Local Landing Page Guide: What is it and how to create one for more local business

One of the important changes in buying behaviour post pandemic is that most customers want to shop locally. Several data points to that. In one survey, which was run across a group of 4000 customers across Germany, US, UK, France, 82% of respondents said they would like to shop locally, even if it’ll cost them more.

It is not very different across the world. Other studies have also confirmed this change in buyer purchase psychology – consumers are going to shop local whenever they can since it is more convenient, sustainable, and also because it helps them support the local community. 

This is definitely good news for local businesses. It also means that if you are a local business owner, you need to pay more attention to your local marketing since you need to not only rank for local search but also get traffic and leads. 

What is the easiest way to do that? Have powerful local landing pages. 

A local landing page gives small businesses a fighting chance, placing them on equal footing with bigger brands. Small businesses can enjoy an increase in quality traffic, higher conversion rates, and increased sales, all the while competing with brands that could easily outgun them with several times the size of their marketing budget. 

Large enterprises can also benefit as well, with landing pages offering the potential for boosting their marketing campaign’s ROI.

Below we walk you through the winning formula for local landing pages. We’ll show you why it’s worth all the effort, and then delve into the key components of an effective local landing page.

What is a local landing page?

A local landing page, also known as location-based landing page, is designed to attract prospects to a business in a certain location. It offers conversion-friendly information about a business location, making the business more visible to searchers in the area.

Compared to other marketing assets like blogs, service pages, and emails, the main focus of a local landing page is to showcase the unique offerings of a business to customers in a specific location.

Local landing pages help push the customers further down the sales funnel, presenting your business information to them when they need it the most. And that is because consumers normally turn to a local landing page when they’re seriously considering a purchase.

Did you know that 76% of local searchers will visit a local store within 24 hours after visiting their local landing page (data from Think with Google). And a staggering 28% (nearly 1 out of 3) will go on to make a purchase. 

Why consider running local landing pages?

With so many different marketing tactics and techniques competing for your time and money, you’re probably wondering why you should bother creating local landing pages.

To put things in context, local landing pages are the best-performing type of landing page. In other words, landing pages optimized for a specific business location will likely outperform landing pages covering all locations. That’s because they provide prospects with immediately relevant information – information they need to make a purchase decision right away like visiting a local store or booking a demo. 

Landing pages often generate some of the highest returns on any marketing asset. That’s because it attracts ready-to-buy organic traffic. Visitors often hop on a local landing page when they’re seriously considering making a purchase – probably within a day or so. This helps you weed out unserious visitors or people who’re just being curious. 

According to a report from Act-On, 18% of local searchers make purchases within a week after visiting a local landing page, compared to the 7% conversion rate of non-local landing pages. Localizing your landing pages can help you double or even triple your conversions.

Also, Google does a great job at matching eager buyers with suitable brands that are conveniently close to them. With algorithms heavily geared towards understanding search intent, Google ensures that your landing pages are shown 99% of the time to people who’re in urgent need of your business.

Google generally loves businesses with a strong local presence because searchers have come to love them too. That’s why a small business with a simple yet effective local landing page can receive more favourable rankings compared to bigger brands spending a fortune on advanced SEO tactics. Simply aligning your local landing page with the relevant local searchers’ intent can have a more powerful impact on your ranking potentials compared to some sophisticated SEO tactics.

Also Read: Complete List of Best Free SEO Tools for Your Website

Top Benefits of local landing pages: 

Local landing pages can benefit your business in many ways, all of which lead to improved conversion and retention rates and, ultimately, a bludgeoning bottom line for your business. 

Here are the top benefits of local landing pages: 

• Local landing pages give more visibility: Local landing pages make your business more visible to your local searchers, increasing your likelihood of getting found by hot buyers.

• They boost search engine rankings: A well-maintained local landing page satisfies local search intent and other key ranking requirements. When a local landing page ranks high for local keywords, it pulls your other pages up along with it, boosting your site’s overall potential.

• People trust social proof: Social proof is a key element of landing pages, and it’s one of the most effective ways a business can substantiate its claim to prospects. Social proof includes positive reviews of your business and other user-generated content that you can proudly display on your local landing page. With social proof, your local landing pages can tell a more convincing story of your brand. Reading from other customers, prospects can already envision walking through your business doors and enjoying a remarkable dining experience or walking away with a well-bargained commodity.

• Well-designed local pages are engine rooms for more clicks: Local landing pages are designed for people who are predisposed to engage with your brand. Most local page visitors have already decided to act on their needs, and that means you’ll be generating more highly qualified clicks.

What are the key components or features of a local landing page?

Now, let’s look at the key elements that make local landing pages a powerful marketing tool. The basics include your business name, address, contact details, and business description. But a high-converting local landing page design goes beyond just that. The winning formula includes:

Local keywords

Location-based keywords are the building blocks of an effective landing page. They’re sprinkled across the site to help align the page with the searcher intent and Google’s other ranking requirements. 

Local variations of keywords can be created just by adding the name of a city or region to any keyword. These can help laser-target the focus of the page to a specific location. 

Visuals 

Visuals breathe life into walls of text, helping stimulate more senses and establish a deeper bond with visitors. 

