Do you need to reach more customers in more than one City or Town?
Let’s say your plumbing company wants to expand outseide of your base location. With keyword research, you can see where the most demand is in your local area and target potential customers living in that zone.
This guide will show you how to start. We’ll cover how to search keywords locally and track your seo in multiple locations.
Why Track SEO in Multiple Locations?
Local Search Results Can Vary Between Cities or even neighborhoods.
For example, someone searching for a plumber in Downtown Philadelphia will see different Google Results Than Someone Searching from a Neighboring Town Bryn Mawr, Camden, COLLINGSWODEN, COLILINGS
Depending on the size and nature of your business, you’ll want to know how your seo is performing in Each Area.
In general, there are two common scenarios where multi-city seo tracking is crucial:
- Multi-location businesses: If your business has multiple locations or stores, Each with its Own Google Business Profile (GBP), Track How Each Ranks Locally.
- Service-reala businesses: If you serve multiple cities from one location – Like a plumbing company with one office but clients in surrounding cities – Track your performance in each City to Assesses Local Visibility.
What can you do with Semrush’s Local SEO Tools?
We’ll Cover Three Semrush Tools for Local SEO Tracking.
Tool |
Key features |
What to do with it |
How to access |
Keyword Overview |
|
Identify Local Search Volume Differences Between Cities (Is “Pizza Delivery” Searched More in San Francisco or Oakland?) |
SEO Toolkit: Pro Subscription or Higher |
Position Tracking |
|
Discover Your Top Local competitors in Each location. (Who dominates the serps or local pack in each city?) |
SEO Toolkit: Guru subscription or higher |
Semrush local |
|
Track the performance of your Google Business Profile and Google Maps Rankings, (See exactly where you rank on Maps Across Town, with a Grid.) |
Local Toolkit: Base Subscription or Higher |
Search keywords locally
Before Tracking Rankings, It Helps to Know the search demand in Each target location.
Keyword Research Shows How many Times People Search for Something Like “Plumber Near Me.” For example, if there 200 searches a month, that means people search for plumbers in your area 200 times every month.
Most keyword research tools default to national search volume, but semrush allows you to zoom in on a specific city or region. Here’s how to find local keyword data:
Open the keyword overview tool In Semrush (Founder Keyword Research).
In the search bar, enter your target keyword (1). For example, let’s say you want to check the term “plumber near me” in different sites.
Then, Click the Location Drop-Down and Type in the City Name, County, or even postal code (2).
Now you can review the local metrics for this keyword.
The keyword overview report will now show the monthly search volume For “plumber near me” Specifically in San Francisco, Along with other metrics like keyword Difential and Serp Features.
You can see how the local keyword metrics compare to the us totals/average. In this case, the keyword directive is higher and the cost per click is twice as high as the national average ($ 40.14 vs. $ 20.57).
Want to compare keyword metrics in one city to another?
Just change the location to another city and the Volume will update accordingly – Giving you a Quick Way to Compare Interest Level by City.
For instance, here we see “Plumber near me” have varying levels of volume, Difability, and competition in Several Suburbs Around Philadelphia.
Repeat this process with search terms around your services and notice which keywords have highHer volume in which cities. These insights can guide your content and local seo strategy.
For example, if “plumber near me” is surprisingly Popular in one particular suburb, you could create a page targeting that locale or adjust your gbp to highlight your services there.
Benchmark your seo in economy
After Doing Keyword Research, set up tracking to measure where your site stands in multiple target sites.
To do this on semrush, take the following steps:
- Set up a Position Tracking Campaign and target a specific city showing local volume
- Add your target keywords and start tracking
- Once your campaign is running, click on the link below the project name and find the “+ add new target” option
- Add the additional location using the same keywords and device type
Navigate to the Devices and locations tab. From this tab, you’ll be able to track your visibility metrics and compare where you have the best rankings.
You can also compare local volumes for all of your keywords across each location in the table below.
Sort the table by volume and compare the differences for Each Keyword.
Note: It may take position tracking up to one day to gather local volume on the city level, so check on your project after a day or two to get accurate data.
Identify competitors in multiple areas
Tracking Rankings in Multiple Cities also Reveals Who You’re Up Against in Each Market.
Often, you’ll find that each city has its set of top competitors.
On semrush, this can be done in two ways:
- For competitors in different sites, regions, or devices: use position tracking
After Setting Up Your Campaign with Target Keywords and Multiple Locations, The Competitors Discovery Report Identifies the top competitors in Each Area.
