SEO is the process of optimising your content for search engines so that it appears to a
wider audience, but what about adapting your content for audiences in specific locations? In
this article, we will discuss the creation of specific location pages you can use on your site to
optimise content in certain areas to boost local or international SEO efforts.

What are location pages?

Location pages are content created around a specific location and service to boost your
visibility in that area. For example, a car salesman working in Halifax, might want to attract
more customers locally to his independent car dealership. To do this, he could create
location pages targeting surrounding areas such as “Car dealership Wakefield”, “Car
dealership Bradford”, “Car dealership Leeds” etc. This would allow the car salesman to
capture traffic in all these different areas instead of just in his primary location of Halifax.
This also applies to international business. A business may run out of a certain country and
be organically generating traffic in that region but by creating international location pages,
they can target different countries with their content.

How to create location page content

There are three crucial steps to follow when creating location page content:
Find relevant keywords – If you are creating content for different locations, doing keyword
research is a crucial first step. Firstly, checking if people are searching for your services in a
specific area is important because there is no point optimising your content in locations
where your services are not in demand. If people are searching for your services in these
locations they will often attach local phrases to their searches such as “near me” “city
location”. You can use a keyword tool to see which searches people are using and optimise
your content for these.

Create location specific content – Make sure when creating your content it is location specific
and helps people in the area with their needs, for example, to use the car dealership as an
example again, explaining how your service has helped thousands of people in Halifax and
the surrounding areas find their dream car and that you are rated highly by previous
customers. Another good way to do this is to include FAQs that are location specific,
answering any questions users might have such as “Does your Halifax location have
parking” or “What services are available at our Halifax location?” This helps users and is
ultimately Google’s end goal, to show users the most relevant and specific answers to their
search queries.

Add local business schema – Adding local business schema is an important way of letting
search engines know your content should show up in a specific area. Schema refers to a
piece of code you add to a web page to help search engines categorise the content on the
page. There are hundreds of different types of Schema you can use on your pages but one
of the best types of schema for location pages is local business schema. This schema
attaches the name, address, location and contact info of the local business to your webpage
so Google knows where you are based and adds you to any local business listings.

Make sure after you have created your location pages you track the success of your
keywords and how they are ranking to see if your content is performing well, if not adjust
accordingly to try and see an improvement in rankings.

What is a micro-influencer?

A micro-influencer is a content creator with a smaller but highly engaged following,
typically between 10,000 and 100,000 followers. These individuals are well-known to
their specific audience but aren’t considered celebrities in the mainstream sense.

What are the benefits of collaborating with a micro-influencer?

Being able to build trust and transfer authority

Micro-influencers often hold authority in niche areas, which makes them ideal for
promoting products or services authentically. Their established credibility allows
brands to tap into that trust, signalling to audiences that the collaboration is both
informed and genuine.

Garner more engagement

Micro-influencers tend to have more active communities, resulting in higher-quality
interactions. Their audiences are often more loyal and engaged than those of larger
influencers. One effective way to boost engagement is through collaborative posts
that appear on both the brand’s and the influencer’s profiles.
Targeted promotions

While some micro-influencers are known for specific topics, others are local figures
with strong community ties. Partnering with them can be a powerful tactic when
running location-specific campaigns, helping you connect with a targeted and
relevant audience.

Getting the most out of your budget

Collaborating with micro-influencers is typically far more cost-effective than working
with celebrities or macro-influencers. This affordability frees up the budget for other
marketing efforts, or to reinvest back into the business.

How to approach working with an influencer

Partnering with a micro-influencer takes thoughtful planning. It’s important to ensure
the fit is right—for both your brand and the creator—before reaching out.

