WRITING TIPS | LOCAL SEO STRATEGY

Why You Need a Local SEO Expert for Website Content

Although there are other reasons to hire a local SEO expert to write your website content, the primary reason is you can’t compete with national companies.

As you can see in the featured image, I topped Best Buy, a national company that sells dashcams, by using better, not more, keywords, synonyms, and words related to the keyword phrase.

I also include the locality where I sell that’s near the person looking. Likewise, I used the question I thought most people would type into Google to find a dashcam in Bangor, Maine.

Plus, you can see right away what my page is about because I use many of the features in the Meta Description, which is the 155-character description of your topic with the keyword and synonyms.

That was in 2017, and no one has topped it in Bangor, Maine. You need to be within the top five on the search engine results page (SERP).

Hire a Local SEO Expert Content Writer

When you hire a local SEO content writer to write your website content and a monthly blog, you can compete with local retailers selling similar products.

The primary consideration you are shooting for is to get customers in your area to click on your website to buy. How will they do that if their Google, Bing, or other search engine results page only gives them the choice of national or global companies? You cannot compete with them.

Keywords, Synonyms, & Related Words Are the Key

A knowledgeable local SEO expert will add keywords that will help search engines narrow the search to your community. By adding city, county, and state names, local establishments and landmarks, you can top the Google search for your area.

However, it is not just about keywords. If you load up an article with the keyword you want to rank for without adding synonyms and related words, you are hurting your chances to rank well. Synonyms and words related to your product or brand will help search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, and others determine precisely what your page is about and rank it in that area accordingly.

Keyword Density

It would be best to think through what words relate to your product or brand and pepper those throughout your blog spot or article. Did you notice I didn’t say salt it thoroughly? If you can’t think of which synonyms to use, try the Thesaurus.

When you cook, you use a lot more salt than pepper, or at least we used to before we knew what Sodium was doing to our bodies. However, it is recommended that you use only 1–2% keyword density. That’s once or twice per 100 words.

Therefore, a 500-word article should use the keyword only five times, once in the title, once in a subtitle, once in the call-to-action (CTA), if you use one, once in the text, and once in the alt-text explaining the featured image.

If you don’t use an image, you can use the keyword in the text twice. Otherwise, the rest should include as many synonyms and words related to the keyword as is necessary to broach the subject.

Synonyms & Related Keywords

For instance, I have three dashcam sites. Words related to the keyword dashcam are dashboard camera, dashboard video recorder, dash cam (though this is an incorrect spelling, some searchers don’t know that and search for dash cam instead of dashcam), continuous looping, GPS, night vision (or any other features of the dashcam you sell), stealth, discreet, reliable (and many other adjectives used to describe the dashcam), and the brand name.

Of course, there are many more, and you should use three or four of those to build a long-tail keyword phrase.

You never want to use the same keyword on different pages because that will make the pages compete against each other, which could lower the page rank for both. For example, “Wheel Witness reliable dashcam” could be one long-tail keyword, while the “Garmin night vision dashcam” or the “Garmin GPS dashcam review” could be another.

Make sure the words you use are actually related to your product. If it doesn’t have a GPS or GPS is optional in the device you’re promoting, do not use GPS or be sure to use the word “optional” with it. Online sales are all about trust. That’s why your “About Us” page is crucial, but that’s an entire article in itself.

You can use the Google Keyword Planner, the SEMRush Keyword Magic Tool, the Amazon Sellzone Keyword Wizard, and many more if you don’t like any of those three; search for another.

Final thoughts

There you have it, use long-tail keywords with a 1% density, synonyms, and words related to the keyword phrase in your story naturally, along with local city, county, state names, and landmarks to narrow the user’s search. You cannot compete with companies and corporations at the national or global level, but you can hit #1 on the SERP with the proper local SEO strategy.

Stephen Dalton is a retired US Army First Sergeant with a degree in journalism from the University of Maryland and a Certified US English Chicago Manual of Style Editor. Also, a Top Writer in Nutrition, Travel, Fiction, Transportation, VR, NFL, Design, Creativity, and Short Story.

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