Local Rank & Branding Confusion - HELP
-
I am working with a client now that has two sites that serve two segments of a particular market segment. They have two different URLs which cater to these different target markets BUT the company is known in its local market as a their brand name (of course) which is different than their 2 domain names used on these 2 sites. Confusing eh? This has resulted in confusing Google and their rank has suffered a bit.
To provide more color + insight-
Let's just say this company is called AtlantaEventsInc and they offer event services for corporate events and let's say weddings. So let's say they have had atlantaeventscorporate.com for 20 years and then they add atlantaeventweddings.com about a year ago since their wedding business is expanding. So they promote their corporate events on one site and their wedding events on another. These 2 sites also currently share one blog, share one Facebook page, one Twitter and have two Google+ pages.
Should we keep these two sites totally separate? and even have separate blogs and separate social media accounts? OR since our rank has only suffered with the new wedding site (just a year old) should we retire that site? (i suppose we could still keep separate blogs though for each target market.
WOULD LOVE INSIGHT ON THIS! Thanks,
Chris
-
If you are still wondering about the directory url:
atlantaeventscorporate.com/weddings
to do this you could:
- Create a subdomain.
Forward atlantaeventweddings.com to the subdomain
Use htaccess rewrite to direct incoming traffic to atlantaeventcorporate.com/weddings/
or
Redirect weddings.atlantaeventcorporate.com to atlantaeventcorporate.com/weddings/ - Don't create a subdomain:
Just create the weddings folder in the root of your domain and build from there.
and then forward atlantaeventweddings.com to atlantaeventcorporate.com/weddings/
- Create a subdomain.
-
Christian,
I have separate phone #'s for local search purposes, but use a different unit #'s, but the same address.
I also definitely have separate social media accounts for each. You don't want to run into a situation where you do 10 events or 10 weddings in a row that you post on social media or your blog, because you will shun one side of your audience (wedding clients don't want to see only big event examples, if they really want to see weddings examples and vice-versa). One account for each business division.
-
Hi Christian,
If you're going with separate branding - no. Absolutely every asset must be separate to avoid confusion. You must approach this as two unrelated companies if you choose to run two companies instead of one.
-
Thank you very much! Is sharing a Facebook account ok?
-
Hi Christian,
You're receiving some great feedback here. I'll add my 2 cents.
-
If the businesses are operating out of the same physical location and share a phone number, than presenting this as a single business would be most appropriate. Once you've merged all of the content onto a single URL, do citation cleanup to be sure that your name, address, phone and website are all consistent across all mentions on the web.
-
The alternative is to get completely separate addresses and phone numbers for each business and run them without any connection between the two. Whether you go this route depends on whether you feel the market warrants it. Just remember, if you this way, there must be nothing shared between the 2 businesses - not contact data, content, links, etc. And, you'll want to be building out two totally separate sets of citations for each business, being sure the data isn't mixed up anywhere.
Hope this helps!
-
-
Thanks Steven! Curious, do you have separate addresses for each as well as phone #'s? and what about social media?
THanks!
Chris
-
I have been doing weddings and photography for years and understand just where you are at. I started out in photography then expanded to wedding planning. From being successful with Google keeping the #1 spots for my desired keywords even today, this is what I do.
I have a different website for each thing that I offer. Photography=website + blog. Wedding planning= website+blog. Weddings and photography go hand and hand, yes, but you won't be able to compete on both fronts for keywords unless you separate them out, as google just won't let you take down that many keywords with just one site like they used to. You aren't going to rank for weddings and event planning on the same site unless it is a long-tailed keyword like "wedding event planning". Also, you don't want to dilute your event planning site with weddings, because then you are just going to rank "ok" for each and not great for either.
It is much more work to keep the sites separate, but you don't want to confuse clients or turn them away by having them think you don't offer a service they need (because of your name) when you actually do offer that service as well. If you are confusing google, take it as a sign that you are confusing clients too, because you are. I would get another phone # for the other business and use unit #A & Unit B to denote a difference in address.
I also understand the subdomain idea, but it then causes the blog overlap which you don't want.
We just keep our sites separate. Then in blog posts credit the other site or blog as if it was a separate company that was the contractor you used for the event.
We have had excellent luck with this as it happened out of necessity and it seems nearly identical to your current scenario.
Good luck.
-
Thanks for the reply and good questions.
The phone numbers are the same (street addresses different) and the wedding site is flushed out with rich info & multiple pages. In regards to the blog, it is somewhat recent and hosted on the wedding site and mainly focused on weddings. Currently implementing a blog for the other site (corporate one) which used to link directly to the wedding site's blog. Basically the blog link in the menu bar on the homepage of the corp site links directly to the wedding site's blog.
In regards to the site's rankings- The wedding site actually ranks very well considering its just shy of a year old (for wedding words) and lot of this is due to lots of fresh content. The corporate site is very static on the other hand but the corporate site has the advantage of being around for many years. The odd thing in regards to the local places rankings is that when users type in a query for say "wedding planner atlanta", their wedding site appears on page #1 but their corporate site actually appears in the local map results.
thanks,
Chris
-
The confusion potentially comes from the citations associated on the various accounts. You didn't mention phone number, but I am assuming that is the same for both businesses as well.
Having two separate sites, since they are focused on different segments makes sense. However, every detail should be treated as these being separate businesses if they are going to be represented as such.
When you talk about their rankings, are you talking about website rankings or local places rankings?
What is the purpose of the wedding site? Is it a single landing page or a full-on information rich site with multiple pages?
Also, you say that they are sharing a blog, how is this set up?
