Do you need help to gain footing outside of its primary city? Do you need to learn how to rank multiple cities with location SEO? Many companies experience frustration when they serve numerous regions but don’t know how to appear in various city searches on one website.
Worse, some businesses don’t have a physical storefront, and their headquarters are remote. These situations make it difficult for companies without a physical address to serve more than one area. It can feel hopeless for those who don’t know how to rank in multiple cities.
Why Is Local SEO Important?
If local SEO might seem like a potential drawback, why bother with it? Well, here are two compelling reasons:
First, local SEO strategy for multiple locations drives foot traffic. Imagine you’re away for a family wedding, craving a cheese pizza the night before. You grab your phone and search, but what do you type? “Pizza?” Unlikely. You’d probably use a location-specific keyword like “best pizza in Denver.”
When the results show up, you don’t just say, “Interesting,” and go to sleep. No, you take action — you order that pizza or head out to that fantastic pizzeria.
And you’re not alone. About 1.5 billion searches each month lead people to locations related to their queries. You’re not a rare case. Nearly 46% of Google searches have local intent. If you’re considering skipping local SEO for multiple locations, think again.
It could be the key to attracting that vacationer looking for your pizza place (or hardware store, convenience store, beauty salon, hardware store, and so on).
Second, local SEO boosts Google rankings. Are you familiar with the SEO KPIs you need for Google ranking, like site clicks and keyword improvements? Local SEO addresses both of these aspects simultaneously, taking into account the searcher’s proximity and relevance to the business.
Is It Wise to Invest in City Pages?
SEO specialists once used city pages in the early days of SEO location pages to cram local keywords and boost Google rankings.
For instance, you’d craft a page about “food delivery” and duplicate the content on multiple pages, each featuring a distinct city in the keyword, such as [food delivery in Denver], [food delivery in Aurora], and [food delivery in Boulder], all with identical content.
Google quickly caught on to this spammy tactic, leading to penalties when it launched the Panda Update. Consequently, improperly executed city pages can harm your SEO and penalize your website. However, if done correctly, they can be a valuable asset.
How to Rank in Multiple Cities
There are several ways to optimize local SEO for multiple locations and improve your local rankings on Google. However, exercise caution when learning how to use local SEO. Google will penalize websites they think are using spam tactics to garner traffic.
Luckily, several ways exist to target multiple cities on one website without spamming Google. Keep reading to learn some actionable tips on appearing in multiple city searches with one website and getting more business in the cities you serve.
Write Original Content on Multiple Cities
Optimize your content with multi-location SEO keywords to rank in multiple cities with one website. One way to do this is by using bullet points to list the cities you serve on a webpage that outlines your services.
Another option is to create several pages that contain content personalized to each city you serve. It is often the preferred method for appearing in numerous city searches on one website.
Since you can load up the content with localized SEO, the more quality webpages you create, the better your chances of ranking locally.
When learning about location pages for SEO and how to appear in multiple city searches with one website, creating quality web content personalized to your clients’ area will help them feel more confident in your business.
Examples are the various city pages we’ve created on our Locations page. While we focus primarily on our local office in Denver, Colorado, we also rank for several keywords related to the surrounding geographic locations.
Create Areas of Service
Some excellent advice on improving SEO ranking in multiple cities is to create an ‘areas of service’ section on your webpage. More than a single webpage, service areas contain multiple pages outlining your available services in a particular city.
These pages are great for businesses trying to figure out how to rank in multiple cities. They can include FAQs about the city, a list of your services specific to the region, reviews and testimonials from previous customers served in the area, and anything else you can think of.
Don’t copy and paste the same web page repeatedly— this is not how to rank with multi-location SEO. When you spam the same information over multiple pages, Google penalizes your webpage by dropping it from the search engine result rankings.
