SEO For Local Searches
-
I run a driving school of over 100 instructors in the UK. We cover around 60 different areas.
My homepage www.driveJohnsons.co.uk is optimised for 'driving lessons' and 'driving school' search terms mainly.
My area pages are optimised for the same but with the area included ie: Driving Lessons Birmingham or Driving Lessons Leeds
I've taken a drop in many areas...
I've cleaned up my incoming links using the disavow too and upped more relevant links associated with the same industry as myself.
The question i have is should i change my URL's for my area pages from www.driveJohnsons.co.uk/driving-lessons-leeds to: www.driveJohnsons.co.uk/leeds
I've been told stuffing the URL with keywords for an area actually dilutes the strength of my homepage and all the other areas.
At the moment i have 60 area pages with: www.drivejohnsons.co.uk/driving-lessons-area
It use to work a treat, but i've started seeing some companies change their URLs to: /area and excluding the driving-lessons
If i make this change then i'm either going to have to bit the bullet on build up links for those areas again or do a redirect for each area.
I've added most areas to google places and i've added google map to many of area pages too.
If anyone knows a bit more, please let me know...
-
Hi Anthony,
So glad the resource helped!
-
Hi Miriam...
I found the local listings article very interesting, quite frightening in fact. It all makes sense but you have put a lot of things back into perspective.
-
Unfortunately, these kinds of pages, regardless of the URL, can present problems for organic SEO (even when they have some local SEO benefit). If the 60 pages are basically cookie cutter - the same content except for the city/region, then this is the kind of thin content that can cause problems with Panda. The keyword-loaded URL might marginally increase the problem, but I think the risk is real either way.
As Miriam said, if it's a few locations, it's not usually a big deal. Hundreds is definitely a risk. Sixty is a bit borderline, IMO. If your site had 1,000 indexed pages and 60 local pages, probably no big deal. If you have 100 pages total and 60 local, then I'd be concerned. There's no easy solution. Either you: (1)focus the regions and pare it down a bit, or (2) work to create more unique content on each of these pages and make sure they don't look thin.
-
Hi Anthony,
Back again. You might like to check out the good examples of multi-location businesses in this article from Local U:
http://localu.org/blog/designing-business-location-website-pages-part-2-multiple-location-business/
I'm still pretty much sticking to my original suggested URL structure, and I think these examples may be useful in your planning.
-
Hi Anthony,
You've raised an interesting point. I've asked some of our traditional SEO experts if they would weigh in on this with you. My clients typically have just a handful of locations, in which case, it's been a no-brainer for me to go with the /service-city url structure, but I think what you're asking is a valid question. It might still be the best choice to go with this structure, but if you're really concerned about it, you could go with just a /city URL structure for the office landing pages. On the other hand, the URL is only one step in your optimization work. Even if you did just go with the /city structure, wouldn't you be optimizing the tags and text of the pages with the core service phrase? Another thought, too, would be to go with /business-name-city, but when one considers that many business names may contain the core service phrase (Superior Driving Lessons, for example), this brings us back to square one.
When things become messy like this, I try to step back and ask myself if what I'm doing is natural. In this case, I think having pages on your website that specify that driving lessons are offered in X city is totally natural. It's not like you're trying to game anything with explaining this. You're giving an honest representation of what the business does and where it does it. Sometimes, I can over-think things about my clients, in which case, coming back to what is natural and honest can often provide a guiding light.
As I've said, I think your question is worthy of an answer. I've shared my thinking on this, but I really hope you'll get feedback from some of our other staff on this as I believe several heads may be better than one in hashing out the technical specifics of this.
-
Hi Miriam
I've got physical addresses for the areas. A google postcard has been sent to the area to authorise.
I'm not bothered if i rank on the first page locally or organically.
My concern with the URL was if i have 60 URL's saying /driving-lessons-AREA
Would that not dilute dilute each areas strength because of the heavy use of driving lessons and also dilute my home page optimisation which is for the whole of the UK for driving lessons.
As for links, i've had a good clean up around 2 months ago but it seems the disavow tool takes time as these horrible links are still present in my webmaster links to site section.
It's weird i have another website that is spammed to hell, bad links and poor content and that sits on the first page of local listings and i've done no work on it since the penguin update - as there was too much to do and i had other priorities.
All i've tried to do with my main site is good seo practice.
So you think the driving-lessons for every area page shouldn't make a difference ?
-
Hi Anthony,
Are you saying that your business has a physical office in each of these cities? I am assuming this is so, as you are only allowed to create Google+ Local pages for physical offices. If there is some chance that you've done so, lacking physical offices, then you could expect Google to remove these listings if they become aware that they don't represent physical offices.
I see no problem with your URLs. I'm curious as to what you read. Those look like perfectly fine URLs for local landing pages to me.
Are you aware that there is currently a shakeup going on in Google's local results? It's possible that this could account for any fluctuations you are seeing.
If not, it sounds like you may have had some link problems in the past. Is there any chance that you might have run afoul of the Google Places Quality Guidelines in some way? Here's a link to them: https://support.google.com/places/answer/107528?hl=en
Ranking fluctuations happen in Local. Sometimes they are caused by tweaks to Google's algo. Other times, they occur when you are surpassed by a competitors' efforts. And, in some cases, a business drops because of engaging in bad practices. Consider these three scenarios and see if one of them fits your business most closely. Hope this helps.
