Lead generation is arguably the most efficient way to make money online. If you happen to be a consultant who can offer services in multiple locations then a GEO-targeted landing page strategy may be right for you. As with most consulting professionals, the more exposure you have the more you can charge for your services. A wide geographic net also allows you to pick and choose potential clients who search still search locally services. The foundation of a solid GEO-targeted SEO campaign starts with understanding how people search for your services.
Search Terms With Local Intent
Key search terms like plumbers, electricians, dermatologists, and “car tinting services” are all done with geographic results in mind. Search engines recognize these terms and present local (ones with a registered physical address) and organic results that are deemed geographically relevant in accordance to the user’s location. In an effort to make their search engine more “useful” they’ve used historic data to kick local results up for terms that include physical location as part of the transaction. This comes at a time when mobile search has become unavoidably important. If you’re on your iPhone and type “restaurants” into Google there’s a good chance that you’re looking for restaurants close by, not a Wikipedia article about the history of restaurants in America.
The Sweet Spot
Sprinkled in amongst local results you’ll often find several organic listings. The picture on the left is a screenshot from my phone after searching for “restaurants” (in Kennesaw, GA). Above the place listings is Restaurants.com, a high-authority website that aggregates restaurant coupons. While they may not have a physical address near Kennesaw it’s important to note that Google still deemed the website worthy enough of a top ranking spot. If you want to capture potential customers in different geographic areas and don’t have the time to set up physical mailing addresses have no fear. By setting up carefully constructed landing pages you can still populate the first page of “local” search queries.
When To Use This Strategy
This isn’t for everyone. If your business depends on you serving your customers at a physical location or you own a brick and mortar store then targeting searchers outside of your service area won’t make much sense. This strategy is for businesses that offer a service that still has a “local” connotations. For example, if someone who lives in Rochester, NY wants to get individual health insurance they may go to Google and use the search term “health insurance Rochester NY“. Off the bat Google is going to display local results, most likely health insurance agents who have physical addresses in the Rochester area. Then they’ll mix in organic listings that send quality signals regarding the terms “health insurance” and “Rochester, NY”. Even though your health insurance business is located in Pittsburgh, PA you may be licensed to sell it in the state of New York. Capturing these leads via advertising (PPPC) for terms like “health insurance Rochester, NY” can really add up in cost. Free, organic traffic is not only more cost efficient but also garners higher click-through rates. Here are some steps you can take to roll out an effective geo-targeted landing page campaign.
1) Research
As cliched as it sounds the first step in any SEO campaign is to gather relevant data to help you better understand your company/project as a whole. When planning a geo-targeted campaign it’s important to gather local query results for the locations you want to roll out landing pages. Using Google’s Adwords Keyword Tool you can get a fairly accurate idea of how competitive a keyword/phrase is. One thing to note is that this tool uses data from AdWords, Google’s advertising platform. The assumption is that the higher a CPC bid is for the keyword the more valuable an organic ranking will be. While this tool is effective for measuring the overall competitiveness and monthly search volume of a keyword it won’t tell you if your competitors have taken advantage of organic.
Performing a good ‘ole fashioned eye test will be necessary if you plan on expanding into new markets. For example, if you’re trying to capture health insurance leads in the Rochester, New York market then start simply by Googling “health insurance Rochester New York”. You’ll notice that the screenshot on the right gives results that show advertisements first, then places (physical addresses), followed by organic. In this case the organic result isn’t another agent who’s trying to sell people health insurance but rather a “coordinated services” website that aggregates the different plans available. In this instance Google is saying: “Besides the ads and the insurance businesses we know of that have a physical address in Rochester this first organic listing is what we consider to be naturally relevant to the term “health insurance rochester ny”". There’s an opportunity here. With the right content you’ll be able to create a landing page that focuses on “Rochester NY health insurance” that falls into the “relevant” category in organic results.
