To earn better “Local SEO” we know that Google really likes consistency. Consistency comes in 2 parts:
- would be the ‘A‘ in your N.A.P.
- would be in your posting schedule.
Here’s how to be consistent in both and improve your ranking for local keywords in your area.
CONSISTENCY IN YOUR ADDRESS
This first part is going to be easy – very easy.
When you list your address we all know what you mean by
123 Sunny Drive and
123 Sunny Dr. or
123 Sunny Dr – right?
So does Google but if we’re looking for the better “Local SEO” (and you should be) you’ll want to be consistent in whatever way you spell your Street, Blvd, Avenue, or Cir.
Google would like you to simply pick one style and use it consistently everywhere. See, that was easy!
CONSISTENCY IN YOUR POSTING
I know you, and I know this is going to be harder. A LOT HARDER.
Getting to the point, all things being equal, Google is going to like a site that posts regular content that matches a search query over another site that has irregular postings that match that same keyword string. Or in plain english…
YOU NEED A CONTENT CALENDAR
“Content Calendar“, Schedule, or call it an Editorial Calendar – call it whatever you want, you need it to keep on top of this.
How to build your Editorial Calendar:
Let’s assume there’s 3 different areas you want to rank well for. I’ll make up a few names here but they could be neighborhoods, they could be towns, they could be counties – your definition of local is going to differ from someone else.
- Sunny Acres
- Foggy River
- Blue Lagoon
Next, let’s assume you can write 3 posts a week. That’s going to be really simple. Monday you write a post on Sunny Acres, Wednesday on Foggy River, and Friday on Blue Lagoon. Done!
But… What if you can only squeeze out a single post once every 3 weeks? The same idea applies. Just stick to the schedule and rotate to the next locale every 3rd week.
But… What if you also want to write about Market Data Reports, Sold Listings, or any other thing? You’ll have to work those into the schedule on a regular basis as well.
But… What if you also want to… yeah this list could go on and on. The point is to define the local keywords you really want to rank for and then construct a regular schedule that you can manage and then do it!
True Failure Story: I had a client that seriously had 100+ local areas that they wanted to rank well for. They had done it with their previous site and wanted the new site to achieve the same results.
Looking at their old site I could tell they used ‘black hat’ tactics to achieve the results. They didn’t know what they did, their previous site builder did it for them. Google has regular updates to their algorithm and one of them virtually eliminated their old way of ranking. Google tries it’s best to be smarter than the cheaters.
I told them they could rank well, but they would have to earn it by producing regular content. They didn’t have the time, didn’t want to spend the effort and so they now have almost no ranking for any of those keywords.
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Want to learn more about Editorial Calendars? Here’s a huge post on the subject.
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He's an avid hockey fan, rides a mountain bike, sometimes rides a road bike, has a few motorcycles (he had a really fast one, bought a cool orange one, rode a really slow one, and now,a perfect "BDR Weapon"). If that isn't enough, he makes cheese and sourdough bread, loves strong beer and good red wine, and poorly plays the Mandolin.
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