A solid local SEO strategy backed by content silos is an effective way to scale the results you get for your client’s local business.
Content silos help you leverage proximity, relevance, and prominence, as they’re some of the most important local SEO ranking factors.
For relevance and prominence, a content silo helps your client’s content and business show up in relevant search results and, when you’ve showcased your expertise on your subject, it offers you a chance to earn backlinks from reputable websites.
This increase in relevant rankings can help your client’s business earn more qualified organic traffic which, in turn, can increase conversions.
If your client’s local business has several branches in different locations, creating a content silo with location-specific content helps you to optimize for proximity. It also makes it easier to track local rankings when you have specific pages optimized for important terms.
In this article, I’m going to share four actionable ways to create content silos for local SEO, provide examples of local businesses with these silos, and show you how you can build them for your own client’s local business.
Strategy 1: Build a Content Silo Around Service Verticals
Searchers looking for specific services that a local business provides will end up frustrated when they can’t find the service they’re looking for.
So, having a content silo that dives deeper into the services your client’s business centers around is key. This also allows you to align with the searcher’s intent by answering the questions searchers have, and helps them move to the next stage of the buying journey.
Content silos around the service vertical also help you create content that addresses specific pain points that potential customers have, which can help them convert. Answering any objections or questions gives them a better understanding before they click the ‘buy now’ button or take that highly sought-after medium of communication: a phone call.
How do you make sure that the content silo you create around a service vertical stands out?
Step 1. Narrow Down Your Services
Start by narrowing down the services that your client offers and compare that with the services the competition is offering. As you do this, you may identify services your client can provide that no one else is providing, presenting you with the opportunity to fill in the gap.
In some instances, it may even highlight a chance to narrow down three to five services your client can focus on providing and do better than anyone else.
Step 2. Identify Major Topics
Once you have a list of services your client provides, identify major topics around each of these services and then create different types of content on each of them.
If your client has customers already, you could run a survey asking them what they would like to learn about each of these services, and then build content around these topics.
Performing keyword research around your products or services can also unearth a number of potential topics, as can viewing the ‘People Also Ask’ in Google for related keywords. Each of these can help you spot topics you may want to include in your silo.
For example, Southern Premier Roofing provides six types of roofing services, and when you click on each service, you’ll read a detailed description of what each service entails:
Digging deeper into each of these services, you’ll find a landing page describing each service in detail. On the roof repair page, for example, you have a section talking about different signs that point to a worn-out roof and the process that they rely on when repairing your roof.
Readers who need a roof replacement might start with more basic questions, and won’t convert simply by arriving on the roof replacement landing page. That’s where the content silo comes in.
Southern Premier Roofing has organized the content silo around this service by creating different types of content that first educate them on roof vocabularies, such as roof underlayment and roof membrane, and then different types of roofs that customers can consider.
Then, there’s comparison content that dives deeper into comparing different roof types; for example, hip roofs vs gable roofs. We also have more bottom-of-funnel content such as ‘how to prepare a house for roof replacement’ and identifying different signs that point to someone needing a roof replacement. This helps nudge the reader towards considering roof replacement services.
While this might seem like a linear path, the different types of content in this silo make it easier for Southern Premier Roofing to get hold of more readers who might be interested in their services and, crucially, keep them on their site so that eventually some become their customers.
Related: Free Video Course – How to Create Website Content for Local SEO
Strategy 2: Build a Content Silo Around Each Location You Serve
If your client has offices in different locations, build a location-based content silo by creating web pages for each office and linking to it from the “main locations hub” page on your client’s homepage.
If your client has a service-based business where they have to go to the customer’s location, build out individual neighborhood, community, or local landing pages and make them subsets of the main city page in the city that your client operates in.
Here’s how Baker Roofing does it:
They provide roofing services and have a list of different locations they operate in with a search bar that you can use to set your preferred distance to see how far they are. There’s also a map showing you the different locations.
How to Create Location-based Content Silos
To create a location-specific content silo, have a list of the cities or locations your client serves, then create specific web pages for each of these locations.
Once you do this, link them to the main locations hub on your client’s homepage so that web visitors can navigate to their preferred location easily.
Why create different pages instead of talking about your different locations in your blog posts?
A potential customer looking for roofing services in a particular location is further down the sales funnel and their search is often transactional.
They want to know whether they can find a roofing company in the area where they live and how far the service provider is. To make sure that you’re meeting their needs, you’ll want to have a web page that answers these questions.
This is the kind of content you want Google and other search engines to index and show in search results to increase your client’s click-through rates.
