Guide: Easily Create Winning Local Landing Pages
Landing pages are the foundation of e-commerce and we’ve had a lot to say about them in our guides and throughout our blog. If you’re interested in learning more about optimizing landing pages for the right opportunities, you’ll want to check out our post on what a landing page should accomplish, and how the needs of landing pages are different from doorway pages.
This guide is a more direct look into how to create a landing page that can meet all the goals you set for it. We explain the thought process that goes into the attractive, converting landing pages we design for our own clients.
Creating the Perfect Local Landing Page
After many years of testing and trials, we’ve made the format below our starting point for renovating the websites of our clients. Though it looks simple at the setup, there are many decisions that must be made along the way, and you’ll want to read the entire guide (not long, I promise) to get the most out of it.
Much of what we share as resources, or on our blog, are items we’ve created internally to solve our most frustrating problems. All the better if they improve our ability to promote ourselves and our clients. You might find that some things we share are more relevant to businesses in our field than yours. However, if you’re just a little creative, this format should be something you can use in your own business.
There are a few extra things I’ve thrown in that you might want to do differently when you construct your own template.
CTA: “Request Free Consultation” (ie. 30 min, no-obligation phone call w/ actionable takeaways). You might want to shorten the form up, but 3-4 fields is the sweet spot. Also, I’d recommend checking out TypeForms.
Top section: This is your big headline. What do you do? As this will likely be your sole H1, try to include your main keyword if possible. Also remember to include…
- Details about city (short)
- Examples of common industries/sectors
We think about things that could show up in a super longtail search like “restaurant seo toronto” and cover all bases on the types of businesses we’ll see approaching us  Benefits, not features. A benefit might be, “20 years in the business.”
Trust Signals: Take advantage of any opportunity to show off your expertise. Include…  Groups, and trusted associations that you are a part of (Chamber of Commerce for example)  Better Business Bureau ratings  Accreditations
Location Info: Why you? Why are you superbly suited to help people in this city? Add a little about the city, giving the impression that you know where they come from, and understand that area’s unique dynamics. Showcase…
- What you offer over other agencies in the city
- Case studies & other data-driven trust building resources
- Possibly a free guide or some asset – most likely related to the free consultation/call
Example: How to know if A Marketing Agency is a Good Fit for your Business (checklist)
- you have a website or want one  high value per sale, or high lifetime value
- Active local searchers looking for your services
- search volume, map results, etc
- branding is high priority, beyond just making sales (ie. recruiting realtors)
Services: For each service, don’t forget  a couple sentences for each. If many, pick your most profitable. o Search Engine Optimization (summary of what we do, try to mention “SEO in ” or similar. o Local Search o Pay Per Click Advertising (Google Adwords) o Web Design (maybe)  Rich anchors pointing back to internal pages that promote generic terms (keywords without your city name).
CTA 2: Request Free Consultation (ie. 30 min, no-obligation phone call w/ actionable takeaways)
Testimonials: Reviews are incredibly effective, but they need to be used correctly. Focus on these features:
- Reviews with pictures of the real people. Choose pictures that look real, not their latest modelling shoot.
- In a perfect world, reviewers would be from that area. Mention that like… – Cindy Taylor, Vancouver BC
- Encourage your reviewers to mention the services you rendered. Doesn’t hurt to get a couple keywords in there.
Notes: The next part here, which is not a part of the landing page design is a few notes we provide to our copywriters. This helps them understand what keywords we care about and such.
Keyword Targeting breakdown:
Main focus: digital marketing agency, internet marketing (high level, professional)
Secondary focus: SEO, local seo, adwords/ppc, <city> web design
Example of Calgary KW Research:
