Aug 11, 2023
In today's digital landscape, local SEO and effective use of location landing pages are pivotal for businesses, especially those with multiple locations or franchises. Too often, these pages are repetitive, providing little value to the user. This presentation delves deep into reimagining location landing pages, emphasizing the importance of diversifying content sources, leveraging CRM data insights, and harnessing user-generated content. From showcasing reviews and social proof to tapping into insightful industry statistics, we explore a holistic approach to creating location landing pages that truly resonate with visitors, ultimately driving better engagement and conversion. Dive in to discover the future of impactful location landing pages!
The Future of Location Landing Pages
Today, we dive deep into the future of location landing pages. The prominence of this topic in yesterday's discussion underlines its significance for local businesses. Whether you're a giant like Walmart or a two-outlet pest control company, the challenge remains the same - how to optimize these pages for better rankings and conversions.
Every business, from small to enterprise level, needs improved location pages. The consensus among SEO professionals is that the current location landing pages are generally not up to par. So, if we're all aware of this, what's holding back the improvements?
Consider this: our client, a nationwide home cleaning franchise, sees 75% of their organic traffic funneled to their location landing pages. The importance of these pages is crystal clear. If these pages lack elements like reviews, recognitions, and conversion opportunities, they simply won't convert. As local SEO experts, we need to elevate our recommendations and persuade our clients to act on them. It's not just for search engines but to provide users with an enriched experience.
People desire efficiency. They want to find information quickly and decide without endless browsing. But subpar location pages hinder this process. They're pivotal for visibility and rankings of geospecific keywords. Without specific geo tags, ranking for terms like "plumbing services" becomes a needle-in-haystack scenario.
Visitors want personalization. They should feel that the business cares about them. Uniformity across pages might result in disinterest and fewer revisits.
Everyone aiming to have an online presence in specific areas should invest in location pages. This applies whether you have one, two, or a hundred outlets. Each should offer a unique experience, differentiating in services, products, and overall feel.
Common challenges with local landing pages include:
Duplicate Content: It's a rampant issue across enterprises.
Doorway Pages: Many existing location pages add little to no value, making them essentially doorway pages.
Low User Engagement: If visitors don’t engage or convert, the page loses its purpose.
Thin Content: This often arises from the challenge of producing diverse content for similar topics across locations.
Much of this boils down to scalability. It's tough to scale local landing pages. Businesses often seek shortcuts, leading to issues like duplicate content, thin material, and reduced engagement.
I recently undertook an experiment. I analyzed the top search results for specific industries in the 50 largest US cities. My objective was to understand who's ranking and why, and to decipher the composition of their landing pages. Although platforms like Yelp consistently rank, no one seems to have a perfect page. It's fascinating that even the best are missing certain elements. One evident conclusion was the importance of content quality over sheer length.
What we currently get wrong with local landing pages
We're doing a disservice to our readers and our users by just regurgitating the same information over and over. We're thinking about SEO, but we're not thinking about the user. And at the end of the day, Google is trying to serve the user, so our pages should too.
Instead of creating these content-heavy pages that don't offer real value, we need to focus on features. If I land on your location page, I want to know immediately why I should choose your business over the one next door. And this isn't necessarily about your services, but about what makes you unique. Do you offer 24/7 services? Do you have award-winning experts? These are the things that users and Google will care about.
The future location landing page:
Quick and Clear Conversion Opportunities: Booking tools, chat features, quick quote forms. Not buried deep but right there for the user to access easily.
USPs prominently displayed: What are your unique and added value propositions? Why should I choose you? Highlight these.
Reviews and Testimonials: Real reviews from real people that give insights into your services and quality.
Coupons and Promotions: If you have them, showcase them.
Easy-to-find Contact Information: I shouldn’t have to search for this.
At the end of the day, SEO isn't just about ranking. It's about creating a meaningful and useful experience for the user. If we keep that in mind, the rankings will follow. It’s about being strategic and understanding that, sometimes, less is more. Focus on the features and the unique aspects of your business, and you’ll be ahead of the curve.
In conclusion, as the digital landscape continues to evolve, our strategies should too. Let's not get stuck in the old ways of thinking and prioritize the user experience above all. The future of local SEO is about blending the best of traditional SEO practices with a user-centric approach, and if we can master that, we'll be in a strong position moving forward.