Optimizing a location the business doesn't actually reside in
-
I am optimizing a site for a general contractor in a small market -- Chittenden County, Vermont -- and I'm struggling with how to label his local identity on-page. His registered place of business is in a town about 12 miles outside of Burlington, which is the largest city in the county and state. Nearly 80% of geo modified keywords go to Burlington, and most people consider Chittenden County to be "greater Burlington."
I am wondering whether it will help or hurt SEO to use "Burlington" in the titles, headers, etc, even though their actual location is a few miles away. They don't get customer visits -- business operations are located in a residence and all inquiries come in over the phone or email -- so I'm not worried so much about confusing visitors. Also, their official location will be available in the footer and contact page.
If I go with "Burlington," how will this impact search rankings and G+ Places when I start focusing on citations in various directories. Will this slight geo discrepancy cause problems with organic and local SEO?
I've been wrestling with this for a while. Your input is REALLY appreciated. Thanks, guys!
-
Thanks, Patrick! Best wishes for an excellent 2015 to you, too!
-
Great tips as well, Miriam! Enjoy seeing you chime in when it comes to localized SEO
Happy 2015! - Patrick
-
Great question and something I bet a lot of other SEO's deal with, but don't always know what to do, nor ask the appropriate people for their take. Kudos to you for looking out for your client's best interests.
That being said, I agree with Ryan. Hit on your Google tools and G+ page to mention those geo-specific keywords. Also, there is nothing wrong with working to optimize a business which resides/operates out of one location while focusing their marketing in another location.
Two examples of this...
- 1st, our company is located in Cary NC, a smaller, but fast growing town outside of Raleigh, which is the major metropolis around here. However, we target a lot of SEO and keyword research at Raleigh. We've got a great presence for lots of terms relating to Cary, so Raleigh was our next goal and some of the smaller towns around us. It is possible, when done correctly, even for a highly competitive service like "SEO" and "Web Design" and "WordPress" in any major city. Burlington for you, would be nothing less.
- 2nd, we're about to work with another small carpet cleaning business who operates outside of his home yet travels to about 25 mile radius to service customers. Yes, his address on his website and G+ pages and his listings will be in Wake Forest NC, but that doesn't mean we can't go after organic searches/results in Cary, Durham, Raleigh, and the like. He is actually pretty exited to potentially get traffic and customers from all over the area.
Take 1 well written and optimized blog article targeting a specific keyword and going for a smaller market, we'll say Youngsville NC with little to no competition for my client, we see we could gain him a few customers a month potentially when that blog article ranks.
Incorporate a blog and article writing into your campaign and I'm sure you'll see success for your client.
Hope Ryan's, Miriam's and my responses were good and helpful! - Patrick
-
Hi PTDodge!
You'll want to go with your city of location in the following places:
-
Your contact page and footer on your website
-
Website copy that speaks to your physical location
-
All of your citation building
You must be absolutely clear and correct on all of the above. I know it's a shame when you don't operate out of your major target city, but it's really important to tell it like it is - which is that you are physically located in a small town but serve in other towns, including a major city. Places you can mention your major city include:
-
A local landing page on the website, devoted to that city (see: http://moz.com/blog/local-landing-pages-guide)
-
Descriptions you write on some of your citations, "Voted Burlington's #1 Contractor' or what have you
-
Testimonials and project summaries from/for clients you've served in Burlington
-
A mention on the homepage that your service area includes Burlington
-
PPC campaigns
-
Blog posts
Unfortunately, none of this is likely to enable you to edge out competitors physically located in Burlington, but unless your company can get a physical location in this city, this is the reality of your situation. Telling it like it is will hamper you in some ways but is the right thing to do for your customers, representing the business honestly as it is.
Hope this helps!
-
-
Thanks, Ryan! Yeah, I'm not going crazy with geo references in the copy. I just don't want to miss out on searches for "general contractor burlington vt" when the difference is negligible. Good advice. Thanks again!
