ROCKS DIGITAL  BLOG

Laura Darkstar

Website Best Practices and Content Planning presented at LSS15

Website Best Practices presented at LSS15During the Local, Search and Social Summit Lissa Duty started us thinking about our social media plan and then, Natalie Gould and Rachel Morgan stepped up to walk us through how to keep your website current with fresh content, drive site traffic, and rank higher in search results. As you read the highlights from this session you’ll find the post is full of links to help you do everything you need for a great local SEO and content plan.

Website Best Practices

Rachel started off with a discussion on local SEO, what it is and why it matters.  Her short explanation was –> Local SEO is the process of optimizing your web presence to increase your local visibility. Google has reduced their “local pack” in search from 7 listings to 3, which means optimizing your presence to be in that top 3 “pack” is more important than ever.

How to optimize your local presence:
  • Be sure to optimize and verify your Google My Business Page, how fortuitous that Justin told us how to do that earlier!
  • Be sure to use proper category associations with your Google My Business listing.
  • Optimize and verify your Bing Places Profile.
  • Optimize and verify your Yahoo Local Page.
  • Then move on to submitting your business to the top directories like Yelp, Manta, Citysquares, etc.
  • And don’t forget the data aggregators (organizations that collect and compile data and then syndicate it out to citation sources) these include Infogroup, Acxiom, Localeze and Factual. There are companies that can help you with this. For example, Local Site Submit does this for clients.

Don’t forget your local Chamber of Commerce and the Better Business Bureau, both are good for building trust, as well.

Optimizing Your Social Media Profiles

Next, claim and optimize social media profiles. Even if there are social media platforms you don’t use, you can still claim the profile and then set it to “private” so it can’t be seen but it is there in case you want to use it in the future. Top networks are: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and Pinterest.

Remember that there are ranking factors that are out of your control, such as:

  • Physical address in city of search
  • Proximity of physical location to the point of search
  • Proximity of address to centroid

If this all seems overwhelming, you can always get help from Advice Interactive Group!

Planning Your Content

Now that you have yourself optimized and verified, you’ll need to work on content! But, why is content important?

  • It makes your website more relevant
  • Links
  • Keyword, traffic and ranking opportunities
  • Helps with your Google ranking

Where do I get content?

  • Write it yourself (or, if you have staff, have staff write it). Do your keyword research with Google Trends, Google Autosuggest, Google Keyword Planner. Don’t forget competitor research to help get ideas for what to write about.
  • Hire freelancers (textbroker, constantcontent or writerAccess, for example) – remember, you get what you pay for so be prepared to pay for quality, well-researched content!
  • Repurpose previously created content (use blog post excerpts as Facebook post material, for example).

Other possible sources of ideas:

  • Google Analytics – what content do you currently have that already does well?
  • Research top things in your industry or city (Top Local Social Conferences in Addison, for example)
  • Research Popular How-Tos (How To Write Great Content, perhaps)

Ok, so now you have some great content, what do you do with it? 

You can use a content calendar to help you plan what to post, plus where and when to post it.

  • Post it in a blog
  • Use Hootsuite, Buffer or Sprout Social to schedule posts
  • Use the native scheduler in Facebook for maximum newsfeed reach
  • Setup through RSS feeds. Learn how to do that here.
  • Use IFTTT  (If This, Then That) recipes

Social Media Best Practices:

  • The 70/20/10 Rule – 70% business & brand-building/20% shared from other sources/10% self-promoting
  • Real-Time Responses – Respond to questions, comments and complaints within an hour
  • Find Your Voice – Make it approachable and conversational, but also authoritative

Now you know the “how”, “why”, “where” and the “when”  for your local SEO and your content – now you can make a plan and implement it and see what happens!

How is your current Local SEO or Content strategy working? Share your success stories.

Laura Darkstar

Laura Darkstar, owner of Adminderella, is an Administrative Strategist, Blogger, Entrepreneur & Aspiring Novelist. She loves social media and small biz owners.

More Posts - Website

Download Our SEO Guide

Created in a joint partnership with Advice Local, this guide — What You Need to Know About SEO — provides an introduction to SEO concepts, strategies and best practices for optimizing a website. Complete the form below and get instant access.

    ROCKING DIGITAL SERVICES

    Web Design & Development

    Your website needs to be aesthetically pleasing and functional. We build websites for desktop and mobile that are both.

