Top of Google Places but not Organic
-
Hi There,
My website www.drivingbrighton.co.uk is number 1 for Google places for my area, however I'm not on page 1 of google organically. Is it possible to do this, or does Google not let you have a places and organic links?
Any opinions welcome!
Ant
-
Hi Antony,
I haven't seen a heatmap study or clickthru-type report covering this specifically. However, my gut feelings is that you are better off being #1 with places attached as the listing is so large and visible. I think you have cause to jump for joy with that top local ranking. I bet you are getting the lion's share of interest on that page of results.
Sorry I don't have anything to quote you. It's possible someone has done a heatmap study and that might be something you could research.
-
Thanks Miriam,
Much appreciated.... Heres one more quesiton then. Is there any eveidence on whether it is better to be top of Organic search or like myself top of places?
-
Hi Antony,
Marcus has given an excellent response. Yes, the organic and local algos are separate. Looking at the results for 'driving lessons brighton' from California, I am seeing a mix of pure organic results and blended results. It is technically possible to get more than 1 spot in the SERPs. You can have an organic result as well as a local result, but as you've guessed, the factors for doing so mean engaging in a strong traditional SEO campaign as well as what you are doing with Local SEO, or, having very little competition. It looks to me like you've got lots of local competitors, but if you can out-do them, there is some chance of seeing an organic result for your business in addition to the local one. I do note, though, that Google is not giving this special treatment to any of your competitors (at least not in the results I'm seeing). Each one either has an organic results or a blended places result, and this may be due to there being so many businesses competing for this term. Google has a lot to choose from.
Still, if you can utterly out-do some of them, there is a chance.
Good luck!
Miriam
-
Thanks Marcus,
Really good reply. Yer im just link building at the moment. Finding a good quality directory is the challenge! Feel free to send me a message if you know of any!
So when you say "but the page of results blends content from local and organic (and other areas)". So if im number one for google places then i might not appear on the other positions on that page?
I'm writing articles, blogs etc to try to improve the content. Yep im getting traffic from places and getting business from it. But not 100% sure how much as analytics doesnt tell me this (but i saw an article on here about this so hopefully will have a look at this over the next couple of days).
-
Hey Anthony
The local and organic results are a separate entity but the page of results blends content from local and organic (and other areas).
' I am guessing your targeted search term is 'driving lessons brighton' and there is no reason why you could not get a well placed organic listing to complement the local listing given that you did a little content development and some gentle link building. The competition for these terms is pretty weak so really, a little content, some good quality directories, maybe some guest posting if you can get your content out there. You could even offer a discounted first X lessons to people who +1 you which should give you more visibility for those users if they search again.
I would also look at the paid search listings as a way of getting a little more page coverage if you feel that is needed. The PPC can be turned off when you have a full schedule and kicked back into action when you need to fill a few more slots.
Out of interest, is this local listing driving traffic to the site? Is the traffic converting? If so, at what kind of rates? I am not sure how much business you need but a broader keyword strategy, some PPC and some very gentle content driven SEO should keep you busy.
Hope it helps and fire away with any questions.
Marcus
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How Google recognises Brand name? And ignores attested keywords?
Hi community, Our company name got attested with our industry keyword over the years; which also primary keyword of our homepage and all of our industry competitors. Best example is... Moz turns to Moz SEO for fraction of the audience or users. Again this is an example. Now if Google thinks "Moz" is only the company name, does it ignores the word "seo" completely? Or Google gives negative score for employing "seo" after "Moz" across all pages? Does the "seo" word will be considered or ignored in this case? How Google recognises the company name? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Do the header tags must be placed from top to bottom order?
Generally tags will be placed starting with h1, then h2, h3 and h4.... Some of our pages starts with h3 and h1 is placed after couple of h2 and h3 tags. Is this a bad placement which hurts in SEO?
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz1 -
What Ranking Factors Impact Google News Visibility?