Enhance Your SEO with a Strong Internal Linking Strategy
Optimizing your internal linking structure can significantly impact your SEO. While external backlinks are helpful, they’re only partially within your control, and acquiring them can be challenging. If you’re still working on building external links, internal linking can be incredibly beneficial by:
- Enhancing your website’s navigation
- Signaling to Google the most vital pages on your site
- Improving your website’s overall architecture
These improvements can elevate your SEO rankings and boost your visibility for local search queries.
Establish Your Online Business Presence with NAP Citations
NAP, short for name, address, and phone number, represents your business’s online identity. Begin by placing this information at the bottom of your website’s homepage, where visitors typically expect to find it.
Additionally, consider listing your business details on prominent online data aggregators. These aggregators supply data to major platforms like Microsoft Bing, Yelp, and TripAdvisor. Some key aggregators to focus on include Neustar Localeze, Factual, Data Axle, and Acxiom.
While it may seem time-consuming, ensuring consistent NAP information across the web is crucial for multiple-location SEO. Any discrepancies can negatively impact your chances of appearing in Google’s local map pack or on popular platforms such as TripAdvisor and Yelp.
Enhance Your Local SEO with Schema Markup
Schema markup, schema, or structured data can significantly impact local SEO efforts. While it may appear daunting, using schema markup on your website is more manageable than you think.
Established in 2011 through collaboration between Google, Yahoo, Yandex, and Microsoft, Schema.org aims to create a common language for search engines. Although it doesn’t directly affect SEO rank, it offers various benefits, such as improving visitor engagement, query relevance, and search result appearances.
Schema markup enhances the likelihood of using content for rich results, making it more visually appealing and boosting click-through rates. Additionally, it offers specific property options relevant to local SEO, allowing you to choose appropriate schema categories.
For instance, selecting Schema.org/bakery for your cupcake shop helps search engines better understand your website’s topic. After choosing the right category, you should select sub-properties for validation, including business names, hours, and service areas.
It’s essential for multiple–location SEO to ensure that Schema.org/areaServed on your local landing page matches the service areas defined in your Google Business Profile. Moreover, your local landing page should mention these exact locations in its on-page content for consistency and relevance.
Provide an Interactive Map
An excellent approach for how to appear in multiple city searches with one website is to provide an interactive map for potential customers. It will help your local SEO by allowing you to write short descriptions of each area on your homepage.
Load up these descriptions with local location SEO for each area, and your business will be well on its way to ranking in the local search results for all regions you serve.
Featuring an interactive map is a great way to give your clients a visual representation of the areas your business serves, even if you don’t have a physical address in the city.
Use Google My Business
Google My Business is Google’s way of verifying your business. By providing Google with your company’s basic information, including the name, address, contact information, and hours of operation, you’ll have a higher chance of ranking on page one of Google’s SEO rank.
Let Google work while you learn to appear in multiple city searches on one website. While you’re fine-tuning your local SEO tactics, Google My Business works for you to promote your businesses locally.
Optimize Your Website for Mobiles
While figuring out how to rank in multiple cities, keep mobile capabilities from falling by the wayside. Due to the wide use of mobile phones over laptops and desktop computers, Google now uses mobile-first indexing. It means that Google prioritizes mobile versions of web page content in its SEO rankings.
Optimizing your website for mobile viewing can help your chances of ranking in local search results. A few ways to improve your website’s mobile capabilities include enlarging your webpage fonts and tweaking your page properties. Hence, they fit different screen sizes and ensure all your information is front and center on your homepage.
Several resources allow you to test your webpage in various formats, including mobile. If you want to find out how to rank with multi-location SEO, invest the time into making sure your content is accessible to everyone, no matter where they are accessing it from.
Rank Better in Multiple Cities with Clicta Digital
Serving multiple cities can be a struggle for businesses. One way to combat this is to learn how to rank in numerous cities constantly. Google always comes out with new features — knowing how to use them will be vital to staying highly ranked in all the cities you serve.
Clicta Digital will help you improve your ranking with our location SEO services. We can deliver the desired results with the right people, tools, and strategies. We’ll brainstorm with you so you’re on top of the process.
Book an appointment and talk to our local SEO expert!
