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Local SEO - how to optimize for my primary AND secondary locations?

by monychhim
11 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hello guys and girls, I'm kind of getting started with SEO, and I have a strategic question regarding local search.

I work for a chiropractor who has her office located in a given district of Lyon: Lyon 1.
Moreover, her office is at a great position: people living in 4 other districts/small cities (Lyon 5, City1, City2, City3) can reach her office within 5 minutes by car!

So in terms of targeted keywords, I think it would make sense to use Lyon 1 of course (keyword: chiropractor at Lyon 1), but also to integrate the 4 secondary locations.
I would like to get the best of both words: not having Lyon 1 diluted by the others, whilst being able to obtain a fair ranking for the 4 secondary locations.

In terms of content and anchor links, how would you guys optimize on that matter? Thanks!
mony
#local #locations #optimize #primary #secondary #seo
  • Profile picture of the author deepakrajput
    first you need target your primary keyword than move for secondary when you ranked.
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    Digital Marketing Consultant, Internet Marketing Expert
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    • Profile picture of the author sconer
      This is something very important for all of us who run local businesses. It was rather easy to come up high in the Google Local rankings, it only took me 3 months to come up as "A" in the Google "7-pack" when people in my own town were searching for the type of service I provide.

      The problem, as you already know, is that there aren't enough people in my own town that need my services, so I have to get people in all the neighboring 50 towns to see my service when they search Google.

      The way that I did that was to setup a landing page specific for each town I wanted customers from. The landing page would be about my service in that town, using both keywords.

      And it worked. When people from those various towns searched for my service, my landing page would come up. Google Analytics would show it working perfectly, people in "whatever town" would be sent to the "whatever town" landing page on my website.

      But now I hear that location landing pages may be in Google's crosshairs. I am eager to see how this plays out and how the Local SEO Gurus get around this. Without those landing pages, I would have less than half of my current business.
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      • Profile picture of the author DABK
        Location pages. Why do you think they have to be crap or duplicates?

        Dentist in Chicago Saves Girl's Smile

        and a nice story about one of the Dentist's patients that cleverly shows how good he/she is and what other services he/she offers.

        Evanston Dentist Battles The Largest Tooth Root and Lives to Talk About It

        And a funny story about the hardest extraction they ever did... That happened, of course, in their Evanston, not Chicago office.

        With photo wisdom took with extra long roots and info about other services...

        Not hard at all.


        Originally Posted by sconer View Post

        This is something very important for all of us who run local businesses. It was rather easy to come up high in the Google Local rankings, it only took me 3 months to come up as "A" in the Google "7-pack" when people in my own town were searching for the type of service I provide.

        The problem, as you already know, is that there aren't enough people in my own town that need my services, so I have to get people in all the neighboring 50 towns to see my service when they search Google.

        The way that I did that was to setup a landing page specific for each town I wanted customers from. The landing page would be about my service in that town, using both keywords.

        And it worked. When people from those various towns searched for my service, my landing page would come up. Google Analytics would show it working perfectly, people in "whatever town" would be sent to the "whatever town" landing page on my website.

        But now I hear that location landing pages may be in Google's crosshairs. I am eager to see how this plays out and how the Local SEO Gurus get around this. Without those landing pages, I would have less than half of my current business.
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        • Profile picture of the author sconer
          Originally Posted by DABK View Post

          Location pages. Why do you think they have to be crap or duplicates?
          Did I say that? If so, I apologize. Apparently I must be sleep posting lol. :-)
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        • Profile picture of the author sconer
          Originally Posted by DABK View Post

          Dentist in Chicago Saves Girl's Smile

          and a nice story about one of the Dentist's patients that cleverly shows how good he/she is and what other services he/she offers.

          Evanston Dentist Battles The Largest Tooth Root and Lives to Talk About It

          And a funny story about the hardest extraction they ever did... That happened, of course, in their Evanston, not Chicago office.

          With photo wisdom took with extra long roots and info about other services...

          Not hard at all.
          This is very interesting. But one concern is that it seems a bit tabloidish. When people see that in the search results, will they thinks it's a respectable dentist or a click bait website?

          Also, I can't see how an electrician or plumber can do that 40 different times (See how a Denver plumber wrestled the worlds biggest turd!).

