Regional promotion – website promotion in a specific region or regions of the country.
Search engines form the results depending on the regional affiliation of the user.
Google – since 2012 (“Venetsiya” and “Aprel’skaya 52”), and in 2014 there was a “Golub'”.
Regional promotion (hereinafter – RP) is based on the classification of user queries.
Fall into:
These are mainly commercial queries, to which the visitor expects to receive answers with reference to their location.
That is, being in Kharkiv and entering "cafe" in the Search, I expect to find a place where I can buy and drink coffee in Kharkiv. And Google understands me and provides the correct answer.
At the same time, places nearby are in TOP-3. The search results will vary depending on where you are located. There is a georeference.
But, if I, while in Kharkiv, look for a cafe in Lviv, the search engine will provide me with data to Lviv.
Queries for which the search results will be the same for all regions. It includes:
For example, "how to make French press coffee".
The screenshot shows sites with the .ru extension. At the same time, I am in Kharkov, and this is the .ua zone.
When determining the regionality, bots take into account:
This is not so significant information, because a web project can be located on hosting from another region.
A separate item should be targeted advertising on social networks. If it is configured correctly and brings traffic, spiders take this fact into account. And this will be a plus for local promotion.
Location targeting Google
We assign the country to the website in the service "Tools for Webmasters". The location of the company will be determined based on the domain zone (.ua, .kz, .uk) if this step is not prescribed.
The specific region is indicated in "Google.Addresses".
The semantic core must contain the region with the so-called SEO-optimization. Metadata, contact information, texts, etc. on pages are optimized taking into account location data.
Information about the project we fill in "Google My Business".
Reviews
It’s great if the company has reviews from real people. This is an added bonus to indexing your site on Google. Use the tool!
Use the tool!
Subfolders
The option is suitable for small sites (up to 100 pages). Folders are indexed faster, take over authority and host factors of the main website (trust, age).
The more pages on the website, the more traffic the website gets.
But this complicates the collection of statistics.
You can use the subdomain distribution of the main websites for RP.
Subdomains are easier to bring to the TOP together with the main website. Sites on subdomains occupy high positions in SERP.
It is easier to transfer to a separate server and collect statistics.
There is also a third type – with seats for cities (hyper-focused sites).
Local promotion is more suitable for highly specialized SMEs:
Users have the most positive attitude to a local company because there is always the possibility to visit the branch, talk with the managers of the representative office, get answers to questions and solve the problem.
If you have a large project, then for local promotion it is better to have a site on a regional subdomain.
Local promotion in several regions is a long process.
Search engines prefer local companies. It is good to have, if not a full-fledged branch, then a representative office or partners in the cities. In such cases, the chances of getting into the regional TOP grow.
But the competitive environment is also increasing: on the one hand, you are a beginner in the region, on the other, local companies that already have consumer confidence.
You need to carefully think out a strategy and draw up a plan before entering the regions.
There are no significant differences in SEO promotion.
Regional websites are promoted in the same way as national websites.
Have any remarks relating to this article? Share your opinions in the comments!
