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If you run a local business, appearing in Google searches for your area is essential - but it's probably not as simple as just listing the towns you serve somewhere in your site's content.

Prefer to see a real example in action? Click here to watch it.

This guide will show you how to properly target specific areas, using techniques that actually work rather than shortcuts that might harm your business.

You won't need any technical knowledge or paid tools, just the ability to edit your website's content and a willingness to do the work.

Targeting Specific Areas

If you run a service business you should aim to appear in Google when people search for your service areas.

If you hire out 'Widgets', and you're based in north Manchester, you probably want to show when people search for 'Widget hire in Prestwich' or 'Widget hire in Whitefield' - two towns in north Manchester.

If you cover a wide radius you probably want to show for "Widget hire in Manchester", too - but you should know that this will take more time and effort because you will be competing against many more businesses.

This guide will give you advice about targeting those areas. You'll need to be able to edit your website's content, but you won't need to be a tech whizz or to buy any fancy tools. I'll refer to 'widget hire in Prestwich' throughout, but really this could be any business which operates on any local area - whether you visit customers at home, or they come to you.

Determining your service areas

You already know where your business 'could' operate, but it's worth thinking about this in some detail and making a prioritised list. Which areas are most profitable? Which have the most amount of customers? Which are a real pain to travel to?

Your first step is to make an ordered list of the areas you'd like to target - and remember that it's probably going to be much easier to rank well for smaller towns than large areas.

Making location-specific pages on your site

It might be tempting to just list all of your service areas on your site and call it quits, but this probably won't accomplish much unless you have no real competition.

It's much better to create pages for each service area and to fill these pages with genuinely useful content for visitors from that area. You shouldn't just copy and paste the same content and switch the town names around because Google is really good at spotting duplicated content, and while they probably won't penalise you for it they also won't reward you.

For each service location we should make a page that includes, at a bare minimum:

  • A clear headline in a H1 (or Heading 1) tag, eg "Widget hire in Prestwich"
  • The services you offer in that specific area
  • Delivery / collection / opening times information
  • Your contact details

To make the page even more relevant to that area, you should also think about what makes working in that location different from the other locations you cover, and mention these on the page. This might include things like:

  • Venues or businesses you've worked with in that area
  • Case studies or examples from customers in that area
  • Ways you adapt your service for that area

You should put yourself in the mind of your customer, and imagine what they would like to see when searching for "Widget hire in Prestwich". They want to know that your business actually serves and understands their area.

Here's a rough outline of one of these pages:

# Widget hire in Prestwich

[Brief introduction about your widget hire business]

Our Prestwich widget hire services:
- [Service specific details]
- [Coverage areas: Heaton Park, St Mary's Park, Philips Park]
- [Delivery information]

Why choose us for widget hire in Prestwich?
- [Local experience]
- [Local customer testmonials / case studies]
- [Area-specific benefits]

And an example of what one of those pages might look like once written up (but don't just copy this and change words around!):

# Widget Hire in Prestwich

We've been supplying and delivering widgets across Prestwich since 2015. Whether you're hosting a party at St Mary's Park, a corporate event at The Longfield Suite, or a late night party at The Goods In, we've got everything you need to host the ultimate widget event.

## Our Prestwich widget hire services

• We deliver to all M25 Prestwich postcodes for free
- We'll assign you a 30 minute delivery window the day before
• We collect our widgets the next morning and will call when on the way
• If your widget needs a quick fix we can be on site from our base in Middleton within 25 minutes

## Why choose us for widget hire in Prestwich?

We know Prestwich like the back of our hands and have tonnes of experience working here - we know where to park to deliver widgets to businesses along Bury New Road, and we know what the rush hour traffic at Sedgley Park is like. Our local knowledge means we can:

• Provide proper timing estimates based on real local traffic patterns
• Offer flexible delivery slots around school times (particularly useful near The Heys School)
• Supply the right widgets for local venues - we know exactly what widgets fit in The Longfield Suite, or which work with the low roof at The Church Inn

## Recent projects in Prestwich

• Main widget supplier for the Prestwich Carnival and Festwich
• Regular late night widget parties at The Goods In (we love their biscoff cakes)
• Emergency widget repair call-out at Heaton Park during Parklife festival

## Local testimonials

"Outstanding widget service - they knew exactly what widgets would work best for our beer garden, delivered right on time, and were super friendly to boot" - The White Horse, Prestwich

"Really helpful team who know the area well. They even suggested a better widget setup for a disco at The Carlton Club" - Sarah T, Prestwich Carnival Organiser

## Coverage areas

We deliver throughout Prestwich including:

• Prestwich Village
• Sedgley Park
• Hilton Lane area
• Heaton Park area
• Rainsough and Carr Clough

## Contact us

Call us on [phone] or email [email] for widget hire in Prestwich. We're based just around the corner in Middleton, and we're happy to discuss your widget requirements or arrange an on-site widget recommentation for large events.

