How to compete against search terms that use geo-modifiers?
-
I should start by saying we are new to SEO.
We are introducing new “cycling tours” in new destinations and we are looking for a strategy to combat geo-modified keyword searches.
When people search for “cycling tours” they will anchor their search with a geo-modifier such as “cycling tours France” or “cycling tours Italy”.
Based in Australia we are keen to communicate to Australians searching for international cycling tours there are new Australian options that they may wish to consider.
The geo-modifiers required to find our tours (“eyre peninsula” and “carnarvon gorge”) are currently not on the cycling communities radar.
For example to find one of our new tours you need to use “cycling tours eyre peninsula” or “cycling tours carnarvon gorge”.
Currently the only solution we have found to let people know about our new tours is by word of mouth.
Is there an SEO solution?
-
Glad the reply was helpful, Chook1. You're in a tough spot and I wish there was an easier answer to give you, but know that I'm wishing you good luck in this venture. May your as-yet-unknown beautiful places for bike tours become world-class destinations in the future!
-
Thanks Miriam
You have a been a great help. You have understood our circumstances perfectly and your suggestions fall in with our general gut feelings. So there is a lot more networking ahead of us to build the awareness.
-
Hi Chook1!
From reading this thread, I'm understanding a couple of things. Please confirm that this is the scenario you are describing:
-
You offer cycling tours in parts of Australia that no one seems to be looking for.
-
You wish that when people search for something that they are looking for, like "cycling tours Italy", your pages about your tours in Australia would come up in the results.
If my understanding is correct then, in response to the above two points:
-
You have a demand problem rather than an SEO problem. Selling a product/service people aren't yet asking for (cycling tours in Carnarvon Gorge) means your initial focus has to be on creating awareness and a demand for this. It's like you've built a new invention that no one has ever heard of before. In order to turn your invention into a household word, you're likely going to have to advertise it via social media and other channels until the demand becomes real and people are actually searching for what you offer.
-
Google has no incentive to show Australian bike tours when people are looking for Italian bike tours. Anything outside of Italy would be irrelevant to the searcher, so this is not really a goal you should waste time on trying to achieve. Google Maps, mentioned in the ongoing discussion on this thread, will be of no help to you in Italy if your business and your tours are located in Australia. Google Maps is for local search marketing - not International marketing. So, rather, your best strategy is likely to be what I've described in #1 around building awareness/demand for what you offer. If you are trying to get Australians to take bike tours in little-known spots in the country, you will need to advertise in Australia. If you are trying to get travelers from other countries to come to Australia, you will have to advertise wherever those audiences congregate. As far as SEO goes, you'll likely want to try to develop relationships with whatever websites publish the most trusted info on bike tours for your target audience and see what you can do to start getting some press and links from them.
Does this help? If I've in any way misunderstood your scenario, please feel free to provide further details.
-
-
Hi Nigel
Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions the page structure you describe is something we are currently working on.
It is a pity there is not a way to recreate the traditional brochure stand that you find in a Visitors Information Centre where sometimes you discover an experience you would not have thought of asking for before walking in the door.
You mention that maps help the pages rank. Are you talking about Google Places or the general use of a Google map on a page? Currently we use Google maps to display a .KMZ file that shows the route we will be taking. Is this the same?
Thanks again
Mark
-
Hi Mark
If you are trying to get your Cycling Tours Carnarvon Gorge into SERPS for a Cycling Tours Italy search then you are barking up the wrong tree. Of course, they are going to add the place (Geo Modifier) because that is what they want.
I would have a drop-down menu which had a link
Cycling Tours South Australia>
Queensland>
Carnarvon Gorge
Tambourine Mountains
Etc...and all of the other places in Queensland where you run tours. Then build out each page fully with photos and local information.
Don't create pages with links, to links - put them in a logical menu structure otherwise the pages will be too many clicks away & people won't follow them.
You cannot do this so forget it:
“cycling tour Carnarvon Gorge” which is in Australia into the SERP when someone searches for “cycling tour Italy”
MAPS on the tour pages will help them rank.
Regards Nigel
-
Hi Joe and Nigel
I think I must be missing something.
Currently our tour to Carnarvon Gorge is near or at the top of the SERP if someone searches for “cycling tour Carnarvon Gorge”.
The problem we are trying to solve is that we are finding that no matter where a searcher is in the purchasing funnel for a “cycling tour” they seem to be adding a geo-modifier ie “cycling tour New Zealand” or “cycling tour South Australia”.
It would appear that people only search for cycling tours in locations that they have heard others have been to. As a result no one is looking for a cycling tour in Carnarvon Gorge or Australia as this location is nowhere near the usual cycling destinations.
If I understand you both correctly you are suggesting that if I am trying to get our “cycling tour” to “Carnarvon Gorge” into the SERP I should create a page about Queensland which has a link to another page about Carnarvon Gorge which then includes a link to our detailed tour page. Is this correct?
So what I do not understand is how creating the suggested page structure will help us get our “cycling tour Carnarvon Gorge” which is in Australia into the SERP when someone searches for “cycling tour Italy” which is in a completely different country. I do not think this is possible or am I missing something?
