City Pages – The Key to a Successful Local SEO Strategy {Updated}

Why It’s So Important to Use City Pages SEO to Promote Local Businesses

It’s no surprise that a lot of people choose to take advantage of a local search when they would like to find local businesses near them.   

In this case, a person performs searches in certain geographical areas only. Traditionally, a searcher uses a keyword that’s relevant to a product or service and a location in a search engine.

And of course, your local business needs to be optimized for this type of search query. It’s incredibly important for you to promote your local business within your city and target all the surrounding areas.

It makes a lot of sense to create the so-called city pages (also known as geo pages) on a local business site. Each site’s web pages have to be optimized for location-based keywords.

But most importantly, each city page will drive the targeted traffic to your website and contribute greatly to your local business growth. With city page SEO, you’ll make it easy for your customers to find your business in a local search.

WHAT DO CITY PAGES LOOK LIKE?

Let’s say that you run a business locally. In this case, you will have to promote your business in the main area. Plus, you’ll need to advertise your products or services in the surrounding areas.   

When creating city pages on local business sites, you have to keep two things in mind.

1. First and foremost, a city page has to be relevant to a target keyword.
2. Second, a city page has to be optimized for a target area.

Traditionally, city pages are optimized for geographical areas. First and foremost, city pages have to be optimized for geographical areas with high population densities.

City pages optimized for most densely populated areas will drive high amounts of targeted traffic to a local business site. On the other hand, your local business will have to deal with higher competition.

It also makes a lot of sense to optimize city pages for the areas with low population densities. Such city pages will generate less traffic to a local business site. On the other hand, your local business will have to deal with lower competition. So, you’ll find it much easier to dominate the local market and sell your products or services with local SEO.    

However, it’s possible to go further with city pages SEO optimization. Additionally, city pages can be optimized for other types of elements such as:

• zip codes
• highways
• streets
• Metro areas
• lakes
• parks   

People may also use such elements when searching for local businesses. So, you will be able to create the additional geo pages on your local business site and optimize them for these types of elements. Such pages will drive the additional search traffic to your business website and contribute greatly to your local SEO. 

It goes without saying that city pages will be a good addition to your local SEO strategy. If done right, city pages SEO will help your local business rank high in the areas that surround your cities and neighborhoods.

This type of local SEO will make it possible for your potential customers to find your local business within your city and in its neighboring towns and its surrounding areas.   

It’s important to point out that city pages SEO is a cost-effective marketing solution for a local business. City pages will attract search traffic to your site for a long time. That means that city pages SEO will provide you with a high return on investment over time.

City pages will generate high amounts of search traffic, phone calls, new customers as well as sales to your local business.

Another big advantage is that the city pages are the type of web pages that allow local businesses to rank high in the areas where a local business doesn’t have a physical address.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF CITY PAGES

In fact, city pages can be created on a local business site in different ways. There are two different types of city pages. These include:

• City pages which are optimized for the main keyword (main product or service) and a target area.
• City pages which are optimized for the secondary keywords (sub-category product or service) and a target area.

Each type of city page has its own benefits. So, it would be better to add both types of city pages to a local business site. Let me dig deeper and explain the differences between these two types of city pages.

If, for example, you run a marketing company then the main service keyword is marketing services and the secondary service keywords are SEO services, PPC services, social media marketing services, email marketing services, and so on.

If you would like to do city pages SEO for a marketing company’s site, then you’ll be able to create two different types of pages.

1) Pages that are optimized for the main keyword such as marketing services and the area that you target.

2) Pages that are optimized for keywords like SEO services, PPC services, social media marketing services, email marketing services, and the area that you target.

Both types of city pages will help you attract local SEO traffic to your business and contribute greatly to your local SEO strategy. However, it’s a lot easier to achieve the top local search rankings for sub-category product or service pages.

OPTIMIZING CITY PAGES FOR LSI KEYWORDS

You’ll get even more local search traffic if you choose to optimize your local business site’s pages for the so-called LSI keywords.

When creating content for city pages, you should aim to insert LSI keywords into the text where it’s possible.

It makes a lot of sense to use LSI keywords as subtitles on city pages. However, you have to make sure LSI keywords on your city pages look and sound natural. Also, bear in mind that keyword stuffing is something that should be avoided.    

The fact is LSI keywords usually don’t generate high amounts of search traffic to websites. That’s the reason why city pages need to be optimized for multiple LSI keywords.   

On the other hand, LSI keywords have much lower competition comparing to the main keyword and secondary keywords. So, it’s much easier to achieve the top search engine rankings for such keywords.

These types of keywords will help you get the additional local search traffic to your local business.

Actually, you need to take two steps to incorporate LSI keywords into your local business site’s city pages.

Step 1. First of all, you have to find LSI keywords for your local SEO strategy. You can take advantage of the LSI keyword generator to find many good LSI keyword suggestions for your local business. Put the main keyword into an LSI online keyword tool and let the tool do the work for you. Finally, the tool will provide you with a list of LSI keywords that can be used for your local SEO optimization strategy.    

Step 2. Now, all that you have to do is to create content for your local business site’s city pages. And of course, the content on the site’s city pages has to be created with SEO in mind. LSI keywords have to be incorporated into website content.

As a result, you will get city pages that will be optimized for your main keyword, secondary keywords, LSI keywords, and the target areas. Without a doubt, these types of pages will contribute greatly to your local SEO strategy and your local business growth.              

