Rank Locally and Globally (or at least Nationally)

[JanetJ]

I work with an interior design whom I've persuaded to purchase a virtual street address in the town she wanted to work in years ago. She has a Skokie, IL business address that has been claimed and confirmed across the internet. Now, she is growing and wants her new website to not only be optimized for the more affluent areas of Chicago but she also would like to gain Global notice, (I'd settle for National).  My problems:

• She doesn't want to purchase a street address in Chicago because it is a pain to go get her mail.
• What do I do about all her directory listings and review sites that have her located in Skokie if I can persuade her to get a Chicago address?
• Do I leave the Skokie address and add more content targeting keyword phrases with Chicago?
• What should be my initial focus here? I feel it is a smaller target and less competition to go after Chicago but she wants to start spreading her wings and work all over the world.

Help!!

[JanetJ]

You come through again, Laura! I really appreciate the links and guidance you have provided. Now, to explain this to my client -- wish me luck.  

[LauraSultan]

Unfortunately, there are a lot of business directories that require your street address. If she wants her home address to remain private (understandably), it will be tougher to rank locally but not impossible. You'll need to work harder on other local ranking signals to be competitive.

Fortunately, there are quite a few sites that allow you to hide your street address even if your city is still shown. Here's a great guide for this - https://www.brightlocal.com/2014/07/10/citation-sites-allow-hide-address/.   Some of the information may be out of date, so you'll have to double check with each site.

If she serves clients at their location rather than hers, her business is considered a service-area business (SAB). Joy Hawkins had some good advice for SABs in her Moz post at https://moz.com/blog/intro-local-seo-service-area-businesses.

[JanetJ]

Thank you so much for your clear answer and links to further information, Laura. Our initial concern, (years ago when her profiles were claimed in Skokie), was personal security. My single, female client did not want her home address published on the Internet.

Now, it appears one of our problems is solved -- where to purchase mail service. I will suggest she simply cancel her PO box street address and change that address to her home address for important items. (She receives mostly junk mail at the Skokie address anyway.)

Another question - since her purchased Skokie address is listed as her business address, I'm guessing now I will need to change her address on all the local profiles and citations rather than create a second location, (I will definitely hide her address on all listings possible).

How do you think I should handle those listings where hiding the address is not possible?

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Janet,

As Laura has mentioned, unfortunately, virtual addresses of any kind are a violation of Google's guidelines and subject to punitive action on Google's part should they discover them. The only way your client should be marketing herself locally (meaning building citations and trying to earn local pack rankings) is if she has a legitimate physical address, whether in Skokie, Chicago, or any other city.

Lacking a physical address, the client should confine themselves to organic SEO efforts or PPC.

[LauraSultan]

Will she have an actual office at this new location in Chicago with staff, or are you talking about a virtual address rented for the purpose of making Google think you have an office at that location?

If your answer is the second one, then let me stop you there. This type of virtual address goes against Google's policies and can have negative consequences. See https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en for Google's guidelines. They've been going after these types of virtual offices for a while now. See also http://www.localsearchforum.com/help-support-google-local/978-virtual-offices-home-address-google-plus-local.html.

Leave the real address and focus on building organic traffic for Chicago. If she really wants to grow to a national level, you'll have to work on growing the brand to a national level through social media and content marketing.  Unfortunately, there are no SEO quick fixes in this situation.

[Changsst]

I see you have a situation where your client's objective is to work all over the world, currently has/wants some business in Chicago and but is staying in an address in Skokie. (Correct me if I am wrong)

• She doesn't want to purchase a street address in Chicago because it is a pain to go get her mail.

There are mail forwarding services. You pay for this services however, it removes the pain of travelling to Chicago.

• What do I do about all her directory listings and review sites that have her located in Skokie if I can persuade her to get a Chicago address?

It is essential to add her Chicago address to her website. The next thing to do is to add another location in Google My Business (Create an account already if you haven't) on top of her current Skokie location. Google will be able to understand she has 2 offices under her brand.

For Directories like Yelp, you do not need to change the address of the listing. What you do is add another location/listing with the same brand name and information, with the Chicago address. (See how chain outlets do it on Yelp)

This goes for other directories too to gain strength for local citations in Chicago. Google will be able to understand when they crawl the web.

• Do I leave the Skokie address and add more content targeting keyword phrases with Chicago?

I assume this is for content on her website. I would strongly encourage you to mention in your content on her website that you have another office/address. However you do not need to overdo it. Once again google will be able to pick this up and understand. I have 2 offices in 2 different countries. When I search for "mycompany country" google always displays the address of the correct office. (I only mention each address twice on my entire website)

Of course doing all this will not rank you on google when someone searches for "interior design chicago". From here onwards, you will need to SEO for the keywords you would like to fight for to gain first page.

• What should be my initial focus here? I feel it is a smaller target and less competition to go after Chicago but she wants to start spreading her wings and work all over the world.

Let's take one step at a time. First Chicago, then the world. I believe if you focus your resources and energy, you will gain more grounds optimizing for for a location. Moreover, from a business point of view, it's hard to get someone to pay your client to fly all the way to another part of the world unless your client's company is famous. Thus even if you managed to get on page 1 for "interior designer in London" I am pretty sure, the folks there will lean towards a local designer.

That being said, if your client wants to spread her wings and work all over, I think a better chance is to win an award with a magazine and get notice then to find work around the world via google.

• You might also want to test if your client can get results by running PPC on other locations/countries. This will save you much time and explanation. If it yields results, then expand your PPC campaigns!