What My Midwife Taught Me About Local SEO

Not long ago, my wife and I were looking at midwifery services here in Phoenix. Now, you may be thinking, "what does that have to do with search engine marketing?" A lot actually, and let me explain why.

The midwife we liked doesn't rank for the keyword "Phoenix Midwife." Which is a shame because it gets a decent number of searches each month and it's what she is. When I saw this, I wondered how I could get her to rank for that phrase. Let's take a look at the search results and then I'll share a few of my ideas with you. Just keep in mind that ultimately, this is how you should be thinking about your own search results for your small business or startup.

Take a quick look at the Google search results for Phoenix midwife. Think about the strategy you'd use to rank for this keyword.

You don't have to scroll far to see this search has "local intent". Local intent means that Google shows you results for midwives in the area. That's one opportunity to rank for this keyword.

If you take a look a little further down in the results, into page 2, you'll see some other interesting things like a couple videos, a Yelp page, an Angie's list listing, a city search listing and an Amazon book Listmania list. An additional 5 opportunities to rank for this keyword and it probably wouldn't take much to pop those onto the first page.

So, if I were trying to get my midwife to rank for these terms, here's the approach I'd take:

• I'd have her list herself in Yelp, Angie's list, and City Search.
• I'd work on a few other citations to help her rank for Google's local search results.
• I'd have her create some content on Amazon around midwives and home-birthing, maybe a book list or two.
• And I'd definitely be pulling out my Flip at our next appointment to shoot a video about Phoenix midwives.

Then, I'd work on promoting a few of those pages, especially getting some ratings/reviews from past clients on the local listings. And if 7 opportunities to rank for a keyword aren't enough, I'd also have her run some Google ads.

If you're going to take this approach, be sure to brand each of the pages created on other sites with the same exact name and logo, to provide consistent branding across multiple sites. The reason for this is simple… each time a potential client sees you in another search ranking, it's going to heighten his or her opinion of you. In a sense, it's pre-selling you based on sheer number of mentions.

Of course, in theory this sounds simple, but it's definitely easier said that done. If you need some help with your local SEO campaign, please drop us a line, we'd be happy to help.