SEO For Local Searches
-
I run a driving school of over 100 instructors in the UK. We cover around 60 different areas.
My homepage www.driveJohnsons.co.uk is optimised for 'driving lessons' and 'driving school' search terms mainly.
My area pages are optimised for the same but with the area included ie: Driving Lessons Birmingham or Driving Lessons Leeds
I've taken a drop in many areas...
I've cleaned up my incoming links using the disavow too and upped more relevant links associated with the same industry as myself.
The question i have is should i change my URL's for my area pages from www.driveJohnsons.co.uk/driving-lessons-leeds to: www.driveJohnsons.co.uk/leeds
I've been told stuffing the URL with keywords for an area actually dilutes the strength of my homepage and all the other areas.
At the moment i have 60 area pages with: www.drivejohnsons.co.uk/driving-lessons-area
It use to work a treat, but i've started seeing some companies change their URLs to: /area and excluding the driving-lessons
If i make this change then i'm either going to have to bit the bullet on build up links for those areas again or do a redirect for each area.
I've added most areas to google places and i've added google map to many of area pages too.
If anyone knows a bit more, please let me know...
-
Hi Anthony,
So glad the resource helped!
-
Hi Miriam...
I found the local listings article very interesting, quite frightening in fact. It all makes sense but you have put a lot of things back into perspective.
-
Unfortunately, these kinds of pages, regardless of the URL, can present problems for organic SEO (even when they have some local SEO benefit). If the 60 pages are basically cookie cutter - the same content except for the city/region, then this is the kind of thin content that can cause problems with Panda. The keyword-loaded URL might marginally increase the problem, but I think the risk is real either way.
As Miriam said, if it's a few locations, it's not usually a big deal. Hundreds is definitely a risk. Sixty is a bit borderline, IMO. If your site had 1,000 indexed pages and 60 local pages, probably no big deal. If you have 100 pages total and 60 local, then I'd be concerned. There's no easy solution. Either you: (1)focus the regions and pare it down a bit, or (2) work to create more unique content on each of these pages and make sure they don't look thin.
-
Hi Anthony,
Back again. You might like to check out the good examples of multi-location businesses in this article from Local U:
http://localu.org/blog/designing-business-location-website-pages-part-2-multiple-location-business/
I'm still pretty much sticking to my original suggested URL structure, and I think these examples may be useful in your planning.
-
Hi Anthony,
You've raised an interesting point. I've asked some of our traditional SEO experts if they would weigh in on this with you. My clients typically have just a handful of locations, in which case, it's been a no-brainer for me to go with the /service-city url structure, but I think what you're asking is a valid question. It might still be the best choice to go with this structure, but if you're really concerned about it, you could go with just a /city URL structure for the office landing pages. On the other hand, the URL is only one step in your optimization work. Even if you did just go with the /city structure, wouldn't you be optimizing the tags and text of the pages with the core service phrase? Another thought, too, would be to go with /business-name-city, but when one considers that many business names may contain the core service phrase (Superior Driving Lessons, for example), this brings us back to square one.
When things become messy like this, I try to step back and ask myself if what I'm doing is natural. In this case, I think having pages on your website that specify that driving lessons are offered in X city is totally natural. It's not like you're trying to game anything with explaining this. You're giving an honest representation of what the business does and where it does it. Sometimes, I can over-think things about my clients, in which case, coming back to what is natural and honest can often provide a guiding light.
As I've said, I think your question is worthy of an answer. I've shared my thinking on this, but I really hope you'll get feedback from some of our other staff on this as I believe several heads may be better than one in hashing out the technical specifics of this.
-
Hi Miriam
I've got physical addresses for the areas. A google postcard has been sent to the area to authorise.
I'm not bothered if i rank on the first page locally or organically.
My concern with the URL was if i have 60 URL's saying /driving-lessons-AREA
Would that not dilute dilute each areas strength because of the heavy use of driving lessons and also dilute my home page optimisation which is for the whole of the UK for driving lessons.
