Local Services Business and Topical Authority

[TheDoctor55]

Hello!

I run a local hauling / junk removal company and have a few questions regarding building topical authority for a local services company using the avalanche method. I see nearly every example being an affiliate marketing website (which uses national keyword volume searches), and no local services companies. That being said:

1. Would achieving topical authority using the avalanche method even be useful to achieve higher local rankings? My thought is that national traffic is good to boost into higher traffic tiers, thus affecting local service rankings --but I'm not sure. If so, then the please provide assistance with the following:

2. Let's say my website is in Tier 1 ( <10 organic users / month). Would it be best to target 'low-volume' keywords with the user intent being 'informational' (how to, etc.), or to target 'low-volume' keywords where the users intent is converting into a sale?

2a. Informational - Would I target low-volume local keywords, or low-volume national keywords? My inclination is to build the avalanche with 1-10 nationally searched keywords, but I'm also concerned that my website will be split between a site with the intent of providing a local service to an article style information site. Is this a valid concern? Does that confuse Google and hurt possible local SEO rankings, or help?

Thanks so much for the help.

 

[wikibum]

1. Topical authority is achieved by writing articles around your topic. For local services, this could mean writing posts specifically about your area. So if you are trying to rank for junk removal toronto for example, then you would want to write posts around the topic of "junk removal" and the area of "toronto". Your keywords will probably get lower search volume than those others are trying to rank for nationally, but your goal is not to rank nationally anyway - you want to rank locally so that should work for you.

2. Simple answer is both. I would create the promotional pages (where the users intent is converting into a sale) and then create informational articles around that page and link to that page. Think of the promotional page as a VIP person. The informational pages are his/her body guards. The more body guards the VIP has, the more powerful he/she is (or would seem to be)

3. Start with low difficulty (not low volume) local keywords. Then go after higher difficulty local keywords, until you run out of topics (which would take you a while anyway). Then you can go and start writing about low difficulty national keywords and go up from there.

 

[TheDoctor55]

Thank you very much for your response. It was very much in alignment with my current strategy which helps affirm my thinking.

My current strategy is to finish the following:

1. My main keyword service / city subpages
2. Then to build out my secondary keyword service / city subpages
   1. Then build out informational national articles

I do have a question regarding what you said: "Your keywords will probably get lower search volume than those others are trying to rank for nationally, but your goal is not to rank nationally anyway - you want to rank locally so that should work for you."

Correct, I do want to convert locally. However, I am curious your thoughts on if a low-difficulty national (informational intent) keyword could provide a quicker boost up the traffic ranks than a low-difficulty (converting intent) local keyword due to potentially increased volume.

Maybe I'm just not thinking about this well, and I'm completely missing something, but what are thoughts on this strategy? I'm sure there's a gaping hole I'm just not seeing it.

1. My main keyword Service / city subpages
2. Then build out low-difficulty (informational intent) national keywords
3. Then build out low-difficulty (converting intent) local keywords

I feel like a lot of this it moot with a real budget to work with, as you would just do both at the same time, but it still is an interesting question to me. Thanks so much for your feedback Wikibum