Using your local credentials to improve your website performance

The web may give us access to a vast range of product and service providers from around the world, but where possible most of us still want to find a local supplier. Why use a plumber, electrician or financial adviser 200 hundred miles away if there is a perfectly good one down the road?

At Excalibur Digital, we encourage digital communications with a local theme to help firms draw-in more online interest and enquiries to their websites and show-off their local credentials. In addition to searching by a service type, such as restaurant or estate agent, location remains a key search factor at Google, Bing and the other search engines so it should be used wherever possible.

Most people still prefer to buy locally if they can.

Local often suggests greater security, service and convenience and adding a local touch to your website could make a big difference.

A growing number of websites, particularly first-time new sites, are adding a local dimension to their sites by publishing news about their involvement in the local community. This could be simply to announce a local event with links to it along with other sources of information.

More often it will be about your own business and staff involvement in the community; the sponsorship of a local sports club, a recent presentation on commercial insurance to a local trade association, or how your sales manager ran in the town’s half marathon last weekend in aid of a charity.

Adding a local news section to your site also gives you a wealth of material for your Facebook and or Twitter pages, which will then in turn help multiply your local marketing.

Local pages help to highlight a company’s activities with local business groups, charities, sports clubs, and other associations in the area, endearing them to current and future customers.

By their nature, local web pages are packed with local references to towns, villages, events, local business and club names that will each help to find you on Google, Bing and the other search engines. The current news story as well as the archive of past news help build a wealth of local references.

Adding a specific local news page to your website is highly recommended.