Why is my local page is ranking better than yellow pages for that particular search?
-
My search query is "façadier bastogne" in google.be which in English would translate as "plasterer" and bastogne being the local city I am targeting. I can't seem to understand why my site peintre-plafonneur-facadier-bastogne.be/fr would rank higher than our local directory "Pages d'or" (Yellow Pages) which has a high DA and almost always ranks first for similar searches as "peintre bastogne" (painter)?
Not to mention my site was created by Pages d'Or. How did they manage to rank this so high whereas if you look at it you'll see that they have not made any SEO work on it whatsoever.
Could anyone help me understand this or tell me which way to look in order to get that information?
I really need this as I am paying a lot to this directory for my site and was planning to launch my own WordPress website.
-
Yes, I sure will
Thank you for caring.
Regards,
Thomas
-
Hi Thoma
Just make sure you use that Key phrase on your page: façadier bastogne
I'm sure you do - but check,
Thank & Regards
Nigel
-
Thank you again!
I'll follow your advice. I sure did not want to continue paying for the poor service they offer, the only problem I found was this "façadier bastogne" keyword which they somehow managed to rank high. I'll keep working on my new website and let go off theirs.
Your answers were very helpful and comprehensive.
I wish you a good day.
Thomas
-
If that was me I would not be paying anyone 8000 Euro for a listing - that seems very excessive. There must be other directories where you can list and achieve the same result. So with the new information, I would:
Strengthen the content on my page - if you are learning about SEO then you will know that you must optimize the meta tags and written content which must be minimum 300 words but in your case, I would say 1000+.
I would add images of the town centre with Alt tags saying the name of the town. I would have text and images talking about plastering with images and Alts describing the process.
I would then list the page on a number of other local directories - do not pay! Unfortunately, Whitespark does not cover France (https://whitespark.ca/best-citations-by-city/) but have a look you must have similar directories! Get listed on them and do not pay. Do not forget Google My Business (GMB) Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Pinterest, Flikr, Instagram - get your NAPS (Name Address Phone and Site address) Listed in about 20 White Hat - free directories & Socials - don't list in bad directories or those you have to pay for.
When you have done all of this - it may take a month - dump the paid Yell. Don't do it before.
Then you will be number 1 for sure and for free.
Regards
NIgel
-
Thank you!
You've been really helpful indeed. I know it's very risky to remove our website out of the listing, but the thing is we currently pay a 8,000 euros a year just for being in their listings and they're supposed to do SEO, write articles but you cannot see one article on it.
I've recently started a carrer in SEO and created this wordpress website facadesetpeintures.be. Don't you think I could do better and maybe regain that #1 position by creating valuable content.
And when you look at the search results of "facadier bastogne", you have like 4 adwords results, the local results and only then the website yell made for us.
In this case, even in the first position I would think that we lose a lot of click-through rate opportunities being so low under Adwords and Google my Business.
Plus we summed up the number of client emails coming from Yell in 2016. The number adds up to 8 and we did not even get the contract for all the clients.
At this point, I was thinking of optimizing my wordpress website and making my own Adwords campaigns.
What would you be your recommendation now that I have told you more about our website?
-
Hi Thomas
I would be very proud of myself that I am number 1 for that term to be honest.
Simply that Google serves the most relevant result from what is listed in the search results. Clearly, for this term, your website is more relevant for the term façadier bastogne than the Yell equivalent beneath you.
Don't forget this, you are a plasterer based in Bastogne whilst Yell is a listings directory. Forget the DA this has little to do with that. It is because your website is more relevant and more useful for the searcher. A directory will just list professions and locations so their results are more diluted - you are a plasterer and you are in Bastogne, great result!
Don't forget also that your site is receiving some benefit from the Yell site because of the link from them to you - this is a 'follow' link which of course passes some link juice to you as a very relevant back link so their listing is helping you be number 1.
I would think very carefully about dropping your listing from them as you might just see someone else jump over you for that coveted top spot.
I hope that helps.
