How to create a moz local listing for a service area?

[coreyallen]

I have a client who service a very wide area, from a major city to about 100 miles north of it, they only have one location but their business is never conducted inside the office.  When creating a moz local CSV, any special suggestions on how to best configure it so it's listed for a wide area?

Thanks!

[MiriamEllis]

Good Morning!

Moz Local definitely works for home-based businesses (you'll be marking the business as home-based as described in our .CSV guidelines here: https://moz.com/local/help/documentation). The purpose of marking the business as home-based is so that the address can be hidden, but I do want to add the proviso here that not all of our partners will accept a hidden address. Because of this, we let home-based customers know that their address will appear on some of our partner sites. In many cases, this is no problem at all, but for a small percentage of customers who do not want their home address to appear anywhere on the web, Moz Local may not be the best match. Wanted to be sure you had this information to share with your client:)

[coreyallen]

Thanks everyone,

The client in question doesn't have a physical store but does have a "home base" so to speak but their customers never go there.  My client comes to the customer for their parties and events.  If using Moz local using their home base address will still benefit them then I'll certainly recommend it.

Thanks again for all the help. Really appreciate it.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Corey,

For SABs like your client, a typical marketing strategy is going to involve:

1. Citation building for their physical location (whether manually or more conveniently through a product like Moz Local

2. Other efforts (like content development) for their service cities where they have no physical presence.

So, you'll want to do both. Moz Local will help your client get solid citations built for their physical location (which is really important, of course!) but you'll need to then employ other strategies to earn visibility for their non-physical-location cities.

Hope that makes sense!

[Laurean]

I wouldn't.  But the advice in the MiriamEllis's link is great advice!

[coreyallen]

Hey thanks for getting back to me.

So it's probably best to not spend money on Moz local in that situation?

[MiriamEllis]

Hi There,

Thanks for asking about this! Citation building is all about physical location, with the end goal being appearing well for the city in which a business is physically located. Whether you build citations manually or use a more convenient option like Moz Local, it is always going to be about physical location rather than service radius. Other marketing strategies must be employed by service area businesses hoping to gain visibility in geographic regions in which they have no physical presence. Citation building should strengthen your position where you are physically located, but for non-physical geographies, you will likely need to work on things like this:

http://moz.com/blog/local-landing-pages-guide

Hope this helps!