Objective

An important component of a firm’s SEO strategy is geographic SEO – the targeting of site content towards specific geographies (countries, regions, states, cities, etc.). Geographic SEO is important for targeting potential clients and customers in the locations in which you do business, which gains you SEO advantages over your local competitors.

Strategy

Firms must identify relevant geographies, and content across all marketing channels must be tailored accordingly. Geographic targeting requires a careful approach and a level of earnestness.

Implementation

Many implementations of geographic targeting result in severe penalties from the search engines – anywhere from poor placements to outright banning. It is critical that content is not replicated across geographies with simple keyword replacements – that approach is too transparent. Certainly, targeted content will have geographic keywords that permeate throughout the site, including URLs, titles, meta tags, headings, main text, page names, and even domain.

Ongoing

With geographic targeting, the level of content is increased, so maintenance and updating is even more critical. However, the benefits to a robust implementation can be significant.