Local SEO + Best Practice for locations
-
Hi All,
Based on a hypothetical scenario, lets say you are a plumber. You live and operate within Chelsea in London. You have established a Google places profile and incorporated schema data to tell Google your fixed place location.
In addition you operate in several nearby towns with no fixed location presence. i.e Brentford, Bromley, Catford, Cheswick and Tottenham.
I create a feature rich page on 'How to find a quality plumber'. Within the page I incorporate the following description:
blah blah, as a quality plumber serving the community of Chelsea, we also offer our services to nearby towns of Brentford, Bromley, Catford, Cheswick and Tottenham.
I create hyperlinks for the towns (Brentford, Bromley, Catford, Cheswick and Tottenham) that allow the user see in details a full list of services, operation hours, etc. Naturally all towns will have there own unique content (no duplication).
Question
Is the above scenario the correct way to provide local seo or is this approach considered spammy to Google?Thanks Mark
-
Hi Andy,
Thank you very much for the great advice.
Thanks Mark
-
Hi Mark,
There is a mix of both paid and free sites listed. Before you commit to a year, perhaps just try a month for $30 to see if it meets your needs?
Well worth a punt
-Andy
-
Hi Mark,
-
It comes down to substantial editorial discretion/review by the paid directory for it to be legit in Google's eyes. Best of the Web, BBB, and many other paid services that have substantial editorial process to review the business leads to a high quality paid directory and Google is totally okay with that, as Matt Cutts states in the link above. The video explains it well the difference between acceptable paid directories and those that are not.
-
Andy mentioned a great source Whitespark that I use as well. However, I would start here: http://moz.com/learn/local/citations-by-category its free and Google approved if you will citations, to start out with. Sure enough they have the plumber category: http://moz.com/learn/local/citations-by-category#Plumbers
Also: https://moz.com/local/search and http://moz.com/learn/local/local-search-data-uk
If you take care of these especially all if not most in the last link I sent, you should generally be in good shape, if not you can them get even more with whitespark!
Hope it helps!
-
-
Hi Andy,
Thanks for the additional info.
Had a quick look into Whitespark and see they offer a $200 yearly package.From your experience of this product are the results provided (lets say for directories) of significant value. Are most directories provided subject to annual/monthly costs or can you get quality free sources?
Thanks Mark
-
Hi Mark,
Sorry to butt in...
Have a look at Whitespark. They are great at finding niche sites for cocitation purposes and I have used them myself many times (read, monthly subscription).
Some directories are not really frowned upon because they aren't selling links, but listings. Take Yell, Thompson, etc. You will get links to your website, but not something that would benefit it in the way Google would object to.
-Andy
-
Hi Mark,
Very very good questions!
-
There is a distinction between general web directories and link farms and local citation directories. Local citations in relevant directories is still a must method for local seo ranking. As Google Local itself aggregates information from authoritative and relevant web directories such as: Yelp, Yellowpages, Foursquare, Yahoo Local, Bing Local, Citysearch, etc. **The distinction is that Google uses this for local results for your local business, and not for organic results, for an online business, as an example. **So for organic results, online businesses, you can still have few solid and relevant directories such as BBB or Best of the Web, but you dont want to over do it here. For local results as much relevant and authoritative directories is the name of the game. Hope that clarifies this, if its still confusing let us know.
-
By if the client has a blog, I was going off your hypothetical example of the plumber. What I mean here is writing **on your own blog **if you have one. Again it does not even have to be a blog, you can create a page, you can even call it a landing page appropriately. It will be a quality content rich page, that you are trying to rank for organically. Good you are aware that Guest Blogging is now considered by many an abused tactic that is now crossing over into the spammy category. So you are correct in this.
Hope this clarifies it for ya, again let me know if you have any more questions!
-
-
Hi Andy + Vadim,
Thank you for your thoughts.
I have the following questions and concerns.I have read that web directories offer little or no seo value. Google simply see's them as link farms.
