Proper way to include Location & Zipcode Keywords
-
I have a client that is insisting that I add a list of approximately 50 cities and 80 zipcodes that their business serves within the keyword meta tag. Based on what I have been reading this will do absolutely nothing to help improve their search ranking. What would be the proper way today to let inform search engines of the geolocations a business serves?
-
Thanks Miriam, I appreciate the response, and the article you wrote.
Here's commiserating with all the other SAB SEO's out there who's jobs seem to get harder with each Google update!
Cheers
-
Hi Joshua,
Yes, this warning from Google is still relevant:
Blocks of text listing cities and states a webpage is trying to rank for
So, what you are describing with a block of geo terms/zip codes on a single page would fall under this heading. I would advise finding a better way of featuring this info.
Regarding neighborhoods, recommend that you read: http://moz.com/blog/mastering-serving-the-user-as-centroid
-
I realize this thread is a couple years old, but feel it's still a relevant topic. Also, insofar as there are two issues at play here, let me say I agree with Chris' assessment about client relations.
I also do SEO for service-area businesses, and have been working on localized landing pages for a few of my clients. I am not attempting to optimize for locations across state lines.
I've read the Google documentation and the forums at Webmaster Tools, and posts here on Moz, and I'm still unclear. I have two relevant examples of recent work I'd like people to weigh in on if possible... In both cases my list of places/ZIPs is prominently placed, nicely formatted, and (i think) useful for users.
Case 1: A service area page for a company that only serves NW Ohio. Below the fold is a section
Counties & ZIPs We Serve. Then a list of the counties, below each county is a list of the ZIPs in that county the company goes to. It's a construction contracting company that has a specific geographic range, and so we felt it would be best to be specific, so clients could find their County & ZIP before contacting. Is this KW stuffing to Google?
Case 2: For a page targeting a larger city that is known for valuing it's local neighborhoods and independent local business, I have a list of neighborhoods within the city that we're targeting with a note to readers, 'find your neighborhood...' Is this KW stuffing to Google?
Thanks in advance
-
Hi Michael,
You've gotten some excellent replies. I share Chris' sentiment about firing this client if they are telling you - their SEO - how to do SEO. As members have explained here, it has been many years since Google devalued the meta keywords tag, specifically because people were using it in the spammy way your client wants to. In fact, I would let your client know that not only will this tactic not help him, it could very likely hurt him.
Last year, Google updated their Webmaster Quality Guidlelines (share this link with your client: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66358) to speak against keyword stuffing of this kind anywhere on a page. The language reads:
"Keyword stuffing" refers to the practice of loading a webpage with keywords or numbers in an attempt to manipulate a site's ranking in Google search results. Often these keywords appear in a list or group, or out of context (not as natural prose). Filling pages with keywords or numbers results in a negative user experience, and can harm your site's ranking. Focus on creating useful, information-rich content that uses keywords appropriately and in context.
Examples of keyword stuffing include:
- Lists of phone numbers without substantial added value
- Blocks of text listing cities and states a webpage is trying to rank for
- Repeating the same words or phrases so often that it sounds unnatural, for example:
We sell custom cigar humidors. Our custom cigar humidors are handmade. If you’re thinking of buying a custom cigar humidor, please contact our custom cigar humidor specialists at custom.cigar.humidors@example.com.
*emphasis in bold mine
When Google makes a point of saying, "don't do this," and website owners ignore the warning, they are courting a penalty.
Share this information with the client and at the same time, lay out a proper Local SEO plan if they are, in fact, a Local business. Hopefully, this session of education will bring them up-to-date on best practices, but if they persist in insisting on spammy practices, tell them you can't serve them. You don't want spammy clients, believe me.
Hope this helps!
-
You've got a few issues with this client:
-
They are telling you how to do SEO. If I felt I had to defend what should be put in the description tag, I'd leave a client in a heartbeat. I mean, what are they hiring an SEO for? Why not just dictate their wished to their web designer and save a few bucks?
-
They are telling you to do the wrong things. Almost 4 years ago, Matt Cutt let us know that Google doesn't use the meta keyword tag any longer (except, now for Google News) and Bing uses it to help identify spammers (like your client?).
-
50 cities? Why stop there? Why not drop in all 50 states--and each of their major cities? If they don't all fit in the description, you could put them up in the title tag! The client doesn't understand algorithmic search or the value of your guidance and that make for an uncomfortable work relationship.
If the client wants to serve fifty cities, they should first begin to engage customers in fifty cities. The client shouldn't count on Google to introduce him/her to those markets. The client introduces himself/herself there, begins engaging clients with content through social channels and then Google reflects that engagement that in their search results.
If the client actually has offices with physical addresses that can recieve mail in those 50 cities and phone numbers that can answer a phone call in those 50 cities then the client needs to invest in local search marketing to assist with their visibility in the local results.
-
-
Almost all search engines ignore the keyword meta tag. In fact, you should remove that tag altogether. So, your best bet is Google places. Another on-page tactic is to pick a page and add the zip codes with an appropriate phrase in front of each location/zip code.
-
It really depends, if you respond with "Google geo-locates your business services" , he may reply and say "my competitors a,b,c,d are ranking for "city keyword, why can't you deliver that". My only advice is to optimize his Google Places listing to get him ranking for those local keywords. There really is not a way to optimize for 50 cities and 80 zipcode without having duplicate content. Also it seems that your client has taken a strategy role, he hired you to for search engine optimization and you should be delivering the strategy to him. You make be able to back your case by showing traffic measures.