TIPS FOR DEVELOPING CONTENT FOR CITY PAGES

The success of city pages SEO depends a lot on the content that you provide on a website. Search engines analyze content on web pages carefully before providing users with local search results. It’s crucial for you to provide the right type of content on your local business site’s city pages.

If Google likes the content on your city pages, then you’ll be able to achieve the top local search rankings for the targeted keywords easily and quickly.

So, the big question is – what type of content needs to be published on the local site’s city pages? Actually, it’s a common question that people ask about the content for city pages. Let’s get the answer to it right now!

In order to realize what type of content works well on local business site’s city pages, let’s take a closer look at the recent SEO studies.

The numerous SEO studies have shown that long-form content on city pages ranks well in Google local search. So, it would be better to create this type of content for the local business site’s city pages.

The optimal length of content for local business site’s city pages varies between 2000 and 3000 words. The truth is that people usually spend more time on city pages with long-form content and this has a profound positive impact on local search engine rankings.    

Obviously, the success of local SEO content is not only about the length. It’s important to note that you need to put a special focus on the quality of the content as well. Remember that the quality of content is more important rather than the volume of content.

What type of content does Google like? The reality is, Google gives a preference to the content that meets the following requirements:

• the original content
• the content that contains detailed information about the target area
• the content that’s relevant to your business, products, and services
• well-structured and easy to use content that allows users to find the necessary information on city pages quickly
• the content that can easily convert city page’s visitors into paying customers

And of course, you should aim to provide the content that meets these criteria in the best possible way.

So, your job is to publish high quality, SEO optimized, and long term content on your local business site’s city pages. There is no doubt that this type of content will do a great job for your SEO strategy and rank high in local search results.

CREATE CITY PAGES THAT CONVERT WELL

You should aim to design city pages in a way that will allow you to convert site visitors into paying clients easily.

First of all, you have to set the goals for your city pages SEO. Ask yourself what goals you would like to accomplish by doing city pages SEO for your local business site.

Do you want to get more visitors, sales, or, maybe, you try to land new customers for a local business? In most cases, local business owners try to get calls from new customers.

Another important thing that you need to be aware of is that the vast majority of customers choose to make a phone call once they find a local business in local search results. It’s also important to note that lots of people take advantage of the mobile search when trying to find local businesses.

Oftentimes, buyers want to clarify some questions about products or services prior to making a purchase. After getting an initial consultation, people usually decide to schedule an appointment.

All of this means that you need to do only two things in order to turn the local business site visitors into paying customers.

1. Today, a high amount of traffic that comes from search engines is generated by mobile devices. The mobile traffic has already surpassed desktop traffic. That’s why it’s so important to make sure that your local business site is mobile friendly. Your website pages have to look great on all types of mobile devices.
2. You have to design city pages to make it easy for site visitors to call a local business. Display the “Call” button in the right place on your local business site. So, searchers will find it easy to make the call a local business when such a need arises.            

As you probably know, today’s SEO is all about providing site visitors with a great user experience. That means that you should make your local business site’s city pages user friendly. If visitors find your city pages comfortable, then these pages will rank high in the local search results for target keywords.

IT WILL TAKE SOME TIME TO GET EFFECTIVE RESULTS

The reality is, city pages SEO success doesn’t happen overnight. So, you have to be patient when creating and optimizing local business site’s geo-pages for SEO.   

City pages usually don’t rank high immediately after they have been created. You must be prepared that it takes city pages some time to achieve the top search rankings in the Google local search.

Initially, Google will index city pages on local business sites. After that, the search engine will analyze city pages on your website. Also, the search engine will assess your domain authority and other factors.

It’s also important to note that local search rankings depend a lot on your local business site’s domain authority.

If you have a website with a high authority domain, then your city pages are likely to rank high for the necessary keywords in Google search.

The higher website’s domain authority is – the faster your city pages will get on top in Google search for keyword phrases that you target.

On the other hand, city pages may not rank high in local search for the necessary keywords if your local business site lacks the domain authority.

However, your search rankings will improve and your website will get on top of the local search if you boost your domain authority.

IMPROVING DOMAIN AUTHORITY AND LOCAL AUTHORITY WILL POSITIVELY AFFECT CITY PAGES SEO

It’s important to know that local search rankings depend on two factors such as 1) the website’s domain authority and 2) the location authority of your business.

The domain authority score ranges from 0 to 100. The greater score is – the higher domain authority is – the better.   

It’s worth noting that a website with a high domain authority score has a better chance to achieve high search engine rankings for target keywords. That means that you are likely to get more search traffic if you have higher domain authority.        

Improving domain authority. You can boost the domain authority significantly if you manage to attract high-quality external links to your website. You should aim to get quality external links to your website.

When picking platforms for building links you need to pay close attention to such things as domain authority and site’s relevancy. Try to get external links from sites of high domain authority as well as sites that are relevant to your business, products, or services. External links of this type generate quality traffic to a website and have a positive impact on its search engine rankings.

Improving the location authority. The best way to build location authority is to increase the presence of a business on the local market. The location authority of your business will improve significantly when people frequently mention your business name, brand name, and site name on the local sites.          

First and foremost, you have to build domain authority for your business. If you run a business locally, then you also have to try to establish the location authority. After that, you should constantly improve domain authority as well as location authority.

It goes without saying that this will result in a website’s search traffic increase. As a result, a website will generate more potential clients as well as sales to your local business.

Do you need professional help with city pages SEO? At Finepoint Design, we are always ready to provide local businesses with cost-effective city page SEO service packages! Contact us today to discuss your local SEO needs!