Ranking in Multiple Geographic Locations
-
Hey Mozers,
We are a Joomla Web Design firm located in Milwaukee Wisconsin, however, we serve clients all over the midwest (and US) (chicago, madison, minneapolis, etc)
I'm curious what the best strategy for ranking in these new geographic areas?
Originally I was thinking of creating geographic specific landing pages for each area, however, i'm scared it will hurt us with Google's recent penguin and panda 3.5 updates. Also, won't i need to link to these landing pages from our main website to get them indexed?
What about creating mini websites on subdomains: (example) Chicago.SavvyPanda.com??
-
What are your ideas?
-
Do you have clients who have successfully started ranking in multiple geographic cities/areas?
-
-
Hi ITrogers,
I think it's important to note that the strategy you are recommending is forbidden by Google's Quality Guidelines. Please see:
http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107528
Specifically:
Business Location: Use a precise, accurate address to describe your business location.
Do not create a listing or place your pin marker at a location where the business does not physically exist.
It's critical to be totally up-to-date on the guidelines because they aren't intuitive, making it very easy to accidentally violate them. The strategy your are describing of renting virtual offices where the business doesn't actually exists puts the business at real risk for penalties or banning.
Also, because of the Savvy Panda's industry, (website design) he does not have any chance of ranking for his core terms in the local SERPs. Google doesn't handle website design, SEO or certain marketing firms in this way.
I hope this helps to clarify things for you and others on this thread.
-
Hi Savvy Panda,
Thanks for bringing your good question to Q&A.It's important to understand that, by nature of your business, seeking inclusion in Google's local search results is actually out. If you do a search for 'web design firm milwaukee wi', you will see that Google does not display local, pinned results in its main results for this query, nor do they handle website design firms in this manner anywhere in the US. Google stopped displaying local results for web design and SEO firms in January of 2010, as I recall.
This doesn't mean you can't create a Google Place Page. You can, and it will be somewhere within the Maps index, but it will not be displayed in the main results and is therefore unlikely to ever be viewed my many people. You are allowed to create a Google Place Page only if you do some business face-to-face with clients. If all of your business is virtual, then a Google Place Page is not right for you.
If you do serve some clients face-to-face and you should you decide to create a Google Place Page, only create 1 of them if you've only got one office. Do not purchase virtual addresses/p.o. boxes in an attempt to look like you are local to areas where you aren't actually located. Only utilize your own legal business name, your dedicated local area code phone number and dedicated local street address. Depending on your business model, you will need to go 1 of 3 routes with your Place Page.
-
If your business serves all clients at your office, choose the show address path in Google.
-
If your business serves some clients at your office and some clients at their locations, again, show the address and use the service radius tool to indicate the geographic region in which you serve. *There is some evidence that you should go easy on the tool. I can't share any examples with you, but I never advise my clients to set a service radius of greater than 30 miles because I have seen some indication that setting a wider service radius than this may actually harm your profile.
-
If your business serves all clients at their locations, choose the 'hide address' function.
For more on this topic, see: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/why-you-may-need-to-hide-your-google-places-address-asap
Regardless of whether you create a Google Place Page or not, by dint of Google's choice not to display true local results for web design firm queries, your efforts to gain visibility for different geographic terms are going to have to be organic in nature.
What you don't want to do is this: create duplicate pages of content that simply switch out geographic terms. You are quite right in guessing that this will not impress Google (nor will it be of much value to human users).
A better approach is this: find a real reason to write about your work in those cities. With my own local SEO clients, what I find to be a natural approach is a showcase of projects in specific cities. A combination of project details, client testimonials from the city in question, videos + transcripts, interviews of the employee/employees who undertook the project in that city and similar data gives you something unique to write about. Your page about the design you accomplished for a car dealership in Chicago can be completely different from your page about the work you did for a restaurant in Madison, with good planning and creativity. I have found this to be a winning strategy repeatedly for my clients.
You can then undertake whatever promotion you want of the page (linkbuilding etc.) to help it work its way up in the SERPs.
Perhaps there are other types of geographic-oriented content you can create as well. For example, you might host a seminar in a certain city or attend a conference, and you can write about that. You can blog about the business scene in various Midwestern cities. You might volunteer at something in the cities or sponsor something there for goodwill and publicity.
Basically, what it boils down to is thinking creatively and then being willing to expend the time/money/effort to write creatively about your genuine involvement in different local communities. This sensible approach is one you can feel proud of for years to come, and that's not something you can say when the approach is to game or manipulate the system. The writing is on the wall that Google has lost patience with a manipulative approach and I believe they will continue to move in that direction in the coming years.
Hope these tips are helpful to you!
-
-
i'd agree.
i'm planning on creating a full landing page with geographic specific content.
So what i'm hearing is that it's gunna be hard to rank in organic search in multiple geographic locations, but it's more possible with local results (google places)?
I really don't want to have to get mailing addresses and phones from all over to rank for that. hummmph.
in an ideal world, i'd like to just rank organically... does anyone have a good strategy for this?
-
It really just depends on the content of those pages. If its simply just address and phone, no way! Good localized content will help for sure!
-
"Penguin won't really let you rank for them now organically, but locally you definitely have a shot"
They may or may not let you rank organically. But I would sure try. I would still create landing pages for the cities. With only a few I would tend to put my cards on the fact that you would get be able to rank them.
-
Do you want to rank in the main results or were you more interested in the local results?
My answer is concerning the main organics results as I've no experience with local.
I'd avoid subdomains and keep your landing pages on your root domain.
You will need to link to them from your main site and probably need to link to them them quite extensively.
Beyond that if it's good old fashioned on page optimization and link building. I have a sneaking suspicion that having a local phone number, postal address, etc. will help.
