Local Area SEO - Directions Page and Multiple Use of Direction pages
-
Hello,
We are looking to focus on multiple local areas and it has been suggested one way to mention lots of different locations on pages without doing lists or using grey SEO practices is to create directions pages.
We are trying this with a client who has 2 business at the same address.
The layout is:-
Introduction - 2-3 sentences
Directions by Car Park
Parking info
Directions by Public Transports
Closing - 3-4 sentences - using clients keywords
The hope is the having locations/areas and the clients keywords on the same page will capture some of the local areas with the clients keywords.
I have some questions:-
1. If we use the same directions text and just change the opening and closing paragraphs on the different website will this be enough to not have a duplicate content issue.
2. Are the directions pages the best way to capture keywords and local area/locations on the same page.
3. Is there anything I am missing or could do instead?
Looking forward to everyone's input....
-
I would:
1. Create separate Google+ (business) pages for both entities. You can have one personal account be a manger of both. Get authorship established and linking to the sites.
2. Create separate Google+ business places for each. Even if they are in the same building, see if they have different suite numbers, etc so that you can get both verified.
3. Schema can be added to all pages. Most likely wont make a difference. Also if one of your subpages has the local info on it, it may help them to rank for that specific service.
4. Yes, make the pages distinctive. Don't copy, paste then swap out a few words to make them different.
5. Set up Yelp, Google Places, Merchant Circle, Mojopages, YP, Thumbtack, Foursquare (requires phone and address confirmation. If you do not have a separate phone for each business, set up a cheap tracking line through Tossible Digits) Yellowbook, CityGrid, Axiom (database - will require tax id letter), Localeze, Manta, Kudzu, Facebook, etc citation profiles for each business separately.
6. Make sure all citation profiles have the listing as complete as possible, and treat them with respect. When you write the description for the businesses, treat it like you were writing the opening paragraph for the homepage. Make sure to include who, what and WHERE.That should help quite a bit with your local rankings. Local is pretty easy, as long as you know what to do
Again:
Yelp
Angies List
Google Places
Yellowbook
Superpages
Axiom
YP
Mojopages
Localeze
Kudzu
Manta
CityGrid
Foursquare
Facebook -
I have not setup Google Plus pages for the separate websites.
Nor have I for Yelp, YP, Superpages etc...
So the plan:-
1. Setup local directory pages for each site.
2. Ensure the keywords for the directions pages is different.
3. Add local business schema markup to the directions pages or site wide? - Just looked I was thinking of just marking up the address and place tags - what do you think?
-
Quick question: since they are located at the same address, do you have separate Google places listings set up for each?
"1. If we use the same directions text and just change the opening and closing paragraphs on the different website will this be enough to not have a duplicate content issue."
Possibly, but I would not recommend it. It's harder to fix an issue in place then to prevent one. Make each one unique to the keywords, location and mission statement for each business.
"2. Are the directions pages the best way to capture keywords and local area/locations on the same page."
Having content that states repeatedly (without being spammy) throughout the whole site who you are, where you are, and what you do will accomplish this. Also, add in local business schema.org markup to help specify your business' location. Its free to use. Here is an example: http://www.schema.org/LocalBusiness
"The layout is:-
Introduction - 2-3 sentences
Directions by Car Park
Parking info
Directions by Public Transports
Closing - 3-4 sentences - using clients keywords"Most of the citation sites out there (Yelp, YP, Superpages, Merchantcircle) offer ways for you to state the information above. You can add it on the site, but I would also add the information to at least 10 trusted citation sites. Google likes seeing validation on trusted platforms for local.
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
-
How to Get 1st Page Google Rankings for a Local Company?
Hi guys, I'm owning a London removal company - Mega Removals and wants to achieve 1st page rankings on Google UK for keywords like: "removals London", "removal company London", "house removals London" but have no success so far. I need professional advice on how to do it. Should I hire an SEO or should focus on content? I will be very grateful for your help.
Local Website Optimization | | nanton1 -
Does having an embedded Google Map still count as a positive SEO signal?
I know this was true a few years ago, however is there still an advantage to having an embedded map vs. a pop up map in 2017?
Local Website Optimization | | BigChad21 -
My pages are absolutely plummeting. HELP!
Hi all, Several of my pages have absolutely tanked in the past fortnight, and I've no idea why. One of them, according to Moz, has a Page Optimisation Score of 96, and it's dropped from 10th to 20th. Our DA is lower than our competitors, but still, that's a substantial drop. Sadly, this has been replicated across the site. Any suggestions? Cheers, Rhys
Local Website Optimization | | SwanseaMedicine0 -
URL and title strategy for multiple location pages in the same city
Hi, I have a customer which opens additional branches in cities where he had until now only one branch. My question is: Once we open new store pages, what is the best strategy for the local store pages in terms of URL and title?
Local Website Optimization | | OrendaLtd
So far I've seen some different strategies for URL structure:
Some use [URL]/locations/cityname-1/2/3 etc.
while others use [URL]/locations/cityname-zip code/
I've even seen [URL]/locations/street address-cityname (that's what Starbucks do) There are also different strategies for the title of the branch page.
Some use [city name] [state] [zip code] | [Company name]
Other use [Full address] | [Company name]
Or [City name] [US state] [1/2/3] | [Company name]
Or [City name] [District / Neighborhood] [Zip Code] | [Company name] What is the preferred strategy for getting the best results? On the one hand, I wish differentiate the store pages from one another and gain as much local coverage as possible; on the other hand, I wish to create consistency and establish a long term strategy, taking into consideration that many more branches will be opened in the near future.1 -
Is this local guide best to follow?
Today I found below guide, Is this best guide to follow for the website and service pages content, layout design? http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/guide-to-local-seo/
Local Website Optimization | | Michael.Leonard0 -
Can you recommend any widgets or additions for a local landing page?
Our company has locations in several different cities, and we're in the process of creating landing pages for each city that feature relevant information. We use Drupal, fwiw. In the past, we've talked about trying to include a local weather widget, a news widget, or something similar as a way to help improve our local rankings for each area. Have you used anything like that? What did you find to be effective? Can you recommend anything similar? Thanks!
Local Website Optimization | | ScottImageWorks0 -
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 -
Bing ranking a weak local branch office site of our 200-unit franchise higher than the brand page - throughout the USA!?
We have a brand with a major website at ourbrand.com. I'm using stand-ins for the actual brandname. The brand is a unique term, has 200 local offices with sites at ourbrand.com/locations/locationname, and is structured with best practices, and has a well built sitemap.xml. The link profile is diverse and solid. There are very few crawl errors and no warnings in Google Webmaster central. Each location has schema.org markup that has been checked with markup validation tools. No matter what tool you use, and how you look at it t's obvious this is the brand site. DA 51/100, PA 59/100. A rouge franchisee has broken their agreement and made their own site in a city on a different domain name, ourbrandseattle.com. The site is clearly optimized for that city, and has a weak inbound link profile. DA 18/100, PA 21/100. The link profile has low diversity and generally weak. They have no social media activity. They have not linked to ourbrand.com <- my leading theory. **The problem is that this rogue site is OUT RANKING the brand site all over the USA on Bing. **Even where it makes no sense at all. We are using whitespark.ca to check our ranking remotely in other cities and try to remove the effects of local personalization. What should we do? What have I missed?
Local Website Optimization | | scottclark0