How valuable is non-local organic traffic for local business?
-
Hey friends!
I work for a local digital marketing agency in Greenville, SC – serving primarily local small businesses. Over the past six months, we've increased our monthly organic traffic by almost 100%. The majority of this traffic is coming to blogs we've written over the past year on industry topics and trends. I love seeing our traffic increase, but it hasn't necessarily translated to more quality leads. Conversion numbers have largely remained the same. I think one reason is that a lot of this traffic isn't local.
Here's my question: as a local business, how valuable is content that ranks well and drives organic traffic, when the traffic isn't local, and from users we would never work with?
A lot of this content has earned links and grown our authority, so I suppose we've seen benefit, but I'm struggling to convince myself that it's really that valuable. I know local content is key, but it feels like what we want to educate on isn't searched locally.
Would love to hear your thoughts! Thanks!
-
Thumbs up, Sean!
-
-
Hey Sean,
Hope you reported the fake address listings. Those are the ones that Google will actually remove!
-
I recently had some issues with an individual who was actually opening several fraudulent scammy businesses from P.O. Box addresses and UPS Stores for the purpose of getting the SEO benefits received on a local level. for one thing having relevance to be in big directories will gain your site authority (Not all directories do but, white pages, yellows pages, definitely the chamber of commerce)
Additionally, that whole #1 organic 33% of searches statistic definitely get's thrown out the window with the implementation of a map listing. This in combination with the bidding war typically seen above any valued local key term, I'd be impressed to see #1 organic banking 18% of traffic referred from Google. I don't have numbers to back it's just a hypothetical guess. Metaphorically it's like going from a simple game of Texas Holdem to Omaha Hi/Lo split and not knowing how to scoop the pot LOL!
I see only percs from the versatility of benefiting from local and national search results.
-
Hey Miriam! S'been a while : )
-
My pleasure, Brooks. I always enjoy your contributions here very much!
-
Thank you so much, Miriam, this is very helpful!
-
Thanks Nick, good word: that valuable content and positive site-wide metrics should always benefit the site and brand in the long run.
-
Very fine suggestion, Chris!
-
I've engaged with local marketing companies who had big plans for bringing in nationwide leads and had little care for developing their firm's local relevance. Nor did they have an understanding of the difference in difficulty for a small marketing company to convert local leads into new business vs. converting geographically diverse leads (which they struggled to get anyway).
As a small marketing company, the sweet spot is definitely local business and no doubt, in Greenville NC, there is more business than you can handle. There are so many ways to develop content that will put your firm directly in view of local businesses that need you and that will pay for your services. It requires an embrace of your locality and a creative exuberance for content about it and forgoing thoughts of leads coming in from all corners of the country. If you do those things well first, leads will come from other places.
You say you write blog posts about industry topics and trends. As I'm sure you've noticed, so does almost everyone else, right? Why not get creative in combining marketing topics with the life and times of the typical Greenvillian? I guarantee you will enjoy the writing much more and your traffic will start coming in from closer to home.
-
Hi Brooks,
This is such a good topic. It's one I've encountered previously.
So, the issue is that your particular business model has national applicability. Digital marketing is a topic of national/international interest, vs. if you were creating content for something like your local farmer's market association or something along those lines.
Despite this, as you've realized, the national interest your content is earning (congratulations, by the way) is building your authority relative to its topic. In a RankBrain environment, this is definitely a good thing. Appearing as a result for national searches means you are also appearing as a result for your target clients in South Carolina when they do those same searches. Remember, too, that organic authority underpins local rankings. So, there is no negative here, if Google is more and more associating your domain with expertise on a set of topics.
Basically, you are in an enviable position here to turn a good thing into a better thing! The leads you are getting from non-local clients could actually be a wonderful opportunity for you to create some goodwill, both B2C and B2B. Hopefully, Brooks, as an active member of an industry, you've gotten to know some other good folks at quality agencies. Instead of just turning these leads away, why not refer them to people you trust? And, ask friendly colleagues that if they ever get leads from businesses in SC, they think of you, as your business thrives on serving these particular customers. I have found, over the years, that potential clients sincerely appreciate being referred to a trusted source. It's such a confusing world out there, sadly littered with scammers, and you can help out a business owner in an important way by doing more than just saying "no".
Hope these thoughts are helpful!
-
If the blog posts have good user metrics on them (time on site, pages per session, etc.), it should, in theory, help your website rankings over time. The agency I work for has run into this as well, where the website traffic will increase, but leads will remain constant or won't increase near as much.
I say there is a positive benefit as your blog posts could get increase brand awareness, and maybe get referenced and linked to, which helps your overall website authority, but it is definitely a long game, and the short-term benefit will be very little.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Is dynamic keyword insertion a viable local SEO tactic/strategy for your content?