For linkbuilding my first priority would be to make sure you were listed in all of the relevant local web design directories and yellow pages style places (if any).
-
Rent mailboxes / addresses from executive suites in that area. They usually cost $25 per month. Add on a phone number with the local area code as well if possible. Don't use Google voice. Have all of the mail and phones forward to your main phone and address.
Create Google Places profiles for each using these addresses. Optimize them with unique business information. Verify these profiles via phone or address. (Most likely address) For the URL for the profiles, have them go to specific pages (which is the next step).
Create dedicated pages for each location. Create optimized content for each. Use Schema.org or hCard to markup the addresses. Make it consistent with your Google Places page.
Create local citations in local search platforms and local directories for all of your locations. Make sure the business name, address, and phone number (NAP) are consistent with the ones you've purchased. Use distribution services and citation checkers like Localeze and GetListed. Get reviews to your Google places page. LEGITIMATE REVIEWS!
I have done this successfully with two clients now. Penguin won't really let you rank for them now organically, but locally you definitely have a shot.
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
-
Is it possible that my Da and Pa will be high and i’m still not ranking?
what would be those reasons ? factors that im not ranking? what bad seo practices to steer clear? need an anwer in depth i would really appreciate the answers Thanks
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | calvinkj0 -
Something is strange, should be ranking fairly well - no visibility.
Hi Guys, This one is freakin' me out a little. We built my site and optimised it fairly well, especially on this page: http://snowdog.se/dogsledding/ where I am trying to rank for search term "dog sledding in lapland" now I receive a 95 rating for optimisation, I cant see anything wrong with it. We have a sitemap all seems well enough in the Google search console data but heck!!, we have submitted it to major engines but I have zero percent visibility. Can anyone see what's going on here? Free Sleddog Trip to the winner. Hahahaha. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. It must be something simple or weird! Kind Regards, Sno.....
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | sno3330 -
Help with ranking
Hi Board users! I have a site that I don't understand why its not ranking. Its called JohnnyJet.com It has great domain authority and plenty of links. Looking at google webmaster tools I don't think there is a penalty. I have not done black hat stuff, so I am puzzled. I have a subdomain that stores some of my old content (some of it is duplicate) http://vintage.johnnyjet.com/home.asp The site has been around for ever, and I need help with a site audit to see what it is that I am missing. I know my long tail should rank much better. 2 questions: 1. Can you guys (board members) send me any insights if you take a peek 2. Can you tell me where to go to get an in-depth audit on my site -- I need a deep dive to get to the bottom of this 🙂 Thanks all!!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | coolhand19800 -
Not ranking for keywords. wehhh
I am not ranking for any of my keywords despite getting a number of Backlinks to my pages and mentioning them in both content and meta tags?!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Johnny_AppleSeed0 -
Determining if our ranking is due to increased competition
Hello, I'd like to give you a list of DA/PA and see if the slipping of our rank is due to competition. This if for our main keyword. Below is the top ten sites in our industry - their DA and PA for this head term. This is for the plural form of the keyword - a product term. If I don't say differently the following are where the title has the keyword in it exactly and also these are ecommerce site listings. Does this look like we are being outdone by competition or would you say that there might be some other cause: 1. DA 85, PA 38 2. DA 34 PA 34 (These guys are mostly paid links by the way) 3. DA 100 PA 55 (singular form of keyword and also informational site) 4. DA 91 PA 41 5. DA 23 PA 24 (The only thing I see about this one is that their backlink profile is very white hat and they have the nicest looking site in our niche) 6. DA 29 PA 31 (exact match domain) 7. DA 99 PA 1 8. DA 22 PA 34 (Guide including infographics - doesn't sell products themselves) 9. DA 96 PA 1 10 DA 26 PA 38 -- This is us with 57 total root domains sitewide and 43 root domains to the home page. Let me know what additional information you need.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | BobGW0 -
Redirecting location-specific domains
I am working on a project for a physician who only cares about reaching patients within a specific geographic region. He has a new technique at his practice and wants to get the word out via radio spots. I want to track the effectiveness of the radio campaigns without the use of call-tracking numbers or special promo codes. Since the physician's primary domain is very long (but well-established), my thought is to register 3-4 short domains referencing the technique and location so they would be easy for listeners to remember and type-in later. 301 these domains to the relevant landing page on the main domain. As an alternative. Each domain could be a single relevant landing page with a link to the relevant procedure on the main site. It's not as if there is anything deceptive going on, rather, I would simply be using a domain in place of a call tracking number. I think I should be able to view the type-in traffic in Analytics, but would Google have an issue with this? Thoughts and suggestions appreciated!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | SCW0 -
Hits in H1 will improve ranking by regular crawling ?
Hello ! I was wondering if it's a good idea to keep the "Hits" in the H1 ? http://www.ibremarketing.com/item/netapp-e5400-storage-system.html Will Google come to check regularly the update (new information if I'm right) or if he will not like the idea to come back just for hits update. As I have very good results on this part of the website, I do not want to take any risk. Thanks a lot !
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | AymanH0 -
Can good penalize a site, and stop it ranking under a keyword permanently
hi all we recently took on a new client, asking us to improve there google ranking, under the term letting agents glasgow , they told us they used to rank top 10 but now are on page 14 so it looks like google has slapped them one, my question is can google block you permanently from ranking under a keyword or disadvantage you, as we went though the customers links, and removed the ones that looked strange, and kept the links that looked ok. but then there ranking dropped to 21, is it worth gaining new links under there main keyword even tho it looks like google is punishing them for having some bad links. the site is www. fine..lets...ltd...co....uk all one word cheers
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | willcraig0