Target the homepage?

[TommySwanson52]

Hi SEOmoz!

I have a potential client who is piloting a web application in a specific geo market, but plans on expanding to 10+ cities in the near future (6-12 months).

He wants to rank for "[initial geo market] + [service]". Should I optimize the homepage for this keyword (which will be relatively easy to rank for), or encourage him to build out a geo-specific template (could take a few months to add this to the application) for this market, and try to rank that so it's scalable?

Thoughts are appreciated.

EDIT: In terms of the business type, this is a web application that helps people organize their travel. It isn't your local traditional restaurant that is trying to compete with others in their area. We would be competing with other nationally recognized travel applications (TripAdvisor, Yahoo Travel, etc), most likely.

[TommySwanson52]

To Keri's point, I can't provide the business name. Thanks for understanding.

In terms of the business type, this is a web application that helps people organize their travel. It isn't your local traditional restaurant that is trying to compete with others in their area. We would be competing with other nationally recognized travel applications (TripAdvisor, Yahoo Travel, etc), most likely. Should have provided this clarification upfront. My apologies.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Tommy, From a purely local perspective, it is very important to understand whether the client has just 1 or 10 physical offices. If only one, then the main thrust of his website will probably need to be slanted most strongly towards his physical location. The hope here would be to gain traction in the Local SERPs, whereas any other cities he wants to target, but in which he has no physical office, will be unlikely to be able to achieve high visibility in the Local SERPs. These office-less locations would need to fight for organic rankings for his other desired local terms. There is some grey area here on my side because I'm not positive whether your client's business model is actually local or not. Is there a legal business name, unique physical street address and unique local area code phone number associated with at least one of his target cities? Or, is his business (and his product) totally virtual? In the latter case, then breaking into the local SERPs at all is going to be next to impossible because of Google's preference for displaying true local businesses for so many geo-related queries. I feel like I've started to answer your question, but details like the ones I've mentioned are what one needs to understand before making a positive decision about how to proceed with a campaign. Please, feel free to give further information if you can about the client's business model, product and physical geography - but you do not need to give names or use real keywords. Thanks for coming to Q&A with your question! Miriam

[Keszi]

Thumbs up for Keri, it was my mistake to ask for a link.

[KeriMorgret]

Hi Tommy,

I've asked our associate who specializes in local search to come take a look at this question. She should be able to give you some helpful advice with how to proceed.

We understand that many times you cannot divulge information about your client or their business, especially if they haven't launched yet. Do feel free to tell us if that's the case here.

[Keszi]

Hi Tommy,

Could we please get a link to the application?

In general (before checking the app. itself) I would go for a sub-folders / each city, then target the specific sub-folder for the specific city. The homepage could be optimized for the service keyword with the initial geo market. But that is only one opinion.

Maybe after a link to the application, we can get more detailed plan.

Hope it helped,

Istvan