How to rank for local keywords (cities) when you don't have brick and mortar stores
-
Hi folks,
We have developed a site that connect local consumers with local businesses (brick and mortar).
The keywords that consumers search for are e.g. "plumber san diego" or "hairdresser" + "local area" and so on...good old fashioned local searches. Sometimes even without the location added in the search.
But how do we BEST optimize our site to get the most organic traffic from these local searches?
We don't have brick and mortar stores or offices but our service is of high value and will save consumers lots of money and even help the local businesses when in need of extra customers.
Thanks in advance for all your input.
Have a nice day.
Chris
-
Hi Chris,
I want to be sure I'm understanding your business model. It sounds like your business is virtual (doesn't make in-person contact with customers) and might be along the lines of a directory or a lead-generation company. Am I close to getting that right?
If so, then basically you are limited to go after organic rankings for the terms you want to rank for. Virtual businesses are not eligible for inclusion in Google's local results, so what you want to do is evaluate your ability to compete for spots in the organic results for the terms that are important to you and your customers.
An example of this would be the review platform Yelp. Yelp specializes in a product: business reviews. They have been so successful at becoming known for their review product that when you search for a very wide variety of businesses in Google, Yelp pages often come up on page one of the organic results due to the authority this brand has built.
Another example would be something like ZocDoc - a directory for medical professionals. If you search for 'doctor san diego' or 'doctor boston' or 'doctor burlington', chances are strong that you'll see results coming up from the ZocDoc directory, because they have become a perceived authority when it comes to finding a local doctor.
So, your own brand needs to take a look at where you can build this type of authority, whether on a local or national level, and then create the types of content that can begin to earn organic rankings for relevant terms.
Hope this helps, and please feel free to provide any further details if our community isn't quite understanding your exact business model.
-
Thank you, Alick300 - but that article seem to give advice to businesses that actually have brick and mortar stores/local addresses.
What I am looking for is ideas on how to rank locally when ones business is NOT local, but target local keywords/customers with it's services.
Hope someone outhere can help
BR
Christian
-
Hi,
Please check this article @ http://searchengineland.com/local-seo-rank-local-business-218906
Hope this helps.
Thanks
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
-
Accurate Rank Checking for Local SEO
Hi all, I am wondering if anyone out there has cracked the enigma of figuring out how to accurately find local rankings for multi-location businesses. I do understand that "accuracy" should be used loosely given the numerous factors that come into play for local such as distance from searcher and business location being located directly in the city of the search. So I definitely get that nothing will be entirely accurate but the programs I have used and the incognito browser approach just seems so far off. Moz tells me something different than the Google Adword Preview Tool which is different than SEMRush which is different than serps.com and so on. I have done the appending to search strings with near=city as well. I unfortunately do not trust any of them at this point. I would LOVE if my company flew me out to every single city we are in so I could do local searches but that is probably not going to happen 🙂 Any thoughts or recommendations for how I can get the most accurate local rank, even if it is an incredibly manual process? Is there an easy way for me to change my location anymore since Google stripped that option away awhile back? That was the ONLY time I felt I was getting somewhat accurate results. Thanks! -Ben
Local Listings | | Davey_Tree1 -
How to tell Google My Business what area is local to my company?
