Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
8 New Location Pages Have Been Indexed But Only 1 Is Showing in SERPS
-
Hi All
Thank you in advance for any help.
Previously we were sending all keyword traffic to our homepage, targeting the main keyword garden rooms plus the seed keywords eg garden studios, garden offices etc.
We created 8 new pages, 4 for each main seed keyword and location and these went live on May 12th. The pages are indexed by google.
The issue is that all searches, except for garden annex brighton, are still pointing to the homepage and not the new location/service pages and now we're on July 27th it seems enough time has gone by.
We've setup this post to ask the question, what can we do to reinforce to google that we want the services pages listed in SERPS and not the homepage?
Here is the list of new pages : -
-
garden offices brighton
-
garden offices sussex
-
garden gyms brighton
-
garden gyms sussex
-
garden annexes brighton
-
garden annexes sussex
-
garden studios brighton
-
garden studios sussex
Many Thanks
-
-
Hello!
I am going to try to help you understand what may be happening and, the most important thing, how you can fix it.
Crawling, indexing and positioning are three fundamental concepts related to the operation of search engines and the visibility of a website in search results. While they may seem closely related to us, they actually represent very different stages of the process a search engine goes through to display relevant results to users.
That is to say, it is not the same that a url is indexed than the fact that a url is positioned in the SERPS. Understanding this is crucial. Below I will tell you how to get those urls to rank well.
If there is no obstacle to indexing, Google will go through the url and index it, that is, it will place it in its index. But to get to show it in the SERPS, you not only have to index it, but you have to position it, that is, consider it relevant for certain keywords or search terms. So your urls may be perfectly well indexed... and perfectly poorly positioned, or simply not even appear in the SERPS.
Once the crawlers have collected the information from the urls, they send it to the search engine's index. The index is a giant database that stores copies of all crawled web pages and the information associated with them. During this indexing process, search engines organize and classify the information collected to facilitate rapid retrieval of relevant results when users search. Well, now you have your urls indexed and ready for the next step.
Ranking, and therefore appearance in the SERPS, has more to do with relevance and quality to a specific search query. When a user performs a search on a search engine, the engine uses sophisticated algorithms to determine which pages should be displayed and in what order in the search results. The objective is to present the user with the most relevant and useful results based on their query... and if your website is very recent or your SEO optimization is not correct or the authority of your domain is not good, you simply will not be able to appear in the results of search or you will appear so far away that you will not be visible to any user.
This strategy of creating urls with specific locations is very good, in fact, we use it a lot for our clients and always with very good results, but you have to take into account some things to make it work perfectly:
-
Index the new urls manually in Google (I understand that you have already done it, so one less thing!)
-
Think that Google POSITIONS urls, not websites, that is, you have to work each url of the different locations separately, each one has to have its SEO optimization, its incoming and outgoing links and its correct internal link, its rich text , all as if you were working on a complete website.
-
Take great care of the content of each url, when we use this type of strategy, one of the biggest mistakes is to copy the text from one to another and modify it slightly. This is a mistake and we will never be able to position them well. Each one has to have its own text, even if the service is the same, make an effort to tell it in a totally different way so that Google does not start considering them duplicate content.
4.Make sure the keyword that url works for is searchable! It seems silly but you have to check it.
-
Make them have enough content to not be considered thin content. If it can be 3,000 words, better than 2,000.
-
Build incoming links for each of them separately, add and expand text with some frequency, take care of your internal linking.
With this, little by little each url will be positioned for its specific location and you will have a great SEO strategy working, but be patient, it takes time and effort, but, yes, afterwards it is wonderful to see them work.
Good luck, if we can help you with anything else, we are here for whatever you need.
-
-
Here are some things you can do to reinforce to Google that you want the services pages listed in SERPs and not the homepage:
-
Use canonical tags: Canonical tags tell Google which page is the main version of a page. You can use canonical tags on your homepage to point to the relevant service page for each keyword.
-
Use hreflang tags: hreflang tags tell Google the language and region of each page. You can use hreflang tags on your service pages to tell Google that they are localized for specific locations.
-
Build backlinks: Backlinks are links from other websites to your website. They are a valuable signal to Google that your website is high-quality and authoritative. You can build backlinks to your service pages by guest blogging, submitting your website to directories, and participating in social media.
-
Optimize your content: Your content should be well-written, informative, and relevant to your target keywords. It should also be well-optimized for SEO. This includes using the right keywords in your title tags, meta descriptions, and throughout your content.
-
Use strong anchor text: When you build backlinks to your service pages, use strong anchor text that includes your target keywords. This will help Google to understand that the backlinks are relevant to your service pages.
-
Promote your service pages: Promote your service pages on social media, in your email marketing, and in your offline marketing materials. The more people who know about your service pages, the more likely they are to link to them.
-
Track your progress: Use a website analytics tool to track the traffic to your service pages. This will help you to see how your SEO efforts are performing and make necessary adjustments.
-
Be patient: It takes time for Google to index and rank new pages. Don't expect to see results overnight. Keep optimizing your content and building backlinks, and you should eventually see your service pages start to rank in SERPs.
.