1. Define Your Objectives and Goals
   Start by identifying what you want to achieve from the campaign. Clear goals will
   help guide your strategy and also make it easier to measure performance
   afterwards.
2. Assess Alignment and Suitability – Evaluate whether the influencer’s content and persona align with your brand. Their
   style should complement your vision for the campaign. If you’re unsure where to
   start, use platform search tools and keywords to find creators producing content that
   fits your niche.
3. Consider Your Offer, think about what you’re bringing to the table—whether that’s a paid partnership or gifting products/services in exchange for content. If you can’t offer some form of value, it’s unlikely the collaboration will take off.
4. Create a Clear Project Brief – Outline exactly what you expect in terms of deliverables, messaging, and content format. A well-crafted brief is essential—it keeps everyone aligned and ensures thethe
   output reflects your brand’s goals.
5. Let Their Content Shine -Authenticity is key. While it’s important to communicate your brand message, give
   influencers the freedom to present it in their own voice. This personalisation deepens
   trust and helps the content resonate more naturally with the audience.

Google is making some big changes to Gmail that aim to improve your experience, protect your inbox from spam, and boost security, but not without raising some concerns.

Less Spam in Your Inbox

The good news? Google is tightening its rules around spam, and it’s working. Many companies that send out bulk marketing emails are seeing their messages blocked or flagged as spam unless people regularly open and engage with them. That means you should see fewer unwanted messages cluttering your inbox.

Smarter Scams Are on the Rise

At the same time, a serious threat has come to light. A long-running email scam has been using fake login pages that look like real sites—Gmail, Outlook, banks, delivery companies—to trick people into entering their usernames and passwords. After stealing the information, the scam redirects victims to the real login page, making it seem like nothing happened.

These attacks have flown under the radar for years, using clever techniques to bypass security tools and hide behind trusted-looking links and websites.

Google’s AI and Privacy Debate

Google is also rolling out AI-powered tools in Gmail to help users manage their inboxes more efficiently. But not everyone is thrilled—some are worried about what it means for privacy if AI is scanning personal emails. Google says users remain in control and can switch off these features if they prefer.

New Encryption, but Limited Access

To further strengthen email security, Google is introducing end-to-end encryption. This means only the sender and receiver can read the email. However, it’s only available to business users for now and will be rolled out more broadly later.

Stay Safe Going Forward

Email is getting safer, but no system is perfect. Always be cautious of unexpected emails asking for login details. Use strong two-factor authentication or, even better, switch to passkeys if available. Staying alert is still your best line of defence.

What’s Instagram SEO?

Like traditional SEO, Instagram SEO focuses on optimising your content in order for it to be easier to discover. Optimisation ensures that content is positioned to an audience without having to invest money in ad campaigns. 

How does Instagram SEO work?

Instagram will display the searched for content depending on a few elements of the content:

• The captions
• Using hashtags
• Profile bios

What factors are considered for the algorithm?

Instagram’s algorithm works in various ways for each area of its app, i.e., reels, the main feed, and the explore page. It factors in context from the search term, the searcher’s profile, and then considers all the content out there to provide an accurate response. 

Instagram’s algorithm utilises the keywords from users’ search terms to provide profiles and posts that are relevant to the search. Instagram looks to marry the search term to existing content containing hashtags, locations, captions, and profile bios. So it works in a very similar way to that of search engines like Google.

The algorithm will prioritise displaying content that is successful. So, content that has successfully garnered clicks, likes, saves, follows, shares, and comments will also be a factor in whether it is displayed to people.

Instagram’s algorithm will factor in context for display results, so things like the kind of content the user interacts with, or the people the searcher follows. This will allow Instagram to provide more tailored results.

Does my business need to do Instagram SEO?

Instagram SEO gives businesses an opportunity to get more from their social content, increasing the probability for newer audiences to see their content.

Having an awareness and appreciation for the impact of Instagram SEO can inform how content is created. When content is properly optimised, it increases the probability of the content seeing success, as well as an increased chance of expanding your audience. 

How to optimise your Instagram content?

