Can't seem to rank for keyword "home care grand rapids" - need some advice

[t1kuslik]

I am trying to rank for "home care grand rapids" and am having a really difficult time. My site: http://healthcareassociates.net has better backlinks, keywords and other seo markers than my competitors but I still can't seem to rank.

The keyword and associated keywords (home care grand rapids michigan, home health care grand rapids, etc.) are only 31-33% difficulty and my site/page rank is better than the leading sites. What gives?

Todd

[t1kuslik]

Thanks for the lead. I think I may contact her. It looks like they do free consultations to start off with.

I am trying to change the Title tag in the settings of Wordpress and it says, "Home Care Grand Rapids Michigan - Health Care Associates". I don't know why the extra "Home" tag is automatically being put in there or how to remove it.

[EGOL]

I don't do local search because all of my sites compete nationally.

If I needed my sites to rank for local search I would hire Miriam Ellis, Moz member and Moz associate (if she is available) to help me get set up properly and begin promotion.   I don't think that the cost would be that high and I would have it done quickly, properly and efficiently.   This is too important to take the chance of an improper set-up - at least that is my opinion.  This could probably be done via gotomypc or other computer sharing - so you can see what is being done.

[t1kuslik]

Hi Mihai,

Thanks so much for the info. Maybe I am using Open Site Explorer wrong. I type in "home care grand rapids" in Google and pull off the top 4 pages and put them in OSE. Then I look at the results and see that my site is 2nd in page authority, 3rd in total links, 1st in total linking root domains, etc. Seems like it is doing well compared to the others.

Also, you say to get good references. For a different fitness site I had I could easily find other bloggers to guest post for but in the home health industry it seems like there aren't any bloggers. How do you get quality back links when there aren't other bloggers?

Thanks again. Very much appreciate it.

Todd

[t1kuslik]

Thanks Egol,

I appreciate the recommendations and will definitely make them.

What else would you do for local search? I have secured and verified my Google place page and other business listings and am working on getting reviews for them. Any other ideas?

Todd

[mihaiaperghis]

Hey Lori,

It seems you're on ranking on the second page of results on Google. Except one or two, all your competitors have better metrics including Domain Authority, Linking Root Domains and number of links. You'll just need to keep getting good references and citations, and you'll slowly move up the ladder.

Hope that helps, good luck!

[EGOL]

Change title tag from this....

<title>Home - Home Care Grand Rapids Michigan - Health Care Associates</title>

To this....

<title>Home Care in Grand Rapids Michigan - Health Care Associates</title>

I believe that google is seeing the first instance of "Home" and associating that with "Homepage".

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THEN....  get your target query  "Home Care in Grand Rapids" in the text of your homepage - preferably in the prominent text at the top of the page.

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This will be an improvement but I doubt that it will be enough to fix your problem.   I don't think that your links are competitive.

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If I owned this website I would put my big effort into local search.