-
Thanks for your insight and i agree. So basically you are saying that since all of the rank issues commenced with the recent addition of the wedding site, just simply retire it? also, can you provide an example of a directory style url.
thx
-
If you merge the two sites say into atlantaeventscorporate.com and 301 all of atlantaeventweddings.com content to its new location at atlantaeventscorporate.com you will effectively be combining the page ranks and traffic scores of the two. Of course its not quite that simple and there are ways this could go wrong but I would look into that. Perhaps just turn wedding into a subdomain with a directory style url?
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
-
Do old backlinks still help with new URL with 301 redirect? Also I added the www. How does this affect it all?
I changed my URL from exampledetailing. com to exampleautodetailing. com. It is redirected with a 301. Also, it is on Squarespace AND I opted to add the www. So will the old backlinks of exampledetailing. com still help the new URL exampleautodetailing. com or do I need to try and update all the links? Also, future links, do I need to include the www. or just the root domain of exampleautodetailing. com or even the whole https://wwwexampleautodetailing. com? I believe the www is considered a sub domain and a new entity on Google, so I am not sure how that works. Thank you!
Local Website Optimization | | Rmarkjr810 -
Are local business directories worth the effort? Eg. White pages, Yell.com, Local.com?
Hi Guys, Im new to Moz and very keen to do SEO right without upsetting Mr. Google too much. Are local business directories worth the effort? Its a laborious job, but happy to do it, if its effective and won't be considered spammy by Google? Thanks
Local Website Optimization | | Fetseun0 -
I have a Wordpress site that ranks well and a blog (uses blogger) with slightly different URL/domain that also ranks decently. Should I combine the 2 under the website domain or keep both?
I realize that I am building essentially 2 different sites even though they are connected, but on some local town pages i have 2-3 results on Page #1. Nice problem to have eh? But i am worried as for a lot of my surrounding towns my competitor has the top listing or definitely ahead of me, so i am wondering if i combine or convert my blog into the same domain as my site, then all of that content + links should hopefully propel my site to #1. Anyone have an experience like this? thanks, Chris
Local Website Optimization | | Sundance_Kidd0 -
Optimizing Local SEO for Two Locations
Hi there! I have a client that has just opened a 2nd location in another state. When optimizing for local I have a few questions: We're creating a landing page for each location, this will have contact information and ideally some information on each location. Any recomendations for content on these landing pages? The big question is dual city optimization. Should Include the city & state of BOTH locations in all my title tags? or should I leave that to the unique city landing pages? What other on-page optimizations should i consider across the site? Thanks! Jordan
Local Website Optimization | | WorkhorseMKT0 -
Site Not Rankings After a Few Months
I have a client site that I am beating my head against the wall for right now. Three months into a 100% white hat campaign, we can't get him ranking in the top 150. Here's the cliffsnotes: Built a new wordpress website All on page SEO has been done and score an A+ for his primary kws Robots.txt is setup correctly .htaccess is setup correctly new domain multiple 95 DA, 50 PA links from reputable, national sites. Yext Local listings SSL, CDN, Speed optimized Has 19 pages indexed by Google Posting one blog a week for him Granted his primary keyword is a hyper competitive kw, but still, I've been doing this for 8 years and never seen a guy be stuck on the 16th page for so long for the sort of links we are building him. I'm genuinely stumped here and could use some help.
Local Website Optimization | | BrianJGomez0 -
All metrics appear to be better than our local competitors yet we our ranking doesn't resemble it. Help?
Hi, I work for a marquee company and have recently been really trying to optimise our SEO through good content, link building, social media especially google + and so on. Yet a rival (www.camelotmarquees.com) who performs worse than us for the majority of the moz parameters still ranks better than us in both organic search and google places. The clear and obvious factor they beat us on is internal links which is currently over 15,000 which seems ridiculous for the size of their site, compared to our site of about 120. Would this have that match of an effect on the rankings and how on earth have they got so many? Also is there any tips and advice to help us leap frog them as we feel, we're producing regular, useful content and optimised our site the best we can? website: www.oakleafmarquees.co.uk keywords: marquee hire dorset, marquee dorset, dorset marquee hire, wedding marquee hire
Local Website Optimization | | crazymoose780 -
Local franchise seo strategy. what could be the best practice?
Hello what Could be the best practice of seo and website optimization for a franchise company. Business model: Lets say, a company(company.com) situated in a country having stores in different cities (more than 2 stores in some), provides n number of services depending on store's location. Physical addresses for some stores are available and new stores shall be launched in future. But, the seo and website pages are needed for those locations at the moment as well. If I choose a sub folder, to give each store a URL. This is how it should look like Country level pages company.com, company.com/service1/ _ _ _ company.com/serviceN/ City level pages company.com/city1/, company.com/city1/location1/ , company.com/city1/location2/, company.com/city2/ , company.com/city3/ Q1) In case I make each service page specific to a store location for eg. company.com/city1/service1/, it will create duplicate content issue because content of company.com/city1/service1/ and company.com/service1/ shall be 60% same, except for **meta title,description and contact detail in footer. ** So, the question arises that shall i give canonical to country level main services page i.e company.com/city1/service1/ canonical to company.com/service1/ as it is very hard to make unique content for same services page. Q2) Or Do I need to rework on my complete website design and seo strategy?
Local Website Optimization | | Technians1 -
How do I fix duplicate content issues if the pages are really just localized versions?
Does this still hurt our SEO? Should we place different countries on their own respective domains (.co.uk, etc)?
Local Website Optimization | | fdmgroup0