Question on following schema for local
-
Hello I built out a blog for a client and used Yoast Local SEO plugin for WordPress. Here is one of the pages generated for a physical location for the business. http://water-notes.generalplumbingsupply.com/?wpseo_locations=sonora-ca
My client who manages a website for the same business built out a locations page and insists that their pages rank better for local search. I think the pages are spammy.
Individual location page for the website managed by my client: http://www.generalplumbingsupply.com/American-Canyon-CA-v1.HTML
Multiple locations page: http://www.generalplumbingsupply.com/Locations.HTML
What page should we be using? Thank you for your help.
-
So glad it helped, Edward. Thanks for letting me know that!
-
Miriam,
Thank you for your response. Your no nonsense tone reflects how I feel. Thank you for the links to the Google article and moz blog post.
-
Thank you all for your great insight. I will look into everything you have mentioned and suggested. More than worth the price of admission.
-
The bottom block of text is definitely spammy and needs to be removed, but other than that I would say that http://www.generalplumbingsupply.com/American-Canyon-CA-v1.HTML is a better landing page for SEO and for user experience. It has a better layout and provides more information. The only real issue is that the content should be customized for each location instead of using the same text for all 5 locations with swapped out location names at the end. You'll want to schema the addresses, phone numbers and hours on that page was well.
I'm not sure how long that page has been up but it's not indexed at all as far as I can tell and the top page that is indexed: www.generalplumbingsupply.com/locations-sonora.html is a 404. Also there are even more duplicate content issues because this page is indexed: http://www.generalplumbingsupply.com/Kitchen-And-Bathroom-Products-In-American-Canyon-CA-v1.HTML and has exactly the same content as http://www.generalplumbingsupply.com/American-Canyon-CA-v1.HTML. It would make sure that all pages with the same content are using one url, instead of having multiple urls with the exact same content.
This is one of those times where it's frustrating to be a local SEO, because the site is actually ranking in the cities that they have fake location pages for.
Good Luck!
-
Hi Edward,
You are totally right to be concerned. This is spammy, extremely so:
http://www.generalplumbingsupply.com/American-Canyon-CA-v1.HTML
That enormous block of links to low quality pages for cities in which the business isn't physically located would almost certainly raise eyebrows with Google. The block of city names is a violation of Google's guidelines referenced on this page:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66358?hl=en
And the duplicate content from page to page is a major taboo. The presence of this duplicate content is definitely downgrading the overall quality of the website and is likely to fall afoul of Google.
From my look at the site, it appears to me that this is a brick-and-mortar plumbing store with 5 physical locations. By no stretch of the imagination is it okay to be featuring text like this:
"Kitchen And Bathroom Products In Fairfax, CA" when there is no physical location in Fairfax.
I got to this page http://www.generalplumbingsupply.com/Kitchen-And-Bathroom-Products-In-Fairfax-CA-v1.HTML from the American Canyon page. Google Maps says American Canyon and Fairfax are about 35 miles apart, so stating that the store's products are 'in' Fairfax is simply untrue. The customer is not going to appreciate what could very well come off as an attempt to mislead him, right?
I think you are absolutely right to be concerned. In your shoes, I'd be flipping out at this extremely blatant, spammy approach. I'm not quite understanding what the relationship is between you, your client and the store, but if this business came to me asking for a consultation, I'd tell them to read their SEO the riot act. The business owner needs to understand that his rankings and reputation are being put at risk by this practice. I would get rid of all of those scores of pages ASAP and take the following approach:
-
A single, unique, high quality page for each store
-
Use the blog to write about legitimate connections with any city where the business isn't physically located. For example, if the American Canyon business owner travels to Fairfax to hold a seminar on green plumbing practices, go ahead and write it up. The operative word here is 'legit'.
I think this article will really help everyone involved in the project to correctly identify what this business model is and how to promote it in a user-friendly, safe manner:
http://moz.com/blog/local-landing-pages-guide
If there's some nuance I've overlooked in this situation, please don't hesitate to provide further details, and I sincerely hope my no-nonsense reply on this one may save the business owner from a massive headache!
-
-
Thank you for your hello I will watch the videos. My question is also what my client has done at the bottom of his page with all the links to different pages to towns around a store location. Is this spammy. They claim it works well for them. I'm curious.
I can add hours and additional information from the Yoast plugin. But you are also saying the Yoast page need more overall content like:
WWith friendly, knowledgeable product experts, and the latest selection of kitchen and bath products, General Plumbing Supply will help make your dream home a reality. All our store locations include kitchen and bath showrooms open to the public as well as complete contractor sales. Our Walnut Creek store also features a destination showroom. At General Plumbing Supply, you'll find a large selection of kitchen and bath products and one of the largest inventories in the SF Bay Area. Visit us today and let our dedicated professionals help guide you to products that fit the scope of your job and budget. When you are looking for quality kitchen & bath products and personal service, General Plumbing Supply is the place to shop in and around American Canyon, CA.
Thank you for your help
-
Well if I understand who did what in your example, your page is missing quite a bit of information that the other client did place on site. Yoast's local plugin is designed to fill in the schema gaps between what your client did and what you have started to do. I think that may be where the difference in opinion is coming in.
