Local SEO Questions

[tykerx]

Hi All!

Posted something in the main Google thread last week, but I'm going to try my luck in the local thread as well. This isn't a duplicate post, I'll be asking a couple of other questions.

Here is my situation: I'm working for a website company, where I've had to take over much of the SEO in a very short period of time. I've done some non-local SEO before, but still very much a newbie at this.

Here are my questions, any help you can offer would be a lifesaver.

1.) Page Titles: I got a lot of recommendations on this, and a lot of conflicting opinions. Say I have a website for a veterinary hospital, who wants to target 2-3 cities. This client offers multiple services, and we'll be optimizing for those mostly on a page-by-page basis.

Say we are on the "Pet Dental Care" page, here is what I've been looking at for a page title:

Springfield CA Pet Dental Care | Springfield Animal Hospital

On another page (Surgery), I could do something like:

Veterinary Surgery - Springfield Animal Hospital | Jonestown CA Animal Clinic


I got advise not to use pipes, and also to use pipes, so I'm pretty lost. My other issue is that say I want to optimize for (veterinarians / veterinary hospital / animal clinic) in different locations that the client does business, do I sprinkle those across page titles?

2.) All of our websites have well written content, and plenty of landing pages. Is there a general rule for how many locations I can reasonably optimize for if I have about 20 pages of content? These pages will be things such as a page talking about dental services that a client provides. Another page might be pet boarding or dermatology. I know that it isn't realistic to beat out a well made website dedicated to pet boarding, but I am just looking for people's thoughts here.


Sorry for the long post, I'm completely buried here and could use a hand.

Thanks,

tk

[Lb1878]

As general advice, I would create a separate page for each service targeting each locale individually. The more you try to target, the more you dilute the key terms.

I have not seen any negative effects from using pipes as separators. The more natural looking titles, the better. Don't try to force things. People aren't stupid. If it doesn't read well to a human, stay away from it.

[DMN Webmaster]

Say we are on the "Pet Dental Care" page, here is what I've been looking at for a page title:

Springfield CA Pet Dental Care | Springfield Animal Hospital

On another page (Surgery), I could do something like:

Veterinary Surgery - Springfield Animal Hospital | Jonestown CA Animal Clinic

As Lb1878 said

As general advice, I would create a separate page for each service targeting each locale individually

Create a page for each using your titles as you have posted, they are a good place to start.

Springfield CA Pet Dental Care | Springfield Animal Hospital

Veterinary Surgery - Springfield Animal Hospital | Jonestown CA Animal Clinic

I get advised not to use pipes, and also to use pipes, so I'm pretty lost. My other issue is that say I want to optimize for (veterinarians / veterinary hospital / animal clinic) in different locations that the client does business, do I sprinkle those across page titles?

Use the pipes or don't use the pipes it will make little real difference. The concept behind using pipes was originally because Google didn't reconize the symbol and it didn't take up character space, now Google does reconize the symbol.

All of our websites have well written content, and plenty of landing pages. Is there a general rule for how many locations I can reasonably optimize for if I have about 20 pages of content? These pages will be things such as a page talking about dental services that a client provides. Another page might be pet boarding or dermatology. I know that it isn't realistic to beat out a well made website dedicated to pet boarding, but I am just looking for people's thoughts here.

Really it is not a matter of how many cities is too much, but rather a question of how many pages do you want to design and produce and SEO.

Just how hard do you want to work yourself may be a better question.

Create as many pages as needed to accomplish the job.

[tykerx]

Thanks to both of you for the helpful replies!

We sell our websites in page-determined packages. So basically, one level includes 20 total pages. Now this includes some contact pages, etc. But for the most part they are used to cover services.

This means that we need to SEO each of these pages, so I'd imagine I have a good amount of space to spread out title tag optimization.

One of my big concerns is that if we are optimizing for an area that is a town over from where the client is (say 15,000 people). Is it considered unethical to have: "Springfield CA Lawyer" as part of the tag on one of the pages if the practice is in the town over?

Since I'm still learning local SEO, I'm trying to make sure that I'm learning the ethical non-black hat methods.

Thanks!

Tk

[DMN Webmaster]

Thanks to both of you for the helpful replies!

We sell our websites in page-determined packages. So basically, one level includes 20 total pages. Now this includes some contact pages, etc. But for the most part they are used to cover services.

This means that we need to SEO each of these pages, so I'd imagine I have a good amount of space to spread out title tag optimization.

One of my big concerns is that if we are optimizing for an area that is a town over from where the client is (say 15,000 people). Is it considered unethical to have: "Springfield CA Lawyer" as part of the tag on one of the pages if the practice is in the town over?

Since I'm still learning local SEO, I'm trying to make sure that I'm learning the ethical non-black hat methods.

Thanks!

Tk

Think of it like this. Raleigh NC is a big city in NC. Garner NC is not. Nor is Fuquay Varina NC. So a major law firm in Raleigh wants to attract clients form the surround areas. Nothing un-ethical about. Pretend it is a TV Commerical aired for the local viewing area. Get the picture?

How you perform seo is either white, gray or black. Black would be un-ethical, it could get the client's website banned from Google.

See the difference now?

[Test-ok]

One of my big concerns is that if we are optimizing for an area that is a town over from where the client is (say 15,000 people). Is it considered unethical to have: "Springfield CA Lawyer" as part of the tag on one of the pages if the practice is in the town over?

unethical...not at all, I would do it different though.
I would optimize my "Springfield CA Lawyer" for Springfield Lawyers and mention with-in the page/pages with-in the text that you also cover surrounding areas (as in mentioning the cities name).

Usually a person will search the big city next door if they have a small business base say around 15,000...meaning anyone in a town of 15,000 will already know the lawyers, maybe 1-2 if their lucky and would use them or search for another lawyer...where..the next town over.

[raja2221]

U should not use the pipe.B'coz spiders cnt understand and if recognize as a single title