How will Google maps help with this?
As I mentioned previously currently the only solution we have found is to use word of mouth to let people know about our new tours. Am I wrong and is there an SEO solution?
Thanks
Mark
-
I would crate SEO locations pages siloed by state > location, take the effort to create unique content for each page. As Nigel Carr highlighted - images & AV will help drive traffic & engagement, Google maps have worked well for me in that past; also.
-
Thanks Nigel
Our issue is that we do not offer tours in the countries where people are looking.
Rather we are trying to open up new touring routes where both Australians and international travellers do not traditionally look. So our problem is that when people anchor their search with a geo-modifier such as "cycling tours England" we do not get a look in.
We run local tours in our home town and in this instance a local page as you describe including the geo-modifier works perfectly.
The down side of geo-modified searching stops people from finding options they had never thought of and serendipitously finding our new offerings.
Regards
Mark
-
Hi Chook1
I would set up 'City pages' or in your case 'Country Pages' which target the different places you offer cycling tours.
For example:
websiteurl/italy-cycling-tours
Then fill the page with highly detailed content and alt texted photos & maybe videos of the tours you offer in that country.
Make them local specific and you will see traffic. It works like a dream.
Simple to implement and highly effective.
Regards Nigel
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
-
Related searches volume
Hello, The related searches we see at the bottom of google search results. Is this what people also search for ? If it is why does the keyword so no volume for those related searches ? Thank you,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoanalytics0 -
404s clinging on in Search Console
What is a reasonable length of time to expect 404s to be resolved in Search Console? There was a mass of 404s that were built up from directory changes and filtering URLs that have been fixed. These have all been fixed but of course there are some that slipped the net. How long is it reasonable to expect the old 404s that don't have any links to drop away from Search Console? New 404s are still being reported over 4 months later. 'First detected' is always showing as a date later than the fixed 404's date. Is this reasonable, i've never seen this being so resilient and not clean up like this? We manually fix these 404s and like popcorn more turn up. Just to add the bulk of 404s came into existence around a year ago and left for around 8 months.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MickEdwards0 -
Using a US CDN (Cloudflare) for a UK Site. Should I use a UK Based CDN as it says my server is based in USA
Hi All, We are a UK Company with Uk customers only and use CloudFlare CND. Our Site is hosted by a UK company with servers here but from looking online and checking where my site is hosted etc etc , some sites are telling me the name of our UK Hosted company and other sites are telling me my site is hosted in San Fran (USA) , where I presume the Cloudflare is based. I know Cloudflare has a couple of servers in the UK it uses but given all my customers are UK based ,I don't want this is affect rankings etc , as I thought it was a ranking benefit to be hosted in the country you are based. Is there any issue with this and should I change or is google clever enough to know so i shouldn't worry. thanks Pet
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | PeteC120 -
When doing a site search my homepage comes up second. Does that matter?
When I do a site: search the homepage comes up second. Does this matter?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | EcommerceSite0 -
Using Meta Header vs Robots.txt
Hey Mozzers, I am working on a site that has search-friendly parameters for their faceted navigation, however this makes it difficult to identify the parameters in a robots.txt file. I know that using the robots.txt file is highly recommended and powerful, but I am not sure how to do this when facets are using common words such as sizes. For example, a filtered url may look like www.website.com/category/brand/small.html Brand and size are both facets. Brand is a great filter, and size is very relevant for shoppers, but many products include "small" in the url, so it is tough to isolate that filter in the robots.txt. (I hope that makes sense). I am able to identify problematic pages and edit the Meta Head so I can add on any page that is causing these duplicate issues. My question is, is this a good idea? I want bots to crawl the facets, but indexing all of the facets causes duplicate issues. Thoughts?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | evan890 -
Recommended e-commerce site search for Magento?
Does anyone have recommendations for any particular site searches for large e-commerce sites based on Magento? Some (hopeful) requirements: Possibility to segment product pages and blog content on results page Doesn't cause any major SEO or technical issues Understands semantic search Ability to filter results Ability to sort (e.g. by price, popularity, new in stock) It'd be really useful to see examples and know if there are any particular issues to be aware of. Thanks. 🙂
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Alex-Harford0 -
Using rel=alternate hreflang element on ccTLDs
We have multilingual websites with some content variations but 60% of the content on site remains the same. Is it still advisable to use:rel=alternate hreflang option on ccTLDs when ccTLDs are in itself strong signal for Google to display result in respective countries 1. example.com 2. example.co.uk 3. example.co.jp 4. example.de
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CyrilWilson0 -
Using the right Schema.org - & is there a penalty in using the wrong one?
Hi We have a set of reviewed products (in this case restaurants) that total an average rating of 4.0/5.0 from 800 odd reviews. We know to use schema/restaurant for individual restaurants we promote but what about for a list of cities, say restaurants in boston for example. For the product page containing all of Boston restaurants - should we use schema.org/restaurant (but its not 1 physical restaurant) or schema.org - product + agg review score? What do you do for your product listing pages? If we get it wrong, is there a penalty? Or this just simply up to us?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | xoffie1