How to Win Using Local SEO in the Bronx

By Gryffindor - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10306293

Don’t Underestimate the Bronx

When you mention the Bronx, the answers you get are full of stereotypes. While it is true that the Bronx has suffered economically over the years, it is also equally true that it has a resiliency that has brought it back repeatedly. 

The Bronx is a cultural mosaic from which both Hip Hop and Salsa emerged. Little Italy in Manhattan is but a shadow of the true Little Italy, which is Belmont. There are several hidden Italian gems that line Arthur Avenue. 

The Bronx has the largest park in New York City and has the most green space of all the boroughs. It’s also home to some other cultural treasures such as the Zoo and the Botanical Garden.

I do not mean this to gloss over the challenges that Bronx businesses face. The racial and ethnic biases in lending, policing, and other social justice issues have disadvantaged businesses. But, that doesn’t mean that businesses don’t and can’t thrive in the Bronx. It means, despite these challenges, they can and do.

Why Web Design Matters in the Bronx?

Great web design is important no matter where you are located. However, in densely populated areas like Astoria, where mobile usage is high. These best practices are highly important especially because

  1. Mobile allows you to start small and expand from it. Much of local digital marketing can be done inexpensively. Great UX helps. Test, learn, repeat.
  2. Mobile customers are looking for solutions that are near to where they are.  You have 1 second to grab them.
  3. Great UX lets customers know that your business exists, what you do, and the value you provide.

Why Should I Care About Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Google 3 pack example

Without it, it would be more challenging to find your business online. Less than 10% of the local pack results would have landed on the first page of the search engine results page. 80% of any search volume goes to the first page results. 71% to the top 5. Without local SEO, you are unlikely to make the cut. For any small business, local SEO should be part of your overall SEO strategy and SEO campaigns.

Local SEO helps to level the playing field somewhat so small businesses can have the opportunity to be visible when people are near their location and searching for products or services that are relevant to their business. To make the most of this opportunity, you will want to make sure your website is fast.

Speed should be a key output of any high-quality, full service, website design and development process. With a fast site and a 3 pack listing, website traffic will increase dramatically.

This is an example of the 3 pack for the search "Italian Restaurants Near Me"

Playing to Your Home Field Advantage

Local search algorithms work on what I like to call the “biggest hill in Kansas” principle. This means the local landscape sets the bar by which you will be measured. Typically, the smaller you make the reference field or more narrow you make the topic, the more likely you rise to the top.

There are exceptions, like in the New York metro area. Here, it is more akin to the biggest hill in the Himalayas.

It is a bit of an art and a science to find the right balance between scope, geography, and search volume. If the region is too small, there is likely no one searching for it. The same is true regarding the topic.

Here are the three things that you need to consider with local SEO for your business website. 

  1. Proximity: How far is your business location from the local market that is being searched, e.g., ‘near me’
  2. Prominence: How well do you stack up versus the others within similar proximity. It is the height of your hill vs. everyone else nearby.
  3. Relevance: Algorithm based determination based on the keyword search and rank on that keyword. Again, it is compared to those near you.  

What does this mean for local small business SEO?

For proximity, it depends on how crowded the neighborhood is. A mile in Manhattan, NY is much different than a mile in Manhattan, KS.

For prominence, again this is a competitive metric. The more crowded your location is, the more difficult it will be. Local reviews and ratings can help. You can encourage your customers to leave you reviews through social media marketing and other outreach tactics.

Finally, on relevance, this is no different for normal SEO except you are ranked versus your peers. If you are in a room filled with Einstein clones, it will be hard to pick out the smartest.

Creativity Wins Points.

According to Best Designs, original graphics are the most successful. 

“Original graphics make up 40% of all successful visual content that accomplishes marketing goals, but 43% of marketers struggle with the consistent production of captivating visuals.”

Since we are communicating one message, the artwork that supports it must work very hard to support the message. This is where local market know-how can really help. Original photos and images of your business in the Bronx interacting with your neighborhood can add value.

It also helps with when your calls to action focus on local events in and around the Bronx or at your business location.

email marketing for small business call to action

Call to Action

Every email, no matter how trivial, should have a call to action. This is where all the hard work above pays off. If we omit one, we just wasted resources that could have been spent more cost effectively.

We cover email list building in great detail in our post on small business email marketing. Again, we will just hit the highlights here as it pertains to the Bronx. Every neighborhood has summer fairs. While these were severely impacted by COVID, in our post COVID world they should roar back with a vengeance. It would be smart to see if you could piggy-back off one or more of them.

Incentives, deals, free trials, and samples are all great options when developing your calls to action. See if you can partner with your neighbors to create a shared promotion. This way one shopper in the Bronx has two or more places to visit while out in the neighborhood.


Why Local Digital Marketing Matters in the Bronx?

