Local Foundation 30
Help people find you. Give them something worth reading.
You know your business well enough to explain it in a conversation. The challenge is getting all of that knowledge onto your website in a way that helps the right people find you and understand why they should call.
Local Foundation 30 is the system we’ve developed to do that. We look at your services, the places you work, the questions your customers ask, and the expertise that makes your business different. Then we use that research to plan a connected group of useful pages around what’s missing.
The goal is a website that gives customers, Google, and AI search tools a much clearer picture of who you are, what you do, and where you do it.
The best part of the conversation never made it onto the website.
A prospective customer asks why you recommend one approach over another. You explain the tradeoffs, mention a similar project, and point out something they hadn’t considered.
By the end of the conversation, they understand the decision. They also have a better sense of what it would be like to work with you.
Then you look at your website. It says you provide quality service and have years of experience.
There’s more to tell.
Local Foundation 30 helps us find the places where that knowledge is missing. We turn the useful things you explain every day into content a prospective customer can find and understand before the first call. Our research helps us identify the opportunity. Your experience gives the page its substance.
Home Service Companies
One of our plumbing and HVAC clients is based in Tewksbury, but their customers aren’t all in Tewksbury. They work throughout Greater Boston and the North Shore, including Reading, Medford, Somerville, Cambridge, Andover, Woburn, and other nearby communities.
That’s common for home service companies. Your business may be based in one town while the work you want comes from a much larger area. And geography is only half the picture. A plumber doesn’t just offer “plumbing.” Customers are looking for water heater replacement, emergency repairs, heating work, cooling services, and dozens of other specific needs.
Local Foundation 30 helps us look at both: what you do and where you do it. Then we can determine which services and communities deserve more attention on the website and how those pieces should work together.
Professional Service Firms
“Legal services” covers an awful lot. So does “accounting.” A business owner needs to know whether you handle the particular problem they’re bringing to you, and why they should trust you with it.
Law firms, accountants, consultants, financial professionals, and healthcare practices often have much more to explain than a short service list allows. We look at the individual services, practice areas, problems, and areas of expertise that matter to prospective clients, then make sure the website gives the important ones enough room to stand on their own.
Regional and Rural Businesses
We’re based in Easthampton, so this one is familiar territory. A company might work throughout Hampshire and Franklin counties, with jobs in towns that rarely appear in anyone’s idea of a major market.
Those customers still need to find someone. A website built entirely around the nearest city can overlook how the company actually operates. We account for the towns and regions that actually matter to the business, including the places between the larger population centers.
A smaller search market doesn’t make those customers less important.
Competitive Metro Markets
The strategy changes again in a competitive metro market. A business trying to get found in Boston, Phoenix, or Los Angeles may be competing with dozens or hundreds of companies for the same customers. Simply being local isn’t much of a distinction.
Customers still need to see that you do the work they need, understand the project, and serve their part of the area. But deciding which services, cities, suburbs, or neighborhoods deserve attention takes more thought.
Local Foundation 30 is built around the market you’re actually competing in, not a formula for creating the same set of pages everywhere.
Organizations With Several Programs
A parent looking for family support shouldn’t have to piece together three pages to learn whether a program serves their child’s age group or their town.
Nonprofits and other organizations can run into the same problem as businesses: there’s more happening than the website explains.
Organizing programs and resources more clearly can help people understand eligibility, find the right service, and know whom to contact.
When One Page Has Too Much to Explain
Several services. Customers spread across a region. Competitors getting the inquiries you’d like to receive. These are good reasons to look closely at what your website actually covers.
Planning a New Site?
Improving an Existing One?
BUILDING A NEW WEBSITE?
Have the Search Conversation Before Launch
If you’re counting on search to bring in customers, let’s talk about it while we’re planning the website.
Local Foundation 30 can become part of a new Cider House website from the beginning.
We look at the services you want to grow, the markets you serve, and the competition you’re up against while we’re planning the site, rather than waiting until after launch to figure out what’s missing.
A ten-page site can be perfectly appropriate. Not every business needs a large website. But if your goals and your market call for something more substantial, it’s worth knowing that before we build. We can plan the right foundation from the start instead of trying to add it later.
ALREADY HAVE A WEBSITE?
You May Have a Good Site With Missing Pieces
Sometimes the website is fine. It simply doesn’t say enough about the services you want to grow, the places you work, or the things your customers want to know.
Local Foundation 30 can work with an existing website too. But before we recommend a substantial content expansion, we want to make sure the website is a good foundation for it.
We’ll look at the site you have now, how it’s organized and performing, what you’re trying to accomplish, and the market you’re competing in. Sometimes the right answer is to build on what’s already there. Sometimes the amount of new content the business needs makes it worth considering the website itself at the same time.
We’ll give you our recommendation before we start building either one.
What’s Missing From the Picture?
Before we add anything to your website, we need to understand what’s already there and what’s missing. Local Foundation 30 turns those gaps into a connected plan for what the website needs next.
Services Worth Explaining
If an important service gets only a sentence or two on your website, customers may never understand the work you actually do. Giving it more room lets you explain the service, show relevant experience, answer common questions, and help someone decide whether you’re the right company to call.
The Places You Actually Serve
Your office address tells someone where you’re based. It doesn’t necessarily tell them where you work. We make your service area easier to understand, with useful information about the places that matter to your business, without pretending you have offices or locations where you don’t.
Different Customers. Different Questions.
Someone with a broken furnace needs help now. Someone considering a heating system replacement has time to compare options. They may be looking for the same company, but they need different information. We build content around what customers need to understand at different points in the decision.
Pages That Connect
Finding the right page shouldn’t leave someone at a dead end. Related services, examples of your work, useful answers, and information about where you work can help them keep exploring. We connect that information so customers, search engines, and AI tools can better understand how the pieces fit together.
Local Information With Something to Say
If we’re writing about your work in Northampton, there should be a reason for that page beyond the town name. Relevant projects, services, or questions from local customers can give it substance. Copying another page and swapping “Springfield” for “Northampton” isn’t a local content strategy.
A Few Samples of Our Work
Real clients.
Real results.
Real businesses.
Good SEO starts with understanding the business behind the website. Our clients come to us with different goals, different markets, and different challenges. What they have in common is a Cider House team that takes the time to understand what they do and helps more of the right people find them.
A Few Practical Questions
Will I get exactly thirty pages?
No. Thirty is the framework behind the name, not a promise that every website needs thirty new pages. We’ll look at what your website already covers, what your business needs, and where we see opportunities. Some existing pages may need improvement. Other subjects may deserve pages of their own.
Can you do this without replacing my website?
Often, yes. We’ll look at the website you have now and decide whether it’s a good foundation for the work. If it is, we can build on it. If we think the site itself will get in the way of what you’re trying to accomplish, we’ll explain why and talk through your options before recommending a rebuild.
How does this fit with ongoing SEO?
Local Foundation 30 builds a stronger foundation for the website. Ongoing SEO builds on it. We continue watching how people find the site, what’s performing, where competitors are gaining ground, and where new opportunities are developing. As your business and the search landscape change, the strategy can change with them.
What if I only have one location?
That’s completely normal. A contractor can work from one address and serve customers across several counties. A professional firm can meet clients at one office while drawing business from the whole region. What matters is where you actually serve customers and whether your website makes that clear.
LET’S BUILD YOUR FOUNDATION
Tell Us Where You Want More Business
A particular service? A neighboring town? A market where the competition seems to get all the calls? Tell us what you have in mind. We’ll look at the website you have, or the one you’re planning, and help you figure out what it needs next.