Account optimisations – bio, name, captions, link trees

Optimising your Instagram is essential, and there’s no better place to begin the process than on your profile. Optimising your profile is actually quite simple, just follow these simple steps:

1. Make sure your username is aligned with your brand, ensuring you’re easy to find online. Use your business’s name, if it’s taken, consider adding the year of establishment to the end of the handle.
2. Make sure your business’s location is attached to the page; Instagram will then be able to factor this in when displaying geo-relevant content. This applies to both your profile and the posts you share.
3. Your bio should utilise the keywords that summarise your business and what it offers in terms of products or services. Clear sign posting will ensure you’re connected to the right potential audience sooner.

Geo-tagging //Location-based Optimisation

Tagging your location in posts can be just as important as including this information on your profile. Location tagging, like with hashtags, can be a great way to ‘tag’ content, which then groups that particular content with anything else that tags that location. 

Caption optimisation (including hashtags) – Implementing your keywords

Hashtags can serve as a really useful tool. They can be used as a tagging tool that can differentiate your content from others. So instead of using your keywords as a hashtag, create a quality caption utilising keywords.

Then use the hashtags as additional qualifiers, so tag the location or maybe a niche that the content pertains to. For instance, if a photographer shares a photo of a bird, instead of tagging #bird, they would be better typing #50mmbirdphotgraphy – This provides the search engine with a little bit more information, and it diversifies the hashtag enough that your content wont be lost in a sea of content using the same generic hashtag.

Include alt text – making content accessible – including captions on video content and descriptive captions.

Alt text is different from the caption, it’s an accessibility feature that allows a brand to describe what is featured in the content. This allows those with impairments to still access social content. This is critical, not only to improve your general strategy but to demonstrate your brand’s ability to deal with accessibility challenges. Alike alt text, captions allow those with auditory impairments to still access and enjoy content alike their peers without accessibility hurdles.

To add alt text, you’ll need to create a new post > press more options at the bottom of the controls panel > scroll to the bottom of the more options page to find the alt text feature.

Scheduling – knowing the optimal posting times

Another facet of Instagram optimisation is to perfect your scheduling. Pinpointing your audience’s most responsive periods will increase the likelihood of driving engagement and traffic.

Instagram helps businesses figure this out in its insights dashboard. Simply navigate to > Settings and activity > Under the for professionals section, you’ll see ‘Insights’, click on this > The navigate to new followers and tap again > Swipe down and you’ll be able to see when your followers utilise Instagram.

Using Instagram’s collaborative tool for influencer campaigns and collaborations

Utilise the features Instagram provides to make the most of your content. Particularly the collaborative feature, which, like link building in traditional SEO, can help provide authority by sharing content across 2 accounts.

This works particularly well when collaborating with influencers or brands that have an established audience that intersects with your existing one. It positions your brand to many more people, whilst still placing it in front of relevant members.

Optimising for Instagram helps you to create a strategy that focuses on a symbiotic relationship between the different aspects of your marketing strategy, ensuring the goals for your website are being supported by the output of content on your social channels. It helps you to direct your traffic to the product, service, or content that you’re trying to push!

From May 5, Microsoft Advertising will start enforcing something called Consent Mode. If you run Microsoft ads or work with a team that does, this is important news – especially if you’re responsible for performance, compliance, or customer trust.

So, what is Consent Mode?

Put simply, Consent Mode is a way for Microsoft to respect user privacy. It makes sure that ads only collect data if a person has agreed to it. If someone hasn’t given consent, your ads will work differently to protect their privacy – but you’ll still get some useful insights.

This is all part of a growing shift in the digital world: more regulations, more awareness of data privacy, and more pressure on advertisers to do the right thing.

Why this matters to you

If you’re in marketing, you rely on data to see what’s working and improve performance. At the same time, your audience wants transparency and control over how their information is used. Consent Mode helps you do both.

By using Consent Mode, you stay compliant with privacy laws and still collect the data needed to measure results and improve campaigns.

What’s changing?