When people think about local digital marketing, they think cost first. While cost is definitely a variable to consider, it is more important to measure the return on that investment (ROI). Local digital marketing is custom-made to measure and to deliver a positive ROI.

  1. The key in the Bronx is starting small and expanding from it. Much of local digital marketing can be done inexpensively. Test, learn, repeat.
  2. Local digital marketing is important because mobile customers are looking for solutions that are near to where they are. 
  3. local digital marketing lets customers know that your business exists, what you do, and the value you provide.

Leveraging Your Hometown Advantage: Basic Tips

Home Town Advantage for SEO

If you want to take full advantage of Google 3 pack to drive more traffic to your website, then the time spent optimizing your business's content and site is worth the effort for a small business owner. These are some basic off-page tips that can help:

  1. Make sure you've claimed your Google My Business page. If one doesn't exist, it's fairly easy to create one.
  2. Every city is full of lists, best restaurants, bars, gyms, and the like. Inquire how you might get a link from them.
  3. Local news – Internet news sources are a great way for local businesses to be seen.
  4. Awards – Research the ones that pertain to your industry and inquire about entry requirements
  5. Local business development groups.
  6. Get to know your local over social media

In other words, build your SEO around the places where your local community is active.

Localization: Basic Technical SEO Tips

If you aren’t afraid of a bit of simple coding, there are a couple of technical SEO tips that can help make the bot’s job easier by making some adjustments to your meta tags (title, heading, etc.) and header or body text.  If this seems too complicated, any good SEO agency, SEO company, or SEO expert can help.

Quick Overview of Structured Data

Structured data in this context provides a way to present useful information to bots. Schema is a standard way of using structured data across the digital landscape. To use a simple metaphor, structured data is like a form, and schema is the template that helps put the right information in the right place.

To use schema code, you need to be able to access either the header section or the body section of your web page. Generally, the schema text is put in the header, but I’ve found this can slow page speed. I cheat and put it right after the <body> header. It works equally well.

If you don't know where these are, you may want to skip this section or consider hiring an SEO expert or SEO company.

Location

There are a number of technical adjustments you can make to help bots better scan your page. In this post, we will focus only on how to help the bot to associate the right location with your business online. 

This is the code that you need to insert to ensure that you pages are tagged properly for your physical location. I’ll highlight the important part you will need to add in on your own. If you want to skip ahead, I find the Merkle schema tool to be very helpful.

Schema markup example for localization

If you need help with local SEO for your business, please see our eBook Easy, Simple Guide to SEO.

Things to Remember…

If you're thinking about finding help in the Bronx for your small business, here are some things to keep in mind.

  1. Find a firm that knows your area. If your small business is marketing in the Bronx, you'll want help from someone who understands how the Bronx works. The best marketing firms understand what makes the Bronx stand out  and can communicate with the community.
  2. Find a company you can trust. If you can't trust a business to have your best interests, you're already going to be left in the lurch. Make sure you have a guarantee that your business will be treated fairly by all parties.
  3. Get the size of help you need. A larger firm can provide has more resources and can do more things. A smaller firm, on the other hand, can feel like a neighbor in the Bronx, with the added benefit of one-on-one help from the best the company can offer.

How to Adapt Our Small Business SEO Tips for the Bronx

Aside from all the general tips above, here are some specific actions you can take based on the three key elements of local search algorithms:

Proximity 

All of this assumes that you have developed your keyword list. If you have not, this section will be more effective once you do. Please see our previous post on digital marketing in the Bronx and then come back.

Go through your keywords list and select those which are good descriptors of your business. If it were me, I would use something like “digital marketing agency”, “seo services”, for example. Then make a list of the neighborhoods you service, for example “seo services south bronx”.

Now comes the harder part, that is frankly a bit tedious. For each combination, see if you can create a somewhat unique post that’s 500-1000 words for that keyword. For us, it is a post like this. I try to write a post that helps my potential clients learn something or do something they didn’t know they could. 

Prominence 

Now, this is the good part. If you do write quality posts for these keywords, you will be raising your prominence. Google knows that all these neighborhoods are in the Bronx. So, for each good post you write, you help raise your prominence on a given topic in a given location.

Prominence is also helped by the basic techniques I mentioned earlier, such as being a part of local business groups, e.g. the Bronx Chamber of Commerce or Burnside.Jerome.Tremont Commercial District. Any local listing helps.

Relevance

This is why I like the blog technique because it hits all three key areas. If your keyword is a descriptor of what you do and the neighborhood is one you serve, it is highly likely that you will score points on relevance.

These same tools would apply if you want to target local SEO in NYC

If you are more interest in the borough, you can see our Small Business Marketing in the Bronx. If you want the full city, you can see our Small Business Marketing in NYC.