As for links, i've had a good clean up around 2 months ago but it seems the disavow tool takes time as these horrible links are still present in my webmaster links to site section.
It's weird i have another website that is spammed to hell, bad links and poor content and that sits on the first page of local listings and i've done no work on it since the penguin update - as there was too much to do and i had other priorities.
All i've tried to do with my main site is good seo practice.
So you think the driving-lessons for every area page shouldn't make a difference ?
-
Hi Anthony,
Are you saying that your business has a physical office in each of these cities? I am assuming this is so, as you are only allowed to create Google+ Local pages for physical offices. If there is some chance that you've done so, lacking physical offices, then you could expect Google to remove these listings if they become aware that they don't represent physical offices.
I see no problem with your URLs. I'm curious as to what you read. Those look like perfectly fine URLs for local landing pages to me.
Are you aware that there is currently a shakeup going on in Google's local results? It's possible that this could account for any fluctuations you are seeing.
If not, it sounds like you may have had some link problems in the past. Is there any chance that you might have run afoul of the Google Places Quality Guidelines in some way? Here's a link to them: https://support.google.com/places/answer/107528?hl=en
Ranking fluctuations happen in Local. Sometimes they are caused by tweaks to Google's algo. Other times, they occur when you are surpassed by a competitors' efforts. And, in some cases, a business drops because of engaging in bad practices. Consider these three scenarios and see if one of them fits your business most closely. Hope this helps.
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
-
Do You Work At Home As An SEO Or Have An Office?
I'm curious how many of you all work at home or mostly at home either through an company or freelance. Or are most of you employed at a corporation? My company was recently bought by a very large global company. Recently I found out that all the SEO and web design is contracted through outside sources. With the headquarters in Europe, this being my primary job function I kinda feel well you know.... down.. Websites I put my life into for the last 7 years are going to be handed over to a corporation to do with whatever they feel they should. I know they were never really mine, but when you spend so much of your life to making them the best you can, so much so to attract the attention of a global billion dollar company, you should feel great right? But I feel like my dog just died. I don't have a bad impression of the company but the shift of moving me to the IT guy has begun. Normal web updates I would have done, are now being pushed aside. I don't hate IT I like helping others, but I really loved being able to make a difference through the web. Now I'm left contemplating my future, big corporations have so much bs, I just don't feel comfortable. I would really appreciate you all giving me your thoughts and tell me about any similar experiences you have had in your life. Cheers, Don
Industry News | | donford0 -
Real-Life Negative SEO Study
This isn't so much of a question as an offer The Offer first, then the story. We are currently the target of a sustained negative SEO. This was only discovered in the last 3 or 4 days (Webmaster reports impressions down from 15,000 to 1,600!). I'm not asking for help, I believe we know what to do in order to combat it. My question is whether anyone at MOZ would like to use it as a real-life ongoing case study. We are not a new company and have never dabbled in black hat SEO. All current thinking suggests that this shouldn't have been possible given our age and reputation. A summary of our company/site below: 9 Year old domain $3m annual sales Previous Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Company 25,000 Facebook fans Hundreds of natural links including CNN.com, Washington Post, Inc.com I'm not the best writer and I'm not that technical. I would gladly give the right person full access to anaylics, webmaster tools, sales reports, interviews. Given that this is still ongoing (and there's always a chance we might not recover!) I suspect this would make a great case study for the community given the right author. gfbM8kV
Industry News | | experiencedays1 -
Google Changes Up The Search Results Page
Hi Guys, As you Google has made changes on search results page. I have two points two discuss here : 1. Are we going to see more ads on left sidebar in future ? 2. I think it will also affect the CTR of top three ads in SERP ? Waiting for you guys opinion on it ? Reference: http://www.webpronews.com/google-changes-up-the-search-results-page-2012-11
Industry News | | SanketPatel1 -
Will Google ever begin penalising bad English/grammar in regards to rankings and SEO?
