How to promote a local SEO/Web design company via a blog (mainly blogging) and social media?
-
Hello,
What is possible as far as promoting a local SEO and Web Design Company with a blog? I'm offering simple web design, both informational and product based, as well as SEO for existing informational and product-based companies here in Boise, Idaho. At first it won't be face to face so there's no local SEO.
I honestly don't like to sell. I've done it for years and I'd like to spend my time blogging (mainly blogging), doing social media, and volunteering. How can I use this approach to get a beginning agency off the ground? Please don't tell me to go push my services. I'd like to get my company off the ground through avenues that have integrity to me.
How do I do this? Feel free to include articles and videos in your response if appropriate.
Thank you.
-
Hey Bob,
Okay, I won't tell you to sell but remember, you're a business person, and there's nothing wrong with selling a service that's genuinely of high quality. You can be proud of what you have to sell if you know it's really going to help your customers!
But, a blog that just plugs your services isn't likely to be of much interest to read, so I'm with you on that, for sure! I have a couple of thoughts on this:
- First, let me show you something. One of my favorite bloggers in the Local SEO space is a fellow named Phil Rozek. He has become a favorite of mine because of the regularity with which he covers very important industry topics. He's thorough, generous and dedicated to sharing what he knows. And, though his blog isn't updated daily, it's updated frequently enough for me to find it worthwhile to check it out every few days in case there's something new there. Now, with that background in mind, check out this recent post of his governing a pain point all Local SEOs and local business owners are experiencing right now surrounding Google based reviews: http://www.localvisibilitysystem.com/2015/11/18/asking-customers-for-google-reviews-in-the-new-google-plus-what-are-your-options/
I recommend that you read through the post, actively evaluating it for friendliness, generosity and authority. I think you'll come away with the feeling that this is a fellow who not only knows what he's talking about, but that he understands the needs of his readership and is sharing everything he can think of to help them. Now, there's one other thing I want you to notice as you read through that post. It's this statement:
"I’ll probably have to update my battle-tested instructions for the 4th or 5th time since 2011, at which point you can order a slick one-page PDF that makes a frustrating process simple as possible for customers."
So, there's a little bit of a potential sale going on in the post, but it is totally inoffensive, in my view, because Phil's blog is about 99% free tutorials and about 1% mentioning that you might want to invest in something he's offering. Given the way he is continuously demonstrating his authority, letting you know he's going to make something you can buy feels more like doing you a favor rather than pitching a hard sell, doesn't it? Buying something Phil has created could save an agency or company a lot of sweat and time.
So, I suggest you thumb through Phil's blog over the past year or so and see how he's demonstrating a spirit of giving while also positioning himself as someone any local business owner would be very fortunate to consult with. Imagine if you could do that for your own business.
- My other thought is that you have a special opportunity if you are dedicated to focusing only on Boise as your market. In addition to penning those Phil-type tutorial posts you'll be looking at, above, your blog can become a showcase of your participation within your local business community. There will be opportunities you can either latch onto or create from scratch to put you in one-on-one contact with local business owners. Think workshops, conferences, seminars, classes at Park & Rec or senior centers, visiting high schools or community colleges, church group events, etc. If you have business knowledge to share to help your neighbors market what they do, then showcasing your participation in events on your blog will be simultaneously marketing what you do. Event by event, you will be building Boise-based blog content as you are also getting your name out there in the business community as a resource for your services. You'll be giving Google a reason to pull up your posts in Boise-based-or-related searches while also giving the plumber you built a site for a reason to tell his friend the dentist about what you did for him.
So, these are the 2 things I'm thinking of off the top of my head, and I hope that you'll get lots more feedback from the community.
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
-
English pages given preference over local language
We recently launched a new design of our website and for SEO purposes we decided to have our website both in English and in Dutch. However, when I look at the rankings in MOZ for many of our keywords, it seems the English pages are being preferred over the Dutch ones. That never used to be the case when we had our website in the old design. It mainly is for pages that have an English keyword attached to them, but even then the Dutch page would just rank. I'm trying to figure out why English pages are being preferred now and whether that could actually damage our rankings, as search engines would prefer copy in the local language. An example is this page: https://www.bluebillywig.com/nl/html5-video-player/ for the keywords "HTML5 player" and "HTML5 video player".
