3 Ways to Work with Location SEO Keywords

Location SEO keywords (e.g. 'content writer Manchester') are an important tool in getting your page to rank for searches in your geographic area. Even if your business is fully digital or mail-order, it's good to reach out to your local market and capitalise on the natural sense of 'togetherness' that comes from living and working in the same place.

There's a problem though. When you put the location at the end like that, it's very hard to use the keyword in a sentence that works grammatically. That's because in almost every grammatically correct usage of a phrase like 'content writer Manchester', you need a word like 'in' (which is a preposition - it's indicating that Manchester is where the content writer is located).

Without a preposition, a phrase like 'content writer Manchester' is a massive headache for your writer. I've been writing professionally for nearly 20 years, and this is still one of the biggest challenges I face when writing location SEO landing pages for my clients.

So what are the coping mechanisms when confronted with these kinds of location SEO keywords? There aren't many good options, but I've given my top three below.

1. Use it as-is

This is my least favourite option, as I think it stands out really obviously in the text, but the first solution is to just use the phrase exactly as it is, and almost ignore the location part of it.

On the finished page, this would look something like:

Bobble Bardsley is an experienced content writer Manchester, with clients across the UK and worldwide.

It feels clunky to me, and there ARE better alternatives, but I consider myself to be basically just a talented lackey, and if a customer wants their location SEO keywords included in this way, I'm quite happy to do it.

Pros: Easy to include in almost any sentence

Cons: Clunky, shoehorned, and grammatically incorrect

2. Add a preposition

A preposition is a word like in, on, over, under etc, and is used to indicate the position of something in a sentence. In 'the cat is on the mat', 'on' is the preposition. In a phrase like 'content writer Manchester', the preposition is missing.

The grammatically correct solution is to add the preposition back into the phrase, and this usually will not have a negative effect on the SEO value of your page - search engines like Google are able to see past small connecting words like 'in' as if they weren't even there.

Using our example from above, this would look like:

Bobble Bardsley is an experienced content writer in Manchester, with clients across the UK and worldwide.

It's immediately and completely fixed from a grammar point of view, and it reads well to human visitors, helping to disguise the location SEO keywords shoehorned into your page.

Pros: Quick, easy and grammatically correct

Cons: Changes SEO keyword slightly

3. Reflexive sentence structure

This is MY preferred option, because it strikes the best compromise between leaving the location SEO keyword phrase unchanged, reading well to human visitors AND satisfying the rules of grammar.

What do I mean by a reflexive sentence? It's about pivoting the sentence around the location phrase so that the location itself is associated with the following phrase. This nudges the grammar along slightly so that a preposition isn't needed.

An example of this would be something like:

Bobble Bardsley is the experienced content writer Manchester brands trust to create compelling content for their websites.

If you're expecting 'content writer Manchester' to be a single phrase, reading that sentence might trip you up when you reach it. But for website visitors coming to a page cold, it's one of the best ways I've found to include the phrase as-is, without it feeling really forced.

Pros: Works well without adding a preposition

Cons: Alters the semantics of the location

Which method works best?

Honestly it's completely up to you. I've listed these three options in (for me) reverse order of preference. I think using the original keyword phrase as-is looks really awkward on the page and is likely to be noticeable to most human readers of decent reading ability.

The risk with using SEO keywords in a noticeable way is that some readers may think the page is purely there for Google rankings, and will click off of it if it's too SEO-heavy. Unless you have some very ad-heavy pages, search traffic alone usually doesn't drive revenues, so you should always create content with real people in mind.

Adding a preposition (usually 'in') was problematic in the past, when the search engines would see that as a different phrase. They don't really do that anymore, and I'd say this has become the go-to option as a way to include the desired location without hurting the grammar of the page.

My own favourite option is the 'reflexive' sentence structure described above. It involves a bit of grammatical gymnastics but it flows well when reading a page cold, and it allows you to include the SEO location phrase exactly as-is.

Help with location SEO pages

If you want to create some location-specific SEO pages for your website, I can help. I'm happy to use any of the methods mentioned above - or a combination of 2-3 of them, if that works best on your page.

Location SEO has become one of the most useful ways to reach the top of the search results and taps into the natural rapport your brand already has with customers on your doorstep.

Contact me today to discuss your budget, your location, and how we can combine the two to generate new business for your brand.

How to Turn Off 'Rewrite with Copilot' in Microsoft Edge

AI has its uses, but that doesn't mean you want it to pop up every time you write a sentence. Since a recent update to Microsoft Edge, a 'Rewrite with Copilot' option appears if you select editable text on-screen.

