Local seo landing pages and proper keywords to optimize and showing up for generic keyword localized results
-
looking for advice. I have my site built into landing pages for each city I service. Would it effect my seo in a negative way if I built other landing pages with "keyword + zip code" as well as the city ones I already have or do you think it would make my city rankings worst?
Also how do you get a seo city landing page to show up for the "keyword" or "keyword near me" in the city of interest? Is making landing pages with "keyword + city" sufficient way to accomplish this or is there a trick I am unaware of?
-
I appreciate the help. I do build quality pages. for the most part. I would not include a wall of zip codes or other spam text. I would write a 2-300 page paragraph outing the services a little more and just using 1-3% keyword density and maybe throw in some h3 tags with it.
-
Hi Spartan,
Good topic! I agree with the advice of mentioning your zip codes within the content of the existing landing pages, but, I would specifically warn against putting a big block of zip codes or city names on any page of the website. Google's webmaster guidelines cite this as a suspicious practice, see: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66358?hl=en
I would prefer to take a more creative approach to covering the zip codes in a given city. Let's say you are a house painter, servicing 3 zip codes in Davenport Iowa. Why not do three project features on the landing page, including the zip code of the house you painted in the project description? Something along the lines of, "Look at this fabulous turn-of-the-century charmer in the 52081 zip code area of old town. We chose a pearl grey and mustard palette to stately effect!" Or something like that. This would be my preferred approach to ever just putting blocks of zips, given Google's warning about this.
Regarding your more general question ... yes, developing a landing page for each city serviced by an SAB is a standard practice, but it is not a guarantee that you will rank for these cities. How well these pages do will depend on:
-
The competitiveness of the industry/geography
-
The quality of the pages
-
Overall strength of the brand/site
Unfortunately, in nearly all cases, competitors with a physical location will outrank your business for their own cities ... just as you are likely to have an edge over competitors who lack a physical location in your own city. But, if strong enough, and if the competition isn't too stiff, these types of pages can gain you some extra visibility and generate valuable leads.
-
-
so would it be a good idea to write a small 2-300 word zip code optimized paragraph to put beneath the other text and maybe throw it in some head tags or will this screw up anything?
-
The pages will focus on the zip code instead of the city only difference. I will not focus on "keyword + city + zip" it would only be "keyword + zip". I already have dedicated landing pages with "keyword + city". I see a competitor doing this and he is ranking 1 for pretty much every zip code in the state. I know I probably drive a lot more sales n traffic with this method because I feel like alot of people look up services with "keyword + zip" as well. Most people look up with city but I am sure a good amount percentage use the zips and this competitor is probably getting tons more calls because of it. Keep in mind I do not copy and paste the city or zip and have duplicate content. I create unique content per page and I would do this with the "keyword + zip" as well. I am not sure how I would get a google penalty or hurt my existing "keyword + city" landing pages by doing this. What makes you guys think this would happen? Also I appreciate the feedback greatly by the way.
-
I do not believe adding a second landing page with zip plus city is a good idea. i think you might even run the risk of a Google penalty. I think a better place to focus your efforts would be long tail key word sets related to the cities you are targeting. I would include references to local landmarks as well as any video or photo content you have that support the desired key word set.
-
I do think you would be working against yourself, given the scenario you've outlined. You may find more success if you include zip code content into the landing page of each city you've created. I.e. We service the following zip codes - and provide a table of zip codes your business area services.
You'll want to make sure that each location your business has/services, also has its related local information in the local directories (Google business, Moz Local, ect). Also, be sure to include a proper, consistent NAP (name, address, phone number) on your websites.
Get creative with your content to satisfy all related keyword terms. For example, if you know people will search 'plumbers near me' then you may want to include a headline and content section about Plumbers near Dallas, Texas and talk about all the plumbing related services you provide near the Dallas city (Dallas and plumbing are only used for examples).
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
-
Local Search ( Automotive Vertical ) One Targeted Landing Page Listed Twice In Navigation
NOT talking about the same page being linked to twice Talking about One (1) (landing) page Being Listed Twice In Navigation. Looking for a definitive answer that there is NO negative SEO ( or negative anything ) to put the same page in your site's Navigation Bar ... twice (or more than once) Can't find anything written that there is anything to consider or be concerned with, but, thought I'd ask. I'm a newERbie, but not a NEWbie...have 2.5 years experience in local, on-page SEO...but only know what I know Maybe I should know this, but, I don't. E.g. Home New Cars Used Cars Special Offers Service Finance About Us PickUps PickUps This is JUST an example, but, we have multiple occurences, let's say, Trade-In-Value ... in two places. One page, two locations in navigation. I have SEEN it being done, 'all the time', but now, when I went to do it with a little bit of a different rationale, I was questioned about ' ... is this okay for SEO ' I THINK yes But, I want to KNOW yes ... it is ok.