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
-
Is it possible to compete on keywords with Amazon?
Is it actually even possible to compete against Amazon to be #1 in Google SERPs against Amazon? If so - how? I run a boutique business selling a niche product, in 2008 - 2013 I was always #1 for my keywords.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | loginid
But since Amazon started the same type of products as well, I have now always been right under amazon results, who are at 1,2,3. Is it even possible to get to the #1 position any more? Thank you.0 -
Keyword difficulty and time to rank
Hello, Is there a correlation between the keyword difficult and the time it takes to rank ? In other words let's say I try to rank for the keyword "seo" and it is going to take 2 years to rank 1 st whereas if I go for "best seo tools in 2018" and it takes just 2 weeks ? Thank you,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoanalytics0 -
Duplicate content - Images & Attachments
I have been looking a GWT HTML improvements on our new site and I am scratching my head on how to stop some elements of the website showing up as duplicates for Meta Descriptions and Titles. For example the blog area: <a id="zip_0-anchor" class="zippedsection_title"></a>
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CocoonfxmediaThis blog is full of information and resources for you to implement; get more traffic, more leads an
/blog/
/blog/page/2/
/blog/page/3/
/blog/page/4/
/blog/page/6/
/blog/page/9/The page has rel canonicals on them (using Yoast Wordpress SEO) and I can't see away of stopping the duplicate content. Can anyone suggest how to combat this? or is there nothing to worry about?
0 -
Breadcrumb wording and keywords
This is real estate website related. For every neighborhood I have a "condos" and "houses" page. In the breadcrumb structure I may have: "home > island condos > city condos > region condos > neighborhood condos". Questions: Some breadrumb structures have 5-6 different breadcrumb link and repeating the word "condos" in each link seems redundant. Would it be better just to list "island", "city", "region", "neighborhood" and never use the word "condos" or "houses" in the breadcrumbs? For users this would be better. If I implement what I suggest in 1) - deleting "condos" or "houses" wording from breadcrumb links, then on a condos page the word "region" (as an example) will lead to the "region condos" page whereas the exact same word "region" on a house page will lead to the "region houses" page. This means I will have a situation where the anchor text in breadcrumbs become 100% identical for my "condos" and "houses" pages, however, the they lead to different pages. Is this OK? I have in past been told that when I use internal anchor text, that the link should always leads to the same page. Having same anchor leading to different pages would not be good….is that so? thank you
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | khi50 -
Cannot Increase Ranking For a Keyword Phrase
I've been working on the keyword phrase, "Niceville Assisted Living" for the website: http://nicevilleassistedliving.com and my increase in rankings has pretty much stalled. When I first started working on this website, a lot of the content was duplicated (which we took care of by plugging in unique content), there were locations listed on the homepage that were throwing my rankings off, I've created blog posts each week (we've even tried posting one post every day for a week), added the Facebook feed to the homepage, corrected errors in the theme, and I'm trying to get a resources page built. I know content is a very, very large part of SEO.. but it seems like the content I am plugging in isn't helping. There aren't any errors in Webmaster Tools and my keyword density is fairly close to the website ranking #1. I think my biggest problem is backlinks. Other websites have quite a few whereas the website I'm working on doesn't have any (I'm working on that, but the number I have doesn't compare to the websites ranking in the top three). I'm stumped as to what to do next. Does anyone have suggestions to improve the ranking for this keyword phrase?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ReviveMedia0 -
Keyword Frequent On and Drop Off
Hi, I was wondering if anyone could help me. I am currently doing SEO for a client’s site, over the past few weeks the keywords have gradually gone up steadily. One of the keywords however continues to jump on and off rankings. For a few days it will jump up to 23<sup>rd</sup> in Google Rankings, but then it will completely drop of the radar, not even in the top 200 anymore. I’ve gone through the site to check if there is anything wrong and stuck to guidelines offered here on SEO Moz but I’m stumped to figure it out. The Keyword has a page that helps target it, there is no stuffing, all I can think is if there are bad back-links coming in to us that Google that continues to push down the rankings. Can anyone help shed some light on the situation for me?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Kal-SEO0 -
Should we get a new domain that has our main keyword in it.
We have been running our site about 10 years under the domain www.islesurfboards.com and we are referred as "Isle Surfboards" when linked to in the anchor text. Our core product line and keyword focus has always been on "surfboards" and its related long tail keywords. However in the last several years we have began to sell "paddle boards" and now they have become our best selling product accouting for 80% of our business. We really want to rank well for "paddleboards" and related words but noticed we always seem to fall below people who have websites with "paddleboard" or "sup" in the domain and company name. will they always rank better unless we also inlcude it in ours? Should we move to a New Domain that focuses on the new target keyword "paddleboard" or a combo of both "surfboards" and "paddleboards"and would this make any difference or even hurt us since it would be a new domain. Then in addition rebrand our company name to include surfboards and/or paddleboards in the company name or some combo of both so the anchor text when people who refer to us relate to both paddle boards and surfboards?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | isle_surf0 -
Keyword tool for news?
Working on developing a news product and wondering if there are tools available to gauge search interest in a particular topic. For those that work in news, what are your favorite SEO tools?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | nicole.healthline0