Considering Google seem to be on a great crusade with all their algorithm updates to raise the overall "quality" of content on the Internet, i'm a bit concerned with their seeming lack of action towards penalising sites that contain terrible English. I'm sure you've all noticed this when you attempt to do some proper research via Google and come across an article that "looks" to be what you're after, then you click through and realise it's obviously been either put together in a rush by someone not paying attention or putting much effort in, or been outsourced for cheap labour to another country whose workers aren't (close to being) native speakers. It's getting really old trying to make sense of articles that have completely incorrect grammar, entirely missing words, verb tenses that don't make any sense, randomly over-extravagant adjectives thrown in just as padding, etc. etc. No offense to all those from non-native speaking countries who are attempting to make a few bucks online, but this for me is becoming by far more of an issue in terms of "quality" of information online as opposed to some of the other search issues that are being given higher priority, and it just seems strange that Google have been so blasé about it up to this point - especially given so many of these articles and pages are nothing more than outsourced filler for cheap traffic. I understand it's probably hard to code in something so advanced, but it would go a long way towards making the web a better place in my opinion. Anyone else feeling the same way? Thoughts?
Industry News | | ExperienceOz1 -
SEO Company In France
Hi Guys I am currently looking for an SEO company in France. Cant anyone recommend a good reputable agency? Thanks
Industry News | | EwanFisher1 -
Google Search Quality Team - Commission Based Reviews
I have been busy this past week writing articles for various sources about the recent update on Google. A number of people contacted me about the analysis I was doing and the report. Some were members of the Google Search Quality Team. I knew manual reports were done before - but after the documents they showed me regarding the reports they do and the compensation for doing the reports - I am left in a state of being pretty shocked. May be I have been naive for all these years but I didn't realize that; Google outsourced the review and reconsideration requests to individual reviewers for a compensation Google's position in terms of checking qualification and experience of these "reviewers" was very insufficient at best, The three contacts I spoke to who had done reports had very little training or experience. I went through the GSQT REVIEWERS PDF (a very long and thorough document) that I was sent - with them. We went together through some sites I wanted them to review and their comments that came back were quite astounding to say the least and would have made many of you Mozzers laugh. Obviously I don't want to post said document online here.... BUT, I wanted to know if: a) any Mozzers had ever been part of such a group - the GSQT b) had any dealings with them - in terms of having your website reviewed and known about it. I knew about this group way back - like in 2005 or 2006 or sometime around then - I was told at time it was stopped and Google had stopped paying these sub contractor reviewers. Please don't get me wrong here... totally on board with manual reviews... I would just prefer them done by a trained team that possibly worked for either a professional company that maintain high quality review testing and standards - or for that matter GOOGLE employees that were trained. I just am a little unsure of them being done by individual subbies that get paid for the amount they do. What if that subbie has got some skin in the game for a particular keyword? What if their knowledge about certain aspects isn't up to par or not tested on a regular basis. This space is always changing and as you guys ./ girls on this forum know - it can change pretty quick. I just would want all websites to be judged fairly and equally by a group trained EQUALLY and to the same standards. I don't care if this is a G team or not - I just want it to be a team that is trained equally and trained continuously as opposed to paying outside people based on numbers of reviews done. When the livelihood of a small business is the balance I don't want a commission hungry toe rag with one years experience being the gate keeper for me or any of our clients. Carlos
Industry News | | CarlosFernandes0 -
Searching for a keyword on html source code of a website via Google
Is such a thing possible? Can we google for a specific keyword that can be found on the source code of a website? Is there any search operator for this? Thanks in advance!
Industry News | | merkal20050 -
Which one is THE BEST seo book
For you guys which one is the best SEO BOOK?? Maybe this one? http://www.amazon.com/Ranking-Number-One-Essential-Results/dp/1452849900/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1309247497&sr=8-4 Thanks in advance!
Industry News | | augustos1