Location Pages for SEO: How to Create Them
Location pages are a great way to help your website rank for a variety of keywords in various locations. As most businesses serve clients in different cities, adding location pages increases your search visibility as a website if you end up ranking on the first page of a search engine for those location-specific keywords. And who doesn’t want to rank for more highly searched keywords on the first page of a search engine? Today, we go over how to create location pages and they’re such a crucial part of an effective SEO strategy.
What Are Location Pages?
Location pages are website pages you can create that are focused on specific keywords in a certain city or location. If you are considering putting together a comprehensive SEO strategy, location pages allow you to create multiple website pages for specific locations. Why does this matter? If you run a business that serves clients in multiple cities – or want to target clients in your city and nearby cities – location pages allow you to do so. For example, if you are a lawyer and you have clients in Carlsbad, Encinitas, and Oceanside, you would want to create location pages for each city.
Optimized location pages increase your ability to show up high on search engines. And showing up on the first page of Google for various location-specific keywords allows you to target your ideal clients in all the locations you serve.
How to Write a Location Page in 5 Steps
1. Conduct Keyword Research
Before writing a location page, conduct keyword research to determine which keywords you’d like to rank for – we love Moz and Semrush and highly recommend both SEO tools.
Let’s use the lawyer example from above to show how to conduct this type of research. You’d want to conduct some keyword research to determine the following:
· Keyword search volume
· Keyword difficulty
· Search engine results page features (such as ads, news, graphs etc. that take up space on the first search engine results page)
We’d recommend searching for the following keywords using the keyword explorer tool on Moz or the keyword magic tool on Semrush:
· Encinitas Lawyer
· Encinitas Attorney
· Lawyer in Encinitas
· Carlsbad Lawyer
· Carlsbad Attorney
· Lawyer in Carlsbad
· And so on…
2. Include Your Business Name, Address, and Phone Number
Include your business name, address, and phone number on this page (NAP). Search engines use this information to determine where businesses should rank in geo-specific website searches. Make sure that these are accurate and consistent across your entire website, Google Business profile, and other directories.
3. Add a Meta Title and Meta Description
After completing your keyword research, be sure to include your keywords in your meta title and meta description on the backend of your website. Here’s how to add a meta title and a meta description to your Squarespace website, Wix website, and WordPress website. You will also want to include your company name after these keywords. Here’s an example: Carlsbad Attorney | Carlsbad Family Law.
Be sure to include these specific keywords in your URL as well. Here’s an example www.carlsbadfamilylaw/areasweserve/Encinitas.
4. Create Location-Specific Content
Once that is done, write a website page with these keywords included in the heading 1 of your page. You can choose additional keywords, if they aren’t the same ones as those in your heading 1, for your heading 2, and heading 3 sections of your website page content as well. Don’t copy the same content across multiple location pages though. This is duplicate content that search engines don’t like to see and will flag.
We recommend making a location page about 400-600 words long if possible. Remember that you’re writing this page for your future clients, so if your website page is shorter or longer, that’s also okay. Google wants website content to be friendly for the searcher and not written just for the search engine. Don’t forget that and you will be just fine.
5. Add a Call-to-Action Item
Be sure to also add a call-to-action item at the bottom of your website page. This tells searchers where to go once they’re done reading your page and provides them with clear next steps.
How Do Location Pages Help with SEO?
Location pages can help your local business rank for location-specific keywords. When searchers head online to look for the service you provide in their city, your website will pop up (if you rank for those keywords). As 75% of people don’t scroll past the first page of Google, it’s incredibly important to get onto this coveted first page. Once you’re there, and location pages can help you accomplish this, it’s easier for potential clients to find and contact you online for your services.
Would you like to receive more client inquiries in all the locations you serve? Contact us online today to learn how we can help.