struggle to rank local

[explorer83]

Hi,

I'm writing here because my client has a website offering online legal services. At the moment they rank well for the general keywords but they want to rank localy for many cities where they are not phisically based. The website already ranks for long tails on those cities but it doesn't get the 1st page.

Due to the situation I can do almost everything apart from buildng local citations as what I have found is they all require the address.

What would you recommend me?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Aluminium]

Hi,

I'm writing here because my client has a website offering online legal services. At the moment they rank well for the general keywords but they want to rank localy for many cities where they are not phisically based. The website already ranks for long tails on those cities but it doesn't get the 1st page.

Due to the situation I can do almost everything apart from buildng local citations as what I have found is they all require the address.

What would you recommend me?

Thanks in advance!

There are citation posting/creation services for things like that, and local listings/rankings are pretty sought after these days.

Is the niche just THAT competitive?

 

[explorer83]

Thanks for your reply,
the niche is getting more competitive locally than for regular non local keywords as most of the legal firms look for clients locally. I'll look for the citation services.

 

[Andrew Scherer]

Yes, legal is one of the most competitive local niches.

With that said, their leads are also worth a lot. Without verified addresses you're in for an uphill battle and you won't get any maps rankings to boot. Luckily addresses are cheap, get your client to pony up for ones for some of the better cities they're after. Explain to them that a single new client will pay for the address many times over.

 

[Avid Learner]

Yes, legal is one of the most competitive local niches.

With that said, their leads are also worth a lot. Without verified addresses you're in for an uphill battle and you won't get any maps rankings to boot. Luckily addresses are cheap, get your client to pony up for ones for some of the better cities they're after. Explain to them that a single new client will pay for the address many times over.

Not sure anyone else's experience, but have been successful at renting a box from UPS and using the box number as an extension to the address or as a unit number (if the UPS location is not part of a plaza, strip mall, etc):

Extension: 123 Main Street, Unit A31 becomes ...Unit A31-501, for box #501
Unit #: 123 Main Street becomes ...Street, Unit #501

UPS says it does not like that, but seems to be willing to file the mail according to the number. UPS will send email when something arrives. However, lawyer is probably not going to expect first contact from new potential clients at that address, so any mail is likely junk.

 

[randybishop]

Keep in mind that PO Boxes are against Google's terms of service.
All that work (citations, etc) will be lost if google finds out (or more likely the competition rats you out to google).
This is a real possibility for competitive niches. If you go this route, be sure to explain the risk to your client.

 

[Andrew Scherer]

Not sure anyone else's experience, but have been successful at renting a box from UPS and using the box number as an extension to the address or as a unit number (if the UPS location is not part of a plaza, strip mall, etc):

Extension: 123 Main Street, Unit A31 becomes ...Unit A31-501, for box #501
Unit #: 123 Main Street becomes ...Street, Unit #501

UPS says it does not like that, but seems to be willing to file the mail according to the number. UPS will send email when something arrives. However, lawyer is probably not going to expect first contact from new potential clients at that address, so any mail is likely junk.

I think you could get away with this with other niches, but law and things like locksmiths, you'd eventually get booted from maps for this.

Pretty good tip tho, thanks

 

[Fantasea]

Building citations is the most important thing if you want to rank locally. As mentioned by other users, ask your client to get an address in the area that they want to rank.