General SEO Help
-
Hi Everyone,
**Website: **www.helppestcontrol.com
I've been working on a wordpress based website for the past few months now. This is a new website that we designed for an existing company that decided to rebrand.
The previous website had little to no traffic.. so we've basically started for scratch. I've followed SEO guides and have completed many of the basics. We started using MOZ just under a month ago and have made a ton of changes based upon those suggestions. With all of this being said, we have seen some slight improvements in traffic, but nothing truly noticeable. In fact, 90% of our traffic is coming from a Facebook PPC campaign.
I think the main struggle is that the company has such a wide operating based (a ton of very small towns and cities). We created an optimize page for each one (same content, just switched out the keywords).. in hopes of driving traffic. Is this the correct approach? Or should be optimize for general terms such as "Bed Bug Removal" versus "Bed Bug Removal Barrie"?
I was hoping that the community could take a look at the website (maybe run it through a few tests) and give me some more suggestions. I would really appreciate any feedback.
Thank you!
-
I have always included targeted keywords such as 'bed bugs barrie' and it has worked well.
-
Thank you for the suggestions. We're definitely going to make some changes.
One last question, when we write targeted landing pages with original content (for example, say it's about the city of Barire), should that landing page be optimized for generic keywords such as 'bed bugs' 'spider spraying'... or should we still include targeted keywords such as 'bed bugs barrie' 'spider spraying barrie'?
Thank you again!
-
I also agree with Dave. My company works with dozens of local businesses, and creating targeted landing pages is part of the strategy for most of them. The difference between original content and keyword swapped content is often the difference between first page rankings, and 3rd+ page rankings. Take the time to write in depth content for each of these pages. You will want it long enough to rank for your main terms, and any variations that may exist.
-
Hi Tim,
I'd suggest more of a variation in content than just swapping out keywords for location pages. And definitely pad out the main pages and posts with more content as they're a little on the short side.
Cheers,
Dave
-
Hi
Welcome to the community,
First of all it looks like you have very few links pointing to your website so this isn't going to help rankings. I would look at doing some outreach especially on some of your blog articles as this information could be very useful.
Look at other local sites that you think the content would be useful for the web site users and contact the site owner and see if they would like to use part / all of the article. If you are going to let them use all identical content - watch this whiteboard Friday on the best practices to follow: http://moz.com/blog/syndicating-content-whiteboard-friday
The next area I would look at, is the length of the product you offer. Can you not increase the words on here, maybe by putting some tips to look out for if you suspect you have bugs etc. There was a recent whiteboard friday which suggest you need to have around 1,500 words per page.
I am sorry to say, but your 'where we serve' pages look to spammy and look like they we're written purely for SEO purposes - so if I am thinking that then so will Google. All the content is identical on each page, apart from you change the town / place name.
Could you not simply have one page explaining all the services you offer and a list of the towns. (You will have to excuse me here as I don't know US places that well), but could you not group them into larger areas and reduce the number of pages and write unique content for each page, so more places on one page but geographically towns together, maybe by state etc. Also could you include Google maps on these pages - make them more interactive - this is a must watch video http://moz.com/blog/panda-optimization-whiteboard-friday
So basically I would:
- Work on getting more links
- Write longer blog articles
- Organise your areas where we work sections
Hope this is all useful for you.
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 Site Linking to Corporate Site In Main Menu - Bad for SEO?
Hi, We have 'local' websites for different countries (UK, DE, FR, AP, US etc.) and a corporate website, the local websites are going to be linking back to the corporate website in the main menu (think about us, terms and conditions kind of pages). Any local products will have their own pages on the local website but global products will be linked back to the corporate website. We will be placing an indication the user will be going to another website next to those menu links that go to the corporate website. Is there any drawback to this for SEO? Should we use nofollow in the menu structure of regional websites for these links? Thanks for your help.
Local Website Optimization | | UNIT40 -
Duplicate Content - Local SEO - 250 Locations
Hey everyone, I'm currently working with a client that has 250 locations across the United States. Each location has its own website and each website has the same 10 service pages. All with identical content (the same 500-750 words) with the exception of unique meta-data and NAP which has each respective location's name, city, state, etc. I'm unsure how duplicate content works at the local level. I understand that there is no penalty for duplicate content, rather, any negative side-effects are because search engines don't know which page to serve, if there are duplicates. So here's my question: If someone searches for my client's services in Miami, and my client only as one location in that city, does duplicate content matter? Because that location isn't competing against any of my client's other locations locally, so search engines shouldn't be confused by which page to serve, correct? Of course, in other cities, like Phoenix, where they have 5 locations, then I'm sure the duplicate content is negatively affecting all 5 locations. I really appreciate any insight! Thank you,
Local Website Optimization | | SEOJedi510 -
Local food delivery SEO strategy
Hey guys, I'm working with a new company that doesn't have a brick and mortar storefront, they deliver. They basically deliver pre packaged smoothies in a VERY localized area (Vancouver, BC). I'm wondering how grandiose their goals should be re ranking for keywords that have non localized authority. What do I mean? Lets say their marketing pillars are "health education related to smoothies" "convenient veggies for smoothies" "(insert health benefit here) for smoothies". Should they be trying to compete for these keywords? Or should they really be trying to rank with keywords especially to Vancouver? Side note: What kind of effect does Country and Locality have on keywords that are generally used by content providers and not service related companies building out an inbound strategy? Thanks in advance!
