Local SEO in Niagara Falls, NY, starting at $750

Most businesses have one city name to compete for. In Niagara Falls, New York you have to compete for yours twice: once against Niagara Falls State Park and the whole tourism industry attached to it, and once against a city of the same name on the far end of the Rainbow Bridge. Somebody types those two words and gets an entire tourism industry from two countries at once.

For a hotel that's fine. For a hair salon or a plumber, it means the search results for your own city are full of businesses that are not competing with you and never were.

Having a conversation on a parade route

You can't win that by talking louder. It's like trying to have a conversation on a parade route: the answer isn't to raise your voice over the marching band, it's to step off the route onto a side street where somebody can actually hear you.

For a Google Business Profile, stepping onto the side street means two things. The category has to be narrow enough that Google can tell a resident-facing business apart from the visitor economy sitting next to it, and the profile has to say where you actually are and who you actually serve, rather than just the city name that the Falls already owns. Add the towns your customers really drive in from, Lewiston, Lockport and North Tonawanda among them, and the listing starts getting shown to people who live here instead of people visiting for an afternoon. The guide on why you're not showing up in the map pack covers what to check first.

Two sides, one region

I'm on the Canadian end of this, in Fort Erie, and that has never made the work any different. Families, suppliers and customers have crossed these bridges in both directions for generations, and nothing the two capitals are arguing about right now changes that. I'm glad to work for businesses on either side of the line. There's more about how paying a Canadian actually works, in Canadian or US dollars, on the Buffalo, NY page. If you also need a website, my sibling site Niagara Web Design, run by the same person, has a guide to building a site for a business that sells across the border.

What it costs

Three sizes, from $750, the same as everywhere else I work, with the category and neighbourhood precision folded into whichever size fits. One payment, nothing recurring, and the listing, the login and any pages stay in your name. The full breakdown of the three sizes is on the main page.

One local resource worth knowing, separate from me: the Niagara USA Chamber, which covers Niagara County including Niagara Falls, Lockport, Lewiston and North Tonawanda.

Where to start

Call or email with your business name and the part of town you're in. I'll look at what Google is currently showing for you, and within one business day you'll hear back from me directly with the size that fits and exactly what it costs.

Call 905.682.4642, or email hello@niagaraseo.com if that's easier.

Common questions

My address says Niagara Falls but my customers are in Lewiston and Wheatfield. Which do I put on the profile?

Your real street address, always. Google requires that, and changing it risks the listing. What you add is the service area: list Lewiston and Wheatfield by name alongside Niagara Falls, so the profile tells Google, and the person searching, exactly where the work actually happens instead of leaving it to guess from the city on the sign.

I searched my own city and got results from the Canadian side. Does that hurt me?

It crowds the results, which is why the profile has to do the work of saying which Niagara Falls you're in. Getting the address, the service area and the category right is what keeps a New York business from being read as one more listing in a two-country tourism search.