Once you have created each of these web pages, go ahead and create different types of bottom-of-the-funnel content such as competitor comparison content and listicles. Performing localized keyword research can help you identify topics and questions around a specific area.
Some queries that searchers use are not only satisfied by writing content that matches the search intent. You need to match the context around each search.
For example, a searcher who just bought a new house in one of the locations that Baker Roofing serves will need more than just a list of different locations.
They would also benefit from content that talks about different roofing services and even content that provides comparative data that pits Baker Roofing against the competition to help them make an informed decision.
Strategy 3: Build a Content Silo Around Localized Content for Specific Services and Locations
Another content silo you can build contains localized content for different locations and services that your client provides.
For example, a real estate company in a given state has to comply with state and local laws for each county of the state they serve. The content they create needs to help potential homeowners understand these laws based on their location.
This is very useful for businesses that serve a large area where localization is important based on different laws. Pay It Forward Lending has a section on FHA loan limits in each county in Nevada:
When creating localized content for specific locations, focus on what makes each location unique. Here’s how Smith and Wollensky do it:
Once you click on any of the locations above, a new tab will load and you’ll see a different header image that matches each location that the steakhouse serves.
Swapping your copy and inserting a different location won’t cut it. Not only will you have lots of duplicate content, but you’ve not said anything different to highlight real expertise about an area. Ask yourself what’s special about each location that would resonate with the readers in those locations.
There could be a few nuances in terms of language, specific challenges your client’s customers face, and geographical landmarks that influence the needs of the people your client serves.
Bonus Strategy: Optimize Your Google Business Profile to Augment Your Silo Strategy
Local Pack results will include your client’s Google Business Profile, which potential customers are likely to see before your website.
If they’re in the decision stage, the content of your client’s Google Business Profile could determine if they choose to work with your client or go to a competitor. So, how do you make sure it complements your silo strategy?
Optimize your client’s Google Business Profile by adding links that point to specific landing pages.
For example, this law office’s Google Profile Post links to each landing page that’s relevant to the post’s subject. For example, this one leads to the Medical Malpractice page:
If your client is running a brick-and-mortar store, you could include photos of the area surrounding the business and inside the business to give your customers a feel for what it would be like when if visit the premises.
If it’s an outdoor service, include photos of your client or their team at work. It helps bring the service to life and potential customers can then decide whether that’s what they need.
Here’s a handy checklist that you can use to help you optimize your client’s Google Business Profile to complement your content silo strategy:
What else should you consider when implementing silos for local SEO?
When creating content silos, consider the different stages of the local customer buying journey, and create content that resonates with them at each stage.
You may decide to build your silo by creating content targeting customers who are in the decision stage. That will yield quick wins in the short term, but you also need to play the long game. Consider creating content for other buying stages to drive awareness of your client’s local business, and help those in the evaluation stage to learn more about the solutions available to them.
Going back to our roofing example, Southern Premier Roofing creates content about different types of roofs to drive awareness:
You can also provide a list of different services for potential customers in the evaluation stage, sharing different features, and the pros and cons of each of these services:
What stands out about this review piece is that, in addition to providing a list of virtual mailboxes, it is up to date. It talks about the best mailboxes and business addresses in 2022, so the reader doesn’t have to wonder whether they’re still in service.
Alternatively, you can create actionable content that empowers your client’s customers to solve an immediate problem they have, such as learning how to create better marketing strategies for their business:
Once you have published content for readers in the awareness and evaluation stages, link it to your main location, service, and localized content pages. It will improve the user experience by helping readers naturally progress to the next stage of the buying journey.
Consider having a simple URL structure for your content, and work towards earning backlinks from service directories and from other reputable blogs that are relevant to your client’s customers.
Make sure you keep your on-page SEO consistent across all pages within the content silo. Optimize your content for H1, H2, and H3 tags with relevant keywords to include location, city, and services they need. For location pages, embed maps, and keep your name, address, and phone number details up-to-date on relevant pages.
Lastly, make your client’s content accessible through proper formatting, adding relevant alt text to images, and using keywords in your title tags to help the reader have an easy time reading your content.
Conclusion
You now have what you need to get started with creating content silos for your clients. As a quick recap, the content silo you choose to create will help you leverage ranking factors and increase the amount of traffic and conversions your client’s business gets.
To get started, pick any content silo that we’ve discussed and start building it by creating content and optimizing it for readers and search engines. Keep tracking and optimizing the results you get from your efforts to identify areas of improvement.
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