I'm just at the beginning of a new analysis involving Google News visibility and ranking factors, and thought I could put the project out to you, dear SEO geniuses, to get your ideas and perspectives. Backgrounder: My company operates over 50 niche, disease-specific daily news sites, covering science, research and advocacy news about specific diseases. Virtually all of them are in Google News. They range in age from 3 years old to 3 months old. Varying degrees of page rank / authority Content on the site is completely niche to specific diseases, and we have a lot of sites for rare and orphan diseases. Most of the content is news, but we also have info/resources pages, blogs, and some short-form posts made for use in social media. The Project: I want to do an analysis of keywords in our news headlines and see how certain keywords correlate with articles that do well -- both in terms of search traffic and overall with users. Going to use our Multiple Sclerosis News Today website. Most of our search traffic comes from Google News. What I hope to gain: I'm curious to see if certain sets of keywords that relate to the disease, to therapies, etc. drive the most traffic. I want to compare these keyword lists to how well we rank in organic search for the same keywords (via news articles or info pages) to see if there is a connection. I want to also create a working keyword list of the best-performing keywords in the news as a way of cross-pollinating content production on our blogs, info pages, social content, etc. I want to increase my knowledge base of ranking factors specific for Google News. The last point is really something I wish I knew more about. I feel like there aren't many knowledge resources out there about Google News. Is it safe to assume that the same on-site and off-site SEO best practices that govern organic search engine visibility are at play in Google News, or are there independent factors as well? I'd love to get your thoughts. Thanks!
Algorithm Updates | | Michael_Nace0 -
Anyone experience google penalties for full-screen pop-ups?
Although we always recommend against onload pop-ups for clients, (we feel the effect the user experience) we do have a few clients that insist on them. I was reading this article the other day https://searchenginewatch.com/2016/05/17/how-do-i-make-sure-my-site-is-mobile-friendly/ which lead me to https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6101188 and I'm happy to see that Google is going to consider these types of content a downgrade when it comes to rank. My question is 2 fold: Has anyone experienced a drop in organic traffic on mobile due to this update? and do you think this will include user triggered content like photo galleries, bookings, email sign ups? We haven't noticed any drops yet but it is something we will be keeping a close eye on in the next little while. Let's hear what the community has to say 🙂
Algorithm Updates | | VERBInteractive1 -
Did Google update the length of characters allowed in Meta Description?
Hey all, I do SEO. I'm currently working with another SEO firm on a project. The lady mentioned to me that Google recently updated (couple months ago) and changed their font causing them to lower the meta description to 55 characters. Is this true? I have not heard of this. Could she be confusing the meta description with the title tag? I didn't know Google could have even update the Title tag too.
Algorithm Updates | | ColeLusby0 -
Google keyword tool
I was quite happy with google keyword tool for basic and accurate searches for keywords. Can anyone suggests a new tool that will give accurate search volume on google ( country specific ) I am not interest in info for adwords, and find a keyword planner tool way out in traffic results, compared to Keyword tool. Is the keyword tool completely gone?
Algorithm Updates | | summer3000 -
Do Google donations to Wikimedia show any bias in search results?
Over the weekend we learned Google co-founder Sergey Brin donated $500,000 to Wikimedia, the parent company of Wikipedia.com. Last year I believe Google donated $2 million to Wikimedia. I now ask, is this suspicious in anyway, seeing that Wikipedia ranks so well in Google for so many terms? There are several blog posts about it online here and there throughout the years, but what does everyone think?
Algorithm Updates | | DanDeceuster0 -
Organic CTR on Google - KPI?
Hi, I was hoping for some advice on my keyword analysis I have completed. So far I have identified a hitlist of high volume keyword associated to the industry I operate in. As well as this, I'm monitoring our keyword positions within the SERPS. Question: Is there a CTR metric available depending on the position your keyword ranks within Google? i.e. If I am position 3 and looking to move to position 1 on a specific keyword, what amount of incremental search volume would be geneerated to my website? PResumably the CTR would also depend on what market you operate in too I am also going on a 65% / 35% Organic/PPC split based on keyword search volume so to give me a true reflection of the search volume available... Any advice on this would be much appreciated... Simon
Algorithm Updates | | simonsw0