Optimizing for Venice.
-
I had a client ask me why his website wasn't popping up for the local places results when he typed "plumbing". There were a group of google local places and my question is, how would I optimize for these with the Venice update. Any strategy? I didn't have an answer. Also "sewer repair" brings in great results.
Do I optimize for the keyword sewer repair?
Any suggestions would help out greatly.
Thanks,
Greg -
Hi Greg,
In order to qualify for inclusion in the local results, your client must:
-
Have a physical street address in the target city (not a P.O. box, virtual office or shared address)
-
Have a local area code phone number matching the target city (not a toll free number, call tracking number or shared number)
-
Have face-to-face transactions with customers, either at the place of business or at the customers' homes or businesses.
If your client can answer yes to all 3 of these criteria, then you can create a strategy including some or all of the following components:
-
A high quality website with excellent content optimized for both his services and his geo terms. Optimize title tags, meta description tags, header tags, alt tags, internal links and copy so that they reflect both what he does and where he does it. Build a unique page on the website for each of his distinct services (water heater repair, sewer repair, septic service, etc.). If the business model is go-to-client (like a plumber), build a city landing page for each of the main cities he serves (see: http://www.solaswebdesign.net/wordpress/?p=1403). Be sure that every page you publish is unique. No cutting and pasting from one page to the next.
-
Put the business' complete NAP (name, address, phone number) in the footer of the website and on the Contact page, preferably encoded in Schema.
-
Consider having an onsite blog to continue publishing local-focused content over time.
-
Create a Google Places for Business Page, adhering strictly to the Google Places Quality Guidelines (see: http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107528)
-
Begin building citations on a variety of indexes and directories to strengthen and diversify the number of places in which your client is being profiled. Be sure NAP is totally consistent everywhere it is published.
-
Work to earn reviews from happy customers.
-
Consider linkbuilding and social media efforts that will build authority.
This is just a brief summary. Every step has its nuances and there is more you can do, but this should get the client started with building a Local presence on the web.
-
-
Here are a few things you could do (no particular order):
- Optimize for the keyword + the location you're targeting.
- Set your company location in Google Places, Google+ and other social networks.
- Use rich snippets.
- Use a ccTLD or establish your domain geolocation within Google Webmaster Tools.
- Get some local link juice.
- Get a local IP address.
Good luck!
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
-
Is it a good idea to optimize for keywords that have no search volume if they're ranked?
Hello Moz Community, I have some questions I hope some of you can help with. We’re doing SEO work for a client that provides outsourced IT and managed IT services in Phoenix, AZ and cities in the Phoenix metro area (i.e. Glendale, Tempe, Scottsdale, etc.) They’re currently ranked for or targeting the following keywords: • consulting phoenix az (1)
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | marnipatterson
• outsourced it phoenix (2)
• phoenix it support (3)
• it services Scottsdale (5)
• it consulting firm phoenix (targeting)
• it solutions phoenix (targeting) We have recommended the following keywords based on monthly search totals, competitive level and difficulty ratings in Moz. • IT consulting phoenix
• it consultant company
• outsourced it
• it support services
• it consulting services
• outsourcing it
• outsourced tech support Questions
1. While I know it’s a good idea to optimize for keywords that you're currently ranked for, there’s no search volume for any of these. So, I recommended non-geo versions since Google provides search results based on the user’s location. Will this preserve the company's current rankings?
2. If not optimizing for their current keywords will hurt their rankings, will using the current keywords as secondary keywords suffice? If so, do we need to include them in the content for keyword density?
3. Since search engine algorithms now focus so heavily on user intent, I assume we’re covered for all variations of a keyword (i.e. outsource it, outsourced it, outsourcing it, etc.) Is this correct?
4. They want to rank for “cloud services” and “cloud solutions.” Both are very competitive with high difficulty rankings. So, I recommended “cloud migration” and “cloud strategy” as alternatives since these are the main services they provide. Will including “cloud services” and “cloud solutions” as secondary keywords help them increase their rankings for both? If you’ve dealt with a similar situation, I'd appreciate your insight and advice. Thanks!0 -
How long until I see an SEO impact from newly optimized site
We just recently launched a new version of our website. This new version allowed us to integrate research into technical SEO updates to enhance our search visibility. Based on experience from those viewing this post, what is a good average timeframe in which I should start seeing some effects from these changes in Google? I know this question is hard to answer because of all the variables that are part of the answer but I need something to take to the c-level as an estimate of what to expect. I figured experience might tell a good story here.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Smart_Start0 -
Optimize homepage for brand-name or local keyword query for franchisees?
We are launching quasi "microsites" for our franchisees within our main company website. My question is wether to optimize the homepage for the franchisee's business name OR a local keyword query? I know standard practice is to optimize the homepage for your company's brand-name, but in this case, brand awareness isn't strong for these new local businesses. Also, apart from the homepage and service page, there is not much room to create optimize content- other pages are simply reviews, projects and a contact us page. Thanks!!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | kimberleymeloserpa0 -
95% of organic traffic lands in my homepage, despite having a 250 page website with a "seo optimized" hierarchical structure. Any suggestion as to what might be happening?
Challenging issue All the "usual suspects" have been discarded: all pages included in google index, no google penalties, metas optimized, kw's segregated by pages/cluster of pages to avoid cannibalization... BUT, we know we are missing something website is www.e-florex.com and is an e-commerce site based on magento Any ideas you might think are worth exploring? Thanks in advance for your help Juan
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | juanmarn0 -
Meta No INDEX and Robots - Optimizing Crawl Budget
Hi, Sometime ago, a few thousand pages got into Google's index - they were "product pop up" pages, exact duplicates of the actual product page but a "quick view". So I deleted them via GWT and also put in a Meta No Index on these pop up overlays to stop them being indexed and causing dupe content issues. They are no longer within the index as far as I can see, i do a site:www.mydomain.com/ajax and nothing appears - So can I block these off now with robots.txt to optimize my crawl budget? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | bjs20100 -
Future-proof website to optimize SEO.
Hi All, This is my first post and hopefully a question that could help others in similar positions. Say we are trying to rank for the keyword "security testing tools". Product name is "Sectest" and its a security testing tool. *We currently have an "SEO" section that is purely good content and the idea with this is to be able to rank for "security testing tools" talking about what to expect and look for in such tools and relevant content - Linking to our product page at the end of it. structure is brand.com/security-testing/tools and that would have a link to brank.com/products/sectest Obviously product pages would get their meta tags and content re-written so we don't compete for the same keywords. Is this approach optimal? or would google want us to link directly to the product page instead of "information" about security testing tools? Nobody in our sector is taking this approach and we have already started it, but I am starting to wonder if I am getting into big trouble further down the line. Thanks and best regards,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JorgeGarcia0 -
Performing Internal Optimization Without Much Anchor Text?
Hi guys. We're in the process of building a new site, and are using a lot of icon based linking, image linking, etc. There is some basic text linking here and there, but not a whole lot. My concern is, because I'm not using actual anchor text, but just images, that crawlers are going to have a more difficult time determining what pages are about. Do I have a valid concern, or am I just worrying about nothing? If this concern is valid, what is the best way to remedy this concern? Alt img tags?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CodyWheeler0 -
Is there an optimal ratio of external links to a page vs internal links originating at that page ?
I understand that multiple links fro a site dilute link juice. I also understand that external links to a specific page with relevant anchortext helps ranking. I wonder if there is an ideal ratioof tgese two items
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Apluswhs0