Geo targeting multiple locations organically

[KristopherWho]

When targeting multiple cities for specific keyword phrases, do local links like Merchant Circle, & Yelp need to be present for each town?

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Kristopher,

Your question is a good one. If you do not have a physical address in a city, then, no, you should not be using these local platforms. Google and other local directories want actual physical locations in their indexes - not virtual offices, P.O. boxes, etc. Here is the language from Google's Places Quality Guidelines (http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107528) that speaks to this:

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Business Location: Use a precise, accurate address to describe your business location. Do not create a listing or place your pin marker at a location where the business does not physically exist. P.O. Boxes are not considered accurate physical locations.

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So, anything other than this is a violation of the guidelines, and it's just good sense to represent your business in an accurate and truthful manner on the Internet. That being said, making use of Local SEO if you're an SEO company is somewhat of a moot point as Google stopped showing local results for web design and SEO companies in January of 2010. It is my understanding that this was partly based on their decision that these types of businesses are mainly virtual in nature (whether that's true or not), and also, heavy spamming of the vertical. So, you can't achieve true local rankings for this business model.

We've had similar questions here in recent times from Members in the SEO/design fields who want to be able to target numerous cities within a state. From what you've written, I believe this is your goal. Such efforts will have to be solely organic, and the task at hand is to find a reason to create content about your work in various geographic places. For example, you might have a page dedicated to your SEO or design projects for businesses in Buffalo, NY, and another page about your projects for clients in Long Island. You've got to find something really different to say about your work in each locale in order to have a reason to create such pages so that you end up with robust rather than thin or duplicate content.

Hope this helps!

[KristopherWho]

Thank you Kane.

I do not have a office in the new location but I did add a address. I added UBL's basic service to help with the local directories. I have a good address, a unique phone number for the new location & I used a new domain name that forwards to the main domain. ex. " seonewyork.com" forwards to "seo.com"

Do you think using a new domain is the way to go?

[KaneJamison]

They'll definitely help, both for Google+ Local listings, as well as localized organic listings (without a map in the SERP).

Do you have physical locations in those cities? Or are you trying to rank pages for those cities without having a physical presence? If you're trying to rank without the physical address, you'll have to compete without many of these local directories. Not impossible, but easier if you have the address to work with.