If you really can't think of anything to write on these pages, it's a good indication that you're targeting an area you don't serve well, and maybe it's worth focusing on somewhere else. It is much better to have a few high-quality pages than lots of empty ones.

A note about AI-generated content

With a lot of writing ahead of you, you'll be tempted to use AI chatbots like ChatGPT to churn out these per-location pages. Don't! AI is useful for generating ideas or outlining content, but you shouldn't rely on it to write your actual pages. Here's why:

• Search engines are really good at spotting AI-generated content • AI doesn't 'know' your specific business or area and cannot 'create' new information - your page will end up quite generic and probably won't provide much real value to visitors

By all means use AI to help brainstorm ideas or structure your content, but always write the actual text yourself. Your in-depth knowledge of your business and service areas will much more valuable to visitors than auto-generated text.

Google maps / business profile

You should ensure that you have a business listing on Google, and that you have filled out the 'service areas' inside that listing. You can log in at business.google.com, and then fill in the service areas when you click to edit your profile.

While you're in there, make sure all of the data is up-to-date and accurate. Google rewards businesses that make the most of their profile, so fill in as much as you can and be sure to check in periodically to make sure everything is still correct.

A note about consistency

Whenever you mention your business online, it's very important to use the same business name, address, and phone number everywhere. This means you should stick to either "Widget Hire Ltd", or "Manchester Widget Hire". Resist the temptation to try and think of a different business name or address for each area you target - this looks really spammy to Google.

However, you might want to write different business descriptions for each directory, targeting towards the users of that directory. This is worth doing.

Business directories

You should never need to pay for a basic directory listing, or add a reciprocal link back to them. Directories that ask for this are generally spammy and low-quality and will not help your site rank better.

You should list your business on all the major UK business directories - Yell, Thompson Local, Yelp, Bing Places, Apple Maps, and FreeIndex. Sort these first.

Next up, you might want to get listed on industry-specific national directories. This could include things like Checkatrade, Rated People, or the directories of industry bodies. You could find these directories by Googling for 'Widget hire directory', and applying to those which are ran by trusted organisations you recognise.

There's also a good chance that someone runs an online directory of businesses serving your target areas. So, have a search for 'Prestwich business directory' and add yourself to those too.

Building local credibility

The aim of all of this effort is to show local customers that you are trustworthy. To that end, you should consider getting involved in that local community in whichever way suits your business. Aside from the 'word of mouth' advertising this brings, it will often result in really high-quality links pointing back to your website, which Google will love. This is a long-term process, and could involve actions like:

  • Partnering with local businesses
  • Sponsoring local events or sports teams
  • Attending local business fairs
  • Sharing local news on your social media profiles
  • Joining local Facebook business groups

Tracking your progress

It might be tempting to fixate on your Google position for "widget hire in Prestwich" but this is quite a blunt way to measure success and misses a lot of factors. It's likely that people in Prestwich are searching in a huge variety of ways - they might be searching for "rent a widget", or "how much to hire widgets", or "best widget hirer in Prestwich". They might be searching on the maps app on their phone. They might be asking their Facebook friends for recommendations.

It's probably better to measure your actual success:

  • How many enquiries you receive from people in a given area
  • How many enquiries mention the area
  • How many reviews you get from the area
  • How many visits the area-specific page of your website gets

Remember that there are hundreds of factors influencing the amount of attention your business gets. You might get more or less enquiries based on what's on television that day, or what the weather is like - factors you don't control.

In summary

Attracting visitors from specific areas is a long-term project and takes real work. Keep your focus on providing real value to customers from that area:

  • Location-specific web pages that are genuinely useful
  • Local endorsements that customers might recognise
  • Partnerships with friendly businesses

If you need help targeting specific areas for your local business, get in touch.