Ranking for Local SEO

[zee007]

Is it possible to rank a local business for a neighboring city? The keywords are not very competitive, but they do have some search volume. Just wanted to ask if someone else had success in doing that?

Cheers!

 

[The SEO]

What is this...ranking a keyword in neighboring city....what do you exactly mean?

 

[zee007]

What is this...ranking a keyword in neighboring city....what do you exactly mean?

Well, trying to rank a local business in another city with geo modified keywords. For example, trying to rank for "plumbing services LA" when your business is actually in Irvine. Make sense?

 

[Endire]

Zee007,

Theoretically you can rank for any localized keyword term. For example if your business is in Pleasantville and you want to rank for the neighboring town of Newhaven, all you have to do it use terms with that location in your key terms, use citations, geotagging, etc. The only obstacle I can see you running into is that you may have trouble outranking local businesses in that neighboring city who are going after the same terms and actually have a physical address there. Then they have the advantage of setting up place pages and directory listings with that localized address. After the Venice update Google serves up more relevant results based on a user's location.

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/understand-and-rock-the-google-venice-update

Hope that makes sense,
Shawn

 

[WrightWilliams]

Of course this is possible....this is like the most basic form of SEO

 

[willinabox]

Of course this is possible....this is like the most basic form of SEO

LOL

Yeah its pretty much how I make my income

 

[politico]

Yes You can rank for other cities. I have ranked a lawyer client of mine for a neighbouring city in another province. You gotta watch out though.

If your keyword has a Google+ Local 7-box in the SERPs, then it'll be tougher. You can build links and try to bypass the local 7-box, but what you could also do is optimize your Google+ Local page for it.

When you're editing your Google+ Local page, check the box for "Yes this business serves customers at their location." And then go to the "Service Areas" section and enter in the cities you "service" (i.e. want to rank for). Then you can build citations to the main address and you may end up showing up for other cities' local searches as well.

Another option is to buy a "virtual office" (many businesses offer this type of service) where you get an address and phone number but no actual office space. You can then set up and verify a Google Local page for this location and SEO it.

It is definitely possibly, many ways of doing it as well.

 

[Eagle Eye]

Yes You can rank for other cities. I have ranked a lawyer client of mine for a neighbouring city in another province. You gotta watch out though.

If your keyword has a Google+ Local 7-box in the SERPs, then it'll be tougher. You can build links and try to bypass the local 7-box, but what you could also do is optimize your Google+ Local page for it.

When you're editing your Google+ Local page, check the box for "Yes this business serves customers at their location." And then go to the "Service Areas" section and enter in the cities you "service" (i.e. want to rank for). Then you can build citations to the main address and you may end up showing up for other cities' local searches as well.

Another option is to buy a "virtual office" (many businesses offer this type of service) where you get an address and phone number but no actual office space. You can then set up and verify a Google Local page for this location and SEO it.

It is definitely possibly, many ways of doing it as well.

yeah this makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the information

 

[Techxan]

You should be able to pull it in with adding it to the description and using the city name in an H2 tag on the page, and mention in the content that you serve them.

 

[timmy79]

Yes You can rank for other cities. I have ranked a lawyer client of mine for a neighbouring city in another province. You gotta watch out though.

If your keyword has a Google+ Local 7-box in the SERPs, then it'll be tougher. You can build links and try to bypass the local 7-box, but what you could also do is optimize your Google+ Local page for it.

When you're editing your Google+ Local page, check the box for "Yes this business serves customers at their location." And then go to the "Service Areas" section and enter in the cities you "service" (i.e. want to rank for). Then you can build citations to the main address and you may end up showing up for other cities' local searches as well.

Another option is to buy a "virtual office" (many businesses offer this type of service) where you get an address and phone number but no actual office space. You can then set up and verify a Google Local page for this location and SEO it.

It is definitely possibly, many ways of doing it as well.

Just a quick question concerning virtual office. Can Google penalize you if they find out it's a virutal office? I tought I read somewhere that Google+ page do not accept virtual office.

 

[Magicbeanz]

Yes, they can and will. If you're using a large outfit like Regus, it's easier for them to learn you're using a VO, so if you're going to go that route, be sure to find a private mailbox that isn't widely advertised. Perhaps a commercial REALTOR would be able to help with that?

But if you're talking about local areas within 30 miles of each other, it's entirely possible. I ranked a dentist's G+ local listing in a small suburb for a large metro area. She was there for a couple of months then she thought it would be smart to cancel services, and now her listing has vanished... so it seems a greater and regular effort to maintain rank is needed. I'm not sure how long this would have lasted had I kept up with her.

Anyway, there are certain things that help a great deal:

1. Create individual pages dedicated to that "service area" for which you're hoping to rank.
2. On that landing page, include unique content optimized with geo-terms for that area.
3. Include authority OBL to helpful gov / info sites for that area.
4. Geo-tag the page.
5. Embed a Google map for that area.
6. Include optimized image and video for that area.
7. If you're using WordPress you can easily have a small section on that page with a running list of blog posts dedicated to that area. These blog posts are easiest for businesses that actually service clients at their locations; so a roofer can write a post for each roofing project done in that area. That post will again be geo-tagged, embedded maps, images, videos, etc (just don't publish the client's address).

Doing this will help a great deal. But keep in mind, you're swimming against the current, because if your address isn't "local" then technically, you're not "local" and you should expect that Google is trying to keep you OUT of the local listings. That doesn't mean you can't rank in several organic spots, though.

 

[nathancope]

I totally agree with Magicbeanz, thats how I have ranked as you have asked!

 

[MatthewMagicMan]

Why not just create other sites and black hat map listings? One of my clients has 5k unique listings. Sure, they aren't really at that address. Use another biz name, think affiliate site.

 

[redchillies]

Linking to all local places would help, these local places would be:

local forums
local directories
local classifieds sites
local blogs
etc.