12 replies to this topic

[James2]

Hello,

My question is how a company can rank organically in places/cities around their own location.
(and I ask this question for someone else).

We know that Google Places optimization would be a good solution for this, but we do not want to rely
on the visibility of the listing. We would rather be visible in the normal organic listings with a normal webpage
which belongs to our main website.

But we can't create pages such as [carshop + place] and create twenty of these pages on our website,
because this is seen as doorway pages by the search engines and that is not allowed.

So - what is the best way to get this done?

Maybe we should create different articles describing what we've done for our clients in each place?
Because if we make such a high amount of similar pages, we can't make them 100 percent unique.
There will be always a small percentage of duplicate content or similar content/low original content.

So, the goal is to rank in the surrounding places (for example in the whole region) with our own website.
We know that Google Places would be a possible solution to make this happen, but we don't like to rely on
this listing, because we know that it is kinda hard to rank with a Places listing in all the places we want to target.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

[Jill]

This article might help:

Getting found locally.

[James2]

Thank you very much for this helpful article about getting found in your local area.
I picked a strategy and now we are going to implement it.

[Mastersquidwardo]

How about Keyword Targeting using the city's name?

Let's say I'm in Houston, and I want to market to surrounding areas too.

I can now target keywords like San Antonio clothing wholesalers, and SouthEast Texas clothing wholesalers... etc.

This will add relevance to the search terms, and increase your audience!

[Jill]

Using the city's name where?

[torka]

I know the O.P. was looking for organic optimization rather than relying on Google Places, but I figured I'd drop this in here in case there are eligible business owners reading this thread that didn't know about the "service area" option in Google Places.

From Google's Places help:

Not all local businesses serve their customers from a brick-and-mortar storefront. For example, some businesses operate from a home address. Others are mobile and have no central location.

If a local business serves customers at their locations, it can list its service area - the area it's willing to serve - on Google. Users searching Google and Google Maps will then be able to find businesses that serve them.

More info here: http://support.googl...n&answer=177103

--Torka

[janetrae]

I am also exploring this question for a client in the metro Wash DC area, which includes DC, the Maryland suburbs, northern Virginia, Baltimore, and a corner of West Virginia. Specifically, the client wants to know how to define the area served in Google+. In other words, in the section where the business owner specifies the area served, is it better to draw a large radius, e.g. 100 miles, or to list every zip code served (and can that list be uploaded)?

Thanks so much!

[torka]

That would depend on whether your client is willing to go anywhere within a specified radius, or whether there are some outlying areas that are too inconvenient to reach, too sparsely populated to be worth the time, too dangerous to travel, or otherwise are areas the client doesn't want to service.

My thinking is the more irregular the outline of the service area, the better off you are inputting actual locations along that perimeter.

Google will fill in the spaces in between two disconnected zip codes or towns, so it will effectively show you as servicing any "in between" areas. As they say:

Note that your service area will include all the regions you add, as well as points in between if those regions don't intersect.

Sorry, dunno if it's possible to upload a list or if you have to enter manually. But since Google will fill in the gaps, you don't necessarily have to enter every zip code or town. So inputting by hand (if that's necessary) could turn out to be not as much of a hassle as it might first appear.

--Torka

Edited by torka, 07 September 2012 - 10:10 AM.

[twhdir]

According to me, following points should help you :

• Try to get links from similar sites of of your region.
• Try to get links from reputable sites of your region.
• Ask other high-quality websites of your region to link to your website.
• Tell the local region press about your site(News paper Advertisement).
• Tell the local region TV channel about your site(TV Advertisement).

[bdj]

A Newbie to this forum. I have a similar question to the Original Topic " How to Rank Regional"
My follow up question is -- If a city's name shows up in a keyword search as in:
carpet cleaning--keyword
carpet cleaning vancouver--show in the drop down suggestions below the search box.
carpet cleaning portland----show in the drop down suggestions below the search box.
carpet cleaning salem---show in the drop down suggestions below the search box.

Since the above 3 cities show in the suggested search results, is there a way to get a city that is near 1 or 2 of the above cities to get noticed or picked up in the search results ? or Does a searcher have to type in the name of a city along with the keyword carpet cleaning ?

Thanks,
BDJ

[bdj]

Let me try again on a local search ?

If I want a website & business that serves small towns that surround a larger city, what is the best way or keyword phrases to use that will help/appear in a search result for a product or service for those smaller towns ?

BDJ

[Jill]

I'd probably suggest a side bar element that mentions the cities/towns where you offer your services.

If you have actual offices in each of the cities then they can have their own page showcasing the different people or different types of services each of those offices have.

You can't really just create doorway pages for each city that have the same content. Well you can, but it's called Madlib spam. You could do those and not allow them to be indexed by search engines, and simply use them as PPC landing pages, however.

[jon-d]

You can't really just create doorway pages for each city that have the same content. Well you can, but it's called Madlib spam. You could do those and not allow them to be indexed by search engines, and simply use them as PPC landing pages, however.

But you can create geo pages for each location with unique content. If you offer services in several locations then its not spam to actively market your website at those locations. Many websites do this and rank high for "keyword location" terms.