Use the names your customers use: neighbourhoods, valleys and islands, not only the municipality. Put them on a clear service area page, in project titles and in your listings, and name only places you really serve.

Two maps of the same place

Most small business websites describe where they work in official terms: the municipality, sometimes the region. Their customers describe the same ground differently.

Someone in Lynn Valley looks for a dog walker in Lynn Valley. Someone in Tsawwassen may never type Delta. On Vancouver Island people talk about the Comox Valley or up-Island.

A site that says North Vancouver is not wrong. It just answers a slightly different question from the one the customer asked.

The fix is mostly writing, and it starts with listening to how your own customers name the places they live.

Where the mismatch shows

The first is the commonest gap. A large municipality is several communities to the people living in it, and someone in Cloverdale may well search with Cloverdale rather than Surrey.

Regions catch out businesses that cover several towns: customers in Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody often just say the Tri-Cities.

Why the official name falls short

Search engines match the words in a search with the words on pages, helped by what they know about places. Google generally knows that Lynn Valley is in North Vancouver.

But a page that names Lynn Valley is a closer match for a search that names it, and a competitor whose pages mention the neighbourhood looks more local.

The bigger effect is on the reader. Someone in Deep Cove reading serving North Vancouver cannot tell whether you come all the way out to them, so they keep looking.

Finding the names customers use

Start with your own records: read the last few months of enquiries and note how people described where they live. Ask whoever answers the phone, too.

In Search Console, the Search Analytics report lists the searches your pages appeared for. Filter the queries for place names and see which ones people actually typed.

Real estate listings help as well, because they sort homes by the neighbourhood names buyers use. So do the names of local community groups.

Putting the names on the site

Give the areas you serve one clear page or section, grouped the way people think of them, with a sentence about each: which days you are there, what work you do most.

Add a sentence on the home page naming the main areas, written for a person, and use the names in headings and on the contact page where they are true.

Each mention should help someone decide. If it would sound odd read aloud to a customer, it is there for the wrong reason.

A worked example

A dog walker with one helper and a van collects dogs for midday group walks in North Vancouver. Her site said exactly that on every page: dog walking in North Vancouver.

Her clients live in Lynn Valley, Edgemont and Upper Lonsdale. The van does not go to Deep Cove, which is too far along the route for a midday walk.

Owners in Lynn Valley searching by neighbourhood were finding walkers whose pages named it, while she took calls from Deep Cove and West Vancouver that she had to turn down.

A page called where we walk now names the three neighbourhoods, the parks and trails each group uses, and the pickup window for each, and says plainly that Deep Cove and West Vancouver are not covered.

Her listing's service area and the About section of her Facebook page were changed to match. Enquiries since have tended to name the neighbourhood in the first line.

Project pages and photographs

For trades that show their work, the neighbourhood belongs in the project title: a cedar fence in Walnut Grove, a kitchen in Kitsilano, a new roof in Gordon Head.

That tells a reader you have already worked near them, which persuades more than a list of areas. Captions can carry the name too, as long as it is true.

A photograph labelled with a neighbourhood the job was not in is a small lie, and an easy one for a local reader to catch.

Listings and profiles

A business that travels to customers can set a service area in Google My Business, and it should match the areas named on the site.

The About section of a Facebook page, and directories that allow a written description, can name the main neighbourhoods in a sentence.

Do not add neighbourhood names to the business name on a listing. Google's guidelines allow only the real name, and additions like that can get a listing suspended.

Where it turns into stuffing

Once the names are written down, the temptation is to use all of them: every neighbourhood in the municipality, in a block at the bottom of the page.

A name that appears only in a list tells a reader nothing about whether you go there, and Google's webmaster guidelines give blocks of place names as an example of keyword stuffing.

The test is simple. Name a neighbourhood only if you would be glad of a call from it tomorrow, and only where you have something true to say about it.

The counter-case

For a business customers visit, such as a shop or a restaurant, the address and the map do most of this work. One mention of the neighbourhood is usually enough.

A business serving a whole province should not try to name every neighbourhood; regions are the right level. One serving a single neighbourhood needs a sentence, not a page.

For anyone who travels to customers across several communities, name the places the way customers do, and only the places you really serve.

Naming your areas

  1. Note the place names callers use this week.
  2. Check recent enquiries for neighbourhood names.
  3. Compare them with the names on your site.
  4. Name your real areas on one clear page.
  5. Say where you do not go.
  6. Match your listing's service area to that page.
  7. Remove any block of place names from the footer.

Step five is the one most businesses leave out. Saying where you stop makes every area you do name more believable, and it saves the calls that end in an apology on both sides.

What a listing can show a customer before a first visit is covered in a Street View tour inside your business.

Frequently asked questions

Does Google not know which neighbourhoods are in my city?

Generally it does. But a page that names the neighbourhood is a closer match for a search that names it, and a reader can see at once that you cover their street.

How do I find the names customers use?

Read recent enquiries, ask whoever answers the phone, filter Search Analytics in Search Console for place names, and look at how real estate listings and local groups name areas.

Should I make a page for every neighbourhood?

Not copies with the name swapped. One clear page or section naming the areas you serve, with something true about each, works better for readers and avoids looking like stuffing.

Can I add the neighbourhood to my business name?

No. Google's listing guidelines allow only the real name of the business, and adding place names can get a listing suspended. Use the service area setting instead.

Is a list of places in the footer harmful?

Usually. Google's guidelines describe blocks of place names as keyword stuffing, and readers find them unconvincing. Name the areas in sentences where they help someone decide.

Should I say where I do not work?

Yes. It makes the areas you do name more believable, and it saves calls from places you cannot reach that end with an apology on both sides.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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