Can Content Help Get People to Your Location?

Is Content Marketing Right for Small Business Owners

The answer is a resounding “Yes!”.  Cell phones and other gadgets like those in home AI units from Amazon and Google have made talk to text searches sky rocket.  Think about the last time that you were looking for a new place to eat, or a salon to get your nails done…did you whip out your cell phone and go straight to your search engine of choice?  Chances are really good that you did.  My husband and I do this all of the time, and it turns out that a lot of other people do too.  How do you make sure that our business shows up in the results for these searches?

By creating content of course!

If you are creating content that is relevant to your customers searches, you will show up in their search results.  It can be a bit tricky, but that’s why there’s people like me out there to help you.  What kind of content do you need to create in order to be found by people doing “drive by searches”? First, you’ll want to create content about your business – content that answers questions which are being asked by your potential customers.  Second, you’ll want to work your location into that content.

Let’s take a local pizza joint as an example.  Say you own a take out pizza and six pack shop.  You’re located in the North Hills of Pittsburgh, more specifically Ross Township.  And what sets you apart from your competition is your organic ingredients that are sourced locally.  That’s a lot of information that we can work with to make sure that you show up in relevant search results.

Now that we know who you are, let’s think about what someone might be asking a search engine in order to find you.  Remember, these are talk to text searches and often are structured more like a sentence than fragmented text.  If I were searching on a computer, I might try searching with something like “Pizza places north hills”.   But if I’m using talk to text on my phone, I might ask “What’s the freshest pizza near me?” or “which pizza place has the best pizza?”

We’ll want to build content into your website that uses your location, phrases like “pizza restaurant” or “take out pizza”, and “fresh ingredients” and “best pizza”.

Step 1. Build the Framework

We’d start by taking a look at your brand positioning statement.  It should be something like “Handcrafting mouthwatering pizza daily, using only the freshest and locally sourced organic ingredients.” Then, we’ll make sure to create a professional bio to be used on your Home or About pages adding in supplemental information like where your first location is, whether you’re family owned and from the area, as well as the locations where you source your ingredients.  Thirds, we’d want to make sure that your menu is on your website and optimized for mobile viewing.  After all, once you get people to your website, you want to make sure that they can digest the content there.  See what I did there?

Step 2. Drop the Breadcrumbs

Now that you have the framework for your content for the website (plus or minus a few pieces), we’ll want to make sure that you have your Google Listing Claimed, complete with accurate address and phone numbers.  Social media profiles with this same information is also key.  Facebook being one of the most important.

Step 3. Feed Them Information, Again and Again

And lastly, although it’s really not the end because this piece is on going, we’ll create a calendar of content that will add fresh content, photos and meta data to your website, to keep your listing relevant and provide your customers with additional ways to find and ultimately visit your location.  You’ll want to create seasonal pieces, talking about what ingredients are the freshest and how that impacts the taste of your food.  Other content topics will include promotions, specials and fundraisers that you run, ingraining yourself into the community.  And others still will focus on tradition, the legacy that you are building, one slice at a time.

Easy as pie…pizza pie.