          It would be more like a blog, not a page to get conversions. But that's just based on my own, self admitted, lack of creativity.
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          • Profile picture of the author DABK
            If you get yourself a good copywriter, he/she will get it quite right.

            And, no, it can be presented like a blog post or like a page or it could be a sales letter like you'd get from Dan Kennedy...

            And, I have done blogs in the mortgage and insurance industries. They convert much better than most people's web pages created to get conversions.

            Seems to me like you're letting narrow definitions get in the way of getting clients.

            Originally Posted by sconer View Post

            This is very interesting. But one concern is that it seems a bit tabloidish. When people see that in the search results, will they thinks it's a respectable dentist or a click bait website?

            Also, I can't see how an electrician or plumber can do that 40 different times (See how a Denver plumber wrestled the worlds biggest turd!).

            It would be more like a blog, not a page to get conversions. But that's just based on my own, self admitted, lack of creativity.
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            • Profile picture of the author sconer
              Originally Posted by DABK View Post

              Seems to me like you're letting narrow definitions get in the way of getting clients.
              I am trying to use an open mind, but it's hard when I have such a complete lack of creativity.
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    • Profile picture of the author patco
      Originally Posted by deepakrajput View Post

      first you need target your primary keyword than move for secondary when you ranked.
      Your reply looks interesting... But I would rank for longtail keywords first... You can always optimize your content for your main keyword.. But I would first start with secodnary keywords, so you can optimize them BOTH in the same time!
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      A blog that will show you How to Lose Weight with a cool Quick Weight Loss guide...
      Also enjoy some of my favorite Funny pictures and photos that will make you smile :)

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  • Profile picture of the author Paul Hanney
    First of target the main keyword, make sure you have consistency with NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) across the web. Make sure this is on all top directories in your country (pick the top 25 is fine). Make sure this matches what is on your website and schema mark up.

    Once that's sorted set up your Google Local page, make sure it links to your main website. I like to put some anchor text in the Google Local Description page back to different pages of the website.

    Then start asking happy customers to leave reviews on the Google Local page. Google rewards the user generated content so will fire you to the top of the 7 pack in no time. Not to mention the positive reputation you now have online. Don't worry about the occasional negative review, sometimes this can be more powerful than a positive review if there is just 1 or 2 out of 30 for example as long as you are seen to respond in a timely and favourable manor.

    Now in terms of getting the other locations to work, I am going to assume you have carried out keyword research here to make sure there are actually people searching before you invest any time and effort in this strategy. Assuming there are people searching you could:

    1. Set up location specific pages on the website with content written specifically to people in that location. DO NOT just copy another page on your website and swap the suburb out.
    2. A bit of a loop hole but does work, get a virtual office in each of the suburbs with a physical address and phone number. Have the phone lines diverted to your main line. Then do the NAP with directories and link to the suburbs specific page on your website.

    To be honest this strategy works wonders but is time consuming and only worth pursuing if you have the data to prove there is good search volume with buyer intent.
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    • Profile picture of the author sconer
      Originally Posted by Paul Hanney View Post

      2. A bit of a loop hole but does work, get a virtual office in each of the suburbs with a physical address and phone number. Have the phone lines diverted to your main line. Then do the NAP with directories and link to the suburbs specific page on your website.
      Do you have to setup a DBA for each of those locations, or just use the same company name? If using the same company name, does Google give the same amount of weight to the company in each of those locations, or only the main one?
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  • Profile picture of the author monychhim
    Hello, first of all I want to say thanks to all of you for the great advices! There are lots of AWESOME ideas that I'm totally going to implement.

    - Regarding search traffic for my secondary locations, I've checked. My main/first location yields 70 monthly searches, second location 70 as well, and tertiary 40.
    Competition is weak, so I am going to go for all these locations.

    - I have another question. My primary keyword is chiropractor at Lyon 1 (it's a district).
    I want to try to rank for chiropractor at Lyon as well (it's the whole city: high search volume/high competition).
    So does it make sense to implement this kind of title page, or is the second part of the title worthless?
    Chiropractor at Lyon 1 | Chiropractic office at Lyon

    cheers!
    mony
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