How to beat directories in local search.

[dwallner]

After just a couple months I'm placing on the first page for some keywords but I need advice on how to get over the hump.

Search results for "Lakeville Snow Plowing" and "Lakeville Snow Removal" return directory results for the 1rst 3 listings above the local results.. I'm right below that at 5 and 7..  (I'm not showing up in local results even though I have a radius but that's another issue)

Any tips or advice to compete against these type of results rather than a direct competitor?   How does a small company with limited to no budget go about outranking BBB and Manta.com?

I'm considering purchasing the BBB membership, and I imagine a link from them would be helpful, other than that, I could use some advice.

Derrick

[Mike.Goracke]

Correct. My reasoning for concentrating on the local results is that if I am looking for snow removal service, I am not going to check the BBB. I am going to check the local results and see if there are any reviews on the different companies (hint: get your customers to review your company!!!)

I quickly took a look at your site and you are on the right track with having landing pages for Burnsville and Lakeville. You just need to have these locations and the services for those locations more pronounced on your site.

Hope this helps.

Mike

[dwallner]

Thanks Mike..

So your suggestion would be to focus on the local results instead of organic results, correct?

I have a challenge there as the business is run out of a home in New Market, but my target locations are lakeville, apple valley and so on.  I listed the cities in google places account but there seems to be a conflict with my G+ account that has me verified in New Market.. Anyway, that's probably another question topic..

The site is yalecreeksc.com

[Mike.Goracke]

Go Minnesota!

Those blizzard conditions yesterday made for an interesting commute in the AM.

Any who... to your question.

I don't think there is anything you can do for those specific keywords. Those keywords are more or less asking Google for a listing of snow removal companies in the Lakeville area. The "best" results then would be a directory. For those keywords, Google automatically is doing the 3 websites, then returning the local results.

If you do a search for straight up, "snow removal" Google will return local results first without the 3 websites first.

My best advice to you is to get ranking #1 for the local results for those keywords. Since I don't know the name of your company/website, that is about all of the help I can give you.

Good luck Derrick,

Mike