Local Results For Additional Service Categories

[waynekolenchuk]

Hi Mozzers,

My client is prominent in local search for their primary activity,  but I would also like them to appear for other service categories they offer. Assuming I add these other service categories  in +Local and build corresponding service pages on the site, will this be enough to cause them to appear for these other services?

The additional pre set service categories offered in +Local don't  match those offered in local citations, so I can't really support these that way.

[waynekolenchuk]

Thanks Miriam. I understand that all of this is dependant on the amount of competition, domain authority, and  links to specific pages, as it is with any page. The is and does stuff I think falls under the category of including as many variations of the related phrase as possible, which I also try to do with any page.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Wayne,

Thanks so much for the clarification! I would put it this way - the primary category chosen will be the one your client has the best chances of ranking for, and this will typically also be the main, or one of the main, terms the website is optimized for. Carefully choosing your secondary categories is also very important, and building out content on the website that matches these terms is a very good, strong step. However, whether this alone will enable the client to rank will be completely dependent on how competitive the client's unique market is. If he has few competitors for these other terms, this could be enough, but if the competition is tougher, you may have to go the extra mile to start seeing results. The extra mile might include earning links to these pages, social efforts, video marketing, etc.

I do want to clarify that none of Google's pre-set categories reflect services, however. All of them reflect what a business is (dentist), not what it does (root canals), so it's important to keep that in mind.

So, I think you have a very good initial plan: carefully choose the 9 other, non-primary categories and build out content for them. See where this gets the client. You might find he's now ranking for a few of the categories, but that for others, additional efforts will need to be made. Hope this helps!

[waynekolenchuk]

Since the service categories I'm using are chosen from pre-sets in the new dashboard, these are what Google thinks my client is.

If the other categories are closely linked and are also services they offer and are highly relevant, what would I risk in adding them? We're only taking about 5 additional categories and pages. Isn't this simply a common sense way to inform Google about the complete range of services the customer offers?

[waynekolenchuk]

Hi Miriam,

All my questions are about local pack results. I'm quite familiar with organic.

1. Yes, local pack, not organic. Ranking well for primary keyword, which is also a Google pre-set category in new dashboard.

2. Yes, they want local pack results for other keywords.

3. Exist in pre-set categories in the new dashboard

4. Yes, they exist for Google's pre-set categories, but don't have really equivalents from places where I can build citations.

If I build out the services category pages on site to match Google pre-set categories, will this be enough to cause them to appear in local pack results?

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Wayne,

I want to be sure I'm fully understanding your question. Are you saying that:

1. Your client is ranking well in the Local pack of results for their primary keyword (i.e. landscaper san francisco) or are you talking about the organic results?

2. The client wants to get Local pack results for other keywords (i.e. fence builder san francisco) or are you talking about organic results?

3. These other keywords exist in Google's pre-set categories in the new dashboard or are you talking about the old Places dashboard custom categories?

4. These keywords exist in Google's pre-set categories but you're finding that they don't exist on other sites like YP.com, Best of the Web, HotFrog, etc., where you are building citations?

Please offer as much detail as you can so that the community can provide the best possible answer. Thanks!

[ZDAdmin]

Short answer: Probably not.

Long Answer: Google wants you to use to use your service categories to describe what you ARE rather than what you DO. In other words, you ARE a Bakery. Customized birthday cakes is something you DO.
So if you want to go down this path of creating custom categories and corresponding landing pages, you can and you may even achieve short term results, but I would not recommend. That's just too much work and risk in my opinion.

I would stick with trying to achieve local results for the opportunities that exist in your 'core' category and try to obtain organic serps in the service categories.