Do Small Local Businesses Need SEO-Friendly Content?

Content is king, but sometimes it’s temporarily overthrown — changes in Google’s search algorithm can temporarily topple even the most meticulously curated content.  In recent years, we’ve seen this happen time and time again as the search engine puts more focus on local results.

You’ve probably seen this for yourself — search for “plumbing,” “carpentry” or any other general keyphrase with a local slant, and you’ll see sites from businesses near your physical location.  What’s more interesting is the quality of their content; you’ll often find pages that rely on outdated SEO techniques (such as putting keywords in bold or mindless repetition of long-tail phrases) instead of quality content.

What gives?

To put it succinctly, that awful website is the most optimized option near you.  While the content may be mediocre, the landing page delivers exactly what customers want — plumbing, carpentry or other “call us now” services — and as a result, people stay interested after clicking through.  Remember, Google pays close attention to how long users stay on a page.

The “Fresh Canvas” Theory of Local SEO

Google emphasizes geo-specific local results where it makes sense, and that’s led some small businesses to reconsider their SEO marketing strategies.  Is there really a reason to buy high-quality content or to look at stuff like header and canon tags if the competition’s using decade-old SEO techniques to get to the top?

Sorry for the dumb answer, but yes, it’s absolutely still worth it.  Your competitor’s site is currently on top because it gives users what they expect.  Give them a better experience, and you’ll slowly but surely climb the ranks.

Content may be king, but it’s also cheap.  Outfitting a small business website with high-quality content should never cost more than a few hundred dollars, and operating a blog shouldn’t take more than 20-30 minutes per week (you can also hire content creators to maintain your blog for you, further reducing your costs).

Compare that to the costs of advertising versus organic search results; if you use a lot of pay-per-click ads, a high geo-specific ranking on Google will easily save you thousands of dollars per month, and you’ll enjoy more benefits over time as Google’s local algorithms improve.

In fact, I’d go so far as to say that right now, small local businesses can benefit from SEO more than other types of businesses — they’ve essentially got a fresh canvas to work with.
SEO content isn’t rocket science, and most small businesses can easily create a plan for long-term success; content is the most important part of that plan.  Make sure you’re delivering high-quality content on a regular basis.  Every piece should give a customer information or provide them with entertainment.  Don’t focus on sales when creating your ongoing content.  Content may be temporarily overthrown, but it always seems to find its way back to the kingdom.