With the rise of AI-generated content, Google is cracking down on low-quality auto-generated copy in favor of high-quality content written by real human experts.
This creates an opportunity for local businesses to stand out by producing authentic and useful information that resonates with their audience and builds trust.
This article discusses strategies for creating localized business content that converts, including:
Provide transparent pricing details. Offering DIY tips and tutorials. Highlight events and recommendations in the area. Incorporation of video marketing. Leveraging forums like Reddit. Management of reviews. Continuous updating of outdated pages.
The rise of forums in the SERPs
Forums are some of the most human-moderated content on the web. Participating in forums can be a great way to help people learn about your brand, but do it lightly.
As an active forum user and employee of a company that owns a forum, I can say with confidence that forum moderators generally have zero tolerance for self-promotional content or blatantly false information. In a world of fabricated social media reactions and fake reviews, forums are among the best places to get honest, unbiased, sales-free advice.
Google seems to have taken note and is working to decide how to reward this in the age of overproduced, AI-laden content.
While Reddit may be the most obvious forum example, we’re seeing increases in forum rankings and traffic across industries and sectors. From technology to automotive, legal services, home services, health and everything in between, forums are gaining popularity.
Dig Deeper: Google will replace the outlook filter with the forum filter
Position your brand as an expert
People prefer to do business with brands they know, like and trust. The larger the purchase, the more important these factors are.
Building relationships and gaining trust are keys to achieving lasting customer relationships.
One of the best ways to stand out and grab the attention of both customers and Google is to have content that sets you apart from the competition.
Authoritative, trusted, and location-specific content can help increase SERP visibility, increase user trust, and generate leads for your business.
Give people the information they’re looking for. Keep it visually appealing and easy to navigate.
Provide useful information
Cost and price information
This is something that business owners tend to balk at, but Google loves data. Including useful information such as pricing details helps improve rankings and may even earn you a featured snippet.
Our tests continue to show that cost keyword optimization improves rankings, traffic, and most importantly, conversions.
People want to know what to expect before they pick up the phone. You don’t have to provide exact numbers, but giving people an idea helps them set expectations, which saves you time and money in the long run.
Provide DIY information and tutorials
Embedding DIY content is another great way to increase rankings, traffic, and conversions.
You don’t have to give away your secrets, but give your customers helpful tips on things they can do themselves to save time and money.
Check location-based queries in Google Search Console to get ideas about what people are already searching for.
Electricians can share how to test and change smoke detectors or light switches. Plumbers can show people how to unclog a bathroom sink or unclog a toilet. HVAC companies can offer advice on changing furnace filters.
This helps instill trust in your brand, position you as an authority in your industry, and remind your customers that you’re there to help, even when it doesn’t directly benefit you.
When it’s time for a big job, you’ll be at the top of their mind because they already know and trust you.
Share recommendations and events in the area
We see success with “best of” and “best of” content lists for neighborhoods and communities, area guides that review restaurants or family activities, and timely information such as festivals and holiday events.
Showing your customers that you are local and actively involved in the community reinforces your credibility and that your brand is made up of real people in the real world.
Dig Deeper: How to create local content that builds trust and drives sales
Incorporate video into your strategy
In an age of AI-generated content, people want to be able to see that you’re real. Why don’t we show them with video?
Tutorials, helpful tips, fun things to do in your local community, and fun “about us” videos are just a few of the ways you can use video to engage your audience.
Show them who you are and what you’re up to to help increase your brand’s experience, authority and trust with your audience.
We started sharing regular video content for our brand about a year ago and have seen great results.
Dig Deeper: Video Content Guide: Why You Should Start Making Videos Now (Plus Examples)
Get the daily search newsletter marketers trust.
Clean up your content
Don’t be afraid to update, edit or even delete old or outdated content.
Just as no one wants to see your employees show up to work in an old vehicle, using old techniques or looking sloppy, your website needs to be updated and maintained to keep up with the times.
Content Pruning
Remove pages that don’t work for you. Every page on your site should have a job. If a page is not working, it should be renewed or removed.
After discovering more than 50 repetitive pages with thin content on this site, we removed the pages and redirected the URLs to pages with more valuable (and useful) information and were happy to see positive results:
Dig Deeper: Improving or Removing Content for SEO: How to do it the right way
Update old blog posts
Instead of publishing a new post every week that will lose relevance almost immediately and end up in the blogroll graveyard, try regularly updating an evergreen page.
Share local events of the month, top summer things to do, or other timely information about the area that people are looking for. This attracts everyone in the local community, further increasing the awareness, liking and trust factor of your brand.
These posts usually rank well and perform consistently, quickly becoming a local authority on “things to do in” the location.
Will they be direct conversions? No, but it’s also not the first visit to your homepage, that Facebook post, or a real estate feed. Investments as large as real estate and many home service offerings rarely convert on the first click.
Take the time to nurture your audience and build a strong, authoritative reputation in your community. You’ll earn personal referrals from community members, which carry much more weight with potential buyers.
It works.
Update, measure, evaluate, adjust, measure, repeat
The only constant in SEO is change. Expect to make adjustments to the structure and content of your site as things change, just as you would update or redecorate an office.
Remember the styles that were so hot 30 years ago? What performed amazingly in 1994 will not perform the same way in 2024.
Website content will never be “set it and forget it”. You must continuously track and measure the results of your efforts.
Assess success, make changes, track and measure. This cycle will ensure success in both the SERPs and your conversion rates.
Warning: Things that can hurt you
Negative comments
Keep an eye out for review trends. Reviews are essential to the customer experience.
Reviews with more stars result in higher click-through rates in the local package, for a BrightLocal Studio.
Deeper: How to Get Reviews for Local SEO – The Must-Do List
Political landmines
It’s an election year. Be careful. People make everything political, even seemingly mundane things.
When this particular review was submitted to Google’s business profile, they actually decided that this type of review would be classified as politically charged and therefore against their guidelines, so it was removed.
We don’t often see earnings like this on the review side, so if your business has been affected by these types of reviews, please contact Google Business Profile Support about it.
It relies too much on AI
Let the AI assist, but don’t give it the keys. Remember, AI is only as smart as the information it’s fed.
ChatGPT and other generative AI platforms are not always accurate. Use AI as a tool, then let your brain determine what’s good and what needs a rewrite or fix. We’ve seen cases where AI tools have fabricated information to fill in blanks in queries.
Always verify information before posting, and be sure to remove the wrong word, inaccurate information, or anything else that doesn’t serve your audience.
Remember that your competitors are getting the same information as you. What you do with this information is where you stand out or fall behind.
Ignoring the forums
As Google continues to focus on real, authentic content to combat AI, we’ll likely continue to see forums and other user-generated content (UGC) rank well. This can be great, or it can bring you down.
Reddit is currently a reliable source of information for users. If it’s important to users, it’s important to Google.
Be careful here because a forum as powerful as Reddit can make or break your brand.
Dig Deeper: How to create an EEAT strategy for local SEO
The views expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.
[ad_2]
Source link
