When I see Hawaii SEO companies bragging about how they’ve ranked a client for ‘Waipio house cleaners’ or some similar keyphrase, I shake my head. To the client, that sounds great.
They’re #1 in their neighborhood! The Problem? Few to none of their potential customers search Google using that keyphrase.
They’re basically the top of the heap in a place no one goes. A whole ‘lotta nothin’.
Now, there are exceptions to this. Waikiki related keyphrases get a lot of traffic, for example. The other, residential neighborhoods, not so much.
Again, nothing wrong with having that high profile as you may catch the occasional customer. But, putting your emphasis on that one area is wasting your money, because you should be aiming higher. Here’s why.
Google Searchers Cast Their Net Wider in Hawaii
The vast majority of searchers use ‘Hawaii’ or ‘Honolulu’ when they’re looking for a business. That’s where you need to be if you want to truly grow, reaching people you never did before.
If you restrict, or emphasize, just your few square miles, or even blocks, as your service area, you put limits on yourself and on your potential profits.
Google’s personalized search results will tend to show people the business closest to them anyways, through geotargeting today.
That alone will get you in front of your closest neighbors and a few mentions on your website of your neighborhood will suffice to getting you ranked there anyways.
You MUST, though get your Google+ business listing set up to truly take advantage of these benefits, though. Don’t forget that.
Ranking for your specific community is fine, even good. However, if your SEO doesn’t push you up for the larger metro area, your Island and the keyphrase ‘Hawaii’, you’re not getting your money’s worth.
Don’t take it from me. Take it from the results you’ll see, which will be far below what you think you’ve bought.
Remember, local customers and clients use ‘Honolulu’, ‘Hawaii’ and other more general terms a lot more than the names of our beloved home neighborhoods.
Aim for bigger results. You’ll be glad you did.