2) Domain Setup – Permalink Structure
If you already have a website setup you’re off to a good start. If you haven’t picked one out yet then there are a few best practices you can follow:
- Stay Away From Exact Match Domain Names (EDM) – Google has cut down on giving preference to exact match domains in search results (I.E. – rochesterhealthinsurance.com) ever since Matt Cutts announced last fall that they would begin dropping spammy domain names in the SERPs. Instead, focus on creating a strong brand. For recognitions sake, you may want to pick a domain name that mixes a strong keyword with your company’s name like barnabyhealthinsurance.com or starhealthbrokers.com.
- Get Dedicated Hosting – Going with a cheap, shared hosting account will present scalability issues in the future. If you’re using a platform like WordPress then it’s wise to find a custom hosting solution that provides services like automated backups and server monitoring. When you purchased a shared hosting plan your website is thrown on to the same server with what could be a hundred other domains. A dedicated hosting plan allows you to create a fast browsing experience for users. Search engines also love it when your pages load fast. It requires less processing power ($$$) during the indexation process.
- Hire Professional Help – Picking out a domain name and web hosting is one thing. Setting the site up is a different beast altogether. If you plan on using some kind of content management system (which I highly suggest) then you’ll want to hire someone who specializes in developing on that platform. (WordPress is my favorite). They can make sure you’re using best practices right off the bat.
When picking out URL structure it’s best to keep any landing pages you add on the same domain as the root. Sometimes you will see websites that utilize subdomains to roll out new content. This makes sense if you’re creating a a separate blog, shop, or user portal but does little in the way of adding authority to your website. Google basically sees this as a completely new website and will treat it as such in regards to keyword rankings. Although some SEOs prefer a flat website architecture I believe that if you’re going to be rolling out hundreds of landing pages then a clear, semantic URL structure will benefit your site in the long run. If you’re going to launch landing pages in several states then setup a directory structure like – starhealthbrokers.com/new-york/, starhealthbrokers.com/pennsylvania/, etc. Then when you have a city the URL will be relevant from a keyword perspective – starhealthbrokers.com/new-york/rochester-health-insurance, starhealthbrokers.com/pennsylvania/scranton-health-insurance.
3)Page Setup
Design
When designing a lead generation website usability is paramount. The goal is to get people to fill out a form, call a phone number, or buy your product. In order for them to feel comfortable giving out such information you have to establish a certain level of trust. Trust starts with site aesthetics. Go for a clean layout that emphasizes call to actions. When is visitor lands on your website you must “hold their hand” through the lead-capture process. On the left you’ll notice that ehealthinsurance.com has a clean layout, replete with plenty of white space surrounding the “Find Plans Now” button. Also, this button is located on the top left of a page. It’s been proven through numerous eye tracking studies that people read in the “F-shaped pattern”. The button lies on the left center of the F. An area which usability experts recommend putting your most important information on. In this case ehealthinsurance wants to get people to fill out the quote form as fast and easy as possible. All call to actions, whether it be and embedded form, button, or video “play” button – should be placed on the top left of the page. You have mere seconds to get peoples attention. Don’t cut yourself short by putting a meaningless graphic or picture where there could easily be a call-to-action.
Content
For a search engine to deem your webpage relevant you must have content that reflects the desired keyword you’re going after. Some guidelines when creating quality content:
- Tag and Title Keyword Placement – It’s wise to include your keywords in the title tag, meta description, URL name, headers (h1-h3), and any meta data that may be pushed through to create rich snippets in search results.
- Content Placement – Longer, more varied content has the ability to rank better. Try to have at least 350 words of copy with your keyword(s) sprinkled throughout. Don’t stuff though. Include the keywords only when it makes sense.
- Multimedia Placement – we’re a culture of visual learners. Try to include at least one unique picture on your landing pages. Label the image using the “img alt” tag as well. It should include your target keyword and describe what the picture is about (search engines need help when classifying what a picture is). If you have the resources to include original video use a 3rd party hosting service like Vimeo, Viddler, Brightcove, or Wistia that gives you white-label control over your videos and allows you to host the video on your own domain.
