When a business wants to expand beyond its main county, most people just start listing every nearby city—and end up confusing Google in the process. The key is to move up the location hierarchy, not sideways. By stepping up to the next broader region (like a metro area), you can cover all service areas in a clean, organized, and SEO-friendly way. In this guide, we’ll show you the exact process and tools we use—plus a real example—to make expansion simple and effective.
Table of Contents
Why we keep service areas focused
We want the site to rank well and bring in leads. To do that we make pages very specific both by topic and by place. When a site is hyper local it usually performs better in local search. If we try to cover too much area on one page the page becomes vague. Google will have a harder time deciding what the page is about. So we pick a region that is small enough to be specific, but big enough to include all the places the business serves.
What is a location hierarchy?
Think of location hierarchy like nesting boxes. Each box contains a smaller box. The smallest box is a city or town. That box sits inside a county box. The county box sits inside a metro area box. The metro area can sit inside a state or a multi-state region. We start with the smallest box and open each larger box until we cover every place the business wants to serve.
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Step-by-step process we use
- Start at the city level. Look up the main city you want to target.
- Find the county. Most cities are in a county. Use a reliable source like Wikipedia to confirm the county.
- Check the county page for metro area info. The county page usually says if it belongs to a metropolitan area or greater region.
- Open the metropolitan area page. That page lists all counties and their cities. This can expand the list of service areas quickly.
- Repeat upward until you cover all service areas. Move to the next broader region if some service areas are still outside the current level.
- Pick the narrowest region that includes all areas. We want to stay as narrow as possible while covering every service area the business serves.
Real example: Tulsa
We just audited a location in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Tulsa is in Tulsa County. Tulsa County is one of several counties inside the Tulsa metropolitan area, also called Greater Tulsa. When we jump from the county page to the metropolitan area page we suddenly see many more counties and their cities. Each county has its own list of towns, cities, and unincorporated places. That means, by moving up from one county to the metro area, the service area can grow a lot.
Here is how we mapped it out:
- Tulsa (city)
- Tulsa County
- Tulsa Metropolitan Area, aka Greater Tulsa
- All counties listed under Greater Tulsa
- All cities and towns inside each of those counties
Once we reach the metro area page we can list every city that the business can serve across all those counties. This gives us a clear and accurate list without mixing unrelated regions.
How we use Wikipedia for location discovery
Wikipedia is a quick and simple tool for this. We start at the city page and look for bolded text or links that show related names and variants. The metro area page often lists all counties and communities. Click the county pages to see their internal lists of towns and unincorporated places. This tactic opens up the full set of places in a controlled way.
Quick tips when using Wikipedia:
- Check the city page to find the county name.
- Open the county page and scan the links to towns and cities.
- Look for the metro area link and open it to see all included counties.
- Use “what links here” when useful to find related pages or alternate names.
Choosing the right region level
We follow a simple rule. Start narrow. If the business serves places outside the county, step up one level to the metro area. If the metro area still misses some places, step up another level. Keep moving out until the region you pick includes every service area the business covers. The goal is to find the smallest region that is fully inclusive.
Why smallest? Because narrower pages have clearer signals for search engines. They focus on one set of towns or counties and they rank better for local intent. But they must still cover all the areas the business serves, so we do not go narrower than the area we need to include.
How we list service areas on the homepage
On the homepage we recommend targeting a single county or a single metro area. For the service area list, we include towns and cities within that chosen region. If some cities are outside the county, we do not randomly add them to the county list. Instead we expand to the metro area or the next higher region that covers those cities. That keeps the homepage accurate and focused.
Example layout on a homepage:
- A short headline that mentions the county or metro area
- A short paragraph saying where the business serves
- A bulleted list of all cities and towns in that county or metro area
- Internal links to local pages if you build them
Local Lead Generation (LLG) sites and narrow focus
We use hyper local sites for lead generation. These pages are narrow in scope and aimed at one county or one small cluster of towns. They tend to perform better for local keywords and convert higher because the message is focused. For franchise or multi-location businesses, we still make a separate page or site for each location or cluster and target the most specific region that covers that location's service area.
If a client has many locations across many states, we create a plan that maps each location to the best regional page. That often means a county-level page for each location. If the location serves towns in other counties, we pick the metro area page that covers all the needed counties.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Listing cities from multiple unrelated counties on a single county page. This makes the page unfocused.
- Targeting too large a region like an entire state when a county or metro area will do. This dilutes the keyword focus.
- Failing to check official names and variants. Use the official metro area name and any common variants to help search engines understand context.
- Not linking local pages. If you build local pages for towns, link them from the main region page so search engines can find them.
Quick checklist we use
- Start with the main city. Confirm its county.
- Open the county page. List all cities and towns there.
- If service areas fall outside that county, open the metro area page.
- List all counties in the metro area and each town inside them.
- Choose the smallest region that covers all service areas.
- Put that region on the homepage and list the cities within it.
- Build local pages if you want to rank for specific towns.
How this helps SEO
When we keep content narrow and accurate, search engines can match the page to local search queries more easily. The location hierarchy helps us group towns under the correct county or metro area. That builds a clear location signal. Clear signals lead to better rankings and more targeted traffic. Then the site converts more visitors into leads.
Tips for scaling to many locations
For a business with many locations across states, we map every location to the right level of region. That could be a county page or a metro area page. We then create a list or directory that points to each region page. For large franchises we write a link building plan that targets each location separately. Each location gets its own small, focused footprint instead of one huge, unfocused site.
Final thoughts
Always pick the narrowest region that includes all the service areas. Start at the town level, move up to county, then to metro area, and so on until you have a complete list. Use Wikipedia and official pages to confirm terms and variants. Keep pages focused and build local pages when possible. That approach gives you clean structure, better local signals, and higher chance to rank for local searches.
Can we list cities that sit in different counties on a single county-targeted homepage?
Not directly. If service areas are outside the county you target, we move up to the next broader region, like the metropolitan area, and then list all cities from the counties in that metro area.
Why do we prefer county-level targeting for homepages?
County-level pages are narrow enough to be specific but broad enough to include a practical set of towns. They give a strong location signal and tend to rank better than pages that try to cover too much area.
What if a city is an independent city and not part of any county?
Independent cities are usually listed on their own Wikipedia pages. From there we check adjacent counties and metro area pages. We then pick the smallest region that includes the independent city plus any additional service areas the business covers.
How do we find all cities inside a county quickly?
Open the county page on Wikipedia. Look for sections that list cities, towns, census places, and unincorporated communities. Those lists give a quick inventory of places to include.
Should we include the metro area name on the homepage?
Yes, when the metro area is the best fit to cover all service areas. Use the official metro area name and any common variants to help search engines and users understand the scope.
How narrow should our local lead generation pages be?
As narrow as possible while still covering the business's service area. Single-county or even single-city pages work well. The goal is clarity and focus so search engines know exactly what area the page serves.