I'm confused with regards to placing a 750-1500 word article on a 3rd party client site. Is this not the same as 'Guest Blogging'. Again, I have read how Matt Cutts frowns upon this practice.
Please kindly clarify....
Thanks Mark
-
Hi Mark,
If the client has a blog, I also had good success, creating articles on talking about a plumber in [other city you want to focus on] and having this be a solid article at least 750-1500 word article with maybe a contact us or a business info on the sidebar for that location. These articles would rank organically for the the city plus industry that you are interested in.
Being a blog you have the flexibility about being creative in what you write in the article about the certain area you would like to rank for!
Hope this helps, and if you have more questions about this definitely ask!
-
Hi Mark,
There are so many ways to try and achieve the same results, but in the past I have had good success by creating a page based on the key location (London), creating a title something like "Plumber in London and covering surrounding counties".
Make sure you have your address and telephone number on the page, then create a section that explains you also cover the following places "Brentford (TW8), Bromley (BR1 to BR8), Catford (SE6), Chiswick (W4) and Tottenham (N17).
I would then be looking to create cocitations and gain links from local sites / directories that offer the ability to do this.
I hope that gives you a little to work on.
-Andy
-
Hi Andy,
Thank you for the information. I will read this shortly.
May I ask you for your advice and how you would tackle such a grey area.Thanks Mark
-
Hi Mark,
Local SEO is a pretty big subject, and I would highly recommend you have a read of this post over at eConsultancy to gain some valuable information.
MOZ also have what is probably the best local search resource I have seen here. You will find info there from over 30 SEO professionals and is probably where I would start.
Edit- Sorry, I should also say that I wouldn't personally handle local SEO in that way, as my own feelings are that this has been done to death, and is what everyone tries.
-Andy
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
-
Local SEO for Multiple Locations - Is this the best approach?
Hi everyone! I previously have worked with single-location companies, and am now working for a company that is continuously growing and adding new locations. We are a financial institution that currently has 12 locations, and we should have 15+ locations by year-end 2017. Seeing as we have all of these locations, I thought the following approach would be the best for increasing our presence in local search. Our primary keyword is "credit union in location". Our search traffic has increased heavily over last year, but is down from the beginning of the year. I've gone through and done the following: Freshened up the content on the main website Created pages for each of our locations around April-end Attributed these location page URLs to our Google My Business locations Verified each location Wrote unique content for each page Our primary keyword rankings seem to fluctuate weekly. My next steps are to get our web design company to add the following: Structured Data on all location pages The ability to change SEO title and meta descriptions on location pages Sitemap (there is none currently, and I've been fighting them to get one added because it isn't needed.) I also plan on utilizing Moz Local to manage our local listings. After this is done I plan on finding ways for us to build links for each location, like the chambers of commerce in each city and local partnerships. Is this the best approach for our overall goal, and should I continue? Is there anything I should change about our current approach? I appreciate the help!
Local Website Optimization | | PelicanStateCU0 -
Do duplicate street addresses on 2 website affect SEO?
Hi, We have 2 websites built for one client that has 2 companies running from the same physical location. Would having the same address listed on both websites affect their SEO rankings? The 2 websites mentioned are linked below: http://anastasiablinds.ca/ http://www.greenfoxwindows.ca/ Thanks for your help!
Local Website Optimization | | Web3Marketing871 -
Choosing the best domain for international website section
Hi, i made a question before but the answer not clarified me yet: https://moz.com/community/q/which-is-the-best-xx-or-com-xx-in-general-and-for-seo I mark as answered inadvertently. I want to know what you think about choosing ".es" or ".com.es" for create a section for Spain and redirect them from the homepage. Same for Mexico.
Local Website Optimization | | NachoRetta
I think that is not so important for SEO, but i am not completely sure about other factors.
