An SEO Company in Indianapolis That Knows Where the City Line Runs

Updated November 2026 · Written and maintained by the Progression Agency strategy team

A plumber based in Beech Grove lists the business as Indianapolis, yet Beech Grove is one of four cities in Marion County that stayed outside the consolidated city when Unigov took effect in 1970, with its own mayor and its own schools. Customers there, and in Lawrence, Southport and Speedway, often type their own city’s name. Across the rest of the county, people search by township, by school district or by an included town such as Meridian Hills. An SEO company in Indianapolis should draw a service area that follows those lines. Progression is based in New York, works with Indianapolis businesses remotely, and offers on-site sessions on request.

A Beech Grove plumber whose profile says Indianapolis

The profile was set up years ago by someone who typed the city that seemed right. The street address is in Beech Grove, the phone rings from Beech Grove, and the city field reads Indianapolis.

The card is a hypothetical, and it makes one point: three of the next five callers typed Beech Grove. They were looking for the plumber in their own city, and a page and a profile that agree with the address would have matched them.

• Check the city field against the street address.
• Check which place names the pages carry.
• Ask the last twenty customers what they typed.

How an SEO company in Indianapolis reads Unigov

The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis, presented by The Indianapolis Public Library, says the Unigov law took effect on January 1, 1970. The outer boundaries of the Consolidated City of Indianapolis are contiguous with those of Marion County, and the law excluded any incorporated city other than Indianapolis and any incorporated town with a population over 5,000. That singled out the cities of Beech Grove and Lawrence and the town of Speedway, and Southport also attained exclusion by incorporating as a city just before the law took effect.

Marion County’s nine townships continue as separate governments with independently elected assessors, constables and trustees, and the other incorporated municipalities at the time of Unigov became the included towns inside the consolidated city. The Encyclopedia adds that the area over which the consolidated city provides services varies from one service to another. For a business, that changes which place names a page and a profile should carry.

Why does the place name matter for search?

People type the name they use for where they live. A customer in Speedway may type Speedway, a parent in Perry Township may type the school district, and a visitor downtown types Indianapolis. A service area that uses only one of those misses the others.

Which place name does a customer type?

Whatever feels like home. A customer in Beech Grove types Beech Grove, a customer in Speedway types Speedway, and a parent may type the name of a school district. List the names your last twenty customers used, and write the pages around them.

Nine townships, north to south

The Encyclopedia lists nine townships in Marion County, in three tiers. Each township elects its own trustee, board, assessor, constable and small claims court judge, and the eight townships around the outside of the county, all but Center Township, are the territorial basis for eight of the county’s eleven public school districts.

Pike, Washington and Lawrence across the north

The northern tier is Pike, Washington and Lawrence townships. A business with jobs here can give each its own page when it has jobs and questions specific to the area, and a shared service area page otherwise.

Wayne, Center and Warren through the middle

The middle tier is Wayne, Center and Warren. The Encyclopedia says Center Township contains most of the pre-Unigov City of Indianapolis, so a page there often names neighborhoods and not just the township.

Decatur, Perry and Franklin along the south

The southern tier is Decatur, Perry and Franklin. Plan a page for each only where the business works and has something specific to say.

• Start with the township where most of the business’s jobs are.
• Add pages only where the business has specific details to give.
• Leave out population, income and ranking comparisons.
• Keep each township page different in jobs, questions and details.

How many township pages are enough?

As many as the business has real jobs and questions for. A contractor with jobs in four townships may need four pages. A tutor in one township needs one page and a mention of the neighbors.

What a township by township program costs

A service area drawn this way is a small program with a clear map. The published US bands for local SEO are below, and Progression’s own plans are listed separately underneath.

Progression plans, as listed

Progression’s SEO services pricing page lists Foundation at $1,500 a month, Program at $3,400 a month and Scale from $7,200 a month. Pricing depends on scope, is subject to change and is set in the written proposal.

Four cities that kept their own mayors

The Encyclopedia’s entry on the excluded cities says the four municipalities remain part of Marion County but not of Indianapolis. Their residents are subject to all countywide ordinances, receive all countywide services and pay all countywide taxes. They also vote in elections for the Unigov mayor and the City-County Council, in addition to their own municipal officials.

The Encyclopedia names Beech Grove, Lawrence, Southport and Speedway. Indiana Code 36-3-8-2 governs which cities are excluded, so check the current code or the City-County Council’s office for any change to the list before relying on it.

• A business inside one of these cities names that city first.
• A page for each excluded city the business serves stands on its own.
• Do not describe an excluded city as part of Indianapolis.
• Match the profile’s city to the street address.

What if the profile’s city field is wrong?

Fix it first. A profile that shows Indianapolis while the street address is in Speedway sends mixed signals to people and to search engines. Update the field, then update the pages so they say the same thing.

The same check applies to directory listings, the website footer and the contact page. A business that appears under three city names confuses customers who search for it.

When Lawrence means two places

Lawrence is both an excluded city and a northern township. A page that says only Lawrence leaves the reader to guess, and so does a search listing.

Write the city of Lawrence or Lawrence Township every time. If the business serves both, use two pages or two clearly separate sections with their own details.

Is the city of Lawrence the same as Lawrence Township?

No. One is a city with its own government and the other is a township with its own trustee and board. Say which one you mean, in the headline and in the first sentence.

Towns that sit inside the city line

The Encyclopedia says that as of 2021 the included towns are Clermont, Crows Nest, Homecroft, Meridian Hills, North Crows Nest, Rocky Ripple, Spring Hill, Warren Park, Williams Creek and Wynnedale. Although they are inside the consolidated city, the towns may retain their governmental status, levy property taxes and provide local services, and most have not remained actively functioning governments.

• Mention an included town on the nearest township page when the business serves it.
• Do not build a page for each town.
• Use the town’s name as it appears in addresses.
• Ask the township or the City-County about which services apply.

The Encyclopedia does not place each town in a township, and neither does this page. Check an address with the local office before writing it into a page.

Where do the county’s tiers help and where do they stop?

North, middle and south are handy shorthand, and the Encyclopedia uses them. They do not draw a line around a service area, and they do not say which excluded city or included town lies in which township. A page should say only what the business knows from its own jobs.

• Use the tiers to organize pages and reports.
• Do not use them as service area boundaries.
• Do not place a city or town in a township without checking.
• Ask the township trustee when an address is in doubt.

School district names in local search

The Encyclopedia says the eight outer townships are the territorial basis for eight of the county’s eleven public school districts, the other three being Indianapolis Public Schools and the school systems of Beech Grove and Speedway. Parents and people moving to the area often search by district.

State the district name as a location only. Never imply that a district or a school recommends the business.

What SEO in Indianapolis reports, row by row

A monthly report should be organized by the same lines as the service area. The rows show where leads come from, which place names brought them, and what changed. A business on a street under transit construction has search needs of its own; see our page on a marketing agency in Indianapolis, and for home food sellers in Marion County, our page on web design in Indianapolis.

Our SEO services pricing page lists the plans a report like this belongs to.

• Report calls and form fills by township and excluded city.
• Show which place name each page used.
• Note the jobs booked from each place.
• Keep one line on what changed that month.
• Review the place names every quarter.

Related services and guides

Pages that sit beside this one:

• Local SEO services
• Home services SEO
• Contractor SEO
• SEO company by city
• Software development company in Indianapolis

Frequently asked questions