Local Ranking Power of a Multi-Keyword URL?
-
Here is a site that is sitting at number 1 on Google UK (local results) for a number of its keywords:
http://www.scottishdentistry.com/
If you look at the links in the navigation many of them have urls such as this:
http://www.scottishdentistry.com/glasgow-scotland-dentistry/glasgow-scotland-hygienists.html
These have clearly been created to be keyword rich. For example, there is no publicly-available page at:
http://www.scottishdentistry.com/glasgow-scotland-dentistry
Do you think this tactic has helped with the site's rankings? Is it worth imitating? Or will it ultimately attract a penalty of some kind?
Remember this is in the UK where Google seems to be slower at penalising dodgy tactics than in the US.
Thanks everyone.
-
Hi Miriam
Thanks very much for your response. Much appreciated.
The reason I asked about this particular issue is that a client's site is slightly below this one on key searches even though it beats it on nearly every criteria in OSE (authority, links etc).
Therefore I am looking at any other factors - such as this url issue - which could be making the difference.
Thanks again
Neil
-
Hey Neil,
Yes, having the practice's city name in the URLs is a perfectly fine tactic, as long as it's reasonable, but the main thing here to remember is that this is just one tiny thing that should be happening on any local business website. You want your basic SEO right, of course, but as the link Ryan has shared will demonstrate, there are just tons of things that require effort. No one's rankings are going to boil down to any one of the factors. The goal is to make a superior effort in your city and industry across many, many factors.
-
Understood. Go to the link on Local search ranking factors to help you prioritize as that will give you the best idea of what your client is doing well, missing, or doing poorly. I'd work on all the things that are more important than localization in the URL first as improving those should gain ground the quickest.
-
Thanks very much Ryan.
My problem is this site is my client's competition.
I agree with all of your points but I wonder if I should copy this tactic to gain ground on them in local search.
Cheers
Neil
-
Hi Neil. For local searches, localization still carries some weight when found within the URL, see: http://moz.com/local-search-ranking-factors, but I'd try to use a little less repetition than in the example above and focus on the higher valued difference making factors.
Outside of local, per Moz's own 2013 Search Ranking Factors, keywords in the URL are 1/4 of 1 percent of the total picture, and possibly even less than that today. I'd write URLs that are easy to read for people and not repetitively keyword stuffed. Cheers!
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
-
Company with different branches: Generic Keywords & Localized Keywords: Best practise?
INITIAL SITUATION: We offer a branded product/service in different cities. We have different contact pages for every city (—> basically just a form and a map, i.e. 100% SHALLOW). GOAL:
Local Website Optimization | | Cesare.Marchetti
We would like to rank for the branded keyword only (—> more generic search intent) but as well as for branded keyword + cities (—> more transactional search intent) combinations. REMARK: It would make little sense in my opinion to develop the individual contact pages (for every city) to „full“ pages with real content as there isn’t really specific content for the differenct cities to add. OPTIONS:
1) HOME page: target for the branded keyword CONTACT pages (one for each city): target for the branded keyword + city name HOME page: target for the branded keyword + all the city names CONTACT pages (one for each city): : NO keyword targeting at all HOME page: target for the branded keyword + different city names CONTACT pages (one for each city): target for the branded keyword + city name Add CANONICAL tag to main page ???!!!??? What is best practise? What would you recommend? Is there another solution? I really would like to know your opinion. Thanks a lot for your hints in advance.
Cheers,
CesareBearbeiten0 -
If we are a local based business, what is the best approach to tracking keywords? Shall we be micro tracking?
we are a local based business and we only have one physical property but we service a 15 mile radius (people within a 15 mile radius will use our services) when it comes to keyword tracking and monitoring should we just be looking at the 3 main local towns or should we go out to the villages around our area too? at what level shall we be micro tracking? do we go to such a micro level for tracking keywords for all the villages which creates a lot of keywords for the locations? what is the best approach?
Local Website Optimization | | Mutatio_Digital0 -
Is this local guide best to follow?
Today I found below guide, Is this best guide to follow for the website and service pages content, layout design? http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/guide-to-local-seo/
Local Website Optimization | | Michael.Leonard0 -
Community Discussion - What are your experiences creating local landing pages?
Hi there, Moz Community! In Tuesday's post on the Moz Blog, "Overcoming Your Fear of Local Landing Pages," Miriam Ellis asks: When tasked with developing a set of city landing pages for your local business clients, do you experience any of the following: brain fog, dry mouth, sweaty palms, procrastination, woolgathering, or ennui? Then chances are, the diagnosis is a _fear of local landing pages. _ Which brings me to today's question! What are the toughest challenges you've faced when creating local landing pages? How have you overcome them? What successes have you had, and what lessons have you learned along the way?
Local Website Optimization | | MattRoney4 -
Which URL structure should I use?
samhillbands.com/bands/Charlottesville-VA-Wedding-Bands samhillbands.com/wedding/bands/Charlottesville-VA-Bands
Local Website Optimization | | brianvest0 -
SEO Client not rankings in Google
Hello, I have a client that has continued to be problematic for my team and I. They have fair to middling rankings in Yahoo and Bing, but none in Google. I realize that they are three separate search engines each with their own criteria, but this client is the only one experiencing this problem. There is no significant duplicate content that can find, same with restrictions in the robots.txt file. These seems to be no reason why all my tools say that this client has no presence at all in google, especially when the client gains most of their traffic through Google. Can anyone assist me in finding out what is going wrong? Client website for reference: http://www.volvethosp.com/ Best, BeyondIndigo
Local Website Optimization | | BeyondIndigo0 -
Ranking for similar local keywords
Hello All, It's my first day using a Moz Pro account and it all seems really good so far! Our business has 26 stores throughout the UK so I created a store locator page that has a page for each store. Inside here, I've created unique content for the same products for each store and it's really working wonders. The problem here though is one of my locations (Rotherham) contains two stores - so I feel that they'll both be fighting for the position all of the time. Would a canonical tag be suitable for this? I do need both pages to appear in Google's map results but as for organic rankings of keywords - it shouldn't matter too much if just one page appears. Thanks! Liam
Local Website Optimization | | LiamMcArthur0 -
How to rank in Local Google Without physical address and phone number?
Can We Rank Well in Local Google without Physical address and Phone Number??? If Yes. How??
Local Website Optimization | | Dan_Brown10