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Hi there "never" on my end was a strong word - I apologize. What I am saying that without proper optimization and taking advantage of opportunities like those listed above, you probably won't appear for those search queries here in Chicago. My point being - you need to invest in associating your brand with these different regions that you provide services in and have representatives in. Whether it is dedicated on-site content or mentions on other sites that are in those regions, you have opportunities to appear for location based searches. "It seems like what you're saying is that we need to establish locality in every large and small city in the U.S. and order to be found by people who live anywhere in the U.S." Not at all - I am saying people in these cities do searches for hotels / tours / travel packages for different cities/countries around the world, researching where they want to go on vacation and get a deal. What I am saying is take opportunities to appear on hotels / tours / travel package websites in those cities/countries that are legitimate and relevant to your business. Two things happen - you appear on sites in different countries and regions that you legitimately do business in and you increase chances of appearing for location based searches because you appear on sites in those countries and regions. Does this make sense?

Hey Ben, Thanks for sharing your problem and it's indeed a very tough situation for your business. If I were at your place, I wouldn't take this step to go with domain that's not matched with my brand name. Even if I had to, I'd go with something that at least partially linked with brand name. For the email marketing problem, I strongly think this "FREE" word problem can be taken care, if you implement some latest email marketing strategies like Email Schema Markup. You can also work out on the useless traffic by creating some great and targeted content. From the SEO perspective, if you have good amount of quality links at your original branded domain, I'd suggest you to go with it. Let's see what other experts recommends! Good luck! Umar