Google Places - Advanced Question

[PRKEL]

Hi All,

Ive found multiple threads about previous issues but I haven't found any tailored to my specific question.I know there are a large amount of factors so I wanted to see if any other individuals had ran into this previously.

We are currently in a centralized position in a major city. We are discussing moving the main office about 15 miles away into another city, moving us out of the main city where we have been for the past 3 years. The city where we are currently located has a lot more GEO search volume compared to the new city search terms and variants of.

If we move will our local rankings drop when someone searches in the city where we were previously? How long would it take for this ranking to fall? Or would we still rank because we are moving a short distance away and have a large amount of citations there?

I know we would need to change over all our online directories, on page etc..Any other suggestions on a smooth transition?

I know there are many factors that go into this and any past experience, guidance and/or assistance is greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

[PRKEL]

Hi Robert,

Thanks for the taking the time to provide the valuable insight and information.

A couple of points to add:

“So that I am clear, you are currently in City A which has good ranking/traffic for city A plus keyword.”

This is partially the case, what I am also seeing is that the main URL (www.url.com) is ranking for many head terms (In the 7 Pack). Not including the Geo terms. Which seem to be driving a large percentage of the traffic. So it seems like there may not be much we can do about this, as that ranking in the 7 pack would remove over time. (This is my main concern because it seems to be pushing most of the traffic)

Also in the analytic platform I am seeing that a large majority of the searches are being made near the centralized position of the city. (Very close to our office now)

Since a large majority of the searches are being made from the centralized location would it be worth maintaining another small office in this area? From reading through some of your points seems like even if we don’t have an office in the area we can still rank a local page? But this wouldn’t be in the 7 pack hence a drop in CTR..?

Also just recently I discussed with another individual that had made a similar move. He informed me he communicated directly with Google to change the address as well as get the reviews pushed to the new location. (He said he saw a considerable drop in traffic and rankings in a short period of time) which I'm sure can be from numerous factors, just not sure if you have had similar experience.

Thanks for your assistance.

Sam

[PRKEL]

Thanks for the response and info! I'm going to check out the links to gain a bit more insight.

[RobertFisher]

Vadim,

I appreciate what you have given Sam here.

I think the link to David Mihm's post http://moz.com/blog/local-search-moving-locations, is appropriate but I caution Sam not to panic in that SCORE had a major issue which created many of their problems prior to the move. SCORE, had a branding problem - NAME - wherein in Austin and nationwide the name had many variations. That in and of itself (NAP= Name, Address, Phone) played as much if not more of a role in their problems than the move did. What David Mihm gives that is great, is the information on how to address the move at the citation and directory level.

So, good points, but please don't panic Sam.

Best,

[RobertFisher]

Sam, 
So that I am clear, you are currently in City A which has good ranking/traffic for city A plus keyword.

You are concerned that when you move to city B you will lose ranking and traffic in City A.

If this is the case then the answer is yes, no, and maybe. I am not being flippant and I will offer you a way to handle it. Assuming there are good business reasons for the move and it is hard not to do it, then you need a strategy for retaining as much of what you have as possible. So, first and foremost you need to know what url (s) receive your CityA + keyword traffic (as you may need to do redirects after the move and you change the site to take into account the move).

Next, when you move to city b, you want to make sure you take care to handle your Google Places / Google plus correctly. Do not try to keep the old listing as it is a fools errand. Let me say the reason I tell you is that we work with clients who have made every Local / G+ / microsite vs. sub directory mistake known to man. The effort to fix what you will break by trying to have two locations with one not real or to keep the old and not use the new is well beyond benefit if you succeed. If you break this piece and the listings get merged in some way, you can spend a ton of $ and up to a year trying to correct it if you work with a Local pro.

If you look at your current rankings around CityA + KW, you will likely see that if you are in a 7 pack, that url will be different from any url ranking organically. Your concern re traffic, conversions, etc. will be to maintain organic as you will lose the ranking in 7 pack over time (anywhere from a week or two to several months depending on a lot of factors). So, where will that traffic go to? When you create the page(s) for city B + keyword, make sure you your url structure for City A either stays the same or is 301 redirected to new urls for the new CityA + KW url.

Next, if you are not currently using these next few things, they will assist you with maintaining your other rankings for CityA (If you are, keep it up):

Do you have Exif data in the images where you have City A images on the pages? Add it if not.

Do you have a Google maps API in the page with the location? (If the location is not there, put the map with the city only).

Are you using structured markup for place on all the pages for city A? If not, add it.

Pay attention to on-page SEO for city A (and B) + KW. So, url with cityA + KW. Title tag with same and following this convention (IMO): KW | City A | Brand, make sure your H1 has some version of KW and city A and that you have it appropriately in the content, alt text, etc. 
The reason for all of this is that any place where you were weak before gives you room to improve with the hope the improvement offsets some of the negatives brought about by being in a different city.

I really hope this helps you with the move. I can tell you we have clients who were using all types of devices trying to rank in cities where they were not located. When it was done cleanly, with the City + KW as an individual page/sub-directory and then a contact page with Google Map API as the "local" presence, we have shocked clients that they could be ranked and not be in the city. Understand, we are holistic in our SEO approach in that we believe in getting as close as possible to the holy grail of 100% SEO'd. (All, please no - Google doesn't want perfect SEO, etc. - I've heard it and read it; I also know what has worked in my efforts.)

Best,

Robert

[vmialik]

Hi Sam,

If we move will our local rankings drop when someone searches in the city where we were previously? Yes, you will have to do much more work to rank for the previous location, being farther away from it. Google Local prefers to rank you locally. It is easier to move to a competitive area and rank well there and have a spill out effect to rank in low-competition areas. But since you are moving from high competition into low competition it will be more work to rank for that.

All the citations will need to be changed as well to match the new NAP.  You mentioned you have read previous threads, not sure if you can across this resource for a smooth transition: http://moz.com/blog/local-search-moving-locations

More experience here: http://moz.com/ugc/local-seo-and-moving-business-5-steps-4-lessons

Also do not close your previous listing when moving (plus other experiances): http://www.seroundtable.com/google-places-moving-15176.html

Hope this helps