Local Website Optimization | | GaryT_SEO0 -
Service area local seo
Hello, everyone. I am struggling a little with the vast amounts of information about how best to get a local service area business ranking and the best practice. If I explain what I have been doing and then see how I can improve. I have created a couple of websites for window cleaners. These window cleaners offer several services like window cleaning, gutter cleaning, conservatory cleaning, pressure washing etc. They also cover several towns/cities so it's important for them to be able to target all these areas in search. They don't have multiple offices so only have one home/office address and by the nature of the job provide services at the customer's house/business. What I have been doing is creating a page for each service they provide then to cover the areas I have been doing two things. Creating a page on the site called areas covered with a list of the areas they cover and also adding in the title of the page the main one or two areas that are most important to them. From what I can gather this might not be the best approach?? Google may see the areas in titles as keyword stuffing? Google also doesn't like a list of areas in one go anywhere on a site which can also seem like keyword stuffing? So for an example, this would be a rough title structure of service pages Window cleaners in town/city, town/city and town/city Gutter Cleaners in town/city, town/city and town/city As I said I am not sure this is the best way to do this from what I read. I have read about area specific pages but i struggle to see how i could make each area specific page unique enough as the service is exactly the same in each area. I have also read that putting the most important keywords at the begingin of the the title is better so using the above example would this be better? town/city window cleaners - business name So from what i understand having pages like this might be better Window cleaners town/city1 Window cleaners town/city2 Window cleaners town/city3 Gutter Cleaners town/city1 Gutter Cleaners town/city2 Gutter Cleaners town/city3 and so on but like I say I am aware each of these area specific pages would need to be unique but being that the services are exactly the same in each area I am not sure how I could warrant creating all the pages. Writing about the specific area on the page seems a little odd in that the visitor who lands on that page doesn't want to learn about their area, they live there and know the area. They want to know what the service is and if they do in fact cover their area. In which case how can i best ensure all or most of the areas they cover are targeted and show in search? Some sites i have done cover around 20-30 towns around them so how can best ensure they rank for them? I have also been reading conflicting information about how to structure pages and urls. Some say don't use commas in page titles, some say don't use underscores and only use hyphens. Similarly, I have read that the URL should not contain any hyphens but I am not sure about this seeing as WordPress often adds hyphens between words in URLs. Some say you should always have an H1 on every page others say it's not all that important anymore. With images, i have also been giving them alts the same as the page titles thay are on, is this the wrong thing to do? Id be happy to private messge (if i can do that here) one of the sites I would be eternally grateful if anyone can help in firstly clarifying how I could best improve ranking for areas covered and secondly what best practice is to structure page content like H1's image alts etc. Thanks
Local Website Optimization | | Gavpeds0 -
Is this local guide best to follow?
Today I found below guide, Is this best guide to follow for the website and service pages content, layout design? http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/guide-to-local-seo/
Local Website Optimization | | Michael.Leonard0 -
Local SEO In A Different Language
I am pretty new to web design and SEO, so I am sure I have completely done this wrong. I work for a U.S. based equipment dealer and before I started working here my company incorporated in Canada under "(our main product) of Canada". Even before we had any SEO work done on our website, we ranked in the top 3 across Canada for our main product. The one exception to this was Quebec where we rarely got any traffic due to the language barrier. We started working to fix this last summer using the Montreal Consulate, our SEO company at the time and a translator. They each gave me the same French translation of our Company name and I had them translate the 8 most visited pages on our existing site. I then created a replica of our existing site, hosted it on the French translation of our name and started running inbound links to this site from our U.S. and Canada sites. The first thing I am wondering is if there's any issue with this practice? We have had good results so far and traffic from Quebec is way up across our three sites. The second issue I have is we just hired our first employee in Quebec and found a partner there. They are both adamant that the translation we are using is incorrect. I own the domain for the correct translation they are suggesting but I have no idea how to go about it. Any suggestions?
Local Website Optimization | | DohenyDrones0 -
URL Keyword stuffing. service-city.com/product-service-city/ vs. service-city.com/product/
For example: tailoring-london.com/suits-tailoring-london/ or tailoring-london.com/suits/ The main keyword being targeted here is "suit tailoring london". The home page's main keyword is "tailoring london". Would love to hear your opinions. Many thanks 🙂
Local Website Optimization | | LondonAli0 -
Can anyone recommend small UK based SEO Consultancy companies?
Hi there, We're possibly looking for a small, completely whitehat SEO firm here in the UK to work with us from early next year. We've probably got a budget of around £200 - £300 a month. We're looking for top up work really, not a complete campaign. I've checked out http://moz.com/community/recommended but it's not broken down by region or budget. I had an embarrassing phone call with Distilled who it turns out charge £10,000 a month minimum! Can anyone recommend anyone to speak to?
Local Website Optimization | | jennie.evans0 -
SEO Value in Switching to ".NYC" Domain?
Recently " .NYC" domains have become available for purchase to New York City based businesses. I own and operate a New York City commercial real estate firm, nyc-officespace-leader.com. New domain would be www.metro-manhattan.nyc Our existing domain has been in use for seven years.would there be an SEO benefit to transferring our site to .NYC domain? Or would a new domain kill our domain rank? Thanks, Alan
Local Website Optimization | | Kingalan10