4) Internal Linking – Architecture
Before search engines can make sense out of your website the first thing you need to do is address how your pages will be linked internally. Internal linking is extremely important to not only user experience but also the search engine indexation process. Through optimal link structure you’re able to tell Google what pages you consider to be the most important. Consider it a roadmap to how visitors (and search engine crawlers) can flow through your website. Some best practices for internal linking:
- Establish “Parent” Pages – Whether you want your landing pages to fall under state, county, or neighborhood categories it’s important to make sure you have a fleshed-out, established category page for each.
- Link Related Pages – If you’re rolling out landing pages for cities in New York state make sure you link back to the parent page for each of these cities. If you make a landing page for Rochester make sure to link back to the /new-york/ directory page. This silo-like approach helps strengthen your New York-related keywords and adds another level of organization to your site structure.
- Limit Outbound Links – When constructing a GEO-targeted landing page I like to link out to 5 or 6 other related websites. Most of the time I will also place the “nofollow” attribute on the link as well. For the Rochester, NY landing page I would include links to sources like the local chamber of commerce, area hospitals, local health clinics etc. Providing these links to visitors is useful on your part because they’re other websites that they might be interested in while considering what health insurance to purchase.
Think of the user first. You want to make your website as easy to navigate as possible. By creating an appropriate internal linking structure it helps them understand what your website is about.
5) Inbound Linking – Establishing Relationships
When talking to a typical SEO agency you’ll often find that the topic of “link building” is the elephant in the room. There’s a number of reasons for this, chief amongst them being that Google has taken drastic steps in the past year to limit the effectiveness of inbound links in regards to how they influence the ranking algorithm. Link building, when not done in an ethical manner get even get you penalized by search engines. It’s no wonder many established agencies are weary of engaging in link building campaigns. Most of them prefer to give on-site analysis and optimization recommendations. With large, complex websites you often do need this kind of constant technical feedback. Many large companies even have their own SEO departments/consultants to work on these problems full-time. With the surge in social media most link “building” campaigns will surely involve the marketing department and include Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Google Plus as potential ways to build authoritative links.
Link Building For SMB Owners
Fortunately, because the local landing page strategy fall under the “long tail” category link building efforts won’t be as necessarily massive as someone who is going after ”health insurance quotes” at a national level. By optimizing on-page elements you should be able to grab the low hanging fruit in most areas without much inbound linking. That doesn’t mean you should completely disregard link building as a component of your overall strategy. It’s still important and will always be a part of Google’s algorithm. For a GEO-centric campaign you may want to use the following tactics:
- Local Citations – Citations are mentions of your website without any hard link pointing back to you. Think of citations as suggestions. Using a service like White Spark to find possible placements is a good place to start. Often times each city will have a yellow page-like directory someone that you can place you page for free.
- Guest Posting On Local Blogs – If you’re dealing with a larger metropolitan areas like Buffalo or Albany then you may have to get some hard links pointed to your landing pages. Search Google for “blogs in Buffalo, NY”, “local Buffalo blogger” etc. and contact the webmaster. Ask if it’d be possible to do a guest blog post and link back to your landing page.
- Build Links To Parent Pages – Building links to parent pages allows links juice to flow to all of the links on the page. Building relevant, high-authority links to the /new-york/ parent page would benefit all the pages underneath it (cities in New York).
Be careful how you go about getting other sites to link to yours. Never buy “link packages” or engage in spammy tactics like forum/comment linking. Using ethical, white hat methods will win out in the long run.
Patience, Persistance Will Pay Off
This strategy isn’t for everyone. It requires a huge commitment – from creating content to conducting link outreach be prepared to spend a considerable amount of time on it before you see results. This kind of campaign has the potential to pay off big in the long run. By going about it the right way you’re setting your business up for a steady flow of future opportunities. There’s nothing quite like the idea of getting free leads on a consistent basis. A local landing page strategy, when executed properly is the equivalent of having free billboards around the country and not have to pay for them. There’s a reason they refer to SEO as the “holy grail” of marketing. With a little elbow grease and research you can enjoy a steady stream of free leads.
