blogs about events in the community? Build out even more localized pages based on areas within the town? The options are endless.

Here are some suggestions for successfully tackling off-site SEO:

Link building

• Create linkable content – If you have relevant, authoritative content on your site, it’s more likely that other sites will want to link to it.
• Ask for links and be generous with your links – That’s right, just ask for them. Nicely, of course. When you come across other sites whose readers might benefit from your services or information, ask that site to link to yours. And you can also increase your link karma by linking to other sites whenever you can.
• Comment on blogs – This method can be tricky; some blogs don’t allow links in their comments, and you never want to come across as spammy. But if you have something relevant to say about a blog post on another site, commenting and adding a link to your site isn’t a bad idea.

Social Channels

• Optimizing your “about” info on every site – Make sure your contact info is consistent and correct, and create a description that uses words your potential clients would search for to find you. Customize your social media site URLs—this is also called creating a “vanity URL.” For example: facebook.com/bluecorona.
• Creating high-quality posts – Pay attention to grammar, tone, and content. Make sure what you’re sharing is relevant to your target market. And use high-quality photos when you have them. Remember, every post is a reflection of your business. Always put your best foot forward.
• Measuring your results – How do you know if your social media strategy is working? Track your reach, conversions, and sales! Find out what works, what doesn’t, and never stop fine-tuning your strategy.

Local Listings / Citations

• Citations are another critical part of offsite SEO. A citation is any mention of your business on the web. For example, if you are quoted in a local newspaper story online, and you are identified as the president of your company, that’s a citation. Even if the mention doesn’t include a link to your site, it’s still valuable. There are many ways to increase your citations. This is another ongoing strategy that you’ll have to devote some care and attention to, but it has a high return on investment!

Hope this gets your started in the right direction! Let me know if you have additional questions.

[impactzoneco]

I was doing some research tonight...I didn't realize that about a year ago, the BBB changed their policy to have only nofollow links. Still, people do like to see the BBB logo on someone's website.

http://www.bbb.org/sdoc/bbb-and-seo/

[impactzoneco]

I love win-win situations for clients and the local community, too. Although, I don't set these up for my clients, but I encourage them to do it with more traditional marketers or on their own, depending on the size of the business.

[julie-getonthemap]

I love doing charity & event sponsorships. Often I can get a link for a client in exchange for helping promote their event. Match the events up with the client's actual interest and they get good publicity, referrals and personal satisfaction in addition to an SEO benefit.

[impactzoneco]

Taylor,

My recommendations are similar to Miriam's.

I recommend to people that they join their local Chamber of Commerce, as that provides a great backlink and wonderful local networking opportunities. Plus a nifty logo to add to a website that provides trust in a local community. They can also join the BBB, which gives a regional link. Both of those do cost money, though, and the value to the business depends on the services or products they sell. The BBB fees usually come back within a few months in terms of increased business and clientele. The CoC, I think that is a break-even.

The other option is to find local websites that may not look the best but are local authorities. These would be high schools, community colleges, churches, local clubs, etc. Depending on what they sell, they might be able to get their business mentioned and a local backlink if they offer free services, a raffle, that kind of thing. I.e., a donation of goods and services.

There is also sponsorship of local charity races or other related events such as cancer 5Ks, etc. Youth sports, such as baseball, soccer, football, are other opportunities. As much as I hate to say it, if the person is part of a particular racial minority or "specialty" religious group -- say, a Mormon -- work it! I had to tell one client that from the PNW, who is Morman, and she laughed. She knew what I meant, even though it is cynical to use something like that as a marketing device.

Then there are professional organizations, like the ABA, Interior Design, Event Planning, <insert org="" here="">that they should join, depending on their speciality. Sites like Angie's List and Porch bring some local SEO. Local people do search on those to find local contractors.</insert>

In terms of "free" ways to boost local SEO, Miriam's suggestions re: national directories is also one I make to clients. Granted, Moz and the other directory listings are not free.

If the target market is older, the Yellow Pages (paper) is one avenue.

-- Jewel

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Taylor,

When speaking of local businesses,  the term 'directories' typically refers to local business directories (like online Yellow Pages) rather than those old-school, low quality directories from days gone by. As a local business owner, you want to get your business listed on the major local business data platforms. Have you considered Moz Local for this, by any chance? Our product pushes out your correct location data to the majors and has become a popular choice for this type of work, as it saves a great deal of time. However, if you want to list your business manually, you'll want to be sure to get listed on Google My Business, Facebook, Foursquare, Factual, Yelp, Best of the Web, Infogroup, Citysearch, Superpages, YP, Acxiom and a handful of other major sources. These local business data platforms are applicable to all local business types, and so many local business owners these days use tools like Moz Local to get listed, instead of slogging through the work manually.

As for the older concept of low quality directory listings, yes, that's an antiquated SEO strategy from a decade ago and should not be pursued. Hope this helps. And, if you'd like to learn more about Moz Local, here's a handy list of features: https://moz.com/local/features

[TaylorRHawkins]

Thanks for the response, Miriam!

Do you have any ways to differentiate the bad nationwide directories from the good ones? I've always been told to stay away from mass directories that aren't geo-specific.

Curious to know your thoughts!

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Taylor,

Good topic! While it's true that a town of that size is unlikely to have a lot of geo-specific directories, all of the normal structured citations sources are still available (the ones that serve all businesses across the country), so you'll still be building citations.

If the business needs to earn local mentions, how about these options:

1. Sponsorships of local businesses, events and organizations

2. Cross-promotions with related local companies

3. Local blog mentions.

4. If the town has an online newspaper, that would be good, too.

When the town is small, you can only go so far with getting geo-specific references. Once you've explored this to its limit, you may need to focus more effort on industry-specific references, instead. Does this help?

[TaylorRHawkins]

I should also state that this isn't a "500 Total Population" kind of town in the middle of the woods. I mean a rural pacific northwest town with roughly 50,000 - 200,000 in population. Not big enough to have local directories, per se, but certainly enough for their to be a good amount of companies to create healthy competition.