What city to use for citations?
-
Hey everyone,
I have a question about what city to use for citations in this case.
My client is a service-area business in the Seattle area. The business is home-based, in Everett, WA, which if you’re not familiar is in the northern part of the Seattle metro area. They only serve clients outside the home.
For their GBP that’s no problem, as of course their address isn’t shown. For all the citations we’ll be building though, I’m not entirely sure what we should do.
The client does not want their street address anywhere online. So, since their city won't be listed on their GBP, should we still use Everett as the city for all the citations, or should we use Seattle?
I'm unsure here because with some citations you have to list a full address, and then you're able to hide the street address later. And since they don't technically have a Seattle address, I'm not if that would be the way to go.
But I’m wondering because no one will be searching for “[service] in Everett”, they would search for “[service] in Seattle”.
What do you think?
-
It is generally recommended to use the city that your client's target audience is most likely to search for in their citations, even if it is not their exact street address. In this case, it sounds like your client's target audience is more likely to search for "[service] in Seattle" than "[service] in Everett."
If your client's business is listed in Google Business Profile with a Seattle address, then you should use Seattle as the city for all of their citations. This will help to ensure that their listings are consistent and that they are visible to potential customers in the Seattle area.
However, since your client does not want their street address listed online, you will need to contact each citation site individually to see if they allow you to hide the street address. Some citation sites may allow you to do this, while others may require you to list a full address.
If you are unable to hide the street address on some citation sites, then you may want to consider using a virtual office address or a post office box. This will allow you to list a Seattle address for your client's business without revealing their actual street address.
𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐦 𝐑𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬
Rahul Gupta (Digital Marketing Consultant)
Suvidit Academy - Digital Marketing Course & Training Institute -
In this case, it's a good practice to use "Seattle" as the city for your client's citations, even though their business is located in Everett.
(PMP Exam Prep)
Since their service-area business doesn't serve clients at the home address and their Google My Business listing doesn't display the address, listing "Seattle" as the city on citations is more likely to align with how potential customers search for their services.
(Canada PR)
People are more likely to search for services in a major city like Seattle rather than a specific suburb like Everett.
(Study abroad)
Additionally, as you mentioned, you can later hide the street address on citations to maintain your client's privacy while still appearing in relevant search results for the broader Seattle area.
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
-
Are These Urls for Targeted Cities OK?
I am working for a waterproofing company out of long beach that wants to rank for other neighborhoods around the area. But I just noticed that their URLs are targeting two locations. They have the cities built on the URLs after the long beach part. Will that affect rankings? Not be as potent as a truly SEO friendly url like example.com/services/mold-remediation/mold-remediation-brooklyn-ny? Here is an example: https://zavzaseal.com/mold-remediation-service-provider-long-island-ny/mold-removal-pro-in-copiague-ny-11726/ Another thing is the URLs say "mold removal pro" if I am targeting "mold removal copiague, NY" will that matter to rankings that the URL has pro in it?
Local SEO | | ThisTimeWereOn0 -
How Do You Think My Local SEO Multi-location Geotargeting Strategy Will Work?
I have a question. I just got a full-time job at Zavza Seal, an upstanding insulation contractor targeting neighborhoods of Suffolk and Nassau counties in New York. I was hired as an SEO content specialist. (Thanks Rand! You're one of my mentors~!) So, they handed me a spreadsheet of pages for city-specific terms, and they had a system in place for local rankings. But I was taught to do service-specific city pages a certain way. If the search term is for people looking for a service in that town, that's what you give them. However, I was told to proofread them, and as an SEO specialist, I couldn't keep my hands off of them. The pages were skimpy. (Example: h2, paragraph, bullets, short paragraph summary, short paragraph about the city.) What threw me off is that the content, while it was service specific, it was blog topics localized. Those are great (when long enough and optimized to compete in SERPs) but I've never seen them done on service pages. (Example: Why is Mold Remediation Necessary in Baldwin?. Now, this went in two directions in my mind. (and I wanted to do the best for the company, because I'm a wicked brat for teams, AND I get commissions on leads, so that was motivation, too.) 🐷 Anyway, 1. This could be a new approach and worthy of an SEO study on my startup site, where I take on part time clients after work, because I've never seen it done before and it could, if optimized for the target service and city rank high in SERPs AND build thought leadership and authority as a local expert. (Whereas city service pages in standard format would just promote your service. ..) What do you guys think? I just put the topic up for discussion for my team, asked them about it in detail and asked if they wanted to A'/B test a few to see what get's better traction organically. Mr. Fishkin was one of my mentors. I really wish I just had his number for this one LOL.
