I'm still in the planning stages of developing my VA business, but I was wondering what you all thought of using your city name or region in the business name? I live in Astoria, Queens, New York City and I've been trying to come up with a business name and thought of possibly using Astoria Virtual Business Solutions. The thought process is that perhaps if someone googles "Astoria businesses" my site might pop up.

Do any of you use your city in your business name? Also, is it better to use the word "virtual" or would it be ok if I left it out and just named it Astoria Business Solutions (or something along those lines)?

Hi Paulette,
I think using Astoria Business Solutions is a good start in terms of SEO for your site (if you do want to try to rank for local search). But if you specialize in something in particular it might be a good idea to work that keyword into your business name as well as, or instead of, 'Business Solutions' (because I'm not sure anyone searches for 'business solutions' (though you could always check with the Google keyword tools they offer). 'Astoria businesses' is pretty vague and probably not something a potential client is going to use to find you or your services.

Of course you'll have plenty of opportunity to optimize for more targeted keywords with the content on your site (and blog, if you have one) so you could certainly go with the more generic business name and then work like crazy to rank for your actual services.

I'll look forward to hearing back when you decide what to use!

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I think your choice of business name is a really personal decision. Lots of folks use a city or region, lots of folks don't. My biz name is "The Virtual Office Goddess" because that appellation has been applied to me for years. It doesn't really tell folks what I do, yet I haven't had much trouble getting 'bites' from interested potential clients.

SEO isn't limited to the business name and IMHO using lots of targeted keywords will do just as much. Not to mention, because we are virtual, we are not limited to only local work...

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Lily Chambers, The Virtual Office Goddess, LLC
Author "How to Do Your Own Small Business Bookkeeping"

Well I live in the Canary Islands, Spain and I don't think they get enough coverage and as far as I know, I'm the only VA on all 7 islands so I decided to use it as part of my business name. I don't think it has done me any harm but some people think that by using a region or city, you give off the image of being limited to that area in your business also...

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Sabrina L. Williams
Giving You a Bird's Eye View of Your Business

it doesn't have to be in your actual business name but make sure there is large presence of your location on your webpage and when you are doing your link building

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