SEO
6 Crucial Elements Of Local Visibility
A local landing page is a web page designed to show people and search engines where businesses operate. It can include details on the service area a business covers, directions to a physical shopfront, and information about the staff and services available at that location.
You may have heard that Google doesn’t like to rank such pages, which isn’t necessarily true. What Google doesn’t like is:
- Mass-produced local pages that prioritize quantity over quality
- Creating location pages for areas your business has no tangible presence in
- Duplicated content with just the location swapped out
- Regurgitated Wikipedia information about the history of a location
So, let’s unpack the anatomy of a location page strategy that not only ranks and converts but also enhances your credibility in your local community.
Great location pages ensure that your business appears in local search results and resonates with the local audience.
Here’s a blueprint you can follow to create location landing pages that rank well, offer valuable information, and help drive new business for your local company.
We suggest using most of the elements listed below, along with tailoring the design to meet the needs of your business and your customer’s search intent.
Now, let’s unpack each of the six elements of effective location pages.
Adding local keywords to your URLs is a ranking factor that can assist with improving location page rankings. It’s critical to include both your service and location in the URL to match your target keywords for the page.
There are a few ways you can go about this.
For instance, a URL like www.example.com/emergency-plumbing-new-york is only one level down from the home page. Creating all your pages like this leads to a very flat website structure which can be harder for users to navigate and for businesses to organize and track. It can also make it harder for Google’s crawlers to pinpoint which website pages you view as the most important.
A better way to go about this is to create parent and child pages.
If your business operates (or will operate) nationally, across multiple cities, or as a franchise, make your locations the parent pages:
If your business operates (and will continue to operate) at a small local level or within only one area, make your services the parent pages:
The best choice for your business comes down to what website structure can scale to accommodate your business needs over time.
Adding your service and location to the H1 heading and title tag can help with search rankings, clearly signaling to Google which topic your page is about. It is also better for accessibility and user experience by helping all users know the page they’ve landed on is likely to provide the information they’re after.
However, there can be a tug-of-war between optimizing for SEO and writing compelling copy.
The best balance comes from leading with the keyword you’re targeting and following with a unique selling proposition to encourage people to choose your business over a competitor’s. For example:
- New York Aged Care | We’re #1 in NYC for Resident Experience
- Plumber Manhattan | 24/7 Emergency Plumbing across New York
- Extension Builders NYC | Fixed-Fee Home Extensions With No Hidden Costs
- Carpet Cleaning New York | $99 Fixed Fee Service
A website’s home page tends to get a whole lot of love from designers compared to other internal pages. But in reality, many people will find your website through your location landing pages first, and may not even see your homepage.
For this reason, it’s important that you design your local pages with the best user experience and conversion potential in mind.
When someone lands on your location page, they will immediately see the “above-the-fold” region. This is the entire area visible on someone’s screen before scrolling, and it is a goldmine for conversion potential.
For instance, here’s what the above-the-fold area of Parris Law Firm’s Lancaster car accident page looks like:
Notice how it doesn’t particularly inspire feelings of trust or credibility? The call to action button is also hard to see against the background and the visually dominant content doesn’t indicate why a visitor should choose Parris over another firm.
Now compare that to their home page which notably includes many credibility and conversion-optimized signals like the reviews, proof of results generated, the media mentions the firm has earned, and mentions of how long they’ve been in business.
It’s clear the same level of attention has not been given to designing each of these pages. Since people will generally land on a location page directly after making a Google search, the above-the-fold area must be designed to keep people’s attention on the page and encourage them to convert.
To improve the conversion potential of your location pages, consider:
- Highlighting your unique selling points. Use content and design elements to make your points of difference stand out.
- Showcasing aggregated reviews. You can embed these from third-party platforms like Google Business, FaceBook, or Yelp.
- Meeting the searcher’s intent. If users intend to continue the journey offline, address that and make it easy for them to do so.
- Showing you’re actually based in an area. When searching locally, many people choose businesses near them.
- Having clear calls to action. Make buttons clear and support them with well-written conversion copy.
Don’t only focus on SEO here. Write to convert users.