Warm Regards
Rahul Gupta
Suvidit Academy -
-
One thing is Google indexing the pages and other is to have them be listed as the most relevant for the search result. I believe you still need to let more time go by for those new pages to get their proper relevancy. This is one of those times when it is difficult to decipher the logic behind the Google Algorithm, since your home page has been in the index far earlier than those new pages it is pointing back to home page. I had a similar case with a client of mine, and eventually we got the right one. We did however get some backlinks to the newer pages. Maybe that was the defining tactic.
Glad to chat about how it goes. Drop us a line at https://stedica.com
I hope this helped. Cheers
-
I am having similar issue here. Google search console shows the posts are indexed but they are not on SERP even if i search for the exact same title with my site name on it...
Someone help: URL: https://careerwagmi.com
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
-
English pages given preference over local language
We recently launched a new design of our website and for SEO purposes we decided to have our website both in English and in Dutch. However, when I look at the rankings in MOZ for many of our keywords, it seems the English pages are being preferred over the Dutch ones. That never used to be the case when we had our website in the old design. It mainly is for pages that have an English keyword attached to them, but even then the Dutch page would just rank. I'm trying to figure out why English pages are being preferred now and whether that could actually damage our rankings, as search engines would prefer copy in the local language. An example is this page: https://www.bluebillywig.com/nl/html5-video-player/ for the keywords "HTML5 player" and "HTML5 video player".
Local SEO | | Billywig0 -
Is it okay to update Page Titles and Meta descriptions over a period of time?
Some of the page are not performing even after having good content, videos, images and faqs. I am planning to update the page titles and planning to use Long Tail keywords in it for example, Contact US - Brand name would be Contact US - Brand Keyword. Is it okay to do that for all the pages?
Local SEO | | Ravi_Rana0 -
Local Site stuck on page 2 for years. Can’t penetrate page 1! Help!
Hey there Moz community! This is the first time I've ever asked a question here so please forgive if I slip up on any etiquette. I manage a website for a small Orlando Florida family law and divorce law firm who are targeting search phrases that include those "Orlando divorce attorney" variants. The site is located at https://www.affordablefamilylawyer.com/ If you run a search for "Orlando divorce attorney" along with close variant search terms our law firm website for about the past two years has hovered at the top of the second page of google but has never actually penetrated page 1. When you examine metrics such as page authority, domain authority, trust, and other traditional metrics it tells you that our site should be on page 1 but alas it's not happening. We have, however been featured quite often in the three pack for the local listings for the target search terms. Though valuable, our goal has always been to be featured in the top three of the organic search results. To add to the confusion we have a practice area page located at https://www.affordablefamilylawyer.com/orlando-divorce-lawyer/ dedicated to divorce and expected that page to rank for these divorce attorney search terms but it will not rank for the search terms and instead our homepage ranks for them every single time regardless of how we swap around the optimization on the page. Never had any manual actions. any help you guys can offer is greatly appreciated and I really appreciate your time!
Local SEO | | Seanthewood1230 -
Location based landing pages best practices
Hello, I am looking for the communities thoughts on location-based landing pages. That is, writing out dozens, sometimes hundreds of landing pages in the format of domain.com/[keyword]-[location] and recycling the same content over and over to localize organic search engine results. i have done it with multiple websites and seen tremendous success, however, i am considering getting rid of these pages and having all of the spammy location based pages 301 redirect to my main page domain.com/[keyword] I am considering this because the above practice seems to be a bit black-hat / spammy and those pages do not offer any unique or valuable content. While i have seen great results from this practice, i feel like Google will eventually penalize this or may already be penalizing me without me knowing it. At the same time, i am hesitant to because these pages are ranking. i.e. domain.com/[keyword-houston] is ranking but domain.com/[keyword] is not ranking Thoughts?
Local SEO | | RyanMeighan0 -
Company with multiple services | multiple locations/states
I have a company that rents, repairs, and sells product both new and used. They also have 3 locations in 3 states and service multiple cities out of the locations (ie... los angeles and orange county). Having a hard time redesigning the website so that it fits for customers to look around and for the best of Organic SEO. The issue seems to be fitting the locations in the mix in order to get the customer to the right area without being too confusing. In the end, I'm thinking well maybe the homepage should just be some content to get them to choose the location first then they can go into silos where they pretty much remain in the location for rentals, repairs, and sales but I'm not sure how having the locations on the home page would affect the site. Obviously, we would be trying to rank the silo locations more but they would be 2-3 pages in on clicks to get to the right section 'if' they started from the home page. We need to do this right from the beginning though because we are working on expanding nationwide one day. Thanks for any help on this manner. (PS> Thought about doing subdomains like locations.example.com or state.example.com and rentals.example.some and shop.example.com but I think that will dilute the rankings)
Local SEO | | Ryan_Marshall1 -
How to see SERP from another country?
Hi all! I am trying to figure out why search rankings have decreased. I am currently outside of the US but want to see SERP results from the US. My search results keep reverting and showing me SERP's for the country I am currently in. Not only that, I want to see if featured snippets are showing for a different country. Please help! KC
Local SEO | | kc_hotsoupgroup0 -
Does the physical location of a server effect the local rankings of a site?
I've just been running a report on a site and noticed that while they have a .co.uk domain it is hosted on a server in the United States and just wondered if anyone was aware, if the physical location of a server mattered to search engines for ranking purposes especially with local search?
Local SEO | | ben_dpp0