What is the best way to target two keywords with one website?
-
I have a client that needs to target two different citys for her service. I have her front page ranking first page for one of the cities, but I have tried all sorts of things and can't get her front page to rank first page in the second (and less competitive) city.
I know the drill about making a second page and trying to rank that page but is there a better way?
-
AWC
I was following up with Jonathan on another question and I realized I had told you something that was incorrect. I am going to PM you something to look at (I know you will protect my client) that shows how we use PHP in the footer to change the address to the one for the sub directory.
I will try to get to you today.
Best -
Thanks for this Robert!
-
Vadim
I wish I could say, "Yes, always." Honestly, it is a goal we constantly strive for, but yesterday I found a site we had done and half the photos were without and I was very disappointed. Our preference with client sites is that the photos be done either by our team (we use top end cameras with GPS attachments for all photos we take) or that the client take the photos and provide us exact details as to where they were shot. With the latter, we can add the geo tagging in Picasa easily.
I believe this data is very, very important.
Thanks
-
I'd love to rank the website on Local results for both Austin, TX and Denver, CO. I got some pretty bad advice early on so Local has been a rough ride back up for me and I have yet to see any improvement on ranking in that area, but I did just install Local SEO by Yoast on the wordpress site which let me submit a Geo Sitemap and includes kml files for both locations so I'm hoping that helps with that.
Everyone always just says "get ranked on local..." but I find that harder than Organic search results. Anyone else have an opinion?
-
Can you explain a little more about Geo Tagging and the Google Maps API?
To explain further, I am working for a wedding photographer that has an address in Austin and Denver. The link is here: http://www.photojennette.com. I have been working on the site for about 6 months tweaking things, link building, etc. and have been able to rank on page 1 (as high as #2) for Austin which was the first focus, and page #2 for Denver. I have had some issues with bad advice for Google Local and have not successfully gotten the listing into the "Map Listings" but am working on that as well with KML and Geo Sitmaps but I just started that a few days ago.
The site is wordpress. I have the Mozbar installed and can see all the PA and DA for the sites ranking higher and lower and PA seems to be the main issue because the site is ranking page 1 most of the time for Austin given that the front page is optimized for Austin mostly. When I flip the switch and try ranking a page for Austin and Denver, I can never get to page one and the PA of those pages is 1 currently... So I would need links to those pages to build PA correct?
-
Great info Robert, do you geo-tag your images as well, in this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geotagging sense of the word?
Thanks
-
Thanks Robert.
"Assuming (from your question) you do not have a physical address for city B,"
The scenario has a business address in city B which is in the footer of the site.
If the business address is in the footer, how does it affect site optimization of big city A and he half dozen other cities in the sub-directories?
-
Jonathan,
First, go back and read what I wrote and read my response to AWCThreads as well. Now, you can believe me or not, but I am talking Houston TX and a competitive vertical. And, yes, my clients want to rank in all the suburbs and neighborhoods, etc.
What everyone needs to realize is that they are not taking into account whether or not a business is a service area business and whether or not you have an actual physical address. Assuming (from your question) you do not have a physical address for city B, you can't go in and set it up as if you do for Local. But, you can use two pages on the site to assist you in ranking in both the 7-Pack and the organic. (Given that availability, I am at a loss as to why someone wanting to rank would do one page.)
Now, as to PA, etc. If what you are wanting is some type of "instant" ranking, I do not know what to tell you. I can tell you that we are able to gain ranking for our clients with this methodology but each individual city/area/neighborhood is different as to how quickly. Ranking for a given city + Keyword is ranking and it requires the same efforts, etc. as any other keyword or phrase. But, if you have good content, include the geo + KW as I said before and the images, video, google maps API on one of the pages, etc. You should be able to rank in a reasonable amount of time. (Say page two within 2 months).
I hope this helps clarify.
Robert
EDIT: I wanted to add, if the site has pages with reasonable PA, make sure a few are linking to the new pages without being unrelated.
-
Yes, I want to know how the footer name, address and phone number affect local optimization efforts.
Suppose I want to optimize my site (as Robert suggests) for big city A. However, my business address is in a suburb of big city A (little city B).
If the little city address is in the footer, will it diminish my SEO efforts for big city A?
Further, if I'm optimizing for 2, 5 or 10 cities in sub-directories how does the NAP in the footer affect optimization for those cities?
Is the NAP stripped from the footer throughout the site? Can you leave the NAP in the footer without negatively affecting on-page optimization for big city A and the other half dozen cities?
-
No we have not forgotten that, but it is not just about PA. PA comes with time, and effort on all the other things you should be doing as an SEO.