Starting May 5, Microsoft will require you to send a “consent signal”. This signal shows whether a person has agreed to be tracked. Without it, Microsoft might not be able to collect or report on certain data from your ads.

This applies to:

• Microsoft’s Universal Event Tracking (UET)
• Universal Pixels, Segment, and Conversion pixels used on platforms like Microsoft Invest, Curate, and Monetize

How do you make sure your ads are ready?

You don’t need to be a developer – but you do need to make sure someone on your team (or your agency) has set this up properly.

There are three main ways to send a consent signal:

1. Direct integration: Add the consent signal directly to your Microsoft tracking pixels.
2. Through a consent platform: Use a Consent Management Platform (CMP) or the IAB’s Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) to handle this for you.
3. With Google Tag Manager: If you use GTM, you can configure it to pass on consent signals to Microsoft.

If you’re not sure how your tracking is set up, now’s a good time to check in with your developers or digital team.

What are the negatives associated with this?

While Consent Mode is a positive step for privacy, it can create some challenges for marketers.

The biggest concern is data loss. If users don’t consent to tracking, Microsoft won’t collect or report on their activity. That means you might miss conversions or see incomplete performance data, making it harder to assess what’s working.

There’s also the technical setup to consider. Implementing Consent Mode correctly may require help from developers or your digital team. If it’s misconfigured, tracking could break or underperform.

With fewer people being tracked, you may also see smaller retargeting audiences and less data for campaign optimisation. Plus, expect a period of reporting disruption—even with everything set up, your numbers might dip as the system adjusts.

Finally, your cookie banner or consent tool plays a big role. If it’s confusing or off-putting, users are more likely to decline tracking—leading to even more missing data.

Planning ahead and reviewing your setup can help minimise these issues while keeping your campaigns compliant and effective.

In summary…

This isn’t just about ticking a compliance box. It’s about building trust with your audience while still getting the insights you need to grow. Consent Mode helps you do both – and now Microsoft is making it a must-have.

Make sure your team is ready by May 5, so your Microsoft Ads continue to work smoothly without any data disruptions.

Keyword clusters break down keywords into groups that can then be targeted by one piece of content. This process allows users to target more keywords speeding up organic traffic while going into more depth on a specific piece of content.

Benefits of Keyword Clustering

Improved SEO – Keyword clustering allows users to enhance website visibility by targeting multiple keywords on a singular web page.

Enhanced User Experience – Covering multiple keywords also lets you delve more deeply into certain topics which enhances user experience as there is more chance their questions are answered on your web page.

Content Creation – While targeting more keywords, it is easier to create more relevant content as there are more keywords to focus content around.

Better Site Structure – Having more relevant content grouped together makes it easier to keep a more coherent and organised site structure.

Keyword Cannibalisation

One of the potential drawbacks of keyword clustering is keyword cannibalisation. Web pages in the same cluster might compete with each other for rankings. To combat this, users should make sure they have one main page per keyword cluster and any other content in the cluster is content mainly focused around secondary keywords.

Balancing Act

While clustering keywords to create more in-depth rich content is great on the surface, it remains a balancing act. Collating a broad range of keywords and topics in one piece of work requires the user to make sure that there is a good balance between the content and your addressing the needs of the user pertaining to all the keywords.

How to measure Impact of keyword clusters

It can be tricky to analyse performance of keyword clusters performing well as most keyword research tools only track individual keywords. However, SERanking allows users to combine their keywords into groups or tags to track overall performance. This will allow you to monitor the performance of your clusters and make sure they’re performing well if they require adjustment.

What is a pop-up shop?

A pop-up shop is a one-time event open for a limited amount of time, allowing customers to purchase items in a physical location. This could be anywhere from an empty retail store in a shopping centre, a kiosk, a free-standing pop-up spaces built as a temporary location, to a stall at a business convention (relevant to your industry).

This can be a particularly useful marketing venture for an E-commerce store, to scope out the potential of transitioning into a location, or to even get a better sense of their customer’s sentiment around the brand.

