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 -
For a URL, is it better to have Keyword +City?
I am working on some landing pages and trying to do well in Local areas. Is it better to have my landing pages set as mysite.com/keyword+location or mysite.com/Location+keyword. or does it even matter anymore? So for a plumber selling water heater services. is it better to be: site/hot-water-heaters-jacksonville-fl or site/jacksonville-fl-hot-water-heaters? I normally do keyword+city.
Image & Video Optimization | | netviper0 -
Can I use PO boxes as an actual business Address?
Hi mozzers, A potential future client(electrician) covers 40+ locations in one region(local SEO) but only has 1 address. He wants to rank for at least 5 to 7 main locations which he has PO boxes for. Can I use these as addresses on his website or will it be seen as violating the google guideline? If it is no good what should I do? Thanks
Image & Video Optimization | | Ideas-Money-Art0 -
Local Optimization for ATM Machine
I was curious if an ATM in a building or its own enclosure can be locally optimized as a branch if it has a physical location, it doesn't seem spammy by any means.If anyone has suggestions or an opinion I would love to hear them.
Image & Video Optimization | | kparada0 -
What is the SEO value of images of geographic areas (states, counties, cities) on a page?
We want to put images for specific geographic locations on some new pages we are building and I am wondering if: A) What the SEO value of adding these images would be? B) Suggested Sources for the images. Right now we are looking at using panoramio, but would love some MOZ community advice! Thank you for your help MOZ Community!
Image & Video Optimization | | AlyssaN0 -
Optimizing title tags for a different town then the business is located in.
I'm looking for a little help, because I'm stuck. I was taught that when doing geo specific title tags you must include the city the business is located in. For example,Dentist North Springfield, even if there is nobody searching for dentists north boulder because everyone is searching for dentists boulder. As in they are considered one in the same. Can I optimize for Springfield or will I be penalized. Thanks
Image & Video Optimization | | kevinp30 -
Google Places Multiple Locations Strategy
Hi, I have client who is a psychology college that has multiple locations across the United States. We currently have a Google places setup for their main location which is in Chicago. They also have multiple locations in California and Washington d.c. My question is what is the best strategy for setting up Google places for each one of their locations? can it all be done from the Chicago Google places account or do I have to build out individual Google places accounts for each location. Thanks!
Image & Video Optimization | | MasonInteractive0 -
Target inside pages for specific country
Hi! How are you? I'm having the following problem: I have a client that has a big multilingual website, in spanish, portugese and english. The server is in Brazil, but he wants to migrate it to USA. I think that this will affect my SERPs in Brazil, and Brazil is the most important country where we need to be first in SERPs. I'd like to, somehow, tell Google that http://website.com/pt is for Brazil and http://website.com/es is for Argentina, so I can avoid the problem that I'll have when the migration is completed and I lose my brazilian IP. Do you have any tips on what should I do? Thanks! Best wishes, Ariel
Image & Video Optimization | | arielbortz0