Does city in business name increase local pack visibility

[TammyT]

So we have experienced a lot of volatility in our organic and local pack rankings. We are using whitespark to clean up our directory listings and have made some positive gains. But we aren’t coming up citywide. While a competitor of our’s has the city name in their business name they seem to be showing up consistently in the local pack across the city not just in close proximity to their location? Does this have to do with city name? We are in a highly competitive plumbing and HVAC business.

 

[pony]

Of course having the city name in the business title is going to help! But you risk getting marked as spam if it doesn't match what your business uses on signage, letters, or is legally registered as.

In your industry the spams seems to get by with a pass if it's not too egregious. Proximity, GMB categories, and the business title are 3 of the most important local ranking factors.

Play at your own risk

 

[TammyT]

Thank you for the confirmation. Yeah, I don't see a way for our company to add the city name without looking really spammy. I just wasn't sure if this was helping them increase their visibility with wider proximity. Sounds like it definitely could be giving them a boost. Thanks!

 

[pony]

Of course. You are correct that it's going to give them wider visibility but most likely just for the local term that they are using in the business title.

If they are using "Tom's HVAC Company Springfield" they they are going to rank really well top level local searches like 'hvac in springfield' but I doubt it would help them rank for neighboring cities. So at that level it could potentially be narrowing down their visibility to a more concentrated area, but they will rank better within that area.

Works well for companies that have greater coverage that their competitors, but if you are a single location business you might not want to get that specific if you are also trying to rank for local searches in nearby cities.

 

[innateseo]

If you want to limit yourself to just that city then yes I recommend putting the city name in the META title. Also I suggest creating localized content on your blog or web pages.

 

[TammyT]

Thank you for the feedback. I need to beef up our local content around the location on our web pages and blog.