SEO for a site in development

[Will_Craig]

We've recently taken on a new client for an initial 6 months for SEO (until their new site is going live) to help build traffic to the site. They are currently getting a new website built so don't want work done on their current site... but due to the current structure it is making it difficult for us to improve rankings for a number of keywords. They are essentially a booking engine for services across the UK so it is just a home page with a search filtering through their services, locations and dates which leads to a results page. It is a combination of services and locations we need to target keywords for but there are no appropriate landing pages due to the site layout.

The one thing they are happy for us to work on is the blog, so my question is would it be best to create landing pages on the blog targeting keywords such as 'sports massages in London' and build links to these pages? Then when it is time for the new site, with new appropriate landing pages, simply 301 redirect these pages?

If anyone has any input on this idea or suggestions for other ways about it we'd be delighted to hear from you

Thanks

[EGOL]

** While this type of content would undoubtedly drive traffic, many users would not convert into customers as there is no service nearby. **

I agree.  My sites have lots of this type of content and I work very hard to get this traffic.   If you use Google's DFP you can target your house ads to display a geographically relevant creative for certain locations (for example... sports massage in Bentham, or Birkenhead, or Accrington) and show adsense for any other location.    This enables you to promote your own services where you have them and adsense to all other visitors.  You can also sell this geographically targeted ad serving to specific clients.

I like the idea of a side menu but do you think this would be enough to allow the pages to rank?

If you have a kickass article that gets a lot of links it will start to pull traffic for these geographic terms.  If competition is not strong or your pages develops significant link strength, then you could rank for these terms.   I get lots of geographic term traffic from these types of pages.  Lots.   If you have one of these pages with 30 great links it is going to compete.

[Will_Craig]

Unfortunately so, the sign on process was all fairly rushed due to the customer and development team are difficult to get in touch with!

[Will_Craig]

Thank you very much for the in depth response. I agree, this type of content strategy would be extremely beneficial for them to be seen as a credible booking engine and help with the SEO too! My only concern is that there are only particular towns and cities that this booking engine has for each service so we really wanted to rank for specific locations. While this type of content would undoubtedly drive traffic, many users would not convert into customers as there is no service nearby.

I like the idea of a side menu but do you think this would be enough to allow the pages to rank?

[matbennett]

agh - that's a pain.  Too late for them to be specified?  I like to build this stuff in from the start for these very reasons.

[Will_Craig]

Hi Mat,

Thanks for the response, I like your thinking but it's another development team who have already began work and we're not going to know the final urls until they put the site live... Another stumbling block with this project!

Cheers

[EGOL]

I think that blog posts that explain the generic (without location) topics that you do bookings for they could be a fine informative library for the site.

If an author knows what he is writing about and produces a highly informative about the different types of sports massage and the reasons that an athlete might benefit them it would be a great way to attract attention to the site.

Imagine an article like that hitting the subjects... what is a sports massage, are their different types, how can they be beneficial to the athlete, how are they done, how much might they cost.   Don't you think that an article like that might be very valuable for a site like yours.  Imagine your blog article ranking at the top of SERPs for topics like "benefits of sports massage" .... "types of sports massage"...  People who are searching for those topics are ONE STEP AWAY from booking the service.   And you have house ads or a search box on that page that helps them find where they can get this service.

If you hire a person to write these who knows nothing about the subject then you will not have a very good article.  But if you hire experience and get photos, athlete and service provider interviews/quotes, then you have an article that might perform well.

Wouldn't that make their site a more credible booking engine?... and don't you think those pages would have a chance to rank well for generic high-traffic terms?

This type of content is not cheap.  Experienced authors, going to get photos, spending time on interviews is expensive - but from my experience it can pay off nicely.

These pages are way to valuable to redirect.  If you have some of your best locations in the side menu a powerful page like this might rank for some of the cities that you serve.

[matbennett]

I'm not convinced that 301s are as useful as they used to be.  With that in mind, how about doing the opposite:

1. Create the landing page

2. put a the 301 in place NOW pointing from the eventual final URL to the blog

3. link build to the final URL

4. When it goes live remove the redirect