“Show, don’t tell” is powerful advice that also works wonders for location pages. It’s easy to say you’re in an area, but consumers are becoming increasingly distrustful of dishonest or manipulative marketing tactics.
Here are some elements to consider adding to your page design to showcase your local presence.
Add a map
Add a map with a pin showcasing your location if you have an office or bricks-and-mortar shopfront.
If you operate in a particular area but don’t have a bricks-and-mortar location, add a map highlighting your service area instead, like this example from Plain Pallets:
If you operate a bit like a school, where you may have physical premises in one area but also connect to nearby locations (like school catchment areas), you can add a map with driving directions to your site.
Or you can showcase how your premises are “only X minutes from Y area,” along with the best ways to reach your location.
Add images of your premises
Real photos are much more persuasive than stock images. For example, this image, from Sheen Panel Services contains an image of the truck in the act of delivering a towing service. It also includes a branded logo, and contact information, and is an actual representation of the service the company delivers.
Compare it to this stock image from another towing company. It doesn’t add value to the page or experience and will likely be ignored by most people. It also doesn’t support the content or service mentioned.
Using Sheen as an example, here are additional image ideas you can add to your location pages to bolster your local credibility and earn more trust online.
External shots of the location, ideally with your logo visible in the frame
These types of photos are great for shopfronts or businesses that require customers to travel to their location. It is ideal to include the entire exterior of your premises with your logo clearly visible, like in this example:
Internal photographs of the reception area
Some images showing your reception area and friendly staff can create a warm feeling before a potential customer sets foot into your location. It is ideal to showcase your logo and smiling, uniformed staff like in this image:
Photos of each team member who works at the location
Adding images of your staff at each location creates a sense of familiarity and continuity between online and offline experiences. You can include such images in a couple of different ways.
For a business like Sheen Panel Service, you can take images of your team in the area where services are delivered, like in this image:
Alternatively, professional service firms or businesses that have a mix of on-the-ground and virtual staff attending to different offices may benefit from headshots like these from Liston Newton:
Close-ups and detailed shots related to the service
Close-ups and detailed shots of your team completing different services are incredibly useful. They allow you to fill in image gaps next to content about specific services. They also allow you to show exactly how you deliver a service instead of trying to find mediocre stock images that only kind of seem accurate.
Make sure uniformed staff are in the shot and that you also include your branding in the frame, even in the background, like in this image from Sheen’s website:
Add videos or virtual 360° tours
Videos and virtual 360° tours enable your website visitors to see and feel more than static images do. For example, this video showcases how Bax Clean delivers a variety of window cleaning services:
In a matter of seconds, visitors can see things like the team’s attention to detail, their ability to clean windows on multi-story buildings, and that they are also able to clean skylights and windows on a roof.
A virtual tour may be another alternative worth exploring if it makes sense for your business. Here’s an example from Matterport, a property marketing company that creates virtual tours allowing their clients to showcase different types of display homes and properties online.
Adding internal links or mentions to the services you offer in each area allows you to do a few things:
- You can improve the local optimization for these services by targeting “service + location” keywords people are searching for.
- You can give your visitors a sense of exactly what’s on offer at each location.
- You can add custom information, discounts, or offers available to the local market and prioritize what they care most about.
In terms of design, you can have an internal link component taking the visitor to dedicated service pages for the location:
Or, you can have more content about each service on the page, allowing you to rank the location page for all available services in the area:
Demonstrating your credibility is becoming increasingly important online. One way of determining credibility is through experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (EEAT) signals.
These signals are also becoming more important for SEO as Google continues to focus on prioritizing trustworthy content.
EEAT and credibility elements to consider adding to your location pages include:
- Aggregated ratings from third-party platforms, like Google Reviews, FaceBook, or Yelp.
- Accreditations and certifications for your industry, like FIFA accreditations for football stadium turf.
- Government-issued ratings or licenses, like ISO certifications or industry-specific licenses.
- Location information such as address, contact details, and opening hours.
- Details about the local staff members to showcase their industry experience and expertise.
- Links to your business and social profiles like Google Business, FaceBook, X, or LinkedIn.
