Local Vs. National Targeting - Pointless?

[netex72]

Hi,

I have a client, in Maryland, that wants to rank on the first page for "yoga teacher training".  But to my understanding Google (don't know about Yahoo! & Bing at the moment) is prioritizing local listings first based on the user's IP (or preferred city if using a logged in Google Account).

1. Am I right about the priority of local listings?  Is that a common occurrence now?

2. Is it possible for my client to rank for yoga teacher training for someone searching in New York, for example, or is this a huge chalenge?

Thanks for any advice!!

Kindly, Michael

[elephantseo]

Hi Michael,

Yes you are right about #1, this type of thing would probably be best explained with an in person meeting where you do the searches together live and explain the results. If face to face isn't possible setup using gotomeeting and share your desktop and show the client. If the client doesn't rank for local yet suggest getting ranked local first (easier) and then going national.

It is possible to rank for other cities and your strategy would come down to the goal. Do you want to show up as a local result or just have the site show up in the regular SERPs. There are ways to show up for local results without having a physical location but it starts to fall in the grey hat tactics area.

[Guest]

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[netex72]

Thanks - the client doesn't even come up locally for the search - but if you append the state she is in, she ranks on the first page.

I think I'm going to go back and explain that moving up even for a local search is going to bring in substantial more traffic.

[netex72]

Will do, thanks!