How to know if a pop-up shop is the right business choice for you?

The main thing to consider with a pop-up shop is whether it is suited to your business, and if so- how to successfully launch a pop-up store. Defining your expectations, goals and business needs can help prevent your business from making any poor business choices.

These are some of the essential considerations to make before making the leap and deciding to set up a pop-up:

1. Is it the right time? Are you doing this on a whim, or is it the practical next step in generating traffic or scouting a potential location to set up a shop?
2. Do you have the resources or stock available? Make sure you have a clear budget for the pop-up. You also need to ensure you have enough stock. Be prepared, as running out will likely cause frustration for the customer- especially if they have waited or made a long commute to your store.
3. What is your goal? Do you want to sell lots of products, get a better sense of your customers, and test the waters in a physical store? Set your expectations beforehand, so you can realistically measure the success after.
4. Where do you want to set up your pop-up shop? Are you going to do it based on the majority of your customer’s geo-location, or are you going to capitalise on an event in a fixed location where it feels relevant to set up a pop-up?
5. How does your brand look when it’s a physical space? Think about the design of the space, how you are going to represent your store, what colour palettes will you use, and what branding will you incorporate. Will you create customised retail items like printed bags or business cards?

Why a pop-up shop could be the best marketing decision you make?

Allows customers to come see a physical representation of your E-commerce store, creating an opportunity for a rapport to be established. This process can also generate conversation around the brand, pop-ups often prompt intrigue and if physical marketing elements tease the pop-up happening prior, it starts the discussion around the brand or product.

The opportunity to sell old stock and promote new products. Capitalise on the eagerness of customers being able to see all the physical items of your store and create the chance for your business to shift old products. Making these products even more desirable with discounts is one way to promote impulse buying.

Equally, using the conversation and excitement around your pop-ups for product launches is one way to ensure your product campaign starts with success! Launching it both on your e-commerce store and in a physical location for your pop-up can give you a frame of reference for what type of buying suits your customer base, which is particularly useful if brands are considering launching a physical store.

It allows businesses to question if a physical store is suitable for them, and to test it out on a short-term basis with less commitment. It will help in gathering insights around customer sentiment, as well as the probability of the physical store driving profit. This can also provide clarity on what location best suits your business.

Chat GPT have released their latest features this week with 4o Image Generation being rolled out to customers. The latest feature allows users to generate images from scratch with a prompt, alter existing images or turn images into animations.

Improvements made to image generation

ChatGPT’s previous image generation capabilities had several limitations which have been addressed in this latest release including text rendering. For anyone who has tried to use AI Models to generate images in the past, it is commonplace for current models to confuse text and become incoherent which has been a major stumbling block for creators trying to generate images. 4o Image Generation comes with advanced text rendering which allows users to display coherent text on their images which is a massive step forward from previous models.

The latest model is also said to be much improved at understanding complicated prompts with multiple elements. Previous Dall-E models have struggled with “binding” in the past, fusing together different elements that have been given to it and often getting confused. 4o Image generation is much better at being able to understand how to combine elements and produce high-quality images to specification.

I tested out the text rendering on 4o Image generation by giving it Intelligencys brand designs and asking it to create me a superhero using our brand colours and logo. You can see that the text is legible and accurate to our existing brand colours and logo.

ChatGPT have admitted that the images do take longer to create, however believe the trade off is worth it for the images users are getting in return

What does this mean for artists?

Artists are concerned about the latest developments in AI technology with 4o Image generation. The latest release has seen a wave of users online recreating images in their favourite art styles with the famous Studio Ghibli style being used in the latest online trend. However, many users feel aggrieved by this saying these artists dedicated their lives to creating such art and it should not be available to be co-opted by anyone through LLM’s which they believe are essentially stealing the work. It also makes graphic design much more accessible to users without the skill which leaves designers who have been upskilling in the field for their entire careers on the back foot and leaves the future of the profession up in the air.

