Google places keyword variations
-
Hi all,
I have a site that is ranking #1 in Google Places for its main <city><keyword>search... but it does not rank for any of its basic keyword variations, which I find very confusing.</keyword></city>
ie (just an example)
Chicago Caterer (ranked #1 in google places)
Chicago Caterers (not ranked in google places)
Chicago Catering (not ranked in google places)
Chicago Catering Company (not ranked in google places)
Chicago Catering Companies (etc..)How can I secure a google places ranking for these simple keyword variations? Do I build links to the google plus page using that anchor text? Do I get citations that contain that keyword somewhere on the page? Do I optimize for these keyword variations on the actual website itself? (not the places listing).
Obviously I don't stuff these keywords into the google places listing.
Any help would be much appreciated!
-
It is my pleasure!
-
Thank you Miriam,
That really helps. I think we are probably wasting our time even worrying about this then. We have the #1 organic for all the keyword variations, above the places listing. So, based on the info you have provided, better to just leave it and not mess with it.
Thank you so much Miriam for the very helpful replies!!
T.
-
Hi Again and Happy Monday,
Since the Venice update about a year ago, yes, it has become much less common for any business to have both an organic and a local listing on the same page. If one manages to get into the local results, their organic ranking is typically subsumed into the blended local listing.
There are some exceptions to this, usually in areas of low competition for which Google has less data, and there have also been experiments done in which Local SEOs have managed to optimize an interior page of the website in such a way that they've picked up double page one rankings (see this: http://localsearchforum.catalystemarketing.com/local-seo-ranking/5180-double-ranking-organic-maps.html), but this is not what I'd call a run-of-the-mill scenario.
So what is the answer to the phenomenon you are experiencing? Why does Google consider you more organic than local for those particular keyword variants? I don't believe this can be resolved with the general advice we can give here without investigating the actual business in question. I think you have 2 options:
-
Run the site through the 51 blocks tool, as I've suggested and see if you can discover some areas in which the competitors included in the local pack are outdistancing you.
-
Hire a really good Local SEO and give him/her the keys to the website so that they can try to uncover the nuances specific to your business.
*One thing I will point out, however, is that if you are managing to rank organically above the local packs for these variants, you may want to consider carefully whether you've really got a problem at all. Over the past couple of years, I have read so many comments (like this one: https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/business/Tq4DsCCth7s/2Z-MyLEc2mMJ) in different places from business owners who have stated that their transfer from an organic to a local format resulted in a drop in traffic. This is an issue you might want to read up on further while making up your mind about whether something actually needs to be 'fixed'.
Hope this helps!
-
-
Hi Kyle & Miriam
I appreciate your answers, but part of the confusion lies in the fact that we have absolutely everything else nailed down, and yet we can't get the site to rank for the keyword variations in google places.
The site has the most positive (legit) reviews in its niche, ranks #1 in google places for its main term, has 400+ pages of content on the site and incredible organic rankings... and the website even ranks above the google places 7-pack for its keyword variations...
And yet... for its keywod variations (plural, ing, companies) it does not show up in google places. And yet the organic listing is actually above the 7-pack places listing for these variations.
Does having an organic ranking above the google places listing make it less likely that they will list your places listing? I wouldn't think so, as I've seen it before where a site ranks both #1 organically above the places listing then also ranks within the places listing on the same SERP.
Thanks for your responses guys...
-
Hi Tyler,
Kyle has provided some good advice here. I will add, it's hard to know the nuances of your client's exact situation without 1) seeing the Google Places Listing, 2) seeing the website, and 3) understanding the actual keywords/categories the client is going after. There could be nuances specific to your client and his market that I can't speak to without knowing the above.
Generally speaking, though, these things contribute to high rankings:
-
A really great website that contains all the right local hooks, awesome content and, yes, definitely excellent optimization for all target terms.
-
A violation-free Google Places/Google+ page. Correct choice of categories is very important here.
-
A variety of citations with consistent NAP (name, address, phone), well written descriptions and proper categorization.
-
Traditional SEO factors like linkbuilding and ongoing content development.
-
Social factors like active review profiles and other activities.
Sorry not to be able to give more specific advice. This is a general picture of what goes into high rankings.
Something you might want to consider doing is to figure out which of your client's competitors are managing to succeed in multiple local rankings for the targeted keyword variants and then do a competitive analysis to see if you can discover where and how they are surpassing your client. I like the free Local Competitive Analysis Tool from 51 Blocks:
http://www.51blocks.com/online-marketing-tools/free-local-analysis/
Check it out!
-
-
Hi Tyler,
You're right to dismiss stuffing keyword variants into your Google Places listing. The best way to go about this is to encourage more reviews on your Google+ Local page and beyond.
Set up your business location(s) on local review sites which Google uses as citations such as Thomson Local or Yell. Include call to actions for feedback on your website and any communications you have with your customers. Authentic reviews should naturally contain these keyword variations and (even better) should increase your overall propensity to rank in the space due to the (hopefully) positivity of the reviews.
Secondly, optimising your website or a particular page that serves a local intent would contribute towards a better ranking.
Keep in mind that the local algorithm is a unique beast. There are plenty of reasons why you may not be ranking for these search terms. For example perhaps your locality, the quality of your competition or the intent behind the search has determined your ranking. David Mihm, the Director of Local Search Strategy at SEOMoz conducted a survey last year to determine the importance of several local search ranking factors. As you can see, there are more than "several" factors.