- Before and after photos, results, case studies, and local client success stories.
Final thoughts
Google’s continuing emphasis on surfacing credible, trustworthy brands challenges us to rethink location pages that will continue to rank. It’s about transforming our location page strategies from mass-produced doorway pages to credibility powerhouses offering useful localized information.
This shift meets Google’s criteria and creates a more engaging and trustworthy space for our users, especially as businesses begin showing (rather than telling) exactly how they can best serve a local community.
If you’ve got any questions or location page insights to share, reach out on LinkedIn!
SEO
WordPress Insiders Discuss WordPress Stagnation
A recent webinar featuring WordPress executives from Automattic and Elementor, along with developers and Joost de Valk, discussed the stagnation in WordPress growth, exploring the causes and potential solutions.
Stagnation Was The Webinar Topic
The webinar, “Is WordPress’ Market share Declining? And What Should Product Businesses Do About it?” was a frank discussion about what can be done to increase the market share of new users that are choosing a web publishing platform.
Yet something that came up is that there are some areas that WordPress is doing exceptionally well so it’s not all doom and gloom. As will be seen later on, the fact that the WordPress core isn’t progressing in terms of specific technological adoption isn’t necessarily a sign that WordPress is falling behind, it’s actually a feature.
Yet there is a stagnation as mentioned at the 17:07 minute mark:
“…Basically you’re saying it’s not necessarily declining, but it’s not increasing and the energy is lagging. “
The response to the above statement acknowledged that while there are areas of growth like in the education and government sectors, the rest was “up for grabs.”
Joost de Valk spoke directly and unambiguously acknowledged the stagnation at the 18:09 minute mark:
“I agree with Noel. I think it’s stagnant.”
That said, Joost also saw opportunities with ecommerce, with the performance of WooCommerce. WooCommerce, by the way, outperformed WordPress as a whole with a 6.80% year over year growth rate, so there’s a good reason that Joost was optimistic of the ecommerce sector.
A general sense that WordPress was entering a stall however was not in dispute, as shown in remarks at the 31:45 minute mark:
“… the WordPress product market share is not decreasing, but it is stagnating…”
Facing Reality Is Productive
Humans have two ways to deal with a problem:
- Acknowledge the problem and seek solutions
- Pretend it’s not there and proceed as if everything is okay
WordPress is a publishing platform that’s loved around the world and has literally created countless jobs, careers, powered online commerce as well as helped establish new industries in developing applications that extend WordPress.
Many people have a stake in WordPress’ continued survival so any talk about WordPress entering a stall and descent phase like an airplane that reached the maximum altitude is frightening and some people would prefer to shout it down to make it go away.
Acknowledging facts and not brushing them aside is what this webinar achieved as a step toward identifying solutions. Everyone in the discussion has a stake in the continued growth of WordPress and their goal was to put it out there for the community to also get involved.
The live webinar featured:
- Miriam Schwab, Elementor’s Head of WP Relations
- Rich Tabor, Automattic Product Manager
- Joost de Valk, founder of Yoast SEO
- Co-hosts Matt Cromwell and Amber Hinds, both members of the WordPress developer community moderated the discussion.
WordPress Market Share Stagnation
The webinar acknowledged that WordPress market share, the percentage of websites online that use WordPress, was stagnating. Stagnation is a state at which something is neither moving forward nor backwards, it is simply stuck at an in between point. And that’s what was openly acknowledged and the main point of the discussion was understanding the reasons why and what could be done about it.
Statistics gathered by the HTTPArchive and published on Joost de Valk’s blog show that WordPress experienced a year over year growth of 1.85%, having spent the year growing and contracting its market share. For example, over the latest month over month period the market share dropped by -0.28%.
Crowing about the WordPress 1.85% growth rate as evidence that everything is fine is to ignore that a large percentage of new businesses and websites coming online are increasingly going to other platforms, with year over year growth rates of other platforms outpacing the rate of growth of WordPress.
Out of the top 10 Content Management Systems, only six experienced year over year (YoY) growth.
