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3 Tips for Ranking Your Business in Multiple Cities

Dots!

This topic could go one of two ways…

Option 1: You’re a business that started small, and have grown to expand your business in multiple locations. You are opening new physical storefronts in these new cities, and desire to have these new branches rank for local organic searches.

Option 2: You’re a business (probably e-commerce) that has one (or no specific) location, but you want to increase your reach and connect with potential customers in different cities. You want to rank locally for specific organic searches, but you don’t have a physical presence in these desired cities.

We are going to roll with option two, given that most companies don’t feature multiple physical locations, but still would like to sell outside their immediate geographical radius.

Tip #1 – Location Specific Content Development

An important way to rank in cities you don’t have physical locations involves creating web content that is specific to those desired locations. In doing so, you will begin to climb Google result pages for your targeted keyword in these secondary cities.

Aside from creating blogs that detail your presence in these additional locations, or having service pages include all the areas your business caters to, building out location-specific landing pages for each city you wish to rank in, can be a successful strategy.

Regardless of your plan of action, it is imperative to create location-specific content in order to rank in new cities.

Tip #2 – Linking Building is the Ticket

Link building can provide a lot of good SEO juice to your website and online presence. Look to land links with news outlets, local online publications, and more digital media outlets within these new cities you wish to grow your reach. Not only does this signal to Google that these other city-specific businesses are associating with you, but it also gives you a channel to communicate with local residents.

Backlinks increase your credibility, move web traffic your direction, and help solidify your brand awareness among consumers.

Tip #3 – Dive into the Community

A large part of local SEO is having consumers looking for your type of product or service. If there is search volume for these products/services, the next step involves getting the public to associate these products/services with your business. While this process is more grassroots than SEO focused, the efforts do circle back.

When trying to rank your business in a new city, it can be a good idea to deliver samples of your product or promotions about your services to third-parties willing to help spread the word. An example could be dropping off $5 gift cards at a coffee shop, or leaving lotion samples at a nail salon.

Other ideas to develop a reputation within a community include sending your team experts to events within the area to discuss your business and product/service benefits. Sponsoring local performances, competitions, and events can also help raise brand awareness. By generating name recognition, and investing in the community, you are more likely to see organic searches from locals, social media chatter surrounding your business in these targeted areas, in addition to receiving more attention from the community news outlets.

Venta’s Resident Expert Advice

“Start by creating a heavily optimized landing page on your site for the city you want to rank in. Include as many details that are relevant to the city as possible, including testimonials from customers who live in the city, an embedded Google map of the city, relevant local links, etc. Make sure this is a full page with relevant content, and don’t overdo it with too many similar pages for small cities. Pick some large ones and optimize those.”
Chris Winters, Venta Marketing Organic Team Lead

Need Help with Ranking in New Cities?

At Venta Marketing, we are helping businesses meet their goals head-on. As leaders in the digital marketing industry, we know the ins-and-outs of local SEO. Contact us if you are curious about how we can help you grow!