Our clients often ask us about local marketing for property managers and what they should do to get found by owners in their respective markets.
Today, we’ll talk about how to best show Google and the people searching on Google that you’re the local property management expert in your area.
Using your service location in the title of your blog can increase the effectiveness of your content marketing. But does that mean listing all the cities or all the counties you serve in the title of each blog? Well, not exactly.
Local Property Management Marketing 101: Targeting Specific Cities
Your business serves a specific area. That typically includes your home city and maybe a few surrounding cities. As a business owner, you chose to target those areas for a reason. You didn’t start your business by targeting the entire state. You didn’t want to risk stretching yourself out too thin.
The same concept applies to content marketing. It’s smarter to start with the city you’re in and establish yourself there. Make the internet a little bit smaller and more local by focusing on one city at a time as much as possible.
Optimize Blog Titles for Local Searches
Google is always looking to satisfy its users, and that’s why you need content that’s relevant and answers their questions. When someone is looking for property management services, they’re looking for them in a specific city.
For example, they’ll search for “property management in Cupertino”. They won’t search for “property management in Cupertino and the surrounding areas”. People will search using the specific city name where they have a property or want to rent a property.
In this scenario (and in all other scenarios related to local search), Google will favor content that mentions the city name being searched. It’s easier for their algorithm to judge relevance that way, which is why location-specific blog titles are better than generic blog titles.
So again, why not mention all the cities you serve in the title of your blogs? Read on.
How to Land, Expand, and Win with Local Property Management Marketing
You may think that by including a dozen different service areas in your blog or simply using the county name, you’re being more inclusive. But, it can actually hurt you more than it could help you.
Land and Expand is a term that’s relevant to what we recommend. The idea is to land in a small target market and dominate it. You want to be a household name in that one place. Then, you can make strategic maneuvers into neighboring markets. You’re landing and expanding.
It’s much easier to rank for the city you’re located in compared to a city you don’t have an office in. That’s just how search engines like Google work. So if you aren’t even ranking for the city you’re located in, it’s wiser to “land” there first before expanding.
Let’s go back to the Cupertino example. If you have a Cupertino property management company, you want to dominate Cupertino first. Then, once you’ve owned that market, move to a neighboring community such as Sunnyvale, San Jose, or Los Altos. Don’t water yourself down by trying to expand into all of Santa Clara county or even the state of California.
Stay Small: Larger Markets Mean More Competition
You’ll have more competition in a larger market. So, if you start by focusing on being the top dog in your neighborhood instead of the entire region, you’ll have more success with your marketing efforts. Focus on that one area and then slowly expand into other areas.
Using specific city names in your blog titles will improve your content marketing efforts, but it’s not a magic bullet. Content marketing takes time to mature, so it’s important to continue putting blogs out there. The more content you have, the more opportunities for search engines to match your content with user searches.
If you have any questions or need any help, please contact us at Fourandhalf – Internet Marketing for Property Managers.