Here's some videos on the basics that should go on the location pages that you're trying to setup: http://moz.com/academy/local-content
I would also recommend that you visit Mike's blog: http://blumenthals.com/blog/
Essentially you need to apply schema to what your client set up there. Perhaps also a bit more original content on each page, but you get the idea. Don't forget to place hours of operation, address info, etc. on each location page. It might also be a good idea to put the location info in the footer with the proper schema markup in place. Yoasts plugin just helps you do this a little easier than with coding it yourself.
I would think working on the page that ranks currently would be better than starting over, but I suppose that all depends on budget, competition, etc.
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
-
Unusual Google+ Local listing ranking well
If you search for locksmith Phoenix, this Google+ page is ranked #3 in the local results: https://plus.google.com/117543374216451236579/about?hl=en The phone number is a VOIP number, they don't appear to have many/any citations, no reviews, etc. They've listed the Yelp search results page as their website. Strange. How are they ranking so well? Is Google ranking them well because it's associating them with Yelp.com? Any thoughts?
Image & Video Optimization | | AdamThompson2 -
Once you start fixing Local citations with correct NAP, is it normal for your rankings to plunge at first?
I strongly believe that I have received the most solid Local advice I could from these forums and have started (in just a few days) to make the needed corrections. At the same time I'm somewhat excited and optimistic that it will be a long journey but that it's a learning process. About 5 days ago, I set my website up with "City landing pages" and I started plundering through google, fixing and claiming and correcting as many citations as I could with correct NAP. The journey still continues today as I just got my Bing Local card in the mail and verified. I went to check my rankings on Google Maps, just to see if anything had changed and sure enough it had. My listing had been holding strong at page 10 (which drives me nuts) and now after 5 days of solid work its on page 18. I have to assume that because I'm stirring the dust perhaps Google is confused and maybe in a month or so things might start moving the other way? Thoughts?
Image & Video Optimization | | jonnyholt0 -
Google + local Multiple Locations
My client has three offices and I have created three separate Google + local listings for them - I have listed the specific locations page as the website address for each - Google specifies to add the coding to the homepage to link Google + however what do we do with the three different codes - does each one go on the home page or at the bottom of the specific landing page for that particular office?
Image & Video Optimization | | AllieMc0 -
A lot of local SEO questions from a newbie...
I've been doing basic SEO for customers for quite awhile now in terms of on-page stuff, but am starting to move into the arena of local SEO services and had a few questions that I hoped you guys could help with. 1. What services besides Google+ Local do you list customers websites in, such as Yahoo or Bing Local? 2. When creating accounts at the services listed question #1, do you have to verify the phone number that's listed with the business owner or is there any extra type of verification needed? How do you deal with getting all that verified for the company? 3. Do you create all these listings at Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. from the same account? 4. Does anyone know of a list of the top 50 places to get local citations such as Yelp or YellowPages? 5. When creating citations do you normally have to verify the phone number or address that you list and how do you deal with that with business owners? 6. Do you use the same accounts to create all the local citations or are different ones required for each listing? 7. What companies would you recommend that handle all the above for you, such as a setting up accounts at Google, Yahoo, and Bing - and then also creating around 50 citations for you? Of course all the login information would also need to be provided for everything they create. Thanks for taking the time to read this post, I look forward to hearing back from all of you!
Image & Video Optimization | | ChaseCameron0 -
Local SEO Agency Recomendations
Hi Mozzers, I'm looking for recommendations for well known, reputable agencies, who have a strong background in Local SEO. I have a US based client I want to refer.
Image & Video Optimization | | PerchDigital0 -
Google+ Local/Places isn't displaying my suite #. Should I leave it out of NAP on other directories, too?
HI All, For some reason Google is not displaying the suite # for a client of mine in Google+ / Places. I've entered the suite # in the back-end of Google+ / Places and it shows there when I log in, but the public version of the listing omits it. So the question is, should the NAP in other directories omit it as well? Google knows it exists, but is choosing not to publish it... Thanks! Zack
Image & Video Optimization | | HammerandHand0 -
Consolidating mulitple Google+ Local pages with one Google+ Page
Hello All, I have trawled the internet, but can seem to find the answer to this question: "How will Google integrate multiple Google+ Local pages with one Google+ Page?" A bit of background to this. I work for a company that started online, but has since moved into retail stores. We currently have 14 stores around the UK. Now each of these stores has a Google+ Local page which were automatically converted over from the old style Google Places pages. I have read that these pages should be integrated with our regular Google+ account. All of the examples I have read about seem to relate to offline businesses that have moved into online, rather than online business that have moved into physical retails stores. And these examples are just one store, one Googe+ Local listing & one Google+ business page. That seems simple enough... but what about multiple locations?! Do I just need to sit on my hands and see what happens? Or are there things I can be doing now? Cheers for any help! Rich
Image & Video Optimization | | JBGlobalSEO0 -
Tips for local link building?
Hello Mozzers, Working on a site that has locations around the country and is targeting words like "city name+long tail keyword". They're fairly well optimized on-site, so we're working on recommending localized content but could use some advice for link building. Beyond Google places, what have you guys seen that works?
Image & Video Optimization | | RiseSEO0