-
Can you explain this more? I think you're on to something I haven't thought about, but the broken english or poor grammar is making it tough.
Anyone else that does can you help him explain?
-
What you are forgetting is PA. I have already done this and it does nothing because there are people in the second location who's main priority is to rank for that location. My "inner-page" with 1 or 2 PA isn't going to rank page 1 or top 3 at all because others have DA and PA ranking their site in those spaces. We are talking about highly competitive markets here, not some random fish word.
-
The site is built around the major city (that can be the largest or the one that is most important to the client, etc.).
Got it. But If my single biz is located in a suburb of the main city, will my biz address in the footer of a WP site diminish my ability to rank for the main city for which the rest of the page is optimized?
For every other city we use subdirectories. Assuming one service in general, we will have two pages for each "subdirectory city": typically one that explains the business with content containing info re that city....Then we have a contact page with same and with Google maps API.
I'm not very knowledgeable about sub-directories since I've not needed to use them (yet).
Since the page is in a sub-directory, is the footer info removed? Sounds like it is in lieu of the contact us page.
-
Agreed. This is the easiest way to do it, and the method I use.
-
I totally agree with Lars, you just create 1 inner page for every city, optimize content and meta tags afor that city+keyword and use thge right anchors for links and citations, and booom, u're ranked !
-
This works. We do it all day long.
-
The on-page content is likely not as relevant to the second keyword you are trying to rank for. Ideally you would have inner pages for each city, so the on-page seo factors match up with what your trying to rank for. It's a lot easier for google to determine what keyword the page should be ranking for if the content shows that.
It'll also help having the city name in the URL for the inner page, such as http://www.website.com/boston-wicker-baskets/
-
Jonathan,
I am not sure about "the drill" but I do know how to rank a given service for two or five or ten cities. The way we approach it is simple: First and foremost, you need to rank in the Local (how many Pack) for those areas where you have locations to the best of your ability. When trying to rank for a city plus a keyword, IMO it starts with Local. Given that, to rank organically as well, here is what we do: The site is built around the major city (that can be the largest or the one that is most important to the client, etc.). Then for every other city we use subdirectories. Assuming one service in general, we will have two pages for each "subdirectory city": typically one that explains the business with content containing info re that city. By content I mean not only text, but images, videos, etc. Then we have a contact page with same and with Google maps API.
Now, originally, we would say (rather hubristically) that this will be for local and that for organic. We soon learned that we could not accurately predict which would be organic versus which would be Local. Yes, there are some ways to try and influence it, but don't worry over it.I can tell you that we have no problem gaining ranking for clients following this methodology.
I hope it helps you,
Robert
-
The way I often approach these things is to "brand out" the homepage, and do two inner pages, one for each location.
-
Hello Jonathan,
You mentioned "two different citys for her service" are you trying to rank for local results or for organic results?
Also first page for one of the cities does this mean for the main location, aka the location of the business?
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
-
How should one approach pagination on website
This is my first post here so forgive me if I made any mistake while posting it. Say I have one category called News on my website, it gets frequently updated with new posts everyday. So the thing is one article that is sitting on first page of the category, will eventually move down to 2nd page, and then 3rd and then 4th and so on. Now bots will see this article on first page, then index this on second page also and then on third also and so on and this goes on for rest of the articles as well. Will this raise a duplicate flag for the website. How should one approach this problem. I would really not want to use noindex tag here as I do want such pages to get indexed but without getting the duplicate content issue.
On-Page Optimization | | thetelescope1 -
Best site structure for us?
Hey guys, I have a somewhat silly question that I probably know the answer to - but would still like to hear your POV's. We're a WP theme making company but we also build other stuff. Context: 1. All demos for themes currently go under domain.com/Theme_A/ The demo is lorem ipsum so is marked noindex nofollow. That being said we get rocking analytics data usually (not sure if it's still valuable for G after the noindex). 2. Currently we need landing pages for themes and we're running them under domain.com/Theme_A/optimized-landing-page-title.php dofollow and indexed ofc. My question is...Would we be better off to include all landing pages under a domain.com/wordpress-themes/ category/tax and then go for the optimized-landing-page-title.php page? Does it make any difference either or? Right now we're not REALLY running them on subdomains (though the structure seems like it), they're just folders. We're thinking that more seo juice would flow through the different pages if we have them all under the same category, rather than basically starting from scratch each time under a new folder. Right? Thanks!!!
On-Page Optimization | | andy.bigbangthemes1 -
Should URL contain primary keyword or primary + extended keyword?