ChatGPT 4o Image Generation is available to all users including free users however, paid users can generate 5x as many images.

Why is Meta So Important?

Facebook and Instagram, both owned by Meta, are some of the most widely used social media platforms in the world. Billions of people use them daily to stay connected with friends, share updates, and discover new content. For businesses, these platforms are a key part of their marketing strategies, allowing them to reach the right audience through targeted advertising. Most of Meta’s revenue—over 96%—comes from ads, making them essential to keeping these platforms free for users.

The Idea of a Paid, Ad-Free Experience

Meta is exploring the idea of offering a paid subscription in the UK that would allow users to browse Facebook and Instagram without seeing ads. The move follows the company’s introduction of a similar service in the EU, where users can opt for an ad-free experience starting from €5.99 (£5) per month. The subscription would be aimed at people who do not want their data to be tracked for targeted advertising.

Meta has said it is working with the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to ensure the plan aligns with data protection laws. Regulators have expressed concerns that users should have a genuine choice—either agreeing to data tracking for personalised ads or paying for an ad-free experience.

Would People Pay for an Ad-Free Experience?

Social media experts believe that most users are unlikely to subscribe. When Meta launched its ad-free option in the EU in October 2023, uptake was reportedly low. Many people are used to free social media and would rather continue using the platforms with ads than pay a monthly fee.

For Meta, introducing an ad-free option may be less about making money from subscriptions and more about preparing for future regulations that could restrict data collection for targeted advertising. As privacy laws tighten, offering a paid alternative allows Meta to continue operating within legal requirements while still relying on its primary source of revenue—advertising.

Ultimately, most people will decide whether they value privacy enough to pay for it or whether they are happy to keep using social media for free with ads.

Google dropped its March 2025 core update recently, and like most algorithm updates, it’s got people in marketing and SEO circles buzzing. The main headline? Not every site that’s lost traffic will recover—and some might not recover at all.

But before you panic, here’s what you really need to know (in plain English).

Google’s focus is shifting—for good reason

This latest update is part of a bigger effort by Google to show more relevant, useful, and satisfying content in its search results. Sounds good, right? It is. But here’s the catch: Google’s not promising that every website will magically return to its former glory.

Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, said this update doesn’t mean everyone who dropped in rankings will bounce back. In fact, some sites might not recover at all. Why? Because not all content—no matter how well-intentioned—hits the mark for users anymore.

“Great content” isn’t always enough

Even if your site has high-quality content and your heart’s in the right place, that doesn’t guarantee a top spot on Google. Sullivan said that some pages just don’t offer the kind of experience users are looking for anymore.

This isn’t a dig at creators—Google even admits their systems still need work. But it’s a reminder that what felt like good content a few years ago might not feel that way now.

One update doesn’t fix everything

Not every site is affected by the same part of the algorithm. So just because your site took a hit doesn’t mean the next update will fix it. You could be impacted by a different system than another site, even in the same industry. And unfortunately, there’s no guarantee your traffic will bounce back at all.

Search is changing—and fast

What Google wanted to rank in 2023 is not what it wants to rank in 2025. Social content is playing a bigger role. User satisfaction is front and centre. The way we search is evolving—and so are Google’s expectations of content.

So what should marketers do?

If you work in marketing, here’s the bottom line: stop chasing algorithm reversals. Focus on creating content that’s genuinely helpful, genuinely engaging, and meets your audience’s needs—today, not three years ago.

Because even if your site doesn’t shoot back up the rankings right away, that kind of content has a much better chance of succeeding in the long run.

TL;DR:

• Google’s March 2025 core update won’t help all websites recover.
• Good content alone isn’t always enough—experience matters too.
• Every site is affected differently by algorithm changes.
• Google’s definition of “good content” keeps evolving.
• Focus on quality, relevance, and user satisfaction above all else.

Keep creating for your audience—not the algorithm. The rest will follow (eventually).