Cleaning up citations from a retail store that moved online only
-
Hey Mozzers!
We're working with a client that has closed it's home theater store and moved online. Both the online store and the retail location operated under the same name, but we've now launched a new site and rebranded the name and look.
When I search the old business name, it shows the Google local business as permanently deleted, and also shows deleted Yelp profile and other directory listings. The first organic result is the new site, which catches the footer that reads a trademark of (old business name).
How can I clean up the citations for the previous business? Also, I'd like to have more control over the old business SERP page. My idea was to create a press release addressing the new business change in name and branding. Any other ideas?
Lastly, the new business name SERP is completely bare. The second organic result is the new site, but the remaining listings are confusing and unrelated. The press release should help here. Other than that, should I build out new directories for the ecommerce site? Maybe start building profiles and participating in related forums to show traction in SERPs?
Thanks for your help!
-
Sorry I misread your issue. Since you are online only I would not claim any local listings. I would clean up and remove all those citations if possible though.
-
In my experience I've only ever used business directories to build local SEO campaigns. I wasn't sure that the directories applied to ecommerce sites without a physical location. So you'd suggest moving forward correcting all the outdated listings to the new name, and use our warehouse for new address?
-
Hi Localwork,
I agree with Jordan—utilizing Moz's local search tools will be your business asset through this transition from a storefront to the online market. This is one of the best tools to update citation information across multiple directories. However, even with this method is can take 4 - 8 weeks for the online directories to make any adjustments to the information.
I would also like to point out that it can be more difficult to get a company that is only online to rank well in the organic SERPs. Why? Well, without an address tying you to a particular location, you will be ranking for more general keywords instead of "product + city + st" keywords. In order to help improve the rankings for your new website, I would focus the first few months on increasing the domain authority on the new website.
In a May 2013 video right before Penguin 2.0 rolled out, Matt Cutts put it pretty well:“We’re doing a better job of detecting when someone is sort of an authority in a specific space—you know, it could be medical, it could be travel, whatever—and trying to make sure that those rank a little more highly if you’re some sort of authority or a site that according to the algorithms we think might be a little bit more appropriate for users.”
Here are today’s SEO success secrets for improving your domain authority:
- Valuable content
- Outbound linking
- Blogging
- Social media
An easy way to get started with outbound linking would be to (like you mentioned) create AND OPTIMIZE a listing for your business on a variety of online directories. This is help provide links back to your website and is a great place to start.
Hope this helps with the new venture online! Good luck.
-
You can clean up your local citations by using Moz's local search. You can see which citations are off and make adjustments as needed. As far as Google local business and Bing listing if the address didn't change I would claim that local listing if you haven't or contact Google and explain the issue and they should help update the listing.
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
-
Should a company's online tool be hosted on their own domain?
Our company is developing a web-based tool that will provide good value for its users and generate leads for us. The tool is large enough in scope and different enough than the main service that we provide that we're considering putting it on its own domain. I have two questions: 1. Does it behoove a company to put their online tool on a separate domain if the tool is large enough in scope and different enough from their website's core function / business's core service? (Examples of this would be Hubspot's Marketing Grader or Open Site Explorer before Moz rolled it back into its domain.) 2. If yes, should the domain name a) describe the function of the tool or b) build a brand for the tool itself? Thanks for your help!
Branding | | APM-SEO0 -
Moving to a new domain
Hi, We are about to rebrand. This means we need to move all of our content on to a new domain. I want to make sure this process is as smooth as possible and we don't lose too much by way of rankings. I have read this page: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2008/04/best-practices-when-moving-your-site.html and plan on following the instructions to the letter, but was wondering if anyone had any additional tips? Also, the article linked above is OLD. From 2008, is there anything'new' that I should know? Thank you (in advance) for any help you can offer, it is much appreciated! Best wishes, Amelia EDIT: I forgot quite a big element when first posting this question! We are merging two existing websites into the new URL. The two sites are for two different products we offer, but we'll now be offering both products under the same URL.
Branding | | CommT0 -
What would you do before starting a new online business in the financial field?
Hi, What would do before you starting a new online business in the financial field for preventing reputation issues and start to branding your new company name? Which services / tools would you choose to use? Thanks in advance.
Branding | | JonsonSwartz0 -
'The Guardian' Is Moving to a New Domain
'The Guardian' Is Moving to a New Domain according to this article on Mashable - http://mashable.com/2013/05/24/the-guardian-dot-com/ Interested to see all the thoughts from SEOs to see how you would suggest they could implement this correctly, without dropping traffic / rankings etc...
Branding | | Webrevolve0 -
Best strategies for alcoholic beverages online store
Hi, we are now creating an strategy for an online store that sells alcoholic beverages and also drinks to mix with them (for example for creating cocktails). The company is located in Spain and wants to begin selling in France. We are thinking of optimizing SEO of the online store, but it is a little difficult cause the description of drinks are really similar, and the inner text too. (Gin is Gin, and you can't describe many things about it. The brand changes, and also the bottle, but it is very difficult to describe a product like that) So we are thinking of creating a content marketing strategy and alsoa social community using facebook and twitter, and so on. As allways we are thinking of a blog and placing the contents there and then distribute then in social networks.... As the the products are alcoholic drinks, we thought that we could give people ideas and recipes of cocktails, and also to create videos about how to prepare those cocktails.But I am not sure about this strategy, specially about the video generation, cause as the products are alcoholic beverages, I am not sure about the policies of Youtube about that kind of issues. I tried to search on the Web and find nothing. This kind of content is for adults only? If so, should we create it anyway? Is it worth it? What kind of strategies will you apply to gain visibility for an store like this? I will apreciatte your comments and advices. Thank you!
Branding | | teconsite0 -
What can i do to regain top 3 for local map listings if I already created a bunch of citation link to my site?
I got hit by a penguin refresh on Oct 5th and lost over 10 #1 rankings. I'm currently #4 on the places listing for my main keyword and really trying to regain top 3 position. I created a bunch of local citation with matching info and really piped out my map listing since it is 100% complete. I'm quite stumped on how to further optimize my map listing to where i can hit top 3 positions. Does anyone have any recommendations on this issue? Thanks Sam
Branding | | junkcars0 -
Link local online newspaper ad to newspaper's spash page or my site?
We just started advertising on the web version of our local newspaper. They suggest our ads go to a "splash page" they created for us on their site. The page haslinks , images and text taken from each of our main categories,. Plus links and feeds from our twitter and facebook pages. And a google map. This page shows a page authority 1 with 0 links. Is there any reason to link our ad to a page like this rather than going direct to our website page? Thank you Handcrafter
Branding | | stephenfishman0 -
Research into citation and it's effect on ranking
Hi I'd like to know if there has been any research into citation (brand mentions on external sites) and how it has / hasn't effected ranking, particularly Google Search? If any body can point me in the right direction, that would be great. Thanks
Branding | | NeilPursey0