This is annoying at the least, but it's also affected my work in some minor ways, with pages I've used for years (like the Blogger 'new post' editor) suddenly reacting differently depending on whether or not the Rewrite with Copilot pop-up appears.

Generally speaking, I do not want things popping up in front of text editors while I'm working, or to have to make extra keyboard presses or mouse clicks to dismiss them - so how do you turn off 'Rewrite with Copilot' in Microsoft Edge?

'Rewrite with Copilot' in Edge while I was editing this post.

Luckily, it's easy to disable 'Rewrite with Copilot' in MS Edge. Unfortunately, it's in a really weird place in the Edge Settings page.

How to make Microsoft Edge disable 'Rewrite with Copilot'

If you've already tried to make Microsoft Edge disable 'Rewrite with Copilot', you've likely discovered that searching the Settings page for 'Copilot' doesn't help. There are also no results if you search for 'rewrite'.

So, where is the Rewrite with Copilot 'disable' button hiding? Here's what you'll need to do:

Open the Edge Settings page (ways to do this are listed below).

Click on 'Languages' (about 2/3rds down the left-hand menu, on desktop).

Turn off 'Use Compose (AI-writing) on the web'.

As soon as you toggle the setting off, it should disable 'Rewrite with Copilot' in Edge completely, including any existing tabs you have open - you should not need to reopen any open tabs.

Look under 'Writing assistance' on the 'Languages' tab

In this screenshot, you can see 'Use Compose (AI-writing) on the web' just below the 'Writing assistance' heading. Click the blue toggle at the right-hand side to turn this off, and it should disable 'Rewrite with Copilot' pop-ups immediately.

(I use 'dark mode' because it's easier on my eyes after hours of looking at my screen, so your colour scheme might look different, but the option should still be in the same place, subject to any future MS Edge updates.)

How to open Edge Settings

There are a few ways to open the Edge Settings page to disable Rewrite with Copilot:

Click on the ... button at the top-right of Microsoft Edge and click 'Settings' from the dropdown list OR

Press Alt+E or Alt+F on your keyboard to open the Settings and More menu and then click 'Settings' OR

Type edge://settings/languages into your address bar and hit enter

Option 3 above will link you directly to the Languages page, where you can scroll down to 'Writing assistance' to turn off Rewrite with Copilot forever.

Why does it matter?

Generally speaking, I like MS Edge. It's always been more stable on my computer(s) compared with Chrome, which eats more and more memory until it crashes. Your experience might be different - I'm not saying Edge is definitively the better browser, I just like it more.

So it's problematic to see Copilot forced into more and more parts of an otherwise pretty sleek browser. Even though I've found the Rewrite with Copilot disable button, that code is still in the browser, bloating it and slowing it down. And who knows when a future update will turn it back on, perhaps without an 'off' button??

As a professional freelance writer for website content, I sometimes need to work directly into an online text editor, e.g. right now while writing this Blogger post, or when working directly on a client's WordPress blog or ecommerce website.

Maybe I'm a niche example, but I don't want AI popping up every time I select some text on-screen. I don't think this is just because it's new; I can't imagine I would ever find an intrusive pop-up useful.

At least, for now, it's still possible to make MS Edge disable 'Rewrite with Copilot' pop-ups quite easily, even if they've put the button in a daft place.

Thoughts on AI co-writing

Personally I don't use AI to 'help' with my writing for clients. I have found it useful in extremely niche circumstances, to help find obscure source material that just wasn't coming up in a regular Google or Bing search. I think that says more about the present-day state of search engines than it does about the usefulness of AI.

I don't trust AI to be accurate or to cite its sources correctly. I don't like that AI 'tone of voice' and although I'm not saying I could pick an AI-generated page out of a pile every time, I do think there's an uncanny valley thing going on with a lot of AI phrasing.

Totally honestly, it's no faster for me to use AI than to write the content from scratch myself, and what you get from me will be better overall without any AI involved - so for now, I don't use it at all in my paid work unless you absolutely want me to.

Hopefully this page has helped anyone stuck with how to disable 'Rewrite with Copilot' in Edge, so however you feel about AI, you don't have to deal with an annoying pop-up every time you select some text.

(A fun final thought - while getting the screenshots for this post, I turned Rewrite with Copilot back on and then forgot to disable it again, so you can imagine my joy moments later when it popped up yet again as soon as I highlighted some text...)

Better Search Marketing on a Budget

It's not easy to be a small business owner trying to get to the top of Google on a budget, all while actually running your business day-to-day too.

Small business search engine marketing (SEM) is a mixture of art and science. There's the creativity needed to produce good-quality content to add to your website, for the search engines to find, but there's also a lot of data analysis to satisfy the ever-changing search ranking algorithms.

