Google Places - Is this possible? Need advice quick

[abbot]

Hi guys,


I have an offline company that is looking to rank for their keywords in multiple cities in their service area.

Though I would like to rank them in the local listings, I'm afraid that might not be possible in all the cities.

What is the cut off? They DO rank for some main keywords outside of their main city which confuses me as to why they can't rank for all their keywords in places outside of their main city.

I'm unsure the best way to approach this. I'm assuming some of the ranking would have to be done in organic listings but I'm afraid that will be tricky to outrank the ENTIRE block of local listings.

I don't want to try ranking them in local listings in cities that it will not allow them to rank.

I could definitely use some expert help as they're targeting A LOT of different good keywords! I'm no SEO expert, I'm a consultant. I develop marketing strategies and marketing plans for companies and don't do a lot of local SEO for companies.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Hi Abbot,

Generally you will only rank in the local results for the city that the business is located in (AKA what's in the places dashboard). It's possible to rank locally for certain search terms in other cities, but it is pretty rare.

As you alluded to, your best bet to show up in your service areas is to go for organic.

One best practice would be to create and optimize specific pages within the website for each service area.

You can also try to add info to some of your 3rd party business listings that refer to the service areas and their services.

Hi guys,


I have an offline company that is looking to rank for their keywords in multiple cities in their service area.

Though I would like to rank them in the local listings, I'm afraid that might not be possible in all the cities.

What is the cut off? They DO rank for some main keywords outside of their main city which confuses me as to why they can't rank for all their keywords in places outside of their main city.

I'm unsure the best way to approach this. I'm assuming some of the ranking would have to be done in organic listings but I'm afraid that will be tricky to outrank the ENTIRE block of local listings.

I don't want to try ranking them in local listings in cities that it will not allow them to rank.

I could definitely use some expert help as they're targeting A LOT of different good keywords! I'm no SEO expert, I'm a consultant. I develop marketing strategies and marketing plans for companies and don't do a lot of local SEO for companies.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Linda Buquet]

What is the cut off? They DO rank for some main keywords outside of their main city which confuses me as to why they can't rank for all their keywords in places outside of their main city.

Hi Abbot and welcome. Colan is right although it depends on competition. Certain KWs are not terribly competitive especially in smaller towns.

But for more competitive KWs have to tackle it with organic.

Pretty easy to tell. Google City + KW and see if all the page 1 results are in that city. If there are a couple from the city your client is in then you know there is a chance. Figure out what those guys are doing well and do it better.

If page one is dominated by in-city listings and you hit maps and there are 3 or 4 or pages of businesses in that city before you start seeing listings in surrounding cities, then give up and try for organic.

 

[abbot]

Excellent advice guys, thanks!

Now, another question..

They ARE ranking in the C slot in a different city (VERY close to the city they are located in - within 10 miles) for 5 major keywords. They want to improve their rankings for these keywords first but they are the only listing on page 1 that is actually in a different city.

Will this make it more complicated to rank better since they are out of city? Is it an automatic handicap? Or does it not matter since they're already ranking.

The ultimate goal would be to have them ranking in A slot for ALL 5 keywords. Again...I'm not too familiar with SEO, Google Plus specifically. But they DO have the most positive reviews. They have 28 where the competition only has a couple. Will this help with ranking in slot A?

I know that now Google plus also takes into consideration organic optimization for local listing ranking, correct?

Starting out...should I just hit it with a local listing only campaign and see what results we get, then if we're not making progress go forward with an organic SEO campaign for those keywords as well?

As I said, they are already on page one for all of the keywords except one. The goal would be to better their ranking.

Thanks a ton for the helpful advice guys!

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Abbot,

Reviews don't help ranking all that much any more but are still important for conversions.

The current algo is largely about organic ranking factors so I'm guessing they partly rank due to the strength of the web site.

Check this post and run your keywords with the tools I recommend and see if anything correlates.

How the Google Local Algo Really Works - What Rules the Ranking Order

 

[Marie Ysais]

Yes, organic factors help moving your local listing up. The one keyword they are not ranking on the first page can you tighten up their on page seo to include the keyword? I would also add a few really good back links and see if that will get the term to budge.
I can get the local listings to move up by adding better citations, tightening up on site seo and a few really good back links. Even if you don't work on organic ranking in the first phase I would still create the child pages Colan and Linda suggested. They help reinforce what your website is about and tells Google more about what your client offers. It helps to reinforce your keywords.

 

[Thaddaeus]

I would use Youtube videos - easy to put the keywords + city in the titles and safe to throw backlinks to (or at).

Also, get a custom thumbnail or set up Google Authorship to the videos and you'll stand out like a duck with a top hat (which to me would be hilarious).