Domain Forwarding and Rankings

[CRMI]

I recently purchased two custom domains (www.greenvillencshredding.com and www.shreddinggreenvillenc.com) that are being forwarded to a page on my site (http://www.crmi-online.com/shredding-greenville-nc.html).  The purpose for this is because I am trying everything I know to get my rankings above my competitor for shredding services in our market of Greenville,NC.  I thought that purchasing a custom domain might help but I have not seen any results and they are ranking in the bottom 50's.  Any suggestions to help get my rankings up for my service/area?

Thanks a bunch!

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Melissa!

A few thoughts on this:

1. I understand that the owner wants to rank as highly as possible - of course. Nevertheless, in order for him to be keeping current with the way search works, he needs to understand that there are no universal #1 rankings. Due to personalization and the user-as-centroid phenomenon, what the owner sees on his cell phone is not going to identically match what his customers see on theirs. Rather than obsessing over rankings, the owner would be strengthening his business by focusing on conversions. Are the pages being created by this business causing phones to ring? If yes, conversions are high. If no, conversions are not what they could be. We've already identified that the page you've shared here is weak. Rather than focusing too much on rankings, the owner needs to start at the beginning by focusing on quality. If he can't invest in this or wait for a careful effort to pay off, he should simply invest directly in PPC.

2. There are 2 ways to approach a multi-service, multi-location business:

A: You have a page for each service and a page for each location. You do not develop a page for every possible combination of services/cities. This is the best approach when funding, creativity or commitment to quality may be in question.

B: You do create a page for every possible combination of the cities and services. So, you have a shredding page for city A and a shredding page for city B. You have a page for data management for City A and another for the same term for city B. While this approach is possible, it should really only be undertaken where there is sufficient commitment to quality and sufficient funding, otherwise you'll end up weakening the site with thin/duplicate pages instead of strengthening it.

Whichever approach is taken, you should always link obviously to all pages. Don't hide them. If they are pages for the public, they belong in a high level menu.

3. Right now, it seems like the business is experimenting with option B, but not doing a really great job at it. So, the business is at a critical point here and needs to decide whether they can continue with option B in a way that adds value and strengthens the site and is fully public, or, if they actually would be better off going with option A.

The website is only 1 aspect of rankings, but it's an extremely important one, and a key factor in conversions. Hope this helps

[CRMI]

1. This is not a strong page and something is odd with the formatting of it. I see a very large amount of white space on the page before the text starts. Text is thin.

This is weird, when I lookup the page in my browser (google chrome) it looks ok, when I go to Firefox, i totally see what you are talking about.  It does seem to vary however based on the zoom selection.  This is likely an issue with a custom template that was built for us in Weebly by a third party.  Wish I had the time to dedicate to rebuilding the site but for now I am trying to clean up the site the best I can based on previous SEO work and lack of updating.

2. I am unable to find this page http://www.crmi-online.com/shredding-greenville-nc.html in your navigation menu. Where is it? I was only able to find it by clicking the link you shared in your post.

This is hidden in the navigation since we already have a main page for the service (http://www.crmi-online.com/secure-destruction.html) and I didn't want to confuse visitors.  My hope was that by creating the page (http://www.crmi-online.com/shredding-greenville-nc.html) specific to the keyword "shredding, shredding services, etc" in Greenville, NC that we would get better rankings in comparison to our competitor.

3. As Logan has mentioned, going with a multi-domain approach is not likely to be a good idea. I am a bit confused by the number of businesses you have. In your footer, I see:

These are all the same business we just operate two separate locations.  They are merely there to to provide contact details and locations.  Would it be better to have those listed under the contacts tab and place something else there?

5. Is your core search term 'shredding greenville nc'? If so, I am seeing your company ranking #2 in the 3 pack for this. I also see you ranking #2 for 'shredding service greenville nc'. Are you seeing something different?

The keywords would be both (shredding greenville nc, shredding services greenville, greenville nc shredding)  since they are very similar.   I show us third in all search terms based on a google search.  My boss is obsessed with ranking higher than our competitor here so I am trying everything I know to do in order to rank us ahead of the current number one.

Search Term  " shredding greenville nc"

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[MiriamEllis]

Hi Melissa!

This is likely one of those scenarios in which you'll need to work with a Local SEO company to get a full audit and competitive analysis. A quick look at this can yield some information, but may not dig deep enough. Here's what I see at a glance:

1. This is not a strong page and something is odd with the formatting of it. I see a very large amount of white space on the page before the text starts. Text is thin.

2. I am unable to find this page http://www.crmi-online.com/shredding-greenville-nc.html in your navigation menu. Where is it? I was only able to find it by clicking the link you shared in your post.

3. As Logan has mentioned, going with a multi-domain approach is not likely to be a good idea. I am a bit confused by the number of businesses you have. In your footer, I see:

Corporate Office & Sales in New Bern

Record & Data Center in Greenville

I am assuming that these are both offices of CRMI, but the way you have these listed almost makes that look like 2 different businesses with those names, meaning you could be sending a confusing NAP signal to bots.

Are these both forward-facing offices of CRMI that the public comes to? Do both offices offer the same or totally different services?

4. If both are forward facing offices, then you should have a unique landing page for each on the site and link their Google My Business listings and their citations to those landing pages. Do not use forwarding URLs in citations.

5. Is your core search term 'shredding greenville nc'? If so, I am seeing your company ranking #2 in the 3 pack for this. I also see you ranking #2 for 'shredding service greenville nc'. Are you seeing something different?

So, that's just a really quick glance with more questions, maybe, than answers. Please, feel free to provide further details. You've started a good thread

Corporate Office & Sales
507 Pollock Street  Suite 4
PO Box 280
New Bern, NC 28563

Corporate Office & Sales
507 Pollock Street  Suite 4
PO Box 280
New Bern, NC 28563

Corporate Office & Sales
507 Pollock Street  Suite 4
PO Box 280
New Bern, NC 28563

[LoganRay]

Hi Melissa,

You actually won't see any benefit simply from having keyword rich domains redirecting to your site. This is a tactic that people used to do in the early days of SEO, and Google has since flagged this as a spam tactic and their algorithm accounts for it now.

For improving your rankings, there are literally hundreds of levers your can pull. Since you're running local SEO, I highly recommend spending time reading everything you can on the topic. A good starting place is the Moz Local Learning Center.