How local SEO works in big, spread-out cities
In a huge city, the map pack you see depends on where you stand. Here is how to plan for that, with three real examples.
- Distance is the one ranking factor you cannot change.
- Jacksonville has about 747 square miles of land (2020 Census), so a pin covers only part of it.
- Measure with a grid scan, fix one profile, then add real area pages one at a time.
Distance is the rule you cannot change
Google ranks local results on three things: relevance, distance and prominence. You can work on relevance (categories, services, pages) and prominence (reviews, links, mentions). Distance is fixed. It is the gap between the searcher and your business address, or the center of the area you serve if you hide your address.
In a compact city, that gap is small for most searchers. In a city that covers hundreds of square miles, it is not. A shop on one side of town can be first in the map pack nearby and missing five miles away, for the same search.
Three cities where this bites
Jacksonville, Florida. After the city and Duval County merged in 1968, Jacksonville became the largest city by land area in the lower 48. Searches from the Beaches, Mandarin and the Northside pull different map packs. Our page on Local SEO Services in Jacksonville walks through how we split that market.
Columbus, Ohio. Columbus grew by annexing land over decades, so its city line wraps around suburbs that are their own towns. People in Dublin or Westerville often search with the suburb name. See Local SEO Services in Columbus.
Indianapolis, Indiana. Under Unigov, city and county have worked as one since 1970, and most new housing is in the counties around the I-465 loop. A Castleton address can win Fishers and lose Greenwood. More on Local SEO Services in Indianapolis.
Step 1: measure before you fix
A single rank check from your office tells you almost nothing. Use a grid scan: the same search checked from many points across your area. It shows where you are top 3, where you fade and where you are absent. Run it for your two or three most valuable searches, such as "AC repair" or "termite treatment", not for every service.
Step 2: get the most from one profile
- Pick the primary category that matches your main money service.
- Add every service you offer, in plain words.
- Set service areas to the places you truly work.
- Post real job photos each week, tagged in your notes by neighborhood.
- Ask every happy customer for a review, and let them say where the job was.
Our Google Business Profile optimization work covers this in more depth.
Step 3: let organic pages cover the far side
Organic results care far less about distance than the map pack does. A strong page about your work in a far suburb can rank on page one there even when your pin cannot. The catch: the page has to be truly about that place. Swapping the town name into the same text creates doorway pages, which Google treats as spam.
A good area page names the neighborhoods you work in, the housing and problems common there, real jobs you did, and reviews from customers there. Our older guide on service area pages that rank has a simple outline.
What not to do
- Do not open virtual offices to get more pins. That breaks the rules and risks suspension.
- Do not stuff city names into your business name.
- Do not publish dozens of near-copy town pages at once.
Where to start
Run a grid scan, fix your profile, then add one real area page at a time for the places that make you the most money. If you want a hand, see our local SEO services or browse the locations we serve.