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
-
Small Business SEO Recommendations
I work for a company that manages websites for several hundred small businesses. We do a good job with on-site optimization but don't do any link building for our clients. Occasionally, clients are in desperate need of links and ask us for recommendations. I've had a tough time finding a balance between quality consultants and affordable prices. I understand that link building campaigns, in general, carry a hefty price tag, but of our clients can't afford any of the big name agencies. We've also had a few of our clients get burned recently by bad link building and I don't want to point them in the wrong direction. Does anyone have any recommendations for companies or freelance consultants that do good work without breaking the bank? Thanks! Tim
Industry News | | TimKelsey1 -
SEO Conferences - Which to start with!???
My SEO / Internet marketing business (I also have contractors that handle web design and development) is going well and growing and I am interested in attending one of the many conferences. (SEO is my passion but I am more of a marketing guy than super technical) I was hoping for a little bit of advice from somebody who has been to some of them where would be good to start. Where should I start? I am in Wichita, KS. which is in the middle of the US (bring on the yellow brick road and Dorothy jokes) and don't plan to leave the country for one. PUBCON, SES, SMX, SEARCHFEST, MOXCON, PUBCON...... Thank you very MUCH for any advice. Super appreciate it! Matthew
Industry News | | Mrupp440 -
Huge website Search Quality Team problem
One of my clients, have a huge problem. His page which generate traffic over 3 milion unique users per month (GA) has been penalized in January / filtered by Google, reason is simple: incoming links from low quality pages... We try everything from reconsideration request to meeting Google Europe employees (But not directly with search quality team), reconsideration requests (over 10) in 6 month are bounced off we got automatic reply like "This website have still problem, read Google Webmasters FAQ etc." We contacted manually with webmasters which have websites with incoming link to us, some pepole delete with no problem, rest don't take any action to remove our links from webistes...A few days ago we use disavow tool links where we add all links which can be ignored by Google, so.. we make new recosideration data with specific information and yesterday we got the same reply like as beginning of the year.. Like this: "There are still some inorganic links to your site" What we can do? We lost a money, our client lost money, lost position, lost users... Anyone have any idea to contact with Google excluding reconsideration request form and forum?
Industry News | | thenaturat0 -
How do i get a description in my google local listing
My site is listed in the serps at number one but where google used to list the name of my site with the meta description below it, now Google lists my site title with my address to the right side and below it says Google+page instead of listing my meta description which had my key search phrase in it and also a call to action to see my video on my site. My click through was much better with the meta description below it and the call to action. is there any way i can get the description back under my title in the serps? Maybe by deleting my Google + page? Thanks in advance, Ron
Industry News | | Ron100 -
Help! I need to hire a SEO / SEM Specialist - Am I asking for too much?!
Hey all! I'm expanding my in-house marketing team and I need to add an SEO / SEM Specialist that will strategize, execute & manage the following: Organic SEO PPC across multiple channels (Google, Bing & also social sites like Facebook) Remarketing & Display marketing Banner ads Retargeting We're a lean company that's all about doing more with less. But not being very familiar with the SEO / SEM world I'm afraid I'm asking for too much! What do you guys think? What's your experience been? If you do think that this is potentially a single position, what would be the best title for attracting talent? SEO / SEM Specialist? Digital Marketing Manager? With the research I've done - jobs / titles have been totally across the board! I'm not able to find much consistency. Thank you all for your help 🙂 It's greatly appreciated!!!!!
Industry News | | RochelleRietow0 -
Seo is dead?
Hi there, I see a lot of conversations about the term "seo is dead" because some people speak that seo are dead because of google plus and facebook. Is it true? What do you think? What do you think that is the future of our business? We will stay uneployed or we still continue to work? Me personally I hate facebook. Is just so much stupid (like most of people, I guess thats why is so popular) but what about google plus? Is a serious and worthy social profile.This will kill us? I read in SEL or SEW ,I dont remember which of them that this guy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farhad_Manjoo said that seo is dead and some are even supporting him.Also he said that "Google just broke its search engine" with the creation of Google plus. Me I think search msrketing,seo will live for long time yet,Me personally and my friends NEVER EVER CLICK on Facebook ads(if we do it , is just curiosity, and after we never visit again that page,this guys what I was reading their articles before they said that they see a lot of traffick from facebook.me also but the taffic from facebook dont do nothing,even in adsense they dont click on my sites,not to convert to buyers).I have 20 close friends and none of them cares what kind of content they find from facebook.Is our mentality (I am from CYprus)? Or is just a fact?That facebook ads are just some crap? Or general the acebook is a crap?Me i think that is.Is made for some people who are boaring and need something to kill time.so the traffick what you get is some boaring people who dont care about nothing, just some more things to watch and comment with their friends.So practically you have them on the site and after BAM, new hot site so bye bye.Never visit again your site.Why is so much importand?Their likes etc?The difference with google adsense is that all from our company are clicking on the ads and on the results. (much more on the results, because we think that is the best.Including me that I know that SERP can be manipulated.But we still prefer that.Why all speak about that SEO are dead? Are paid from facebook? WTF? Why I never hear somebody from SEOMOZ to say this?My result is that they are some bunch of I@@@TS and they dont know what they speak or are on the other side.I am sorry for my bad english but like this I can express my fealings.If you dont understand something please ask.
Industry News | | nyanainc0 -
Can anyone recommend SEO Vendors in the NY NJ area?
I am looking for an SEO consultancy service preferably in New York, any suggestions?
Industry News | | EBDM0 -
Yahoo and Bing Search Factors Compared with Google
I have started my research to list all the factors Yahoo or Bing giving more importance compared with Google. This bible if successfully prepared will help everybody. Can anybody help me resources specific on the topic, that can help me?
Industry News | | WebMarketingSolutions0