Local SEO | | Billywig0 -
Local SEO for a business serving multiple small cities
We have a local business that has a showroom in one city, and serve other 5 different small cities (in total 6 small cities). Search volume for the targeted keyword is very low (around 100 each plus minus) with a variety of competition levels. The product is expensive so this justifies the low search volume with a serious user intent.
Local SEO | | Nadiamo44
My question is given the low search volume for each keyword, what would be the best local SEO tactic for this. The website has a DA of 20 with competitors who has similar and higher DAs. Options I am considering: 1. Create unique pages for each location with unique content (no address available so I will have to use a city name postcode)
2. Create pages with the same content (but changing the area of service on the URL, H1 and mention the postcode and the radius of coverage twice in the content) and using a canonical tag to solve the duplicate issue.
In this scenario, I will create the main product pages with the address of the showroom, and mention the area of service covered for the other 5 cities.
3. Given that the 6 cities are part of a greater area, use the greater area to target them all. The keyword of the greater area has a lower search volume than the city keyword. This might work for keywords with low competition but not for ones with high competition levels. Not sure how well search engines will rank the keywords that include the greater area and show the pages for searches in small cities. Any advice on which option to go with or any recommendations for other solutions?0 -
Effective Real Estate SEO Strategies
I am looking to increase organic traffic to our Real Estate website, and am looking for any suggestions and or feedback as to strategies to implement in this area or even the must-have SEO pages every real-estate business should build. Interested in attracting sellers & buyers, but obviously would love more to attract sellers... The issue with that being you have to outrank the massive sites like Zillow and Realtor. Some ideas I have so far. Building out Neighbourhood pages to rank for people searching for 'Neighbourhood name' Any feedback on this one greatly appreciate. What's {city name} like? {Neighbourhood name} houses for sale What are good areas of {city name} Is {city name} a good place to live? What's {city name} like? What __ are in {city name} restaraunts hospitals beaches colleges How is {city names} weather Thanks guys!
Local SEO | | Dakota_G1 -
"We" or "I" for a small local healthcare enterprise?
Hi all, SEO newb here (or possibly rookie!). I'm a health professional and run a small, new specialised healthcare business targeting a local area (15 miles max). My product as such is the service I provide. There is a grand total of one employee, that of course being me! My SEO goal is phonecalls made and subsequent bookings as opposed to sales. Prior to joining here, I just looked at websites that provide a similar service and blindly assumed that a "We" approach to writing content was the accepted norm for presumed professional appearance. On reflection however, not only are most of these employing a team, most are in areas much more metropolitan than I operate in (I operate in a medium sized town where almost everyone knows everyone else by about 1 degree). In addition, I have run into a few difficulties with this however when writing content/incorporating keywords. Now I am about to re-write my "About Me" section I'm having a real challenge using the aforementioned context while sounding personable and like-able. Does anyone have any advice or experience re the correct context to use, in regards to the difference in CTR's and bounce rates etc in a small one-man enterprise that offers specialised services to the local area? Many thanks!
Local SEO | | UkPod1 -
Free Local Search Marketing Tools You're Using These Days?
Hello to our wonderful community here! I'm updating an old list of free tools to use in a local search marketing campaign. The original list was created before there were quite so many paid tools in our industry, and it definitely needs an update! I'd like to ask, are there free tools you find yourself using these days in marketing local businesses? These could be related to any aspect of your campaigns. I'd love it if you'd share your favorites with me, especially if they are things you feel others might not be aware of but which are working really well for you! Thanks for any suggestions you can provide.
Local SEO | | MiriamEllis1 -
Benefits of Several Backlinks from same Web 2.0?
If I get several backlinks from same web 2.0 (wordpress, tumblr or so on) will it be beneficial as 1 ? or each backlink will equal? if you say, "will count as 1 cause from same domain" then why don't google give you credit for getting link from 96 DA site? (wordpress)
Local SEO | | Jubaer961 -
How to find best local websites?
For example, I'd like to type in a zipcode and get the highest ranking websites by DA/whatever metric the software uses, within a 25 mile radius? Does that type of service exist? I'm looking to build up our local links, but most of the websites have extremely low authority. I'm trying to find some good ones without having to manually check each one. Thanks, Ruben
Local SEO | | KempRugeLawGroup1 -
How does local citations and links differ from national links?
HI So I read on here somewhere that it is important to get local links, instead of just national links. I am curious how does Google know if the links you are getting are from a local source? Thank you
Local SEO | | Berner0