- For competitors in different neighborhoods with a city or region: Use map rank tracker
This tool (available in the local toolkit) Lets you track your local rankings on a grid overlaid on a map. And, Once it’s set up you can check out who the biggest competitors are in Each Specific Area.
Identify Local competitors Across Multiple Cities With Position Tracking
To identify local seo competition across multiple cities, use position tracking
If you have a position tracking campaign set up, you can review the Competitors Discovery Report to see your Local Competition.
Just select the location and see who havens the most visible for your set of target keywords in the table.
Tip: If you want to compare your seo across multiple search engines or devices (like google and bing or desktop and mobile) its problem. Just add another target to position tracking and choose what to track.
Identify Local competitors in your area with map rank tracker
If you run a restaurant or local shop, tracking competition in your immediati area is more important than analyzing businesses Across Multiple Cities.
Why?
Being your customers are mainly looking for nearby options. Someone Searching for “Coffee Near Me” Isn’T Comparing Your Shop to One in another Town.
To find these cross-ton competitors, use the map rank tracker.
Go to the tool and Enter Your Business Name and Location to Get Started.
Set up a campaign by:
- Entering your target keywords (or choose from that suggested by ai)
- Selecting the radius (Typically you choose your service area, which would be a more blocks for a cafe and a right for a car Rental business, for instance).
- Selecting Your Grid Size (5×5, 7×7,11×11, 13×13, or 15×15)
- Choosing Your Schedule (How often You Want Your Rankings to Be Collected: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Custom)
Hit> Run Campaign and Wait a Couple of Minutes.
Once the data is collected, you can see your heatmap report.
On the left hand side you can see a list of your competitors in this zone. Click on any of their business names to view the heatmap report of their visibility.
Then, you can go to the competitors tab and see their share of voice Around Town:
With this data, you can develop targeted strategies to improve your Local Visibility with It Matters Most – Right in the streets and neighborhoods where your customers live and work.
Analyze your competitor ‘Top Landing Pages by City
If you want to know how your competitors are gotting ranked ahead of you, just take a look at their landing pages. You might discover some ideas for your own strategy based on what works well on their website.
Finding a competitor’s top-pharyming landing pages on Semrush is Easy. Just take the following steps:
- Use the “pages” tab in position tracking
- Select a competitor’s domain from the drop down
- Sort by estimated traffic or keyword country
- Click to Inspect High-Performing Pages
The list of pages in this report is a great source of information if you want to understand what type of content is currently ranking in your niche.
Take a look at your competition’s top pages and analyze what they do well to acquire backlinks and answer the questions that people ask in search.
Track your seo on google maps
To track seo on google maps, use the map rak tracker. This tool offers a heatmap that makes it easy to visualize your seo access your service area.
You’ll see where in the city you have the best rankings, and where you can improve.
The Google Maps Heatmap is Incredibly Useful For Local SEO, Especially for Service-Area Businesses. It essentially shows your Local Visibility footprint,
You can use it to target specific area for improvement – for instance, if the northwest part of town has poor rankings, you might focus on geting more locNks or clinks or citations from that, Targeted Google Ads Campaign there to increase brand awareness.
After some time, you can measure how well your efforts are paid off by monitoring how your rankings change in the tool.
Track your Google Business Profile Views Across Multiple Locations
Semrush Local’s GBP Optimization tool Helps You Monitor and Improve the Performance of Your GBPS Across Multiple Locations – With More Historical Data Than the Standard Google Dashboard.
Here’s what you can do:
- Track profile appearances in google search and maps, segmented by desktop and mobile.
- Analyze performance by day, week, or month, with over 24 months of history – Four times more than google’s native reporting – Making it Easy to Compare Results Year Over Year.
- Monitor Engagement Actions Like Website Visits, Direction Requests, Phone Calls, and Messages Across Across all your locations.
- Spot trends and options to optimize weaker profiles by comparing visibility and engagement between locations.
By Staying on Top of these metrics, you can fin-tune each gbp listing to boost visibility, drive more local actions, and win more customers in every market you serve.
Win your seo competition, wherever your customers are
Managing SEO Across Multiple Cities have Never Been Easy.
Whether your regional franchise in multiple cities or a neighborhood coffee shop, semrush has a solution to help you manage and measure your seo situation.
Monitor Your Progress in Every City that matters, track your growth on the map, and tailor your strategy accordingly.
Get Started today with a free trial of semrush guru or semrush local.