How can I rank for keywords Locally?
-
For this test I am using google's "Ad Preview and Diagnostics" tool in adwords. And I took some screen shots to show you my problem. My company name is PhillyDoors, Inc. and the website is phillydoors.com
- Keyword: garage door repair.
Location: 19116, Philadelphia, PA (Location Of Office)
Ranking: 1 Locally, 1 Organically
Picture: 1
2) Keyword: garage door repair philadelphia
Location: 19116, Philadelphia, PA (Location Of Office)
Ranking: 30 Locally, 1 Organically
Picture: 2- Keyword: garage door repair.
Location: Philadelphia, PA (Location Of Office)
Ranking: 1 Locally, 1 Organically
Picture: 3
4) Keyword: garage door repair philadelphia
Location: Philadelphia, PA (Location Of Office)
Ranking: 30 Locally, 1 Organically
Picture: 4I have done some link building in the past that is helping me rank number 1 organically. I am also using moz local and my score is 86%. (pic 5)
I simply do not understand why I am ranking so well organically but my local rankings are pretty terrible. While the listing "Garage Door Repair Service" is ranking at the top of the list. I understand that it is against Google's policy to name the listing something like this when your company name and website name is completely different.
What can I do to rank better locally for more keywords and more cities rather than just a single zip code?
- Keyword: garage door repair.
-
Hey Jack!
Good questions. I want to preface my comment by stating that this is the type of issue that is typically going to require a formal audit from a Local SEO expert to properly diagnose. There are too many factors that contribute to local search rankings for someone to be able to take a look for 2 minutes and say 'voila, here's the problem.' So, I would highly recommend that you consider hiring a local search expert for some consultation to dig down properly, but in the meantime, I can take a glance at this.
What you are describing is not an uncommon issue. If I'm understanding properly, when you are searching from a Philadelphia-based device, you are ranking well in the local pack for your core term 'garage door repair', but when you add the geomodifier, you are no longer ranking well locally. Right so far?
In a city of any good size, it is totally normal for your non-geomodified local searches to bring up different results than your geo-modified ones. What I have personally noticed about this is that the former searches tend to tighten my radius to be nearer to my exact physical location at the time of search, whereas adding a city name appears to alter the radius or industry centroid. So, in other words, if I just search for pizza, Google shows me the pizza places nearest me. If I search for 'Pizza Philadelphia' Google may choose some other centroid than me, and show me pizza places downtown, near the courthouse, near a cluster of other pizza restaurants, etc.
What I look at in cases like yours is the proximity of your company's physical address to the addresses of the competitors who are outranking you in the pack. I see your address is hidden on your Google My Business page, so I'm popping over to your website and see the following address:
13440 Damar Drive Unit F2
Philadelphia, PA 19116Now, do this comparison:
-
Do your 'garage door repair philadelphia' search in Google and then click into the more results view. Look at where the high ranking businesses are located.
-
Open a second browser window, go to maps.google.com and look up your own address.
I think you will very quickly see that, sure enough, you are located way on the outskirts of the radius Google appears to be pulling results from for that geomodified search.
Again, this is my very quick glance at this, but I would suspect that geography appears to be playing a role (and not one you can influence) in this scenario. Other things to investigate?
-History of Google guideline violations, be they past or current
-Citation consistency and spread (glad you are using Moz Local!). Pay attention to duplicates we report!
-Google-based review count and rating
-Domain authority
-Link quality
So, that's a start, Jack, and I do recommend that you either dig deeper into research on this or consider hiring an expert who can take a more thorough look at numerous factors. Hope this is helpful!
P.S. BTW, in regards to your comments about spammy names, unfortunately, yes - these still often rank dreadfully well in Google. It's a shame. What you want to find out is whether these suspiciously generic names are, in fact, the legitimate business name or DBA of the competitor. If they are not, consider reporting them for a guideline violation. I've seen it work. But, if those are the real names, you are out of luck
-
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
-
Using PO Box/Virtual Address for local citations, but not GMB?
Hello. So, I am aware that it is in violation of Google My Bussiness's terms of service to use register a PO box/virtual address with GMB, but is it problematic to use such addresses for general link building with local citations, such as local directories and resource pages? Would the cons outweigh the pros (more backlinks)? And what about using one of these kinds of addresses on my website, but not GMB? Is it all so interrelated nowadays that I should steer clear of publishing a virtual address anywhere? That just seems hard to wrap my head around as PO Boxes have served a valuable function for small businesses for some 150 years. Thank you, Jon
Local Listings | | custardextract0 -
How to rank local keywords?
