These searchers are looking for a hosting company in a particular city, state, or country, but given the proper message they can often be convinced to try your hosting company. Afterall, given the nature of the web hosting industry, the actual location of your web hosts is not that important. The datacenter they use and the support team are really the 2 most important items.
The next question is how to target these searchers and turn them into visitors to your website. Like any good search engine advice?.Content, Content, Conent. The thing to remember is that every page of good content will be found by search engines, not just your homepage. Add a page to your website that reviews the web hosting industry in a city, for example New York, and highlights several of its larger hosting companies. This, at first, might seem like a bad idea, but the page, over time, will be indexed by search engines and show up in searches related to web hosting in that city, New York Web Hosting, New York Web Hosts, etc. This new page will provide them information that they are looking for as well as provide you a potential customer that you otherwise would not have. The key is developing quality content. The internet is full of pages of no information or redundant information. But good unbiased reviews of the web hosting industry in New York or any city such as Atlanta, Chicago, etc. is useful information that potential hosting clients can use.
Some will argue that the reverse is true as well, that this new page is also a page that other potential customers can use to leave your website and signup with a competitor. This might occasionally be true, but for the most part it will attract more customers then it loses. This page does not have to be a page easily found by visitors to your homepage.
About the Author: Rodney Ringler is President of Advantage1 Web Services, Inc., which owns a network of Web Hosting Informational Websites including HostChart.com, ResellerConnection.com, FoundHost.com, ResellerForums.com, and HostingKnowledge.net. Rodney has over 15 years industry experience from programming to internet marketing.