If your brand has a geographic service area, you need a local SEO strategy. Some of the benefits of local SEO include improved visibility, targeted traffic, competitive advantage, improved trust, and improved sales.
Every brand should utilize some basic local SEO tactics, but today, we’re here to take them a step further. Forge Apollo provides reputation management and local search optimization services in Philadelphia. We’ve used a strategy of community partnership to help drive our clients’ local strategies, and today, we’re here to share it with you.
What is Local SEO?
Local SEO includes optimization tactics on and off a brand’s website. Its purpose is to improve the brand’s presence in location-based search results. For example, when brands have a consistent Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP) across the internet, it helps brands appear in location-based searches, like “dentist in Philadelphia.”
A local SEO specialist, like the ones at Forge Apollo, can help you establish a basic local strategy for your brand.
What is Community Partnership?
Community partnership is when a brand partners with other brands or organizations within its community to spotlight them (or spotlight each other) online. This can include several actions, such as:
- Highlighting them/each other in an article or blog post
- Writing an article for their website (or vice versa)
- Posting about them on social media or sharing each others’ posts
- Creating video content spotlighting them
- Collaborating for a shared giveaway or campaign
The Benefits of Community Partnership for Local SEO
Partnering with your local community is a nice thing to do. But you don’t have to do it purely out of the goodness of your heart. It also has several benefits for your brand.
Backlinks
Links are vital in the world of SEO. They help search engines, like Google, understand the relationships between pages and websites across the internet.
When another website links to yours, that’s called a “backlink.” Backlinks can help Google understand the authority of your website in relation to various topics.
For example, if many trustworthy websites link to a page on your website about industry terminology, you’re probably a good source of information for that topic.
By partnering with other businesses or organizations in your community, you can provide each other with backlinks. If enough local websites link to your website, search engines will see you as more relevant in your local area.
Local Topical Authority
As briefly mentioned before, search engines prioritize authority. They want to share information from websites that will satisfy searchers so that searchers keep searching. Websites that appear more authoritative about a subject tend to “win” in searches for that subject.
When you start sharing helpful information about your local area relevant to your audience and brand (more on that later), you can begin building authority around local topics. Then, when someone searches for your category of products or services in your area, Google is more likely to consider you an authoritative source.
Local Brand Awareness
In case you didn’t get it from the first two benefits, authority is really important for SEO. Brand awareness plays heavily into this.
As Neil Patel pointed out in his talk at HubSpot’s Inbound conference in 2022, “Nike” gets more searches than “sneaker.” That is still true today. In addition to finding people seeking your products, plant your brand as a seed in their minds so they think of you first when they need your product.
The more people interact with your brand and search for it online, the clearer it is to search engines that you’re an authority on the topics you post about.
By collaborating with other businesses online, you can gain a new local audience to build your brand awareness.
Examples of Community Partnership by Industry
What does community partnership actually look like? Let’s dive into some examples.
Travel & Tourism
Travel and tourism brands can easily partner with their community by featuring things visitors can do in their area. These examples can help to build authority around the topic when visitors plan a trip.
- Write blog posts about things to do (like on Mahalo Resort’s Blog)
- Post social content about things to do (like this ICONA Avalon post)
- Collaborate on social media with influencers in your community (like in this social post)
- Create videos featuring specific activities
- Write guest posts on another business’s blog linking back to your own (and vice versa)
View this post on Instagram
Healthcare
Due to the sensitive nature of healthcare topics, these brands need to put the work into building authority online. Here are some examples of how partnering with other brands or organizations can help.
- Publish an article in a local publication (like Axia Women’s Health did in Main Line Today)
- Swap guest posts with another practice or related business on topics similar to both of your specialties (like Premier Orthopedics did with USA Pickleball)
- Support charitable organizations related to your specialty (like Axia Women’s Health did with the National Birth Equity Collaborative)
View this post on Instagram
Real Estate
It’s vital for real estate agents to display knowledge about their service area, and community highlights are the perfect way to do so. Real estate agents can highlight the lifestyle people can expect when they move into the local area. Plus, interacting with local businesses exposes you to people in the market who may want to sell.
- Highlight a specific business on social media and your website (like Mike Ciunci’s Local Lowdowns)
- Highlight local events people can experience in the area (like Mike Ciunci does on his blog)
- Write articles in a local publication or newsletter (like Sarah Forti in this article)
View this post on Instagram
How to Get Started With Community Partnerships in 3 Steps
Getting started with this strategy is as easy as 1-2-3.
1. Brainstorm Topics
Think of topics that are relevant both to your local area and your audience. For example, audiences of travel brands would be interested in things to do in their area, while that content wouldn’t be right for a manufacturing audience.
2. Choose Formats
What formats of content do you want to experiment with? We recommend starting with one or two. Some ideas include:
- Social media posts
- Blog articles on your site
- Guest post articles on other sites
- Video content shared across platforms
3. Reach Out
You can start with one-sided content, i.e. your brand mentioning another one in a basic social post or article. However, you’ll get the best results if you reach out and try to partner with other brands to get their unique perspective in your content or simply get them to share and interact with your content.
Other Ways to Support Local SEO Strategy
Partnering with your community is an advanced tactic that supports local search engine marketing. If you want to start more basic, here are some simple ways you can help your local SEO strategy.
- Use a local listing tool to ensure you have consistent information across the internet
- Use local keywords throughout your website content
- For businesses with one location, put your address in the footer of your website
- For businesses with multiple locations, create a landing page for each location
Get Help With Local SEO in Philadelphia
With improved traffic, brand awareness, and sales, it’s clear why local SEO is important. If you’re interested in trying community partnerships in your local SEO strategy, Forge Apollo can help. We provide local SEO in Philadelphia and other areas to help you reach your audience. Contact us today to discuss how we can help.
