Today when we discuss the importance of preparing your website content for your local audience we mean textual content also known as copy writing. Leveraging great content that your local audience would embrace and trust is key to getting them to follow your desired call-to-action, may it be calling you, filling out a form or buying on your website.

First you should understand who your audience is (read our two prior blog posts), what their likes and dislikes are as well what is the local way of speaking and even slang. The words you use is as important as the tone you use in your sentences. As you can imagine New Yorkers have a different way of communicating than the residents of our small town of Petaluma, CA.

Though we are big proponents of writing content for humans and not just for search engines, make sure you have done your research and identify the type of keywords or phrases the local customers are using in their day-to-day activities and their online searches. Google Trends can help you in identifying those keywords though not all local search results on Google Trends provide solid information.

If this is applicable to you, try to use local references including famous places and names of towns around your location. This too will help with your search engine efforts but also will help connect with your online visitors.

Incorporating local subject matters (perhaps something in the news) that are current and/or popular is always helpful. Just make sure that it makes sense for your copy and your company. Saying this, stay away from politics or negative events unless absolutely appropriate for your type of services or products.

Taking into considerations the seasons and what is happening locally during a specific time period is great. That also means you have to keep up with editing the content if that content is part of a regular web page. If it is part of a blog post, no need to be concerned. Indeed you do not need to go back and edit your post.

When your visitors read your pages of content, make sure they relate. When on your website, they do not have the ability to connect with you personally, experience your customer service or what you offer. They see your pages, read the content and either feel good about it or not.  The first paragraph of each page is the most important so make sure you polish your copy so that it captures your visitor’s attention and they continue on reading everything you wish them to read.

As a final note, do not forget the very important calls-to-action. They too can be designed to be locally inspired and relate with your local audience.

If you want an in-depth conversation about how to target your local audience online, do not hesitate to contact us directly in Petaluma, California at 707-794-9999.