Hi mozzers, I have a meeting tomorrow with the dev team to discuss about dynamic keyword insertion implementation on a new site. This site currently holds 40 geo specific microsites with several service pages each carrying unique content. These pages(about 400 pages) are seen by VP of marketing as hard to maintain and inconvenient when wanting to change content across these pages. The VP is looking to automate content as much as possible without hurting our local SEO efforts. The dev team will be asking me if dynamic keyword insertion could a viable strategy for these 40 locations without harming local SEO. Currently we have a robust local SEO strategy in place and wouldn't want to change it unless dynamic keyword insertion is a viable option and won't hurt all the seo efforts that are in place? If this is not a viable solution, any recommendations on any other solutions we could use to satisfy the VP? If you have used DKI for your local SEO efforts, please share your thoughts and results that you have seen. Any real case scenario data/knowledge would be really helpful. Thank you!
Local SEO | | Ideas-Money-Art0 -
Another local fence company used (stole) one of my images
We have a local fence business in Oklahoma City and one of the other local fence companies took the liberty of using one of our images that I took myself on their website...creating a similar page even. They took the our image from this page: http://www.a-better-fence-construction.com/metal-fence-post.html And used it on their page (2x they used it!): http://fenceokc.com/2016/07/13/all-about-fence-posts/ They didn't even bother renaming the file "metal-fence-post.jpg"! I'm not experienced in what I should do? (I did a google image search and lots of websites are using it...but one contractor locally in OKC is using it and one in Dallas area is also using it.) I just wonder what other people are doing to prevent images being used or if your not worrying about it. Brad metal-fence-post.jpg
Local SEO | | SuperNovi0 -
Does blocking traffic from a country via a firewall affect my ranking?
The main conversion point on my site is a contact form completion. Approximately a third of my conversions last year were from an international country we don't sell our services in, and all those conversions were attempts to sell us services. We are considering blocking the traffic to the site from that country. I'm trying to figure out if that will negatively affect my SEO rank here in the US before we proceed with that plan. Does anyone have any experience with implementing this tactic?
Local SEO | | Bear.Group0 -
What is the best SEO tool for tracking local rankings
Hi Can anyone recommend what they think the best tool is to track local rankings. I want to manage several small businesses' visibility and I am not sure which one is the best. I have been told that "Bright local" and "SEO PowerSuite" are the best in the business. Is that true? or is there something better out there Thanks
Local SEO | | coolhandluc0 -
Local Rankings
Hi all, I do hope to get some insight into this problem. I look after a webiste - http://www.crownhilldentalpractice.co.uk/ - and the age used to rank for 'dentist plymouth' in the middle of the first page of the SERPS on Google. The ranking then slowly slipped at the beginning of this year and following the Penguin update it has fallen to the bottom of page 1 and is sometimes seen on page two. Their competitors are mostly in plymouth, but there is a site whose physical location is close to my client, and yet they maange to rank more highly. I have tried to see what this domain has been doing - they have a marginally higher domain authority, but the clients domain is older. Checekc Webmaster, (no messages) re-submitted site map, built up internal links, optimised images, bilt up Google + with reviews too. They have some social signlas from facebook too. Any ideas of how to get these guys back up to above the fodl on poage one for that keyword? Kind Regards Carrie
Local SEO | | dentaldesign0 -
SEO: Directory Listing Help with Two business locations in different states
Hello! I am in the process of building my second location, and will be moving to Nashville TN. My first location is located in ohio, and I am changing my primary location to nashville, but still want to keep my clients in Ohio... At least for the first year. As for directory building, what is the best option? 1.) Should I create two separate directory listings for each location and then direct www.domain.com to Nashville directory, and then www.domain.com/ohio-wedding-photographer/ to the Ohio listing in the directory? Or do you create one directory and mention I have offices in both Ohio and nashville? Is it bad to have two listings for each location if they have different addresses and phone numbers? Thank you!
Local SEO | | jean78780 -
Google My Business Locations Query- Do I need unqiue Picture File Names for every location
Hello All, I am just in the process of updating all my google business locations for each of my depots. I have been uploading photos but I am wondering if the file names of the photo's need to be unique for every location ? I know I need to describe the picture in the filename so it's good use of keywords but I am wondering if google will see it as spaming if I upload the same product pictures etc to ever google business location ? thanks Pete
Local SEO | | PeteC120 -
Google+ for Business Links Section - Not Available
I haven't found any documentation on this - curious if anyone's noticed that Google+ Local Listings (i.e. brick-n-mortar shops) don't have access to a Links section like a "brand" page might? Seems strange not to let them link out to their social media assets while Coke and Ford have that privilege. I wonder why? Thanks!
Local SEO | | PerfectPitchConcepts0