Do You Add City Name & Key Word For Every Page?

[slgray]

Hello,

I'm new to SEO but feel I have a decent grasp on it. However, I had a question pertaining to key words and using my city name in it. For instance, if I am using the key word "herniated disc treatment" do I need to put in my city name behind it or does google recognize that I am already in my city area because of my geo tagging and having it listed on the footer of my site? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

-Scott

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Scott,

Donna has offered some good advice. Something else you need to consider:

If you have a single location, then yes, most of your content should be mentioning your city. Your Herniated Disc Treatment page can talk about how you treat this problem in your office in San Diego, and that's completely natural to do so. However, if your practice expands to more than one location, then you'll have to revisit this strategy. If you have 2 offices, or 10, or 100, how much city-oriented optimization you can do of your service pages will have to be rethought, because you're not going to want to put a list of 10 cities on your service pages.

But, for now, if you've got just one location, a moderate mention of your city terms on your service pages (and other page like Home, About, etc.) is totally fine. Just don't overdo it.

[DonnaDuncan]

It's a good question and the answer depends on how much competition you're up against.

Yes Google recognizes your location using geo tags and footer content. I generally try to optimize without using too heavy a hand when it comes to city names. But if you're having trouble ranking using the more subtle tactics alone, then, by all means, employ the city name in your title tags, meta description, H1 headers, and so on. Just make sure your content doesn't start to look "stuffed" or unnatural as it may turn off visitors. It's most important to keep them interested and engaged.