    LOCAL SEARCH & SEO

    Your website needs to attract search engines and consumers. We are experts in local search and SEO, and can make that happen.

    CONTENT CREATION & MARKETING

    Anybody can write words on a page, but can they write content that integrates SEO best practices and converts? We can.

    PPC & Paid Search

    PPC & Paid Search

    Need more customers? We create paid campaigns to reach your target audience and increase sales.

    Tracking & Optimization

    You need a solid foundation for success online, and our tracking & optimization services get it done.

    Graphic Design Services

    Graphic Design Services

    From logo design to your business card, brochures – and everything in-between for print & web – we can help!

    Here’s What Our Client's Have to Say

    Their Local Business Websites Rock

    ★★★★★
    Rocks Digital knows how to build local business websites that convert prospects to customers. Not only do I recommend them to work on my reputation management client’s websites, but they work on the Reputation Sensei brand, too.
    - Chris Snellgrove

    They Customize Their Solutions

    ★★★★★
    Rocks Digital customizes to meet their client’s needs. We needed our existing website optimized for search. We are now placing for more industry keywords and continue to improve. They consult with our in-house team on content optimization, manage our GMB listing & more.
    - Greta Valenti

    Highly Recommend

    ★★★★★
    Rocks Digital manages not only the Association of Directory Publishers website, but our Trusted Local Directory. From helping us get our event information on the website to producing guides, blogs and new content, they have what it takes.
    - Cindi Aldrich

    Rocks Digital Is the Best Choice

    ★★★★★
    As a long-term client, when it was time to change the primary focus of my real estate business, and my website, I knew Rocks Digital was the way to go. They took my existing website, gave it a complete new look, and still managed to keep my existing content.
    - David Dorum

    Brought My Ideas to Fruition

    ★★★★★
    Rocks Digital came highly recommended. Once I started working with them I knew why. They took my ideas for a beautiful website and brought them to the screen. From the design phase to content creation, each component was thoughtfully considered and addressed.
    - Clay Adams

    Conversions Are on the Rise

    ★★★★★
    Rocks Digital manages two of my websites. They produce our blogs, our service pages and manage our paid search campaigns. Conversions are up and new patients are coming in the door. I highly recommend their digital marketing services.
    - Dr. Thomas Chacko

    Agency Services Are Top Notch

    ★★★★★
    We shifted to Rocks Digital agency services earlier in the year. We are so glad we did. Our website sessions are up, page views are up, and bounce rate is down. Now we can easily see how many form fills we have had at any given time through their real-time reporting.
    - Kristin Schafer

    Their Local Business Websites Rock

    ★★★★★
    Rocks Digital knows how to build local business websites that convert prospects to customers. Not only do I recommend them to work on my reputation management client’s websites, but they work on the Reputation Sensei brand, too.
    - Chris Snellgrove

    They Customize Their Solutions

    ★★★★★
    Rocks Digital customizes to meet their client’s needs. We needed our existing website optimized for search. We are now placing for more industry keywords and continue to improve. They consult with our in-house team on content optimization, manage our GMB listing & more.
    - Greta Valenti

    Highly Recommend

    ★★★★★
    Rocks Digital manages not only the Association of Directory Publishers website, but our Trusted Local Directory. From helping us get our event information on the website to producing guides, blogs and new content, they have what it takes.
    - Cindi Aldrich
    Name
    Email
    Review Title
    Rating
    Review Content

    LATEST BLOG POSTS

    Local SEO company strategies.

    What Does a Local SEO Company Do?

    Local SEO is a digital marketing strategy focused on boosting a business’ local search visibility within a particular area. With the successful implementation of proven

    Hire a digital marketing agency.

    Why Hire a Digital Marketing Agency

    Staying ahead of search engine updates and marketing trends is a constant challenge, so it’s no surprise that businesses frequently turn to digital marketing agencies.

    LOCAL VISIBILITY REPORT

    Is your Google My Business listing helping or hurting you? Is bad data causing consumers and search engines to lose trust in your business? This is information you simply must know.

    To get these answers right now, just enter your business name below to run our FREE
    visibility report.


    Need a facelift
    for your website? More search traffic? Need to blog, but don’t have time?

    Our Digital Services Could Be For You
    Get a Free Local Visibility Report Now