Local search optimisation
-
One of the major keywords in our industry “fireplaces” is now viewed as a local search phrase & Google seems to be displaying website results that it views to be local businesses. We have 2 stores, and for some reason they do not appear high on the rankings despite us having a physical location near by... can anyone help?
Also, we have a verified location on Google place, but even that doesn’t appear.
-
Hi Ray,
Harvey is definitely pointing you in the right direction. Definitely read David Mihm's Local Search Ranking Factors. It is the premiere annual industry report. *Do bear in mind that the last report (I'm a yearly participant) was published just prior to the launch of the whole Google+ Local system, so it does not reflect that big change. Here are 2 pieces I send my own clients when they are just getting acquainted with Local:
The Zen of Local SEO
http://www.solaswebdesign.net/wordpress/?p=1314The Rudiments of Local
SEO http://www.solaswebdesign.net/wordpress/?p=1344Local ranking factors are very diverse...there may be more than 200 factors in Google's local algo. Here are some of the most widely cited factors:
-
Lack of violations on your Google Places/Google+ Local profiles. Nothing kills rankings like violations. Memorize the guidelines: http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107528
-
Age and authority of your domain (you can't control age but you can build authority) - Local and traditional optimization of your website
-
Consistency, quantity and quality of citations
-
Quantity of Google-based reviews
-
Proximity to city centroid of the target city and proximity to Google's cluster of similar businesses
-
Traditional SEO factors such as quantity and quality of links and co-occurrence.
-
Social factors
That's just a start, but it does sum up some of the main things that go into achieving a high local rank in the city in which your business is physically located. Read David Mihm's report, the 2 articles I've linked to and the Google Places Quality Guidelines I've linked to and you will develop a very clear picture of your business' opportunities, its present failings and its room to grow.
-
-
Well, you tell Google where you are specifically located (city) via places rather than GWT.
It looks to me that your local listing is completely unoptimised.
There are no pictures or videos and the listing looks incomplete, plus it seems you have very few citations etc.
You're not ranking in local search and your listing is very weak compared to others so it makes sense.
Don't get me wrong, I've only spent 5 minutes looking at it, but IMO you need to look at local factors. The link I posted will show you lots of the things you need to do.
-
Thanks Harvey ... will look through that .Is there any way of telling Google where you are located in WebMaster tools or something like that... perhaps im missing something simple
-
Hey
Sure, but is your local listing much stronger? It looks like it's not as you seem to have very few citations from a super quick hunt.
http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml
Check out the above link (it's a LONG read!), as these are the kinds of things you proabably need to be considering.
-
Thanks Harvey
Our local listing is https://plus.google.com/107506644864807163902/posts
But for some reason it doen't seem to appear and our site doesn't show for local searches but is much stronger than the ones that do appear.
-
Hey Ray
I couldn't find your places listing anywhere. However you do seem to have very few local listings which would likely have an effect on your local rankings.
Check out this search:
"01909 449 501" -creativefireplaces.co.uk
It only shows 13 results, much less than I would have expected.
Have you changed your number at any point as consistent NAP details are very important.
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
-
Optimising for multi sites selling same products
Hi Everyone I work for a company that sell aluminium joinery under 3 brands which are, ostensibly, competitors. With regards to optimising the websites, for keywords, should I be trying to optimise them for the same keywords, or should I use different keyword variations of each?
On-Page Optimization | | APLNZ110 -
Should I block google indexing "search.php"
My question is I have a search page on our website , you can search by date, number of people staying and so on, I am just wondering should block this in the robots.txt ? Because we have pretty URL'S already for searching by county and searching by towns. I cannot see any benefit of having e.g "search/search.php?sp_dateFrom=16%2F12%2F2015&sp_dateTo=23%2F12%2F2015&sec_drop%5B%5D=727&spesh_town_id=764&q=&occupants=5&bedrooms=3&submit=SEARCH#search" indexed. Would I be correct in doing this ?
On-Page Optimization | | McCaldin0 -
Keyword Optimisation
In terms of on page optimization for Key words, should I be trying to optimise the page for all the keywords in my adwords campaign, which is approximately 200… or just the words that generate the most click throughs, etc
On-Page Optimization | | Hardley1110 -
Please give me advice on how to get this page back into search engines
Hi. Before we had our site www.in2town.co.uk upgraded, we had this section on the first page of google and even though it does not badly with other search engines, with google we are not in the top fifty. the page is http://www.in2town.co.uk/gastric-band-hypnotherapy i would be so grateful for advice on how to get this section back into google i am also concerned that i have a category called gastric band hypnotherapy, what i mean is, http://www.in2town.co.uk/gastric-band-hypnotherapy/crash-diets-can-damage-your-health-says-gastric-band-hypnosis-expert as you can see from above, we have the category name which is gastric band hypnotherapy and then the article name, just wondering if this is damaging us. any help to sort our ranking issue our would be amazing
On-Page Optimization | | ClaireH-1848860 -
Page Analysis - Helping Product Pages Outrank Search Results Pages
Hi! We have a lot of our search results pages that have been indexed and outrank our product pages and in some instance the actual product pages barely show up at all. Here is an example query that includes our brand name: http://goo.gl/cgB6W So, we have loads of actual product pages, video pages, etc that should be showing up here, but are not and this is just one example. Unfortunately, there are a LOT of these Search Results pages out there and utlimately we would love to de-index them altogether, but it's going to have to be carefully done. So, was wondering if anyone would want to check out one of our product pages and give any feedback as to what we could change to possibly improve rank or to make them more search friendly or hopefully to help them rise above these indexed search results pages? Here is an example product page: http://goo.gl/2R4IT Thanks!! Craig
On-Page Optimization | | TheCraig0 -
How to make video snapshot appear near your search result
What's the proper way to have google display a video near the search result for my webpage (I'm using LeadPlayer to play videos). I think that the information regarding the video is there (I also submitted a video sitemap) but when I do a search the author picture is displayed instead of the video. Have I set anything wrong? How can I display the video if my post contains a video? You can try searching "phraseexpander create customizable templates" There's my youtube video and then the result from my webpage http://www.phraseexpander.com I would like to display the video as a result. Thanks a lot. Andrea
On-Page Optimization | | nagar0 -
Too Many Links On Internal Search Pages
A client has a too many link warning being flagged in SEOmoz. The problem is that most of the pages on the site are lists of tickets for an event etc. Is there a good way to fix the site from having too many links on pages like this http://www.easyseat.com/venue/yankee-stadium-tickets-for-sale.aspx when the user experience requires a long list of links so people can find an event?
On-Page Optimization | | TimFlint0 -
Google indexing Internal Search Results
Greeting, Currently I have noticed that Google is starting to index our internal search page results. Should I block those pages in our robot txt file or have you ever heard of any websites that actually gained traffic or rank by letting Google index those pages? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | Tonyd230