Local SEO

zee007 · Apr 10, 2013

I've been trying to rank for geo-targeted keywords for a client who is not located in the target city. I'm beginning to think this is just not possible anymore (especially for a very competitive industry in a large metropolitan city).

Is this true or does anyone else have a solution around this local SEO problem? I cant even try to get an address because the business is a self storage facility. Cant risk customers driving to the mail box hoping to store their belongings

Any suggestions from experienced black hatters on how to rank for a competitive industry for local SEO when the business is in another city?

cloakndagger2 · Apr 10, 2013

If you're talking organic,does the site have a page based on the city e.g removalboxesinlasvegas.html,without giving the url does the site have keywords in the url,if you're talking places you need an address for organic it's pure seo but having a page that targets the niche and city will make the job ALOT easier competitive niche or not.

m888e · Apr 10, 2013

Create / rent some physical address in the new city
Add the business to google maps

Rent a server in that city and host a subdomain site separately there

e.g. rent a hosting account on a server in vegas
create subdomain and host a copy of the modified original website on
vegas.removalboxesdomain.com

jstover77 · Apr 10, 2013

Are you talking about Places or organic?

danailo · Apr 10, 2013

He is probably talking about places. You need local address.

the_demon · Apr 10, 2013

If you're just trying to rank in the organic search listings and not Google Places, you just need to use a better backlink strategy. I rank my clients for regions they aren't in all the time.

zee007 · Apr 10, 2013

I'm trying to rank in organic, but for geo targeted search terms (which are both competitive and have search volume).

When I look at the search results for my targeted keywords, I do not see ANY business that is not located in that specific address.

alternatesword · Apr 10, 2013

zee007 said:
I'm trying to rank in organic, but for geo targeted search terms (which are both competitive and have search volume).

When I look at the search results for my targeted keywords, I do not see ANY business that is not located in that specific address.

Then just follow the better linkbuilding strategy. Also, try to get backlinks from local blogs (blog comments and guest posting works well).

Trevor J · Apr 10, 2013

If you aren't talking about places, or non-location based keywords; you can still rank any geo-keyword such as city-storage. I would just suggest creating location pages on your website with domain/city1-storage, domain/city2-storage. Optimize the page with appropriate city keywords, add a photo of the city etc. Build links to that page using the geo-targeted keywords, should work fine. It do believe i would be a benefit to user experience if you actually had a location map etc if it was applicable. I've actually done this for a storage client.. small world.

zee007 · Apr 11, 2013

Trevor J said:
If you aren't talking about places, or non-location based keywords; you can still rank any geo-keyword such as city-storage. I would just suggest creating location pages on your website with domain/city1-storage, domain/city2-storage. Optimize the page with appropriate city keywords, add a photo of the city etc. Build links to that page using the geo-targeted keywords, should work fine. It do believe i would be a benefit to user experience if you actually had a location map etc if it was applicable. I've actually done this for a storage client.. small world.

I think I missed you here. I am trying to rank for location based keywords like "self storage dallas" and "self storage dallas tx."

I have tried high quality guest posts, WEB 2.0's, social bookmarks, blog comments etc, buts both keywords are stuck on 12-13.

Trevor J · Apr 11, 2013

Yeah dude, then you can definitely do that without actually having a location there. Make location pages on your website. So domain/self-storage-dallas. Optimize the onsite text and titles (make each location have unique content), add some city photographs or whatever to make the page positive for user experience and more relevant. Next, start doing some contextual back linking any way you would back link anything else. You are building the right kind of links, just make sure your url and content is optimized correctly and increase the amount of back links, you will move up there eventually.

zee007 · Apr 11, 2013

Can you please show me an example? Every time I do anything that has a city + keyword search, I'm only seeing local results show up on the first page. At best, I'm seeing a city for another state show up, but not a different city. I'll see a richmond, CA show up for richmond VA, but still richmond. Some example would be very helpful

cloakndagger2 · Apr 11, 2013

It's not hard myself and Trevor J have already said create pages on the site with the keyword and city. http://www.yellowpages.com/new-york-ny/plumbers comes up for new york plumbers and it's 2 pages deep.You're not very clear I mean if you search new york plumbers you're not going to get results for washington,that won't happen.As has been said create pages on the site for the keywords and city.

dbshoupe · Apr 11, 2013

I second the many suggestions of having a page dedicated to the location that you are trying to rank. Use the page title and main headline to be something like "Dallas Texas Self Storage." If the kw is very competitive then try a variation that you have a little better shot at ranking.

Also you'll need to build links to the page you have set up for that location, preferably links from other businesses/organizations in the city you are trying to rank. If you do this you should rank fairly well, depending on the competitiveness. But again, if the keywords are too competitive shoot for a variation that isn't as competitive. This has always been my strategy and it has never failed.

One additional tip: it is better to have the URL structure www.yourwebsite.com/dallas-tx than it is to have www.yourwebsite.com/tx/dallas. The deeper you bury your URL the harder it will be to rank.

Local SEO

zee007

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cloakndagger2

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m888e

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jstover77

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danailo

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the_demon

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zee007

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alternatesword

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Trevor J

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zee007

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Trevor J

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zee007

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cloakndagger2

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dbshoupe

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