Ranking locally without local keywords in title?

[Linwright]

This is another great idea. Within your blog, have categories or tags for each location that you want to rank for and keep those categories fresh with local content. Then have 'areas we serve' as mentioned on your contact page and link the anchor text to the category pages or location blogs.

[KeriMorgret]

I know Google Places doesn't allow PO Boxes, and this might be against their terms of use too. I'm asking our local expert to add to this thread with some more information.

[cprodigy29]

I really don't want to add a new location if I don't have one there and I have a Google Place page for my real address now. My address belongs to a metro area of a bigger city and I would like to rank for terms in the bigger city.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Will,
Unfortunately, I would not recommend getting a virtual office or setting up a Google Place Page for any city in which you do not have a physical address. This practice is forbidden by Google's Places Quality Guidelines:

"Business Location: Use a precise, accurate address to describe your business location.

Do not create a listing or place your pin marker at a location where the business does not physically exist. P.O. Boxes are not considered accurate physical locations. If you operate from a location but receive mail at a mail box there, please list your physical address in Address Line 1, and put your mail box or suite number in Address Line 2."

http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107528

Your desire to rank well in a major city in your state is understandable, but does not meet with Google's guidelines. If ranking in Denver becomes essential for your business, you must rent a real office there - not a virtual office, not a P.O. Box - in order to qualify for inclusion in Places.

Now, if you would like to get a Place Page for your Greenwood address, the criterion you must meet is that you have in-person transactions with clients either at your Greenwood address or at your clients' locations (as in the case of a carpet cleaning company, chimney sweep etc.)

If you do not have in-person transactions with clients, your business is not local, but virtual, and again, not suitable for inclusion in Google Places.

If the latter is the case, then you will need to rely solely on organic SEO to target cities where you would like to gain rankings. Typically, this will not enable you to outrank competitors with physical locations and in-person transactions in said cities, but you may be able to achieve some visibility by a combination of copywriting and linkbuilding.

Hope this set of definitions helps, Will.
Miriam

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Nathan,

I'm not sure from your post whether this is something you used to do in the past or is something you are still paying people to do for you, but in case you've been misled by bad information out there, I wanted to take a second to make you aware of the guidelines which I've linked to in my reply to Will. The practice you are describing is not allowed, and when Google gets wise to things like these, the hammer can come down pretty hard.

I thought it worthwhile to comment on this, because I would not want to see the Places account of any SEOmoz member penalized of banned.

Miriam

[nbyloff]

Good to know, thank you. I had actually picked up that advice on seomoz 6-7 months ago.

[cprodigy29]

I do have a physical business location and it is in the metro are of the term I am trying to rank for. I am 20 minutes at most from the cities center point. I was just looking for a good way to rank without localizing my whole website. I do graphic design and web design but I have clients all over and I don't want to limit myself to just the city where my office is located.

I also have a places page and my business in Dexknows, Yelp, and other directories

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Again Will,

People are often afraid that adding local factors to their website might somehow decrease their national/international rank. I have yet to hear of a case of this actually happening. So, if you'd like to get some more visibility in your area, you can embed some local hooks in the site (address in footer, on contact page) and write some copy about your services in those cities.

Now, that being said, Google removed web design companies and SEO companies from their Local index in January of 2010. See:

http://www.searchengineguide.com/miriam-ellis/google-shoves-their-liaisons-off-maps.php

So, typically they will not show local rankings for website design firms, again pointing to organic as the way to go for you. Write/Blog about your projects for local clientele and chances are, you can make a dent in the SERPs.

[cprodigy29]

Yes I know that web design companies and SEO's aren't part of Google Local Search but if you do a search for Denver web design you will see companies optimized for this term. I guess that blogging and link building is the way to go.

[cprodigy29]

Yes I know that web design companies and SEO's aren't part of Google Local Search but if you do a search for Denver web design you will see companies optimized for this term. I guess that blogging and link building is the way to go.

[MiriamEllis]

Exactly. It was kind of a sad day when Google booted all the SEOs/designers out of the local index. But there is still organic. And I guess they were getting spammed like mad.

[David_Moceri]

To have virtual offices is not against their terms and extremely effective.

[David_Moceri]

Yes that will help for sure. The best way to do it is make a separate contact us page that when you make the new Google+ for business listing that you add that instead of the main root domain. For example yourcompanyname.com/denver-creative-services and that will rank quicker. I personally have done that myself a few times.