Does this tactic fall into the Local SEO best practice?
-
Hi Mozzers,
I have a client who serves the entire San Francisco bay area but has only one physical location.
He asked me if he should get different addresses by renting out offices in different cities so he could use that for a better localization of his business.
Thanks for letting me know!
-
Thank you Guys for all of your responses!
-
You have answers from two different people saying very much the same thing; I'll add my name to the list: ---> your instincts were right on this one, just do what is recommended from the two responders above, and your client will thank you later
*As for your client, Just because some of the 'others' are doing it, doesn't mean it's the right, or practical thing to do. Your patience and good practices will pay off with Local Search, in time
Andy
-
Unfortunately, Taysir, it's not best practice but it works and a lot are doing it much to the chagrin of business owners who play by the rules and the SEOs who support them. As others stated here, organic SEO on local pages is what's needed. Perhaps if you post what kind of business it is, others here may give suggestions on how to optimize those.
-
You are likely right, Tony. Just need to be sure!
-
Good point Miriam, I'd assumed the offices were "post code only" and non-staffed. I guess the potential huge cost of renting out multiple offices to achieve his aim made me veer towards the scenario I'd assumed
-
Hi Taysir,
If they are staffed, physical offices, yes. If they are not, then, no. You'll need to focus on Local SEO for his physical location and organic SEO for his service cities where he isn't physically located.
-
Hi Taysir,
Simple answer - no. Google's T&C's stipulate that locations must be "physical" and not non-populated rented offices..
Strong local search indicators to Google include proof of physical locations, via NAP (name, address, postcode) citations.
There's nothing stopping them "owning" the SF bay area with a single site, district-focus pages and a single G+ Business Account with dozens of positive reviews and back-ed up citations.
Be very careful with clients who are greedy and want to game the system. if you're not careful, they'll do it anyway behind your back and cause you no-end of grief when their activities come back and bite them (and you) in the backside!
My advice is to be very firm and direct about what Google class as contravening their guidelines.
-
The money spent on rent can be applied to build a killer site that has content catered to the areas he really focuses on. So create pages for specific cities and have some job details specific to that city. The business details aren't in the question so its hard to say but I'm guessing if there isn't a need to open a new office your client is just trying to get local 'seven pack" rankings which require a physical place and a local number.
Hope that helps.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
What is the best structured data for my website
We have 10:branches for our agency where we are looking to attract local businesses to use our marketing services, should each landing page have structured data for ‘local business’? Any advice would be helpful
Local SEO | | Caffeine_Marketing0 -
Internation SEO question
I have a domain in the UK with ccTLD ending in ac.uk our website is www,metfilmschool.ac.uk and it ranks really well in the UK, we also own metfilmschools.com and we want to improve our SEO in the USA? Should I use the ccTDL domain and create a subdomain or should I use the .com domain? Also. because both sites are in English what are the best practices not to duplicate content and avoid being penalized by Google? Thanks Cassio
Local SEO | | cptrevisani0 -
How can I make a compelling financial forecast on how SEO will bring tangible value?
Hi all, I am currently doing keywords research and matching it to our sales data. With an input of resources, do you know if there is a good way to create a growth forecast as a result of SEO investment? How do I work out a strategy and align it to a compelling financial forecast? Your experience on this will be super helpful! Many thanks, Eric
Local SEO | | Eric_S1 -
Going from a national to local marketing strategy
I started my graphic design business (imageco.com) after the dot com industry collapsed in 2001 and there were virtually no jobs to be found, I focused mainly on logo design and ultimately figured out a way to drive quite a lot of traffic to my site by the means of creating directories for printers in every major city in the US. It worked exceedingly well for many years but eventually I had a lot of copycats use this technique and ultimately it pissed off quite a few designers around the country and I was reported one to many times to Google and was forced to make some changes. So I dropped the directories and redesigned my site and stuffed as many place names in the site as I could so I wouldn’t lose all my traffic, it worked for a while but ultimately my site has drifted further down in the serps and with the advent of Google Local my traffic pretty much disappeared. Furthermore with the surge in crowdsourcing businesses like 99designs the value people placed on my logo design services dropped to a point where there just wasn’t much reason to go after a national market anyway. I’m not proud of how I built my business but I don’t make any excuses for it, I had a mortgage and a family to feed so I did what I needed to do. I’m now at the point where I’ve decided my best option is to move away from logo design and redefine my business as more of a visual identity/graphic design company and go after the local market. I live in the Seattle area, Bellevue to be specific and the economy is such that I know there is a ton of local opportunity that I'm missing out on and I want to focus my marketing efforts here. My question is what is the best way for me to do this? I focused mainly on logo design for nearly 20 years and my keywords are built around logo design for which I still hit fairly well on but I need to expand my offerings and want to redirect my efforts at turning up on local searches for other terms like graphic design, web design, print design, etc. I don’t necessarily want to instantly drop all of the landing pages I created for logo design because that is still where the majority of my business comes from but I’m fairly certain that these landing pages have me Pigeonholed as just a logo designer. Do I need to delete everything and start completely from scratch or is there a less extreme approach to making this kind of transition? And once I do make these changes what might be the time frame for turning up better locally? I’m in the process of redesigning the site, updating my portfolio and writing all new content and could really use the advice of this community. Thank you!
