How can we geo-target our website optimization for cities besides our physical location?
-
We have a client that is a solar energy installation & leasing company in Austin, TX that wants to target the Houston and Dallas markets. We can do a Place Page for their physical offices in Austin and San Antonio to drive traffic for those cities. But we’re not sure the best way to help them rank for Houston and Dallas, where they don't have a physical address. We’re considering a separate landing page for each city, optimized for the geo-term. Will that help them to rank in the 7Pack in Houston and Dallas, if there’s no Place Page? Will it help them rank in the organic listings for that region? Can you offer any other suggestions for how to help them rank in 2 cities where they don’t have physical offices?
-
"Do not create listings at locations where the business does not physically exist. P.O. Boxes are not considered accurate physical locations. Listings submitted with P.O. Box addresses will be removed."
http://www.google.com/support/places/bin/answer.py?answer=107528
Yes.. I believe you recalled that correctly.
-
It could be possible to rank in the 7 pack with an address outside of the target city, but it's very very difficult to do. You would need the local signals like local landing pages, and you would need a very non competitive term. I believe you would have better luck getting a small office in the Houston or Dallas and manning it with some staff.
Outside the 7 pack you can easily rank for cities that you are not located in by traditional SEO methods. Creating a landing page for the GEO area and then creating local links and anchor text links will get you to the front page.
-
Thanks for the info about UPS stores. I didn't know they offered this service.
-
good point on the PO Box. UPS store offers address with suite numbers as opposed to PO boxes, but as I said it isn't necessarily "Best practices"
-
If I recall correctly, Google Places only accepts physical addresses, not PO boxes.
If you wanted to move in that direction, then a virtual office would be the preferred method. You can have a physical address, mail forwarding, and even a local phone number with an answering service if desired. Prices usually range from around $100 - $150 depending on your needs and location.
You can achieve the desired result with a strong landing page and links with proper anchor text from the target area. I would only go to the extreme of using a virtual office if there was a lot of money involved and there was an urgent need to improve your rank after you are already on the 1st page of SERP.
-
Landing pages are always effective - especially for localized geo marketing. If you want to do a physical address, you could always do a PO box or a UPS store box that will provide an "Address" location. I am not sure if that is necessarily "ethical" but if you are offering the products in those cities, I don't think you'll encounter too much grief. I wouldnt add the PO box or UPS Store address to google places, but you could create a landing page that would have a little more content on it.
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
-
How To: Image Transition Effect on Website
What program would allow an image transition effect where product images when viewed on our website change to alternative angles/shots of the same product when the cursor is on the image? This is a common transition effect of websites such as http://studiominc.com.au/collections/pyramids. Please let us know if you have used programs like these and how to implement this into our website. Thank you!
Image & Video Optimization | | CostumeD0 -
Mismatch on the City and Zip Code as strategy?
I have never seen this before, but I recently took over a client that for all intents and purposes is considered to be in Metro A. They're just south of the border and everyone (customers, etc.) consider them in Metro A. The problem is their physical address puts them in Small Town B. For whatever reason, this client has decided that they are going to put their address as follows: Street
Image & Video Optimization | | EEE3
Metro A, Zip Code Small Town B They've mismatched the city and zip code in attempts to have a stronger showing in Metro A organically. I've never seen this strategy before, my gut tells me bad, bad, bad. So I'm looking for a better strategy, advice, etc.0 -
Optimizing Images Already on Website
I am familiar with tools to reduce jpeg images file size etc before uploading to website. After jpeg images are uploaded to a website, what can be done to enhance load speed of these images? Any software to compress images on a website already?
Image & Video Optimization | | khi50 -
Google+ Local ranking for company with no website
Hi,
Image & Video Optimization | | Ant71
Im about to start helping a small business who has a facebook account but no website. Has anyone got any experience of getting a business ranking locally without a website? Just wandering if NAP details from a facebook / Google+ account helps with local citation building? Or whether a basic website is required? Antony0 -
Improve rankings for keywords...you can't display!
Hey, I've read the art of seo (great book!) as well as numerous publications and blogs, forums, etc., but i cannot quite figure that. We are trying to improve the ranking for a website. Now, our partners don't want to tarnish their image, so we cannot use certain keywords, that we need to rank for (i.e. the users are looking for). With meta keywords being dead, what are the ways we can optimize for these keywords not being conspicuous? All onpage efforts seem vain. To be more concrete, let's say your site is selling widgets from brands A, B and C, and users will look for "widgets" in search engines, but A, B, and C don't want that you advertise/display "widgets" on your site, as it might hurt their brand image. Hos do you do that?!
Image & Video Optimization | | Philoups0 -
Video Optimization (micro data)
Hello, people. I have a questions regarding on Video Optimization using microformat. As you all know, Google, Yahoo and Bing now support Schema. I want to use microdata or micro format to add explanation for my video. I am wondering now... that Schema has "VideoObject" micro data. Also Google support "facebook share" for video. Which one should I use for my video? Can anyone tell me difference between above two? HELP PEOPLE~! PLEASE!
Image & Video Optimization | | Artience0 -
Local seo, business in multiple cities?
Hello Everyone, What is the best strategy when it comes to optimizing a website that services more than one city. So, say I'm in computer fixing business and I have offices in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Miami & Dallas. (took me a while to come up with some US cities) - how should I structure my website so that I look relevant for every city? Is it possible to display specific information for users coming from specific cities, say someone browsing from San Francisco will see my main page optimized for San Francisco (containing a real address, phone number all the necessary stuff). I'd really appreciate your thoughts on this. Thank you in advance, Alex
Image & Video Optimization | | pwpaneuro0 -
Would 2 Google Places locations help my Google Places ranking?
Hi. Our agency office is located in a "bad" zip code relevant to active businesses who would need our agency services. In a nutshell, we get really bad inquiries who can never afford our services...and it's coming directly from the Google geolocation function. We plan to relocate our offices within 1 year. Would it help us in Google Places if we created a "new" physical office location to cover up the "bad" one we are currently in? We could use a paid location like a UPS Mail Center physical address that is located within a more desiring zip code. Thanks for any input. Jay
Image & Video Optimization | | theideapeople0