Should I Start Targeting From the City or the Neighborhood?

Short Answer: You should start targeting from the city level rather than focusing on neighborhoods or smaller areas. Begin with a town that has around 20,000 people, then gradually expand your targeting area if you don’t get enough volume.

Full Explanation

When planning your targeting strategy, it’s important to focus on a broader area before narrowing down to smaller locations. Instead of starting with a neighborhood, especially in larger cities, it’s more effective to begin at the city level. Targeting a whole city allows you to access a sufficiently large audience and generate meaningful traffic volume.

If the city is not producing enough volume, you can then expand your reach to larger areas such as a county. This approach helps ensure that your marketing efforts are more impactful and not limited by an audience that is too small to be valuable.

Step-by-Step Breakdown

1. Start targeting a town or city with a population of about 20,000 people.
2. Monitor the amount of engagement and volume you receive from this targeting.
3. If the volume is insufficient, gradually increase your targeting area to include a broader region, such as a larger city or county.
4. Avoid starting with very small areas like neighborhoods, particularly if you are in a larger city.

Real Examples

Instead of launching an SEO campaign focused solely on a specific neighborhood in a big city, start by targeting the entire city itself. For example, rather than targeting just one borough or district, aim to reach all residents within the city limits. If the traffic or queries from the city are not enough, broaden your approach by including neighboring towns or the entire county to attract a larger audience.

Common Mistakes

• Starting with neighborhoods or very small areas, especially in large metropolitan cities, which can severely limit your audience size.
• Not increasing your targeting area after realizing the initial target does not generate enough volume.
• Overlooking the importance of starting with a population base that can provide meaningful engagement.

FAQs

Why not start with a neighborhood?

Neighborhoods in bigger cities tend to have too small an audience, which can limit the effectiveness of your targeting efforts.

What size should the initial target area be?

Begin with a town or city of roughly 20,000 people to ensure a sufficient audience size.

When should I expand my targeting area?

If targeting a city or town does not bring enough volume, expand to larger areas like the county.

Key Takeaways

• Always start your targeting at the city or town level, not at the neighborhood level.
• Begin with an area that has around 20,000 people to have a viable audience size.
• If the initial size does not produce enough volume, incrementally expand to larger regions like counties.
• Avoid overly narrow geotargeting in bigger cities as it limits audience reach and traffic potential.