Big marks like Toshiba use:
http://www.toshiba**.es**
http://www.toshiba**.com.mx** and Cocacola:
http://www.cocacola**.es**
http://www.coca-cola**.com.mx** ".es" for spain and ."com.mx" for mexico?0 -
SEO geolocation vs subdirectories vs local search vs traffic
My dear community and friends of MOZ, today I have a very interesting question to you all. Although I´ve got my opinion, and Im sure many of you will think the same way, I want to share the following dilemma with you. I have just joined a company as Online Marketing Manager and I have to quickly take a decision about site structure. The site of the company has just applied a big structure change. They used to have their information divided by country (each country one subdirectory) www.site.com/ar/news www.site.com/us/news . They have just changed this and erased the country subdirectory and started using geolocation. So if we go to www.site.com/news although the content is going to be the same for each country ( it’s a Latinamerican site, all the countries speak the same language except Brazil) the navigation links are going to drive you to different pages according to the country where you are located. They believe that having less subdirectories PA or PR is going to be higher for each page due to less linkjuice leaking. My guess is that if you want to have an important organic traffic presence you should A) get a TLD for the country you want to targe… if not B)have a subdirectory or subdomain for each country in your site. I don’t know what local sign could be a page giving to google if the URL and html doesn’t change between countries- We can not use schemas or rich formats neither…So, again, I would suggest to go back to the previous structure. On the other hand…I ve been taking a look to sensacine.com and although their site is pointing only to Spain | |
Local Website Optimization | | facupp1
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | | They have very good rankings for big volume keywords in all latinamerica, so I just want to quantify this change, since I will be sending to the designers and developers a lot of work1 -
Should I use pipe in title tags for local seo?
Hi, I've created a bunch of landing pages for local areas, reading, windsor, slough etc for the title tag I have for Windsor Emergency Electrician Windsor - BrandName should I be using a pipe in the tag to further help search engines learn/identify the location? Emergency Electrician | Windsor - BrandName Thank you Kev
Local Website Optimization | | otex1 -
Internationalization: 2 Websites in English for different location?
Hi guys, My customer is already well established in France. They have a good Domain Authority and a lot of Inbound Links. They're doing very well in France. They're now looking at entering the US market, however, their trademark is already registered within the US. They therefore decided to go with a new name. Basically: They open an english-only website for the US presence They add English as a language on their French website for their European presence They'll therefore have two domains: aaa.com: US Presence bbb.com: European Presence; 2 languages: French & English My main reaction was that: since the content on aaa.com and bbb.com/english/ will be the same, they'll necessarily have Duplicate Content issue. How would you look at this? What would be the best alternative for them? Thank you
Local Website Optimization | | PierreLechelle0 -
Can anyone recommend small UK based SEO Consultancy companies?
Hi there, We're possibly looking for a small, completely whitehat SEO firm here in the UK to work with us from early next year. We've probably got a budget of around £200 - £300 a month. We're looking for top up work really, not a complete campaign. I've checked out http://moz.com/community/recommended but it's not broken down by region or budget. I had an embarrassing phone call with Distilled who it turns out charge £10,000 a month minimum! Can anyone recommend anyone to speak to?
Local Website Optimization | | jennie.evans0 -
Had SEO Firm tell me to Start Over - pros and cons help please
Hi So I have quotes of 1250 to 2500 a month to run my website, seo wise. What I am told is they will do all facebook postings, 4 blog posts each month, some citations, and site optimization. Those amounts due seem like a lot. Yet I was last to start all over. Basically I was told that because of some bad backlinks, which only a few remain, that you can never recover from an algorithm penalty. And with a Disavow, its like telling Google - penalize me please So the plan was this: $3000 for a new site, and new domain, and then it has no penalties, and I will be ranking in no time. The problem is I am branded. My domain and business name is Bernese Of The Rockies. People know us and we are very respected. So if we create a new site like example.com, I do not want to mislead people. Or if there is a penalty for say a landing page or site, where I am sending people to my main site for more info type of thing. Just looking for your input if this is a common issue, where if you have a non manual, but algo penalty that you must restart? Thank you so much for your thoughts and suggestions.
Local Website Optimization | | Berner0