How to optimize for local search without city's name?

blackieman

blackieman

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Hi, if I am in LA, and search for "cheap car rental" how does google figure out the local listings to present me.

Turning it around, how do I optimize for that keyphrase in local mode without explicitly adding the city's name to the search?

Thanking after I posted... put the city's name somewhere in the post, and link build from other local businesss?
 
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This is a million dollar question.

Most results I've seen DO have the city name on the title and/or the page. I've never seen results without the page telling google what city it serves.

Do you have examples of a page that has no onsite seo for a city but still comes up in the serps when you search from that city?
 
Ok, reread your post.

I recently have been trying to figure this out and my theory its that you have to use on page optimization to tell google what location the site serves. Then you build links to your keyword (notice the keyword does NOT have a city in it). Then the site should rank higher for the l keyword for users in that city.

This is my theory and I'm testing it now.
 
seorockstar said:
Ok, reread your post.

I recently have been trying to figure this out and my theory its that you have to use on page optimization to tell google what location the site serves. Then you build links to your keyword (notice the keyword does NOT have a city in it). Then the site should rank higher for the l keyword for users in that city.

This is my theory and I'm testing it now.
Click to expand...

I believe the same thing and trying to rank for really stupid terms that i would never normally go for in my city in the hope that my locale gives me the advantage.
 
well some were in the videos for google places it explains step by step how you can do this with videos, pictures so it creates a back link and add your back link with a city.
Regards
Suave
 
blackieman said:
Hi, if I am in LA, and search for "cheap car rental" how does google figure out the local listings to present me.

Turning it around, how do I optimize for that keyphrase in local mode without explicitly adding the city's name to the search?

Thanking after I posted... put the city's name somewhere in the post, and link build from other local businesss?
Click to expand...

Google will present results based on your ip address, if you're in LA it's most like your isp is in LA and Google will give you results for LA. But wouldn't most people put in their city name if searching?

I would imagine if your inbound links have LA in the anchor text G would assume you are in LA. And yes put it in a post and on your contact address page.

There's loads of GP resources on here and a number of great pdf's to download :)
 
Its a good idea to think about your IP address when researching "How does google know?"...What is Geotargeting.
 
I can answer for you. You should SEO for the term 'XYZ, City" and if you rank you will show up when someone in that City searches for "XYZ".

Using the stat press plugin it shows you the most recent keywords used to land on your pages. I have multiple hits for the "XYZ" term without the City in the search tag even though I do not rank anywhere in the top 100 for the term "XYZ" by itself but I DO rank top 5 for the term XYZ, CIty.
 
Thanks for all the comments. To summarize what my approach would be:

a) have a full address that is related to that city. If google can detect that address, then it knows the website is [most likely] related to that city

b) have incoming links with the city name in them. Google probably figures the geolocation from that as well

c) of course have the cityname in the pages themselves

Google appears to have an algo that it goes local for some things and not others, i.e. yes for 'gas station' and no for 'acne medication' (try it!).

Am I on the right track?
 
suave said:
well some were in the videos for google places it explains step by step how you can do this with videos, pictures so it creates a back link and add your back link with a city.
Regards
Suave
Click to expand...

true, that should work. I did not know about google places
 
Getwhatyouwant ,
Is right. been doing it for years.
an new trick is check your stats in cpanel and see what peeps are searching your site for and then optimize for that search to help drive more traffic in, while creating related content onto your site.

hope that help some of you out there.
 
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