SEO directories

[smokin_ace]

Recently I did a research of one of mine competitors and to my surprise his major backlinks located on seo directories like:

• http://alistdirectory.com/
• http://www.ggfb.org/
• http://www.bitterskank.com/
• http://www.directorypage.net/

And .... he is showing on first page of Google by particular keyword "Dentist Dubai". Frankly speaking I am confused a little bit, because I believe that this SEO strategy has stopped working a long time ago. Could someone share with me his thought about this?

Furthermore all of those websites are asking about a Reciprocal link, which I did find on his website. How he did it?

Thanks,

Russel

[smokin_ace]

Hi Chris,

You've touch the exact problem I have. My website doesn't appear in Google Places at all. I am really confused about it, because I went through all Google Places guideline and make sure that everything filled in properly and account has no violetions.

However my website do not want to appear in Google Places! When I did analysis of my competitors I've got a feeling that those people just appear there without doing anything!  Just because Google decided to put them. Our website has the hight DA, MT, PA among all our competitors.

Please give some good tips about how to be listed in Google Places, what I should do for that and what is the best places to submit a link for GP?

Cheers,

Russel

[smokin_ace]

Wow that's really exotic place to meet it proves once again you never know where you meet your soul mate.

In dubai it is really hot and because of high humidity you feel it very much! But still it is a great place to visit and there is a lot nice things to see! Especially dubai grow up very fast, almost every year they build something big and beautiful!

Look according to the Google Places (if you will read my comment to Chris), I really have this issue, which bothering me a lot. Can I get a comment from you, what do you think it's need to be done to be listed in GP.

Cheers,

Russel

[RobertFisher]

As to link building, since the Dr.s have travelled, I would explore conventions, papers, etc they have been involved in.

As to my wife, I met her in a very exotic place: Men's Suits at Sax Fifth Avenue. She was in Dubai two years ago coming back from Syria or Egypt. Said it was...hot.

My best,

[SEMPassion]

While I agree with everything Robert has said, my advice still stands.  Start with building local links for ranking in local search.  I don't see you in Google places at all, but I see 2 different locations for your competitor.  Links for places like Google places are very easy and would be the best place for you to start while you build your skill.

Is there a local dental association? Can you get a link from them.  What about the newspapers,  local expat organizations, your customers, your suppliers?

[smokin_ace]

Dear Robert, Thank you for your advise in terms of On-page optimization. I know there is some work needs to be done an do am working on it. But when I said that I am a little bit lost, I mean linkbuilding strategy. What will be the fist step to start? BTW where did you meet your wife? May be by chance you've been in Dubai ? Cheers, Russel

[RobertFisher]

Great Russel,

First, I would improve the English on the site. Being a person who speaks some Spanish along with English and having a wife who is fluent in Arabic - read/write/speak - I know how it is easy to mess up grammar and syntax (or the structure of speaking). 
On this site, that would likely help a bit with conversions.

On the SEO, you have a page load problem and need to do some work on that. The easiest way to tell you is that you should download YSlow which will show you what is slowing the site down. For a site like yours, I usually test in Version 2.

Your on page SEO needs to improve and a note here (take out all the meta keywords in your WP - they are not necessary). Your alt text has a lot of image 1, etc. and icon is used a lot. This should be where you describe the image (don't load in a bunch of keywords).

You don't have a rel=canonical and you need that for each url so that you can avoid duplicate content issues, etc.

As I look at different pages, they have poor page titles: All services, VIP Services, etc. Inner pages lack H1, H2, etc.

One thing to look closely at is your meta descriptions: These should entice the customer to click on your page in the SERPs. Speak to the customer. There is no need to speak to the search engines as they are not listening....meta description is not part of the algo. But, if you are not getting a good CTR due to poor ones, it does IMHO effect the rankings.

Hope this helps,

[smokin_ace]

No, she is French, but English for her is the main language, because in Dubai it is business language and all company websites done in English. Before it had some translations, but after website redesign, they didn't have time to upload them.

[RobertFisher]

Before I do, a quick question: Who is your main client: native English speakers who are in Dubai on business or travel or others who speak Arabic, Farsi, etc. but have English as a second language?

[smokin_ace]

Hi Robert,

Thank you for your reply and attention to my topic. Honestly I am not trying to build my seo strategy according to what my competitors DO. I was just curious how this simple directories can make a good impact on his ranking.

But from another side I am a little bit lost in how to optimize the Dental Clinic website! May be you can give me a good advise how to start ? And how to get some good links for this website?

Cheers,

Russel

[RobertFisher]

Russel

I think you may need to check your premise: He is ranking because he has these back links.

I have learned that looking at someone who is a competitor and assuming they are ranking well just because of a certain set of links is not a good use of my time. I am better served using my time to insure I have quality links, have quality on site SEO, am learning every day, etc.

If he has reciprocal links, it does not matter as they are devalued by Google.

Without the url for your competitor and you it is hard to compare one to the other. OK, it is impossible.

Your question is very similar to the: "How is this site ranking for ______?"!!

If there are good links your competitor is using can you farm some of those yourself? Is your anchor text working for you? Etc.

Hope this helps a bit.

[smokin_ace]

www.clinickv.com  - Competitor www.versaillesdentalclinic.com - My website

[SEMPassion]

Since the particular keyword you referred to is location specific, I suspect that if they are the cause it would be simply due to the fact they those directories are reinforcing his location.

Look for reputable local sites where you can get listings to boost your local search rankings.

[CaseyKluver]

We cant really base a conclusion of why they are ranked first page just from a list of 4 link sources.. Post the URL and we can dig in deeper to see why he is ranking higher..

About the reciprocal link, they may have added one in the past and as soon as they got accepted they could have removed the link.