At Fourandhalf, we specialize in Internet marketing for property managers, so a lot of people ask us about Google ranking, and whether they can rank for multiple cities at the same time. We’re going to explore that subject a little bit in today’s blog.
Some of our clients have all of their business in one major city, such as Atlanta or New York or Los Angeles. That means all they need to worry about is ranking for that one place. However, lots of the property managers we work with and thousands of other property management companies around the country are in smaller towns. They don’t have one big city to focus on; instead, they have their town and then a number of small towns in the surrounding area. Naturally, they want to have traction in those places as well as their main location. So their question is – how can they do that?
Our first piece of advice is not to worry too much about it. Google emphasizes location-based search results. They know that if you are pumping out information for Concord, California, that there are a number of other towns in the vicinity. So, if someone is online looking up information in one of those towns, Google will still deliver Concord video blogs and websites.
It’s also important to remember that there’s no need to get preoccupied. However, you still want to ensure a strong ranking. So pick the “Number One” town you want to rank for. That will be the town that you use on your website’s home page. All the other towns where you want to establish a presence are going to be on subpages in your website. There are a couple of ways to incorporate those.
One option is to hire a webmaster to make up the website with those additional pages. You can hire a copywriter to provide great copy for those subpages. The most important thing to remember is that you cannot have the same content on those pages. Changing only the name of the town but keeping everything else the same will not work. That’s duplication of content and it will hurt you. Unique content is important. Use those subpages as an opportunity to talk about why you might want to own a rental property in that town. You can talk about some of the amenities available in the area, or write about great restaurants or famous people who used to live there. Those unique subpages on your site will then help you rank in those towns as well.
There’s another option if you don’t want to pay someone to add the pages and write the copy. Instead, you can take advantage of blogging on your site. Blog posts are pages, and they work. Write a blog that focuses on that town. It could be a series of blogs, such as “Why You Want to Own a Rental Property in Concord,” and then, “Why You Want to Own a Rental Property in Walnut Creek,” and “Why You Want to Own a Rental Property in Danville,” etc. Each one will name one of the towns you want to focus on, and your blog creates a separate page for each place.
If you want to add even more juice, make those blogs video blogs. Then, you’re creating YouTube videos for each town and that will give you twice as much ranking power. These blogs will not be considered subpages on your website – they are completely separate. So, you’ll have two chances to rank with Google.
These are a couple of ways to take care of ranking in multiple towns. Don’t spend too much time worrying about it, and remember you don’t have to do it all at once, especially if you’re choosing the blog method. Doing a little bit at a time means a constant drip of content and contact, and that can be really powerful.
If you have any questions about your Google ranking or anything pertaining to Internet marketing for property managers, contact us at Fourandhalf and we’d be happy to talk with you.