Local SEO | | Imageco0 -
What should I write about in my blog, doing SEO for Boise, ID, USA
I'm starting the website HonestOakSEO.com It's targeting SEO in Boise, ID, USA I'm doing Ecommerce SEO, service-based SEO, informational SEO, local SEO, mainly on-site SEO, and content Analysis and Advice What should I write about in my blog? I want it to be excellent. Thanks
Local SEO | | BobGW0 -
Community Discussion: When The 'Coupon Drawer' Is More Influential Than Your Best Friend ...
Howdy To Our Super Community! When I was a kid, I was always fascinated by ladies who spent hours combing through newspapers and mailers, clipping coupons to put in a coupon drawer for future shopping excursions. It seemed like a lot of trouble to go to in order to save a a few bucks, especially given that I grew up in an era that still boasted a pretty stable middle class, but, it turns out, those ladies of yore were really onto something. A recent survey by Bazaarvoice and CMO Council found that coupons and discounts drive way more return/loyalty business amongst modern shoppers than any other factor, including recommendations from family and friends and paid advertising. Another survey by ROTH and Research Now discovered that 70% of millennial moms sought and downloaded mobile coupons while doing their shopping chores. There are a couple of facets of these findings that should interest any e-commerce business or local retailer. We've learned from a variety of studies that it can cost up to 7x more to earn a new customer than to retain an existing one, making loyalty programs smart business. Meanwhile, publications like the Wall Street Journal have made it clear that, in the U.S., the middle class is no longer the majority. These two factors seem to lend themselves to an important discussion for our community here at Moz, and in the marketing world at large. What is driving 70% of young mothers to use mobile coupons, as per the above study? Is it tight budgets, the love of a deal, pride in outsmarting 'the system' with a little extra effort? Is your company using coupons? Which ones have you seen convert most highly? Is there some element to them you've discovered to be a real winner? Interestingly, price is repeatedly cited as a minor factor in customer complaints, and yet, I've personally seen discounts/sales drive business like mad in both e-commerce and retail settings. Just how powerful is the love a deal? I would love it if you'd contribute your coupon/discount savvy to a discussion here, to help our community better latch onto this massively powerful influence. What are your thoughts and first-hand experiences?
Local SEO | | MiriamEllis2 -
Community Discussion: Are You Practicing Awareness Of Your Own Marketing Questions?
Good Afternoon Moz Friends! This week, one of my favorite bloggers in the Local SEO industry wrote a post to celebrate his 5 year blogging anniversary. Phil Rozek has brought an incredible level of knowledge to the industry and one of the things I've most admired about his writing is the consistency with which he tackles common, important problems everyone involved is facing. The tip from Phil's anniversary post that I'd like to discuss with you all this this one, about practicing awareness of the obstacles you encounter in your daily work, for the purpose of investigation and possible public sharing of the solutions you discover: "Jot down every idea you have, every question you ask yourself that stumps you, and every question someone asks you that stumps you. Those are yourraw materials. You probably won’t write on all of them, but you’ll want the ability to cherry-pick." As a Moz staffer and a marketer, I can testify to the fact that my brain exists in a whirl of possibilities, questions and a never-ending search for relevant solutions. Never a day goes by in which I don't say to myself, at least once,"I wonder why that's like that? Why doesn't this work? How do I do that? What is that? Why don't I get that?" or something similar about a new product, new technology, Google issue, customer issue, industry issue or what have you. What I've learned is that if I have a question about something that I can't instantly resolve, chances are, I'm not the only one who has that question. If you're a blogger, a copywriter, an email marketer, a social marketer, if you can solve a common problem, you have just discovered something to share. _But,_if you're not practicing mindfulness, little questions that arise in the course of an 8 hour day can come and go. They can simply get lost. This is why I value Phil's common sense suggestion of jotting each mental query down as it arises. A spreadsheet seems like a great idea for this task. Just think of how many talking/sharing points you could accumulate in a month ... and how that could translate into blog posts, newsletters, tweets, etc. Now, I'd like to ask if you've come up with a method for capturing your own thought process when questions arise so that you don't lose track of what might be some of your best queries and ideas. If you have tips to share, the community could really benefit! Thanks!
Local SEO | | MiriamEllis4 -
What is the best SEO tool for tracking local rankings
Hi Can anyone recommend what they think the best tool is to track local rankings. I want to manage several small businesses' visibility and I am not sure which one is the best. I have been told that "Bright local" and "SEO PowerSuite" are the best in the business. Is that true? or is there something better out there Thanks
Local SEO | | coolhandluc0