SEO from Local to National

[gobeyond]

Hi,

One site I built has very high rankings for targeted keywords in our local market in Minnesota. Now I am planning to expand the service to the national level.

I'd love to hear your experience, suggestions or tips. As of now, I have our local city and state names integrated into the page titles and contents. Should I take these local keywords out or keep them while adding other city names? I do want to keep the local rankings at the top.

Thanks in advance for your insights!

Terry

[vangogh]

Keep the local keywords in. Assuming you're using 'main keywords + local keywords' then you are already targeting the both the main keyword and the longer phrase with the location. Chances are you just need to work on building links to get your pages found without the city.

If the site in question is the one in your signature then you're in a very competitive market and may take awhile before you get found without the mention of your city.

Work on link building and as you gain more quality links you will hopefully start to see your pages for more general keyword phrases.

[Webfu]

Build yer self a directory something like this - http://www.v7n.com/seo-minnesota-seo.php

These pages kill it in the serps.