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.
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 -
Content Page URL Question
Our main website is geared toward the city where we are located and includes the city name in content page URLs. We also have separate websites for three surrounding cities; these websites have duplicate content except the city name: MainWebsite.com
Local Website Optimization | | sharon75025
City2-MainWebsite.com
City3-MainWebsite.com
City4-MainWebsite.com We're restructuring to eliminate the location websites and only use the main website. The new site will have city pages. We have well established Google business locations for all four cities. We will keep all locations, replacing the location website with the main website. Should we remove City-IL from all content page URLs in the new site? We don't want to lose traffic/ranking for City2 or City3 because the content pages have City1 in the URL. Page URLs are currently formatted as follows: www.MainWebsite.com/Service-1-City1-IL.html
www.MainWebsite.com/Service-2-City1-IL.html
www.MainWebsite.com/Service-3-City1-IL.html
www.MainWebsite.com/Service-4-City1-IL.html Thanks!0 -
Unsolved Favorite Citation Building / Submission Services
Besides Moz.com/local and yext.com what other services do you guys use to fix duplicates and create more citations for clientele? I have a recent domain 301 and i cant seem to update some old brand listings for a campaign. I do also use bright local.
Moz Local | | waqid0 -
Why are my citations not showing up?
We're managing a website for a client and decided to use Yext to build citations. We've gone through and manually verified that they are live. Moz Local cannot find this website or the citations, nor could Ahrefs, or Majestic. Google has indexed 154 pages of the website, Bing has indexed 10. This dealer has two websites (I know that's a faux pas, it's by client request), so that they can "test" our website before giving up their old one. They're tied to the same NAP, but have different web addresses. We got permission to claim the listings for the website we sent live and put them up about two months ago. I can't figure out for the life of me why none of my tools will verify the existence of this website and the citations. I checked for a no index and no follow command in the HTML (which shouldn't be a problem because Google has indexed the site) and it was clean. The only thing I can think of is that the old site is getting credit for the citations even though we've listed a different website address. Can anyone verify this?
Local Listings | | jtaylormoon0 -
Multi city locations and webmaster tools
I recently read this article: https://mza.seotoolninja.com/ugc/get-your-multilocation-business-ranking-in-multiple-cities-with-one-domain-21815 In it Brian talks about setting up webmaster tools for city locations and directories. So my client has a site: www.example.com/city1 and www.example.com/city2 How do I configure webmaster tools for these city locations. Is it possible?Is it worth it?
Local Listings | | AL123al0 -
Is it possible to use sub URLs in Citations?
Hello, One of my client has business in 5 different locations so he has URL's like: "www.abc.com/city-service" for which he has listing verified in each location. I can certainly say that Google Business allow sub pages URL in citations (correct me if I am wrong). I am not sure if it is possible to use the sub URL's like: www.abc.com/city-service in different citations websites? Also, if this would be a good approach or not? Please help me. Sam
Local Listings | | BrianBotts.0 -
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