If the community you serve has a local forum, now is the time to become a regular participant. One obvious result of the “hidden gems” component of Google’s Helpful Content update is an increase in forum-based results in SERPs, including local SERPs.
As my friends at Near Media describe it:
“The push Google is giving to forums and social content is intended to provide more information from real people personal competence, insights or first-hand knowledge. This is also a way for Google to preemptively address the looming crisis of AI content and other lower-quality content (e.g. spam, lead-gen) that doesn’t really serve users.”
Greg Sterling, Mike Blumenthal, and David Mihm reference old, established platforms like the Berkeley Parents Network, and I’ve often referenced community hubs like the West Seattle Blog Forum. Find out if your city has such a forum and become active there.
Keep in mind that this doesn’t mean continually pitching your business there, which will only annoy your neighbors and potential customers!
Instead, participate in discussions and try to be helpful to others while developing a reputation for trustworthiness and community spirit. So when someone appears on the platform asking where to alter their wedding dress, rebuild the fence, or cut down the tree, you’ll be able to respond from a place of sharing rather than a hard sell, and if you’re fine—you liked it enough, you may find neighbors advising you.
If your community doesn’t have a standalone forum, you may be able to find a subreddit on Reddit for your region.
The goal of this activity for your local business is twofold: first, to become more connected with your community so that it becomes local wisdom to offer a particular service when neighbors need it, and second, you may find some of your threads surfaced by Google in local results as they strive to provide content based on real experiences rather than AI fantasies.
But you’ll still want a website to direct interested parties to, so let’s move on to tip 3.