Local SEO for a State Wide Directory Site

So I am working on a local directory site, and by local, I mean it is targeting all major cities in a specific U.S. state.

Everybody keeps telling me I need to focus on local SEO, but alot of the threads in this section explaining what they have done are for local business's, many with B&M operations, etc. I do not have a local address or phone # at this point, although I may get a 1-800 # for sales purposes, but I am not sure that this would even help.

Initially I am going to target the largest city in the state (which I live in), so I could try and set something up with a name and address there. But it looks like getting a P.O. Box wont help, and I am unsure how to go about getting a physical address at minimal cost.

So, my question is what is the best way to go about getting a local site ranked that doesnt have a physical location, and what are ways that people have used to get an address for a site that is only online?

I have seen references in threads about people ranking the same site locally for multiple cities, but I can seem to find any details about how it is done, what they did for address, etc.

Without addresses and with statewide targeting you're basically looking to compete for organic rankings.

I would start building out city-specific landers for whatever niche you're looking to dominate, and then think about ways to link to them.

I was thinking that I could potentially get an address in my city which would help there, and possibly add some authority to the site overall for the state.

I looked into getting a virtual office which would provide a local address, most are $60-100 a month. I am wondering how often google would actually verify this, as I was thinking I could set up the virtual office for 1 month so it can be verified and look legit, then cancel it. I wouldnt expect to be getting any mail or visitors, so leaving it up on the site and having various citations shouldnt be a problem. My only concern would be that google would know this address was a virtual office, and may try to verify it in the future.

Perhaps use a coworking space? They are usually single shops, and may be a bit more off Google's radar than Regus/UPS/Davinci. Price is around the same, usually less paper work, and a la carte. Worst case, and rare in my experience, Google asks you to re verify down the road, you buy the mailbox for 1 month again, get the card, cancel.

Local landing pages for sure. Recently wrote a couple pieces on the doorway update, which relates to writing local landers:

https://loganix.net/are-local-landing-pages-doorway-pages/
https://loganix.net/you-call-those-local-landing-pages/

Indeed, your best bet is probably to focus on organic. I can imagine some ways where you could do local, but scaling would be a bitch.

David2k8 said:

I am wondering how often google would actually verify this, as I was thinking I could set up the virtual office for 1 month so it can be verified and look legit, then cancel it. I wouldnt expect to be getting any mail or visitors, so leaving it up on the site and having various citations shouldnt be a problem. My only concern would be that google would know this address was a virtual office, and may try to verify it in the future.

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Local search is all about the 7 pack. I don't see where this offers you any value. People dont search for directories. People don't search yelp but they come up often in local organic searches because they do tons of seo. Are you attempting to compete with yelp?

Andrew Scherer said:

Without addresses and with statewide targeting you're basically looking to compete for organic rankings.

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This.

valesence said:

People don't search for directories. People don't search yelp but they come up often in local organic searches because they do tons of seo. Are you attempting to compete with yelp?

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And this.

Before OP puts time & energy into building a local directory, he needs to sit down and learn about what Local SEO is. Unless your "local directory" is a local business with a Name, Address and Phone Number and you can "transact business" at the physical location, then you are doing organic search that just happens to have words related to "local" in the keyword.