SEO by state

I have two websites for one construction company.
Their business is in Arizona and Texas.

They asked me to get high ranked at the search engine when people ask for construction companies in AZ or TX.

What I would like to know is:

Is it possible at all. Doing SEO by region?

Can I get any guide lines or tips for how to do it?

Thanks for your help.

This is not only possible but makes your job even easier. It is simple to do and should include two things:


1.)Be sure your on page efforts target the region you are going after so it should be mentioned in the body, the title, and the description (Google doesn't use the description for ranking purposes but may display it which can turn into clicks even if you arent #1)

2.)All of your anchor text should contain a variation of the region. For more info on the importance of anchor text take a look at the SEOChat FAQ in my sig.

THe good news about such specific regional terms is that they don't seem to be as affected by the "Sandbox" theories as the more competetive general word. This is because they aren't as competetive but you are targeting a small market so that shouldn't be an issue.

Because the phrases you will be targeting won't be particularly competetive, make sure you target a diverse range of phrases. Use the overture tool to see how many searches are done and target those with the most that include the geographical references you are after.

Good luck!

Mmm... Interesting...

A few more questions:
The domain they want to get include the state name. Is that OK?
http://ourcompanyAZ.com & http://ourcompanyATX.com - makes sense at all?

How does it work?
If I'm in TX right now and I'm searching: "Construction Company" in a search engine. Will I get the ourcompanyAZ or I'll get it only if I'll write tht I'm looking for companies in AZ?
I'm trying to figure out if google knows where I am...

Thanks for your help!

Im not in the US so I might not be the best to answer this but as far as I am aware Google does not provide results by state based on actual location. It is only by country, so for example here in Ireland I can do a search and click "pages from Ireland".

What you would be targeting is people searching for "Construction in Arizona" or "Arizona Construction Company". This is done by the SEO techniques described above.

As far as the domain, if you are trying to gain a slight advantage I would put in a dash so its not read all as one word. So yourcompany-AZ.com although this isn't a miracle worker. Personally I would forget the AZ and just register the company name as brand awareness is more important to me for local advertising than the small domain benefit. Thats a personal choice though. If you decide to use dashes try to limit it to 1. I find anymore looks a bit spammy.

Thank you so much for your help!

You're welcome and I would definately read through the FAQ available here. A lot of the issues you will face are addressed there as we have only scratched the surface.

Get stuck in and be sure to post any specific questions you have!

Cheers