Hello Mozers I've been stumped by the changes in the interface with Google My Business. I used to be able to set up the area for which I wanted a business to cover. Now I can't find anyway to tell Google. The company I work for is in St Albans and our main workload is London. It would be helpful if I could actually control what Google Local sees as Local for my company, i.e. to encompass central London which is only 19 miles away. Can someone give me an idiots guide has to how to tell Google the area I'd like our local listing to cover? Thanks
Local Listings | | Catherine_Selectaglaze0 -
Local citations - domain or business name
I have a bit of a tricky situation with a client where there is some history with old domains. But this is the current situation which I need to stick to: Business name (all made up) is Acme Print 2 live websites - acme-niche(dot)com and productsandservices(dot)com Third website acmeprint(dot)com is live and owned by an old partner, different NAP. acme-niche(dot)com and productsandservices(dot)com share the same NAP. Not much traffic and a bit of a poor domain profile for acme-niche(dot)com, so suggest just using productsandservices(dot)com. Also acme-niche(dot)com would be a bit misleading for use for the whole business in any case. However, all content for productsandservices(dot)com refers to Acme Print. Because of all the confusion should we keep the productsandservices(dot)com referring to Acme Print throughout, or update with new productsandservices(dot)com logo, mention that it is a trading name of Acme Print and refer to the trading domain name throughout the content. I want to know the best option for listings and citations - the trading name which is a domain name or Acme Print? I've not worked with a local site where domain name and business name and a separate business with domain are mixed up.
Local Listings | | MickEdwards0 -
Google keeps updating/tweaking my Local business branch addresses ? to whats different in my citations and on page. how can I stop it?
Hi All, I have a number of branches as we have separate branch pages and separate google local listings for these. I have been trying to keep them in consistent for citation purposes but google keeps trying to tweak the address in the local listings. Sometimes for example , google is trying to remove the premises number from the Road e.g 78 Doncaster Road is the actual branch address but google local business wants it as Doncaster Road, I also see Google is wanting to sometimes remove the locality name etc?.. Also If the local listing has a county ( in America - you would have State) , google is sometimes wanting to remove this add United Kingdom in Country instead ?. Is this a problem and how to deal with it as I think this is obviously impacting my local rankings?. If i approve all these changes then do I need update all my citations and page addresses all the time ? Or can I just leave the suggested "Update" or overwrite googles suggestion with what I had originally. Does anyone else have this problem ? thanks pete
Local Listings | | PeteC120 -
Problems ranking in St Louis
Hello everybody We have noticed that when tracking several keywords across the United States, the keywords in St. Louis are almost always ranked the lowest. We rank on the first page for 46/47 locations for several keywords, but St. Louis ranks on page 4 or later. Any ideas? One thought we've had is the different spelling of the city name, St Louis, St. Louis, Saint Louis. Should this have any bearing on the problem? Thanks in advance, I look forward to any insight you can provide!
Local Listings | | PM_Academy0 -
How is this Ge Factory Service ranking like this?
Recently I was doing some research on "appliance repair" for a new client and I ran into some listings that are ranking locally on the 1st page without barely any backlinks or citations. I am wondering how they are doing this. I under stand since they are a GE company maybe this is why but there is not even no backlinks from the GE main site. This Ge Factory website is a pr0 so how is it ranking hundreds of listings without almost any citations?After searching Google I found over 10k listings for "GE Factory Service". How are they doing this? As I understand only Franchise listings are allowed to be posted Nationwide. After investigation I came to the conclusion that GE does not offer any Franchise Opportunities for their repair service. So isn't this in violation of the terms and conditions? These listings all have the address hidden since these are not storefronts. I have checked many listings and they are ranking for most cities I search including:Atlanta, San Diego, Dallas, Tucson,phoenix.Does anyone have any ideas how these listings with virtually no SEO? Any feedback is appreciated thanks
Local Listings | | bajaseo0 -
How does dynamic call tracking affect local SEO?
I would like to begin tracking calls and offline conversions, but I am concerned that if I add a dynamic call tracking software that it will negatively affect SEO.
Local Listings | | FluidAdvertising1 -
Which Local Listing to Delete?
A local business has two Google+ Local listings: an unverified unclaimed listing an unverified, but claimed listing Both are duplicates with correct address and phone numbers. Listing 1 ranks. Listing 2 doesn't rank. Should I: A) report listing 1 and verify listing 2, or B) claim and verify listing 1 and delete listing 2 With A there's a risk of killing a listing that's ranking well and not getting a replacement. With B there's a chance of going against Google guidelines, as I understand claiming duplicate listings is a no-no (?) Suggestions? Thanks!
Local Listings | | MatterSolutions0