CMS YoY Growth
- Webflow: 25.00%
- Shopify: 15.61%
- Wix: 10.71%
- Squarespace: 9.04%
- Duda: 8.89%
- WordPress: 1.85%
Why Stagnation Is A Problem
An important point made in the webinar is that stagnation can have a negative trickle-down effect on the business ecosystem by reducing growth opportunities and customer acquisition. If fewer of the new businesses coming online are opting in for WordPress are clients that will never come looking for a theme, plugin, development or SEO service.
It was noted at the 4:18 minute mark by Joost de Valk:
“…when you’re investing and when you’re building a product in the WordPress space, the market share or whether WordPress is growing or not has a deep impact on how easy it is to well to get people to, to buy the software that you want to sell them.”
Perception Of Innovation
One of the potential reasons for the struggle to achieve significant growth is the perception of a lack of innovation, pointed out at the 16:51 minute mark that there’s still no integration with popular technologies like Next JS, an open-source web development platform that is optimized for fast rollout of scalable and search-friendly websites.
It was observed at the 16:51 minute mark:
“…and still today we have no integration with next JS or anything like that…”
Someone else agreed but also expressed at the 41:52 minute mark, that the lack of innovation in the WordPress core can also be seen as a deliberate effort to make WordPress extensible so that if users find a gap a developer can step in and make a plugin to make WordPress be whatever users and developers want it to be.
“It’s not trying to be everything for everyone because it’s extensible. So if WordPress has a… let’s say a weakness for a particular segment or could be doing better in some way. Then you can come along and develop a plug in for it and that is one of the beautiful things about WordPress.”
Is Improved Marketing A Solution
One of the things that was identified as an area of improvement is marketing. They didn’t say it would solve all problems. It was simply noted that competitors are actively advertising and promoting but WordPress is by comparison not really proactively there. I think to extend that idea, which wasn’t expressed in the webinar, is to consider that if WordPress isn’t out there putting out a positive marketing message then the only thing consumers might be exposed to is the daily news of another vulnerability.
Someone commented in the 16:21 minute mark:
“I’m missing the excitement of WordPress and I’m not feeling that in the market. …I think a lot of that is around the product marketing and how we repackage WordPress for certain verticals because this one-size-fits-all means that in every single vertical we’re being displaced by campaigns that have paid or, you know, have received a a certain amount of funding and can go after us, right?”
This idea of marketing being a shortcoming of WordPress was raised earlier in the webinar at the 18:27 minute mark where it was acknowledged that growth was in some respects driven by the WordPress ecosystem with associated products like Elementor driving the growth in adoption of WordPress by new businesses.
They said:
“…the only logical conclusion is that the fact that marketing of WordPress itself is has actually always been a pain point, is now starting to actually hurt us.”
Future Of WordPress
This webinar is important because it features the voices of people who are actively involved at every level of WordPress, from development, marketing, accessibility, WordPress security, to plugin development. These are insiders with a deep interest in the continued evolution of WordPress as a viable platform for getting online.
The fact that they’re talking about the stagnation of WordPress should be of concern to everybody and that they are talking about solutions shows that the WordPress community is not in denial but is directly confronting situations, which is how a thriving ecosystem should be responding.
Watch the webinar:
Is WordPress’ Market share Declining? And What Should Product Businesses Do About it?
Featured Image by Shutterstock/Krakenimages.com
SEO
Google’s New Support For AVIF Images May Boost SEO
Google announced that images in the AVIF file format will now be eligible to be shown in Google Search and Google Images, including all platforms that surface Google Search data. AVIF will dramatically lower image sizes and improve Core Web Vitals scores, particularly Largest Contentful Paint.
How AVIF Can Improve SEO
Getting pages crawled and indexed are the first step of effective SEO. Anything that lowers file size and speeds up web page rendering will help search crawlers get to the content faster and improve the amount of pages crawled.
Google’s crawl budget documentation recommends increasing the speeds of page loading and rendering as a way to avoid receiving “Hostload exceeded” warnings.
