Local marketing campaigns tend to become very complex. Providing a user-friendly experience means managing many different elements. A vital element that should not be overlooked is on-page content, which can include content blocks, copy about the individual store, and information about currents products or services that a store is offering. Unfortunately, on-page content can be neglected and not seen as a priority. Brands should be dedicating more resources to making sure the on-page content is timely and relevant. Plan ahead and develop content so that when a customer lands on your page, they can ingest something that applies to them. Be ready for current seasons, trending topic, or behavioral shifts.
Why You Should Regularly Refresh Content
Refreshing page content regularly is a strong signal to Google to improve page rank, which makes your business more visible at a local level. Doing so helps visitors searching locally find store location pages and connect with them on relevant topics. In 2010, the Google Caffeine update allowed pages with updated and relevant content to be index quicker and take priority over those that are outdated. Updating page content has been something Google has favored for six years running now. It’s likely frequently updated content is something Google will favor for years to come and should be viewed as a priority. Take advantage of knowing this information and provide local users with the timely and relevant content they desire.
Prompted search should be a key-determining factor on content creation. Internal and external events are affecting Google search queries on a daily basis. As my colleague Gib Olander explained in an October 2016 Street Fight article, prompted searches occur when an external event or a brand-generated event inspires people to perform branded and non-branded searches locally. Everyday provides a new opportunity to be found, if a brand is ready with relevant information. How are the people you want to attract behaving? Have you started an event that prompts behavior? Has an external event happened that prompts behavior? Examples of prompted searches can be found here.
Why Businesses Don’t Refresh Content
Don’t be a company that fails to dedicate necessary resources to maintain your content. Doing so starts with people. A company’s team could lack a dedicated content strategist or manager. If one is on staff, having them dedicate time towards managing this is vital. If the resources are available, define an approach that works best for you, based on your knowledge of your customers. An approach doesn’t have to perfect, but there needs to be one. Companies should find one that works best for their vertical or their products/services. Keeping up with the latest information and trends is simple because multiple platforms will assist you in this endeavor. Twitter is an instantaneous news source and a fantastic platform for digesting content. Analyze what is being said in Google or Yelp reviews. The path to relevant content can be found, but make time to look for it.
Refreshing content applies to businesses in all industries, ranging from retail to healthcare. You might not think of hospitals constantly refreshing their content, but they do. In fact, they have to. Large medical centers usually include a network of providers who live in a state of change, whether updating the hours they keep or the locations where they work. But medical centers also have constant opportunities to revise content beyond necessary changes to name, address, and phone data about their providers. The Cleveland Clinic offers a steady stream of content ranging from articles about the risk that cheerleaders face for suffering from concussions to videos welcoming new members to its team. It’s interesting to note how well Cleveland Clinic balances the usefulness of fresh content with the need to provide essential data such as location addresses.
Ways to Get into the Habit of Refreshing Content
It is important to establish an editorial calendar and regularly update content based on your brand’s planned marketing and PR events at a local level, which are natural opportunities to create visibility. The calendar should also track external events in your area, which will generate opportunities to tap into annual events, especially if your business participates in them in some sort of sponsored capacity.
Additionally, regularly perform topic and keyword research and update your content to take advantage of trending content. Be sensitive to opportunities for promoted search. And above all, start taking action. Your refreshed content doesn’t have to be extremely different than what you have now. Add new images for content on your site. Re-write topics you are already talking about with slightly different keywords. Include new inventory for products you offer or user-generated content. Rotate in new content blocks that touch on products or services that have been in your portfolio or inventory for years. Define a strategy and implement it. And at the very least, do these tasks once per quarter and you will be putting yourself in a better position to succeed.
Posted by Charley Vail at Content Refresh: A Missed Opportunity in Location Marketing. Visit SIM Partners for more great information!