Hope that helps,
K
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
-
My website is not ranking for primary keywords in Google
I need help regarding some SEO strategy that need to be implemented to my website http://goo.gl/AiOgu1 . My website is a leading live chat product, daily it receives around 2000 unique visitors. Initially the website was impacted by manual link penalty, I cleaned up lot of backlinks, the website revoked from the penalty some where around June'14. Most of the secondary and longtail Keywords started ranking in Google, but unfortunately, it do not rank well for the primary keywords like (live chat, live chat software, helpdesk etc). Since I have done lot of onsite changes and even revamped the content but till now I dont find any improvement. I am unable to understand where I have got structed.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | sandeep.clickdesk
can anyone help me out?0 -
Keywords Ranking Varies When Search changes Location/City (Not Google Places)
We have a client that are ranking well on most Australian cities for competitive keywords except Google Sydney. If you toggled the cities on the search field when you search for a keyword, their places are almost exactly the same except for Sydney on which they can't be found at all in the Top 100 results. The keywords are not city specific, they are general commonly searched keywords about health. This is not a Google Places issue. The search result shows the right landing pages of the site for their respective keywords. Any ideas or experience on this kind of situation. Much appreciated Louie
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | louieramos0 -
Why has my site dropped off the face of Google???
Hi All, My site was ranking well for a long time and suddenly can't be seen at all any more. I have been trying to figure this out for some time and can't get to the bottom of it. Funny thing is also even when searching for my site with a keyword "snowboard gulmarg" my URL www.klinehinmalaya.com does not appear and somewhere way back in the listing my another page www.klinehimalaya.com/packages.php comes up. Any help would be good right now. Thanks in advance, Catherine.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | caherinechan0 -
Keyword Phrases - Can You Break Them Up?
Can you break up a search query across a sentence and have Google still recognize which query you are targeting? Let's say I'm trying to rank a page for the phrase "best haircuts calgary". Is Google's algorithm advanced enough to look at page title "Best Haircuts - Where To Get Them In Calgary" and know it's targeting the query "best haircuts calgary"? If it can't do this right now, I could see it advancing to this at some point in the future, which would then change the game quite a bit in terms of how creative you can get creating pages for queries.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | reidsteven750 -
Did Reviews still have the same value in Google places ranking?
I have two questions relating to Reviews. 1. Reviews still add value to Google places ranking. 2. I have a page and two clients posted reviews for me.They all get removed after 3,4 days.What is wrong with Google?Did they consider them fake?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | csfarnsworth0 -
New Google Update?
Hey guys, So I have noticed a few of my clients rankings drop suddenly as of last week. They went from page 1 to page 4 and I they have been on page 1 for years, it happened around 17/01/2013. Anyone heard anything about a new update? Sample URL & Keyword: http://www.childrensfunkyfurniture.com/childrens-beds Childrens Beds Your help would be appreciated
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | conversiontactics0 -
Previously ranking #1 in google, web page has 301 / url rewrite, indexed but now showing for keyword search?
Two web pages on my website, previously ranked well in google, consistent top 3 places for 6months+, but when the site was modified, these two pages previously ending .php had the page names changed to the keyword to further improve (or so I thought). Since then the page doesn't rank at all for that search term in google. I used google webmaster tools to remove the previous page from Cache and search results, re submitted a sitemap, and where possible fixed links to the new page from other sites. On previous advice to fix I purchased links, web directories, social and articles etc to the new page but so far nothing... Its been almost 5 months and its very frustrating as these two pages previously ranked well and as a landing page ended in conversions. This problem is only appearing in google. The pages still rank well in Bing and Yahoo. Google has got the page indexed if I do a search by the url, but the page never shows under any search term it should, despite being heavily optimised for certain terms. I've spoke to my developers and they are stumped also, they've now added this text to the effected page(s) to see if this helps. Header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seanclc
$newurl=SITE_URL.$seo;
Header("Location:$newurl"); Can Google still index a web page but refuse to show it in search results? All other pages on my site rank well, just these two that were once called something different has caused issues? Any advice? Any ideas, Have I missed something? Im at a loss...0 -
Have we suffered a Google penalty?
Hello, In January, we started a new blog to supplement our core ecommerce website. The URL of the website is www.footballshirtblog.co.uk and the idea behind it was that we would write articles related to our industry to build a community which would ultimately boost our sales. We would add several posts per day, a mix between shorter news stories of around 150 words and more detailed content pages of around 500 words. Everything was going well, we were making slow but sure progress on the main generic keywords but were receiving several thousand visitors a day, mostly finding the posts themselves on Google. The surge on traffic meant we needed to move server, which we did around 6 weeks ago. When we did this, we had a few teething problems with file permissions, etc, which meant we were tempoarily able to add new posts. As our developers were tied up with other issues, this continued for a 7-10 day period, with no new content being added. In this period, the site completely dropped from Google, losing all it's rankings and traffic, to the extent it now doesn't even rank for it's own name. This is very frustrating as we have put a huge amount of work and content into developing this site. We have added a few posts since, but not a huge amount as it is frustrating to do it with no return and the concern that the site has been banned forever. I cannot think of any logical reason why this penalty has occured as we haven't been link spamming, etc. Does anyone have any feedback or suggestions as to how we can get back on track? Regards,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ukss1984
David0