Local Website Optimization | | Anti-Alex0 -
Understand how site redesign impacts SEO
Hi everyone, I have, what I think, is kind of a specific question, but hoping you guys can help me figure out what to do. I have a client that recently changed their entire website (I started working with them after it happened, so I can't comment on what the site was like as far as content was before). I know they were using a service that I see a lot of in the service industry that aim to capitalize on local business (i.e. "leads nearby" or "nearby now") by creating pages for each targeted city and I believe collecting reviews for each city directly on the website. When they redesigned their website, they dropped that service and now all those pages that were ranking in SERPs are coming back as 404s because they are not included in the new site (I apologize if this is getting confusing!) The site that they moved to is a template site that they purchased the rights to from an already successful company in their same industry, so I do think the link structure probably changed, especially with all of the local pages that are no longer available on the site. Note: I want to use discretion in using company names, but happy to share more info in a private message if you'd like to see the sites I am talking about as I have a feeling that this is getting confusing 🙂 Has anyone had experience with something like this? I am concerned because even though I am targeting the keywords being used previously to direct content to the local pages to new existing pages, traffic to the website has dropped by nearly 60% and I know my clients are going to want answers-- and right now, I only have guesses. I am really looking forward to and so greatly appreciate any advice you might be able to share, I'm at a bit of a loss right now.
Local Website Optimization | | KaitlinNS0 -
Local SEO for National Brands
Hi all, When it comes to local SEO in 2015, I appreciate that having a physical location in the town/city you wish to rank is a major factor. However, if you're a national brand is it still possible to rank for local searches when you're based in one location? The reason I ask is that, although our service is national, the nature of what we offer means that it is not inconceivable that people would search for a local variation of our top keywords. Other than the standard things - location in the content, the H1/H2s, title tag, meta description, url etc. - is there anything national businesses can do to help? Thanks in advance. John
Local Website Optimization | | NAHL-14300 -
Should digital marketing agencies treat SEO differently when it comes to homepage content?
When I review competitor digital agency sites, they seem to have very little homepage content. But how would this be beneficial in gaining a higher SERP rank?
Local Website Optimization | | randomagency1 -
Can to many 301 redirects damage my Ecommerce Site - SEO Issue
Hello All, I have an eCommerce website doing online hire. We operate from a large number of locations (100 approx) and my 100 or so categories have individual locations pages against them example - Carpet Cleaners (category) www.mysite/hire-carpetcleaners
Local Website Optimization | | PeteC12
carpet cleaner hire Manchester www.mysite/hire-carpetcleaners/Manchester
carpet cleaner hire london
carpet cleaner hire Liverpool patio heater (category)
patio heater hire Manchester
patio heater hire London
patio heater hire Liverpool And so on..... I have unique content for some of these pages but given that my site had 40,000 odd urls, I do have a large amount of thin/duplicate content and it's financially not possible to get unique
content written for every single page for all my locations and categories. Historically, I used to rank very well for these location pages although this year, things have dropped off and recently , I was hit with the Panda 4.0 update which i understand targets thin content. Therefore what I am int he process of doing is reducing the number of locations I want to rank for and have pages for thus allowing me to achieve both a higher percentage of unique content over duplicate/thin content on the whole site and only concerntrate on a handful of locations which I can realistically get unique content written for. My questions are as follows. By reducing the number of locations, my website will currently 301 redirect these location page i have been dropping back to it's parent category.
e.g carpet cleaner hire Liverpool page - Will redirect back to the parent Carpet cleaner hire Page. Given that I have nearly 100 categories to do , this will mean site will generate thousands of 301 redirects when I reduce down to a handful of locations per category. The alternative Is that I can 404 those pages ?... What do yout think I should do ?.. Will it harm me by having so many 301's . It's essentially the same page with a location name in it redirecting back to the parent. Some of these do have unqiue content but most dont ?. My other question is - On a some of these categories with location pages, I currently rank very well for locally although there is no real traffic for these location based keywords (using keyword planner). Shall I bin them or keep them? Lastly , Once I have reduced the number of location pages , I will still have thin content until , I can get the unique content written for them. Should I remove these pages until that point of leave them as it is? It will take a few months
to get all the site with unique content. Once complete, I should be able to reduce my site down from 40,000 odd pages to say 5,000 pages Any advice would be greatly appreciated thanks
Pete0 -
URL structure for local SEO
Hi fokes, question; which url structure is best for local rankings. For example: when I want to rank on the keyword: "Plumber Londen". And I dont have plumber in my brand. What is the best url structure: example.com/plumber/londen example.com/plumber-londen
Local Website Optimization | | remkoallertz1
