When you think you know Google, but realise you don't
-
I've just typed "Private Investigator" into Google, location set to "Coleshill" (it's near Birmingham!)
The search results were surprising:
Position 6: <cite class="_Rm">birmingham-privateinvestigators.co.uk</cite>
Position 8: <cite class="_Rm">privateinvestigator-coventry.co.uk</cite> Both sites are the same source of information altered to suit the city - INCREDIBLY SPAMMY. They are just full of SEO text stuffing. No doubt any city you enter they will appear with [city]-privateinvestigators.co.uk..
How are they ranking with such old-skool dirty SEO tactics? You can't say they will be found eventually, because Google has released algorithm after algorithm updates to penalise sites like this.Could it be the importance of having a local phone number and (supposedly) physical address?
-
Unfortunately, Google has had a very spotty record of policing their local-organic results since day one. I totally get how frustrating this is. The only thing a legitimate business owner can do in a scenario like this is work hard to be SO much better than the spammy stuff, that they eventually surpass it. If local business listings are spammy, they can be reported to Google, of course
-
Nobody ever said spam doesn't pay (in fact, short term spammers get lots of money potentially). But spam doesn't have long term success either. Remember, even if Google doesn't catch it now, Google is still actively trying to catch them. For a long time people said Google couldn't filter links and then came Penguin, which could filter links.
My suggestion is you report both sites for spam. Google is far more likely to take manual action against these sites in the short term. And they clearly are spam.
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
-
Does having a subdomains UK affect SEO in UK google results?
For exemple we set a UK subdomaine for : www.igomorocco.com www.uk.igomorocco.com Does having a subdomains UK affect SEO in UK google results? How this should be set up correctly?
Local SEO | | mounirigomorocco0 -
We're merging 2 separate websites into 1 but need to ideally rank service pages for both locations
I have a dilemma, we're merging 2 websites, one an Australian branch and one a UK one. We've decided to have a UK page and a AUS page so agency.site/uk/ agency.site/aus/ but what is the best tactic for the service pages? ideally, we'd like a web-design service page to rank in Australia and the UK but not sure if this is actually possible, or whether to duplicate the pages and localise them i.e. /web-design-leeds/ and /web-design-melbourne/ What's everyone's thoughts on this? localised landing pages with some duplicate content or one master page with both locations mentioned? Thanks!
Local SEO | | Unbranded_Lee1 -
302 redirection from .com to .in. Google is indexing both urls
Hello Fellow members, I am sharing the problem what I am facing from client which is another division of my company ( taking as a client). Please recommend me a full proof solution. My client runs a fashion e-commerce site by .com domain in India but after 2 years they took decision that in India, only .in domain site would run with INR prices & outside in "$" prices. Now when If someone is searching with .com domain in India site is 302 redirecting into the .in domain. In India only .in site is working & outside .com but Google is indexing pages of both sites. With .com domain 5 lakhs + pages are indexed & from .in domain only 2600 pages. Content of both sites almost 95% same. I already recommended to put rel=canonical tag on both sites but this is not the permanent solution. They have started .in domain to show prices in "$" & "INR" only. Can you recommend me the best possible answer to solve this issue.
Local SEO | | sourabhrana0 -
Indexed by Google but only ranking in Bing and Yahoo
I have a website nativeamericanpalmhut.com that has been up and running for months. The sitemap was created and submitted in GWMT and the site was indexed pretty quickly. Here's where I'm lost all of the pages are indexed but only the homepage ranks and only for the exact match domain query "Native American Palm Huts". What's even more confusing is that Google Analytics and HotJar Analytics are both showing hundreds Google organic search traffic coming to the site on multiple pages (not just the homepage). This on top of the fact the that website is ranking well for several different terms in Bing and Yahoo lead me to believe this is a Google search specific problem. I have checked the backlinks to see if maybe there was a penalty on the domain but couldn't find any record of it. I've searched the Moz Q&As, Countless Google forums, etc with no luck. I'm scratching my head at the moment so if anyone has any ideas on what could be causing the problem that would be great.
Local SEO | | White_Shark_Media1 -
Local SEO Best Practices for 2,000+ 'location' service area business
Hi Moz Community! We operate a business where we have a network of 2,000+ technicians around the country who help people repair their mobile phones. These techs do the fixing at the customer's location, making them service area businesses. Even after scouring all of the go-to places on local SEO, I'm struggling to find best practices for this type of situation - the fact that our techs are operating in service areas presents a number of challenges. The biggest one, it seems, is that inevitably service areas are going to overlap. When I talked to a Google rep on this he said this "might" cause our locations to get de-listed and we'd just have to test and find out. Other challenges include the fact that we cannot bulk upload the service areas of our techs, and we cannot bulk verify - meaning there is a ton of work to do at our scale. Any suggestions on where to go to find resources on this specific topic, or an example of someone doing this well we can model? Thanks everyone!
Local SEO | | JohnGroves1 -
I'm starting an internet marketing company along with a newspaper company
I'm starting a project for a newspaper company where I just started working as the in-house SEO. I'll have ownership along with the newspaper for this new internet marketing company and could use some advice.Should I build our new site on the newspapers domain with good pr already or start a fresh site from square one. I'm trying to weigh out the pro's and cons and I'm still undecided.This news company has been around since the 50's and the trust is there. But just one sticky situation with an uneducated client could hurt the reputation of the newspaper.Your thoughts please!
Local SEO | | onetwotree0 -
How many websites in Google Serps
Let say you are an electrician. You have a website in Google Serps After much deliberation you realise that the current domain name is giving the wrong signals to your potential customers. So you decide to rebrand to a new domain name. The new domain will have fresh content (no duplication). Question
Local SEO | | Mark_Ch
Can you have both instances live in Google Serps and eventually retire the current website via a 301 redirect to the new domain. Thanks Mark0 -
Have you heard of any white hat methods for influencing Google's auto suggest/auto complete?
We have a client who has a "friend" who says he can get keyword phrases that include their business name to show up in Google's auto suggest when doing a search. We have not heard much about this and are skeptical to these claims as we know how Google comes up with these suggested keyword phrases. Wondering if anyone in the community heard much about tactics to influence auto suggest/auto complete and would like to know your opinion about it.
Local SEO | | CraigSDM0