On top of that, search marketing agencies have a vested interest to sell you services you'll need month after month (e.g. Pay Per Click advertising) and not just the methods that deliver long-term lasting gains (e.g. building your website content with well-written in-depth pages).

That's not to say that methods like PPC aren't a good addition to your search engine marketing mix - in fact they can deliver some quick results while you're building your organic search traffic - but if you're on a tight budget, I'd argue in favour of adding some new search-friendly pages to your website for Google to find.

How much does search marketing for small businesses cost?

You don't have to spend a lot on SME search engine marketing to get positive results. Just adding new pages to your website on a regular basis shows Google that your content is updated, which can help to improve your search rankings.

For the best impact, you should publish in-depth, insightful pages. Don't just churn out versions of pages that already exist - original content will perform better. Add your own first-person insight where possible.

If that sounds daunting, it doesn't need to be. Find a writer who's willing to learn about your business, and you can put your trust in them to create content with 'your' authentic voice. Working with a freelancer is a great way to get the same author on all your content, rather than an agency assigning the work to whoever's in the office that day.

As a freelancer, I understand the pressures of running a small business on a tight budget - so if you let me know how much you want to spend, I'll always aim to offer you the most content I can reasonably produce for you at a competitive market rate.

Do I have to manage my own search marketing campaign?

You can have as much or as little direct involvement with your new content as you want. Again, working with a freelancer is an excellent way to get the flexibility you want when it comes to delivering, approving and publishing content.

In my career, I have done everything from getting sign-off at every stage from the first draft onwards, to publishing pages directly to clients' websites (with permission!) without needing prior approval.

A good middle ground is to agree some headlines or topics upfront, and then just approve the final draft, either as an email attachment or uploaded into the Drafts section of your website.

I'm more than happy to upload the content to your site, especially if it's built using WordPress or similar, and you're able to trust me with a login so that I can create and save new pages as needed.

What about small business SEO and keyword research?

I don't claim to be an SEO expert. In fact I write content for some of the most respected SEO agencies in the north of England, the Midlands and London.

Although I don't offer in-depth keyword research and analysis, I can recommend a trusted agency in your area if you want a detailed report preparing.

Alternatively, I do believe that a lot can be achieved just by choosing a few words and phrases that are relevant to the topic of the page, and repeating them in the right places (headings, subheadings, hyperlinks and bullet points).

That might sound old-fashioned if you know much about SEO, but Google have ALWAYS encouraged website owners to publish natural, well-written content, with good keyword placement to help Googlebot decide what the page is about.

Crucially, this is one SEO technique that has never been penalised, whereas many other methods are only effective for a short time before being put on the naughty list by Google (e.g. paying third-party websites to link to you).

It's second nature to write in a search-optimised way, when you've been doing it as long as I have (18 years professionally and about 26 years since building my first website). I've rarely met an SEO keyword I couldn't make work in a grammatically correct sentence, although it's not always easy.

What kind of content to publish?

There are plenty of options when deciding what to publish. Remember, helpful pages will usually rank higher, so try to provide real value to your website's visitors and readers:

How-to and step-by-step guides

'Explainers' about specific subjects

Timely news and industry events

News/opinions from your own business

Comments about your industry/sector

I can suggest some topics and headlines to you upfront if it helps, and you can pick as many as you want or let me know why they're not suitable. I'll work with you to come up with a content plan that includes the products or services you're trying to sell, in pages that should rank well too.

As an experienced freelancer, I have memberships to many industry-specific news and press release services, as well as the knowledge needed to find source material about niche topics.

I have a top 0.5% IQ and an educational background in science as well as the arts, so I'm good at writing about technical subjects using plain English.

When to start publishing new pages?

There's no time like the present. The sooner you start publishing new pages onto your website, the sooner Google will realise you're updating it regularly.

After that, you should see your website 'crawled' more often by Google, with new pages added to the search results faster. If they're in-depth and of good value, they should rank highly too.

Organic SEO (where you build traffic by improving your search rankings, rather than through sponsored methods like PPC ads) generates more ROI the longer it's in place - a PPC ad is gone as soon as somebody clicks on it, but a new page on your website will continue to bring in traffic indefinitely.

With the new tax year underway, it's the perfect time to take a fresh look at your marketing budget. Even if there's very little to spare, I can make you an offer to get at least some fresh content on your website each week or month, without you paying SEO agency overheads.

As a freelancer, I really do understand the pressures - and I'm here to help your small business thrive as we move through the new financial year.

Please feel free to email me or contact me via social media if you'd like to discuss your search marketing. I'm always happy to talk about it, with no obligation to place an order.