Hi guys, I have been enjoying here to be a part of the community. A simple question: I have some local low volume keywords and want to rank on 1 with all. I have set up pages according to the keywords such as "california plumbers" and page is /california-plumbers.html To rank these types of keywords I am doing local listing and adding these particular page instead of "home page". Am I doing right? Would classifieds and local listings are suffice to get these keywords on 1 spot of Google? What else can I do? Can you suggest me some queries to find "deep local directories or classified or other stuff whereby I can target my pages? Thank you in advance for ideas.
Local Listings | | ksmith882 -
HELP! Google Local dropped!
I noticed that my Google Local page does not show in any search results anymore. Looking at Moz Local, it appears that I had 250 views on August 30th and 0 after that. It just dropped overnight. I looked at Google My Business and I noticed that I had a duplicate listing (no idea where it came from). It wasn't verified though. I deleted that. I also noticed that my address has been changed to Drive instead Dr. I was very careful in making it the same everywhere, but it changed without me changing it. Perhaps someone so kindly "suggested an edit" and I didn't see that happen. Anyone have any ideas. My organic search ranking is still strong. #3 for most search terms. And we have a very strong Google Local reviews. I mean, it even shows business that have been permanently closed over me!!! And we have photos, great reviews, and regularly post to Google+. I seriously need some help. I am a small business owner that does all of my own SEO because I can't afford a good SEO. 😞
Local Listings | | CalicoKitty20000 -
Local search traffictwo locations
Hello, Can I ask for some advice? A client of mine is located in two cities. The first one was his original city and he has lots of traffic for various search terms and is very happy. He then expanded and has a branch in a second city. We created a unique landing page for it and a Google My Business page, built citations and it is ranking quite well (on first page for the two keywords that we targeted). But traffic is not great as city 1. His main navigation has a list of services and also a locations tab which has the two locations. The services pages are all unique and target specific keywords and I added location to the end of them - : e.g. **SERVICE KEYWORD CITY 1, CITY 2. ** A search for SERVICE KEYWORD + CITY 1 is on first page and lots of traffic. For SERVICE KEYWORD + CITY 2 it is on page 2. How would we increase the traffic to the second city? Should we create sub pages of the services he provides with the location set as city2 only (and keep the original ones only as city 1)? These would kind of duplicate the services pages we already have so we would have the problem that we might be duplicating stuff. Since SERVICE KEYWORD CITY 1 are doing really well (he's either first or second) I am loathe to change it too much but not sure how to get more keywords for city 2 without duplication the services pages. Any advice?
Local Listings | | AL123al0 -
Moz Local is saying a 800 is not okay...does it really negatively impact citations/rankings?
So I was considering using Moz Local to help improve the visibility of one of my clients who is trying to improve their local SEO (they only have one business location). When I submitted my existing client's listing there was an automated popup that read: Sorry, we're unable to update this listing right now Toll-free number detected Many of the partners to which Moz Local submits your data do not accept toll-free lines as primary phone numbers. Choosing a local phone number may also be better for rankings and increase the number of calls you get from local search customers. Is is true that having a "local phone number" can result in better rankings? Is there any articles/studies/evidence to support this? Also are there any discounts out there for first time Moz Local users?
Local Listings | | RosemaryB0 -
Local Citations Name
Hi Everyone, I am creating local citations for a company, let's call it "Gray Marketing". That is their legal business name and has been this way for about 23 years. Recently (over the past year) they have been going by the name "Gray Marketing and SEO". They had a new logo made that appears on their companies website and location. When creating local citations. The four primary aggregators (Axicom, Localeze, Infogroup, Factual) have the legal business name. My question is, should I change it to the new name or leave it as the legal business name? Side note: I am not able to change the legal business name on Axicom. Any advise would be awesome, thanks. -Michael
Local Listings | | Mike.NW0 -
Does Google local account access affect local rankings?
Is it possible that being a third party manager to a Google plus account have a negative impact in local rankings since access is coming from a different city? Example: I work in Houston but manage a client's Google account that is in New York.
Local Listings | | mgordon0 -
My Google business show up on map but does not show up on list and local search on Google.com
Hello all, how are you doing ? When I merged two pages = one page " Sassy Nails" It was lost all ranking and traffic on my google plus My Google business show up on map but does not show up on list and local search on Google.com main keyword: nail salon in Sevierville tn nail salon in Sevierville Tn pedicure in Sevierville Tn nail salon in pigeo forge Tn my website : www.sassy-nails.com http://plus.google.com/+Sassy-nails please help me that search?num=100&safe=active&site=&source=hp&q=nail+salon+in+sevierville+tn&oq=nail+salon+in+sevierville+tn&gs_l=hp.3..0j0i22i30l8j38.1387.8317.0.8645.37.30.4.3.3.0.283.3120.4j18j2.24.0.msedr...0...1c.1.61.hp..8.29.2798.0.V2EADE1ATMU
Local Listings | | sassynailservice0