How to get Google to choose office location pages and not the homepage. Tips and Suggestions?
-
Hello Mozzers
The issue I have is a client with a number of office locations (six) across the south of England and they want each to rank well for each location + the qualifier solicitors. IE Brighton Solicitors. Work has been undertaken on the office location pages to include the services offered from each location, full postcodes and phone numbers. These location pages are linked to from the footer of the website so have good internal links. The site has a DA of 49 and the office location pages have a PA of 33. Google in its wisdom keeps ranking the home pages for the searches. The result is that the site ranks well in one location (London) but poorly in all the majority of others (2nd,3rd and 4th page). Were it does pick up/choose the location page the rankings are better than the homepage. The other locations are less competitive than London according to the Keyword difficulty tool.
Any tips on to suggest to Google that it should rank the office location pages and not the homepage for each location? Thanks in advance
-
I agree with Miriam, make sure that you have enough citation strength/listing withing for each location, as well as making sure you're listing is linking to your individual location page on your site. This is by far the biggest differentiator in my experience.
-
Hey There,
Ultimately, it's up to Google to determine which page they consider is the authoritative result for a search, but in a multi-location scenario, here's how you can help them make your desired choice:
-
Be sure locations are NOT sharing phone numbers.
-
Be sure you have a unique, high quality landing page for each location. No thin, duplicate pages. Be sure the complete NAP is at the top of each of these pages.
-
Be sure the landing pages are being linked to from a top level menu.
-
Be sure ALL citations (including the GMB page) are linking to the correct website landing page for each location. Be sure none are just linking to the home page or some other wrong page of the site.
-
Be sure adequate citations have been built for each location on trusted platforms and that the NAP is consistent on each one.
-
Be sure there are no duplicate GMB pages for any of the locations, nor duplicate citations with bad/mixed-up data on other pages.
-
Very important, be sure all GMB listings you've created are guideline-compliant. Be aware of any violations and resolve them and also be aware of any past history of spammy behavior on the part of the business.
-
If all of this is already 100% perfect, see if you can make improvements to the internal linking structure and 3rd party links pointing to these landing pages.
Hope this helps!
P.S. This is Miriam posting, but I'm in Mozzer Alliance at the moment.
-
-
Hey highwayfive,
I've work with several multi-location businesses, and for the most part, achieve location pages outranking home page for geo related search queries. Here's a couple questions I'd have for you.
**Content **- How's the content on the location pages? Is it focused on the geo, ie directions, nearby landmarks, etc.
Links - You mentioned having links in the footer going to the location pages, however do you have any main body content links that make sense to link to location pages? For example, on the the service pages, if this service is only offered at one or two locations it would be a natural fit to link to them there. Footer links are great and a good way to get a wave of internal links, but main body editorial links seem to carry much more weight.
Google+/Citations - As Zoe mentioned, Do you have Google+ location pages for each location that link back to the location page (and the location page linking to the Google+ page)? How's the citation health for each location?
Best of luck, Ryan
-
Hi,
Thanks for your reply, that should help too, and opening hours for each business if they're not already there. Do you also have each location set up with its own location page on Google Plus? Having great citations across the rest of the web, with consistency for each location, should help too.
Good luck!
Zoe -
Thanks Zoe,
Each page has the full address and post code and have the primary search terms in the title, H1, meta description and page copy. I could add some alt.images tags to the map and I am trying to get them to produce some unique photos for each page as well.
-
Hi,
Have you added each pages' location to the Meta Title, H1 tag and within the body text of each relevant page?
Also, you could use your internal linking structure to indicate that your location pages are important. For example, ensure each has a prominent link on your homepage, a 'Locations' page and your contact page. You can also have sub-pages for each location, which all link back to the original location page. I see you say you've added postcodes- I'd also add the full addresses of each location.
Does the Solicitor's main name contain a location? This may be why it's confusing the search engines, but the above suggestions should improve this.
I hope this helps!
Zoe
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 necessary for a single location business to have a location landing page?
I'm working with a dental practice that has one location that they use to serve a service area radius of about 15-30 mins drive time, which encompasses several other small towns. I understand the value of having individual location pages for a multi-location business, but is creating a location page for a business with a single office considered best practice as well? The entire site will be optimized for the city name that the business' physical office is located in. I'm considering creating a single location landing page that I'd link to from the footer and about navigation of the site, which would be similar to the template Miriam Ellis laid out in this awesome post: https://moz.com/blog/overcoming-your-fear-of-local-landing-pages In doing this, I'm hoping to create a place for office photos and driving directions from the nearby towns in order to name the different cities in the service area. However, I'm concerned about the location page competing with other pages on the site, which will be better optimized for conversions in my opinion. Does anyone have advice on best practice here?
Local Listings | | formandfunctionagency0 -
Local Search Verified Location Ideas
Hi, I have a client who has offices that are physically located in one town, but offers its services to a much wider area, like a hundred mile radius. You can see where this is going. In local organic search, they need to establish a verified business location in other towns. My understanding is that virtual offices, even though you can receive mail there and can have offices there, are not an acceptable solution to this problem. Maybe I'm wrong about that though. Any ideas, short of opening up permanent full-time offices in other cities for getting around this? With all due respect, if your answer is only an opinion on the importance of playing by the rules and background on the rationale behind Google's Guidelines, etc, please don't bother posting. I'm looking for actual possible alternatives. Thanks!
Local Listings | | 945010 -
Disadvantages to Hiding Business Address on Google Places?
From a Local SEO standpoint, wouldn't hiding a business address on Google Places for Business create an SEO disadvantage in that I would expect in the local portion of the search results, there would be a bias to showing businesses that have not hidden their address as then you can place a pin on the map at the location? Or from a Local SEO standpoint does it not matter if you hide your address or not?
Local Listings | | Jazee1 -
Using Hashtag for Google My Business
I was told by a Google My Business representative to include #{keywords} in my description. I was told this would boost my rankings. Has anyone else heard of this?
Local Listings | | Smart_Start0 -
Getting your business name on a Google Map?
How do you get your business name to appear on Google Maps? See attachment. What's the process to get this to happen? I have a Google Local listing, but that doesn't seem to be enough. ZzFnwBj
Local Listings | | Gavin.Atkinson0 -
Google My Business page no longer appearing with search results
Title pretty much says it all--my company's local Google+ page has always appeared under our listed website information up until very recently. I'm also noticing the same with our competitors. Has anyone else just began to experience this? Our NAP, map, photos, and review are still displayed to the right of the results, but nothing is linked to the actual Google page itself. Am I missing something? Thanks!
Local Listings | | LMcLaughlin0 -
Anyone know what makes a directory get served up?
Hi All, as most know, directories are taking over the SERPS as of late, and my question is: What "tells" Google that it is a directory? What does Google look for that gets these directories showing? I understand the big ones probably have back-room deals with Google, but I am seeing some smaller ones showing. Any ideas?
Local Listings | | BBuck0 -
Google Places: Can't link to website
Hi, how are you? I'm Having some problems with my clients Google Places/Plus listings. Everything is OK, but I can't get my website linked. I'm talking about what I point out in the image. I tried following this instructions: https://support.google.com/plus/answer/1713826?hl=en&ref_topic=3052532, but I can't find the Link website button next to my website URL. Do you know why is this happening? Thanks! 6v1eDG4
Local Listings | | arielbortz0