-
When you're localizing a business within Google's own tool, they allow for this kind of feature either by selecting area codes the business serves or by applying a radius in which business will make service calls. I'd do a mix and match of phrases like, "One of Burlington's most trusted..." "serving the greater Burlington area" "calls Chittenden county home". You don't need to go over board with it though. Other local search factors are going to play a larger role.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Best Practices for Businesses Considering Going Fully Remote
How do we stay relevant in local search rankings without a physical office? What are some best practices to employ before the office is closed? What are other things we have to consider?
Local Listings | | Parker8180 -
Google My Business -Choosing Multiple Categories
Hi friends, I'm trying to work out what would the practice be for a business who is operating in different categories in terms of displaying those categories in Google My Business account. We have a client who is supplying both catering and cleaning products (both categories are core). In this case, listing those two categories in GMB would be alright or should I expect a negative impact on results related to both categories as we have chosen multiple categories? Any advice would be appreciated greatly!
Local Listings | | bbop331 -
Is Moz Local useful for a specialized small business?
I can see the use of Moz Local for businesses for the general public, like a restaurant. But is it useful for a more specialized business like a recording studio? The studio ranks high on Google already for our city (usually #1 but some days #2). It's not like people are driving around and grab their phone to look up an emergency recording studio stop. Is it useful?
Local Listings | | amybethmegjo0 -
How best to delete a duplicate Google My Business listing
Hi Mozzers, I am in need of help please. What is the best way to remove a duplicate GMB listing? Is best practice to a) Mark as permanently closed and wait for Google to update b) Call GMB in India and ask them to delete the redundant listing (do they even do this for you?) c) Delete the page from within my dashboard settings I am worried my NAP data is being diluted by inaccurate historical listings (most of which I have been able to claim ownership of) Any help appreciated. Ben
Local Listings | | Bendall0 -
How to change your location for local search results?
Hi Everybody Back in december 2015 I came across this article https://gofishdigital.com/google-results-change-location/ explaining how to change location for local search results using the google emulation tool by setting up new coordinates. This was also picked up by mikeblumenthals' blog as being one of the best way of doing this. I tried it at the time and it worked very well. I tried using it last week and again this week but my location no longer seems to update. I have tried it on fifferent computers located in different locations and still it doesn't work. Does anyone know if this feature is no longer available and if not what else they'd recommend to verify local search results. Thanks
Local Listings | | coolhandluc0 -
How to rank same business page in different locations?
Hello all, First of all thanks for answering my previous queries. Now, I have one more query and I am hoping to get best possible answers from you guys. Query: I have one business which is located in one city only and I have a verified listing there (I am ranking good in that city). However, I want to rank the same business page in couple of other cities as well. What should I do considering that I cannot create a new listing for other cities because I have my office in single location only? Looking forward to answers. Brian
Local Listings | | BrianBotts.0 -
Map-pack results for multiple locations in the same city
We just started working with a local business with several offices across Virginia. All of their locations have G+ local pages, and all rank pretty well in map-pack results for their respective cities....except for one location. Two of their offices happen to be in the same city. One ranks well in the local pack, and the other one is totally buried. This is the only location that doesn't rank in the map-pack for its target local queries. This company still has a TON of work to do to clean-up their citations and improve their G+ local pages across all the locations, but I'm wondering if there are any best practices for handling two locations within the same city...we obviously want both offices to rank in the map-pack, and don't want to do anything that might hurt the one that is currently ranking well. I'm confident that generally cleaning up their profile across the board, and adding new citations for all locations would be beneficial, but would appreciate any suggestions or best practices for getting both locations in this one city to perform well. Thanks!
Local Listings | | djreich0 -
How does one increase a site's Domain Authority?
We see that our Domain Authority is hovering around the same mark for over a year now. I have 2 questions - How important is DA? Does it affect your Google Page Rank? What would ideally be the things that we need to keep in mind if we are to increase our Domain Authority? Thanks
Local Listings | | prsntsnh0