SEO - Local or not local?

[niclaus78]

This post is deleted!

[KeriMorgret]

Does anybody come to Sydney to purchase coffee pods in person?

[Asjad]

Hi Nicolas,

It will not make Big Difference by creating local citations as Google can Read your Website Contact us Page anyway.

So go for it and make Citation & Backlinks.

Just make Sure that your Meta Title Should not be City Specific like Sydney coffee pods Instead it should be something Like Best Quality Coffee Pods  Australia..

Thanks

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Nicolas,

You write:

"...a company which sells coffee pods online"

To me, this is a description of a virtual business rather than a local one. To qualify for local inclusion in Google's index, a business must:

1. Have in-person transactions with its customers, either at the business' location (like a dentist) or at the customers' locations (like a plumber).

2. Have a physical location at which mail can be received and a local phone number which matches that location.

If your client's product is being sold online, without in-person transactions, then local is not really an appropriate marketing approach here. Instead, you would simply be doing organic SEO, PPC, etc.

Now, if I've misunderstood the business model and people are coming to a shop of some sort to purchase these products in person, then building citations does make sense and the question becomes the common one:

"If I optimize a business locally, does that prevent it from ranking nationally?"

The answer to this is, 'no'. A business can rank both locally and nationally, but it requires the simultaneous development of slightly different kinds of authority, via a variety of efforts, including local SEO, organic SEO, social outreach, content development, link earning, etc. If you think about a large franchise like McDonald's, you will see a model for this. Corporate headquarters can appear for a generic, brand search, and individual restaurants appear based on the local algo for searchers in cities around the globe. So, it's quite possible to do both. It just takes a lot of work!

Hope this helps!

[niclaus78]

Hi just to clarify,

The business sells either by online transactions or calling a phone 1300 number,they don't have a physical shop at this stage, the contact page only mentions the phone number there is no mention to their adress.

My idea is that creating local citations won't heart but Im concern if Google will serve them more when a user is searching within the sydney area or using the keyword sydney, rather than a user in say Melbourne.

Thanks a lot for the help given.

Cheers

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Nicolas,

Thank you for the clarification. The business you are marketing, then, is not local, but virtual. Because of this, creating local citations is not the right path to go down. You need to work on building organic authority - not local authority. Don't create a Google+ Local page - the business doesn't qualify for one. Instead, you need to work on content development, earning links, social outreach, video marketing, etc.

If you need further clarification as to which business models are deemed eligible, by Google, for local inclusion, here are the Google Places Quality Guidelines:

https://support.google.com/places/answer/107528?hl=en