Real-life images work best for local landing pages. If you have a physical location, you can place it strategically across your site. If you don’t have a physical location, you can use images that help customers imagine their customer experience.

Metadata

Location-specific metadata like title tags, meta descriptions, and alt tags can help your SEO efforts as well as your engagement and conversion performance. 

Location-specific content

Local searchers these days can easily recognize a tacky local landing page cobbled together by a non-expert. Businesses need to prove they are truly familiar with the location and its peculiarities. 

Social proof

With social proof, you let your customers do the talking for you. The message will instantly resonate with your prospects and assuage their fears. 

Some excellent social proof ideas for your site include positive customer reviews, logos of your satisfied customers, and even accolades.

Decorating your local landing page with social proofs like these can help notch your conversions 20% higher. 

Interactive maps

With interactive maps, your prospects will find it easier to access your business. This further fuels their chances of visiting your store. An interactive map integration can provide customers with complete directions as well as added features like a traffic checker and shortcut suggestions. 

Contact information

We’ve already mentioned adding your business name address and phone number, but it’s worth mentioning that these should be placed strategically across the page. Most importantly at the header and footer of the page, as well in strategic places such as next to a contact form.

CTAs

A CTA is the high point of your landing page’s content. Incorporate CTAs strategically across your landing pages to increase your chances of eliciting the desired responses. 

Tips for crafting laser-targeted local landing pages

Now, it’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty of developing a good local landing page.

Determine Where Your Customers are Located

Local pages are designed for near-me searchers, and that’s the first thing to consider. As per a study by WebFX, the “near me” searches have grown by 500% over the past couple of years. There are multiple ways to position your local landing page to satisfy ranking requirements for near-me search results. These include:

• Incorporate Local SEO practices: Local SEO simply implies optimizing your web pages to rank well on local search results. While local SEO requires an entire section on its own, we can cover a lot of grounds with a few tips. The first is getting a Google My Business Profile for your business location. A well-managed and updated Google My Business profile with pictures and embedded maps can have a huge impact on your conversion rates. 

Cultivating good reviews is also important, not just for your local SEO but for your conversion as well. As per research on consumer reviews, 79% of people rely on positive reviews to make a buying decision. They see these reviews as the equivalent of word-of-mouth from their friends & family.

• Leverage the power of social media: Social media offers immense potential for growing your revenue & brand status. 

Further, multiple studies have proved the impact of social media on decision-making processes. 75% of customers these days take comments on social media very seriously when considering a purchase.

Also, businesses need to engage with their target audiences to deepen their understanding of their buyers’ persona. Interactions on social media can help businesses strengthen their bonds with customers, grow their brand awareness, and develop a strong brand image.

Do local keyword research to target the right customers

With extensive local keyword research, you can exploit relevant keywords that people use to search for your product or services. 

Rigorous local keyword research requires you to find keywords and their related search intent, as well as competitive analysis to find keywords that your competitors are ranking for.  

You can also find relevant keywords by using the ‘autocomplete’ search feature and the ‘People also searched for’ section on search results.

Create effective Page URL structure

A customized URL is capable of increasing page view, landing page visits (unique visits, particularly), & page dwell times.

Here are 3 important tips for creating effective customized URL for your local landing page:

1. Align the URL title with the page’s content
2. The shorter, the better
3. Make them sound natural and readable.

Optimize title and header tags

As per this research by Moz team, title tags are the second most critical factor for a web page ranking. 

Well-written title & header tags can boost your search visibility and ultimately your organic traffic. A title or a header tag is basically an HTML tag that acts as a source code for search engines. These tags inform the search engines like Google (or Brave or DuckDuckGo) on how to present your content— to the users.

Optimizing title & header tags (e.g., H1, H2, H3, H4, etc.) is very imperative. These tips can help:

1. Use only one Title & H1 tag
2. Target a long-tail keyword in the H1 tag 
3. Insert numbers & power words in the title
4. Make it concise & easily understandable
5. Both, the title & H1 tag should contribute to the reader experience.
6. Insert semantic keywords in subsequent headers 
7. Make them user-oriented

Create effective Meta Descriptions to improve CTR

Meta descriptions are snippets of your page that offer searchers a quick lowdown on the content of your page. They’re shown right after the title of your page and are designed to give searchers more reasons to click on your page title. Your meta description only needs to be about 160 characters long, together with relevant keywords and a call to action to inspire clicks.

Here are more tips to create an effective meta description:

1. Be precise & highly-accurate 
2. Include action-triggering phrases
3. Place keywords strategically
4. Place critical information first

Use content guidelines to improve conversion and user experience

Lastly, your landing page should be populated with locally-oriented content. Use the body of your landing page to discuss the unique challenges of the location and how your business solves them.

Also Read: How to Find Right Service Provider for Your Small Business SEO?

Conclusion

Local landing pages are one of the most powerful yet underestimated and underutilized marketing tools for local businesses. Using the above framework will help you put together landing pages that will share the right information about your business to your target audience. You can start by claiming your Google My Business Account today. Also take a look at our local SEO guide for beginners. 

Still need help with local SEO? Contact us here to talk to one of our local SEO experts. We love to help small businesses.