Optimising for a specific location

[craig_sepperro.com]

Hello,

I think I know the answer to this but I'm sure there's more to be told. If I optimised a site for a particular city and keyword, let say bespoke kitchens Edinburgh. Do I really need to add the Edinburgh word in if I am mentioning Edinburgh in a different context on other parts of the site?

So I would just be using and optimising for bespoke kitchens which is a far easier phrase to fit organically into written text. The Edinburgh (location) word would be mentioned but in different sections of the text, I might even use Glasgow & Fife (other catchment area locations)

Would search engines then still rank me for searches for "bespoke Kitchens" searched for by someone from Edinburgh or does it need to read "bespoke kitchens edinburgh"?

Thanks for you help.

[RobertFisher]

Craig,

Your answer is yes. OK, so both are correct. One mistake I see made is the overuse of the geolocator (Edinburgh). First, you need to insure that in Google + for business you have set up your business in Edinburgh (assuming that is where you are). Not knowing how many pages you will have for bespoke kitchens, I would suggest if you want to include Glasgow and Fife you create separate pages for each of them. This will be more likely to garner traffic from there than having them in places on the site but unfocused.

If your business is in Edinburgh and someone in Edinburgh searches for bespoke kitchens without you having used the geo locator over and over, you will still have a likelihood of showing in the searches. Having the word Edinburgh after bespoke kitchens every time is hard to read and makes the reader want to leave the page. That is not good SEO. Have it once in the title tag (but not everyone unless your brand has Edinburgh) and place it in the URL, the H1 and a couple of times max in the text. You should be fine.

Hope it helps.

[NoahC]

I deal with this same issue on my sites. I've read this advice a number of times: "optimize for the user first and the search engines second," and I think this is wise. My advice would be to try to get that exact match somewhere in your titles, URL, maybe in a heading here or there, but don't do it at the expense of making your copy sound weird.

[RobertFisher]

Noah keeps it succinct here and it is good advice: "optimize for the user first..."

[craig_sepperro.com]

Robert and Noah,

Thank you both very much, this is pretty much what I was thinking. I understand and agree concerning the importance of non-spammy relevant and hopefully engaging content.

Thanks Guys,

Craig