It also says that faster loading times enables Googlebot to crawl more pages:
Improve your site’s crawl efficiency
Increase your page loading speed
Google’s crawling is limited by bandwidth, time, and availability of Googlebot instances. If your server responds to requests quicker, we might be able to crawl more pages on your site.
What Is AVIF?
AVIF (AVI Image File Format) is a next generation open source image file format that combines the best of JPEG, PNG, and GIF image file formats but in a more compressed format for smaller image files (by 50% for JPEG format).
AVIF supports transparency like PNG and photographic images like JPEG does but does but with a higher level of dynamic range, deeper blacks, and better compression (meaning smaller file sizes). AVIF even supports animation like GIF does.
AVIF Versus WebP
AVIF is generally a better file format than WebP in terms of smaller files size (compression) and image quality. WebP is better for lossless images, where maintaining high quality regardless of file size is more important. But for everyday web usage, AVIF is the better choice.
See also: 12 Important Image SEO Tips You Need To Know
Is AVIF Supported?
AVIF is currently supported by Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera, and Safari browsers. Not all content management systems support AVIF. However, both WordPress and Joomla support AVIF. In terms of CDN, Cloudflare also already supports AVIF.
I couldn’t at this time ascertain whether Bing supports AVIF files and will update this article once I find out.
Current website usage of AVIF stands at 0.2% but now that it’s available to surfaced in Google Search, expect that percentage to grow. AVIF images will probably become a standard image format because of its high compression will help sites perform far better than they currently do with JPEG and PNG formats.
Research conducted in July 2024 by Joost de Valk (founder of Yoast, ) discovered that social media platforms don’t all support AVIF files. He found that LinkedIn, Mastodon, Slack, and Twitter/X do not currently support AVIF but that Facebook, Pinterest, Threads and WhatsApp do support it.
AVIF Images Are Automatically Indexable By Google
According to Google’s announcement there is nothing special that needs to be done to make AVIF image files indexable.
“Over the recent years, AVIF has become one of the most commonly used image formats on the web. We’re happy to announce that AVIF is now a supported file type in Google Search, for Google Images as well as any place that uses images in Google Search. You don’t need to do anything special to have your AVIF files indexed by Google.”
Read Google’s announcement:
Supporting AVIF in Google Search
Featured Image by Shutterstock/Cast Of Thousands
SEO
CMOs Called Out For Reliance On AI Content For SEO
Eli Schwartz, Author of Product-Led SEO, started a discussion on LinkedIn about there being too many CMOs (Chief Marketing Officers) who believe that AI written content is an SEO strategy. He predicted that there will be reckoning on the way after their strategies end in failure.
This is what Eli had to say:
“Too many CMOs think that AI-written content is an SEO strategy that will replace actual SEO.
This mistake is going to lead to an explosion in demand for SEO strategists to help them fix their traffic when they find out they might have been wrong.”
Everyone in the discussion, which received 54 comments, strongly agreed with Eli, except for one guy.
What Is Google’s Policy On AI Generated Content?
Google’s policy hasn’t changed although they did update their guidance and spam policies on March 5, 2024 at the same time as the rollout of the March 2024 Core Algorithm Update. Many publishers who used AI to create content subsequently reported losing rankings.
Yet it’s not said that using AI is enough to merit poor rankings, it’s content that is created for ranking purposes.
Google wrote these guidelines specifically for autogenerated content, including AI generated content (Wayback machine copy dated March 6, 2024)
“Our long-standing spam policy has been that use of automation, including generative AI, is spam if the primary purpose is manipulating ranking in Search results. The updated policy is in the same spirit of our previous policy and based on the same principle. It’s been expanded to account for more sophisticated scaled content creation methods where it isn’t always clear whether low quality content was created purely through automation.
Our new policy is meant to help people focus more clearly on the idea that producing content at scale is abusive if done for the purpose of manipulating search rankings and that this applies whether automation or humans are involved.”
Many in Eli’s discussion were in agreement that reliance on AI by some organizations may come to haunt them, except for that one guy in the discussion
Read the discussion on LinkedIn:
Too many CMOs think that AI-written content is an SEO strategy that will replace actual SEO
Featured Image by Shutterstock/Cast Of Thousands
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