Hi All, This is a query regarding what keyword should be placed in URL. Below is the scenario. I have marketplace website where I can service providers with users. I have a page with a list of Dance providers and want to rank it for Dance Classes, Dance Coaching Classes keywords. Since these keywords represent same business purpose for us, should I keep the URL as www.abc.com/dance-classes or www.abc.com/dance-coaching-classes? What is SEO best practice in this scenario? Kindly suggest.
On-Page Optimization | | Avin1230 -
Keyword in Domain AND Title. Yes or No?
We're working on a new buildout, and this one is really important to us. We've put a lot of resources into it. Before we launch, we want the structure to be just right... and this one question is nagging at me. How to structure urls? Consider these two options. The fictitious domain is "icesurfing.org". Including all 50 states in the keyword, there are nearly one million searches per month for "ice surfing [state]". We have a page for each state to focus on this traffic. But how would you structure the urls and titles? **icesurfing.org/state ** icesurfing.org/ice-surfing-state One concern is that the duplicate keywords in option 2 seem redundant, and a little spammy. When presented with google search, the matching tags are not as clean. Texas - IceSurfing.org Ice Surfing Texas - IceSurfing.org But Yoast automatically suggests option 2. Is this really the best practice? Is there are definitive article on this? THANK YOU!
On-Page Optimization | | RetBit0 -
Optimizing Product Keywords (that are similar)
Hi Guys Could someone let me know how varied my product keywords need to be? I'm about to add a variety of products to my site, and the only true way of differentiating them is by colour. Brown Hooded JacketGreen Hooded JacketRed Hooded JacketBlack Hooded JacketBrown Hooded Utility JacketGreen Hooded Utility JacketRed Hooded Utility JacketBlack Hooded Utility JacketAlso, am I optimizing my site correctly?Key Word - Brown Hooded JacketMy keywords are included in H1Enigma - Brown Hooded JacketPage TitleProduct Name & Key Word - London - Company NameURL,www.companyname.co.uk/brown-coats/enigma-hooded-jacketBody ContentThe key word "brown hooded jacket" is included and very described within the body of this specific pageImage TagBrown-Casual-Hooded-JacketMeta DescriptionKey word is used, should I choose to opt for this approach?I would really appreciate your help. Thanks, Faye
On-Page Optimization | | Faye2340 -
Optimizing pages for keywords
I have a couple of websites for retailing the western chaps manufactured by my company. I have recently tried to increase my learning for SEO since one of my main sites (started in 2006) just lost about 45% of it's organic search volume since the end of May. It seems my search to learn just creates more and more questions. I have been using google adwords for several years now and have used that information to find the most searched keywords. There are some general keywords like western chaps and cowboy chaps that receive decent search volume. If I get more specific to a certain type of chap, chinks for example, the popular high volume keywords are chinks, chinks chaps, western chinks, and cowboy chinks. These all relate to one type of chap...the chink. I want to be visible for these keywords, but how does one optimize for more than one without diluting? Should I also try to optimize on the homepage of my sites for the general terms like western chaps and cowboy chaps? Can I optimize for both? I could really use some help. Any experts out there up to the job of consulting for me, some with extensive knowledge and experience? I'm not looking for the SEO giants with hundreds of clients. I don't feel that I will get the proper value from those types. My company is small and spending is an issue, that's why I would like someone to consult with. I should be able to do most of the labor, I just need the knowledge.
On-Page Optimization | | Kelly_S0 -
One site, one location, multiple languages - best approach?
Hey folks, Has anyone created a multilingual site targeted at a single location? I have a site that I need to create which is targeting users in Spain. There are going to need to be English and Spanish versions of the text. My thoughts would be to handle it this way: 1. Geolocate the entire site to spain 2. Have the english content in a folder /en/ 3. Have the spanish content in a folder /es/ As far as I am aware the same content in another language is not considered duplicate content and Google should handle folks searching in spanish or english and show them the correct landing page. Sounds easy enough in principle but I also have these other options to seemingly solidify the approach: 4. Add: rel="alternate" hreflang="x" (3) 5. Add language information to a sitemap (4) Again, none of that seems terribly difficult but would welcome any feedback and particularly experience of multilingual sites targeting a single location. Thanks all Marcus References and info 1. Multi Regional:
On-Page Optimization | | Marcus_Miller
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/working-with-multi-regional-websites.html 2. Multi Language:
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2008/08/how-to-start-multilingual-site.html 3. http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=189077 4. http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=26208650 -
On-page keyword usage
SEOMOZ gave me all zeros for keyword usage. Why? The site is www.grass2greens.com and the keywords are "Asheville Landscaping Edible." The site includes these words in the title page and throughout the body text. I am not really sure, but maybe one cause for these low keyword usage ratings might be redirects or some meta tag issues, but I am really not sure. Any ideas?
On-Page Optimization | | dcaudio0