Local SEO | | ThisTimeWereOn0 -
Optimal URL Structure for a Multi-City Directory
I need help choosing the ideal URL structure for a multi-city directory. The current URL structure is /category which is okay because we are only in one geography. However, we're now expanding to other cities so we are reevaluating the best way of structuring the URL. The three options I have are: example.com/city/category Pro: Follows the user around with the city after the root (like language) Con: Possible short-term traffic loss. Build page authority on new URLs Pro: SEO Benefit for terms: {city category} example.com/city/ would have to be a URL and a general landing page. This would mean that /category would no longer exist example.com/category/city The website is currently set-up with /category but is now expanding beyond Toronto Pro: /category would still exist so no short-term SEO issues Pro: SEO Benefit for terms: {general category} example.com/category/ is already a URL and would display results based on proximity example.com/category (geo recognizes city) Pro: Clean URL Con: We're not Ticketmaster I was able to find major directory sites with very strong SEO doing it all three ways above. City First https://www.yelp.ca/c/toronto/restaurants https://angel.co/r/toronto/marketing/jobs https://www.redflagdeals.com/in/toronto/deals/c/cell-phones/ https://www.bizbash.com/new-york/venues Category First https://eventup.com/venues/new-york-ny/ https://www.yellowpages.ca/search/si/1/Restaurants/Toronto+ON https://www.weddingwire.ca/wedding-venues/ontario https://www.livenation.com/cities/130465/toronto-on No City in URL https://www.ticketmaster.ca/
Local Listings | | Neumarkets.com1 -
Citation Quantity vs Real Links
Hi Everyone, I've got a question about citations. My website is in a niche where there are 3 main competitors - ourselves and two other sites. We have around 300 citation links and around 50 high quality links within our niche from people like bloggers, editorial links within news sites etc. The other two competitors have 900 and 2000 citations each, but nothing else. None of the high quality links we have worked hard over the past year to get. We're generally ranking lower than the other two sites. Should we focus on getting more citations to "catch up"? Until now we haven't because we've been worried a lot of the citations our other competitors are on look spammy, but it seems whatever we do we can't beat them. On the face of it though, we are a better company with a better site and we've got more/better real links, so I'm starting to wonder if citations are holding us back.
Local Listings | | rswhtn0 -
Local Search - can I use a shortened company name
Can I use a shortened version of our company name for local search or does it need to match the name registered at companies house exactly?
Local Listings | | paulfoz16090 -
Is there any data about how user interact with the local 7 pack listing, do they scroll past it or use it like a normal SERP ?
Does any one have any data about how users interact with the local 7 pack listings in regards to position to CTR ratios, do everyday users tend to scroll past it to the normal SERPs as they might do with adwords ads (as the local pack is formatted slightly different to normal SERPs) ? bMvtUSe.png
Local Listings | | Sam-P0 -
How to do Local SEO for few cities in US while client is in Canada
Hi, How i can do the local SEO for few cities of US however client is Canada based. Client want to promote his business in US ( specific cities). Kindly suggest how it will be posible as client do not have address in US. Cheers!!
Local Listings | | 1akal0 -
Are citations the way to go even if there is no Google Places listing
If there are no Google Places / Local listing for a keyword search term, for example... "web design vancouver", do building citations still help in enabling websites to move up the organic rankings?
Local Listings | | Gavo0