Regards
Nigel
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
-
Google My Business pages for New Construction Communities
I have a number of builders of new homes as clients. Typically, they build out a whole neighborhood at once and give the neighborhood a fancy name. We were planning to create Google My Business pages for these communities but then ran into some potential challenges. As new communities, they are sometimes not on Google's radar yet Some of them have model homes where you might take a tour with a realtor that serves the community exclusively but many don't. So here come the questions... Is there a way to make Google speed up its process of recognizing new addresses? I have to choose an address to associate with the GMB page, probably the address of model home. Is this going to create annoying problems for a buyer who someday buys that model home? Since some communities don't have a model home, I could arbitrarily assign an address of one of the neighborhood homes to the GMB page, but this leads to the same question about creating a GMB page that will exist after the builder has sold all the houses in the community. Will it be weird to have the GMB referring to someone's private residence down the road? My assumption is that claiming a GMB page would help with local ranking if someone searches for something like "new homes" in addition to providing easy driving directions to someone who has done a bit of research and Googles the name of the new home community while out driving and searching for homes. These seem to be the main benefits, but are the challenges associated with questions 1-3 even worth the trouble of trying to claim listings for these communities?
Local Listings | | TheKatzMeow0 -
How do I measure the results of my local spam crackdown?
I've recently been cracking down on some spammy listings. How do I measure the success? Can I only do so with a third party tool like Moz? Thanks!
Local Listings | | DigitalMarketingSEO1 -
(Australian Business) Ranks 7th Brisbane, but ranks 3rd in Sydney and Melbourne. Why is Brisbane ranking worse, how to fix?
Years ago the rank would be the same across Australia. If we ranked 3rd in one city, it would be the same in every other city. Right now, we are ranking 3rd in Sydney and Melbourne, however we ranking a low 7th in Brisbane for keyword "Trampolines". Why is this? How can we fix it in Brisbane. Interestingly, we are a Brisbane based business. The keyword is "Trampolines" and the website is http://www.vulyplay.com
Local Listings | | Vuly0 -
Is there is any benefit to linking to the Google page from RFQ contact page?
I have a Request for Quote contact page is there any benefit to linking from the Google + page? or the other way?
Local Listings | | ScottImageWorks0 -
Location pages for Two location business
Hi friends, I have a website with two brick and mortar locations. Right now I have both NAP's listed on every page on the sidebar and footer. I don't have either in schema format yet, as I don't know if I can have two schema's on the same page. 1. In the near future, I will be publishing pages for each individual location, but I want to keep the NAP of the other location on that page also, in case the visitor would prefer that location (they are only a few towns away from each other) Is that going to cause issues? Should I only have the NAP of that location? Which should I have schema data for? 2. Also, I have location pages for the surrounding cities, which we have added a Google Map with directions to the closest location, written directions, a few local reviews, and a paragraph about services. I want to publish these asap to rank in those ~10 other nearby locations. What NAP should I have on those pages? The closest location, or both? 3. Linking in the Google Local/My Business. I have verified both locations Google Local's, and I want to link them into the respective Two locations once published, but I want to do it properly. I read on one location seo article that I should change the website listed on the Google Local profile to the new url of that location, and link to the Google Local on that page. Is this correct? Which Google profile do I link to in the other location pages? or both?
Local Listings | | JustinMurray0 -
Higher Value: Google Local Listing or .edu link?
A client of mine is putting together a partnership with a local university to offer a certain type of medical test through several of its clinics. They are writing up the contract now and asked me if there is anything they should ask for that would benefit us in our listings. Since we do not have an actual local footprint, my first inclination was to ask for them to help us get verified as owners of "practitioner" local listings at their business addresses (as discussed here). We would provide local numbers that would ring our call center. My thinking is that these listings and backlinks would benefit on searches similar to "medical testing in San Antonio". I have a number of concerns with this track but would love to hear from the community on why or why not this might be the way to go. Another potential option is to ask for a link from the university's website outlining the partnership. Something along the lines of "Our labs have partnered with BIZNAME to provide medical testing in San Antonio to our valued patients." I'd obviously love the EDU links, but I'm hesitant after Overstock's penalty a few years ago to try to set something like that up. I'm not sure which (if either) to ask for in the contract. I'm leaning toward the latter since it seems more in line with a long term strategy, and Google seems to change their treatment of the local listings pretty frequently. However, getting that high visibility real estate in the local listings is really appealing to me. What does everyone think?
Local Listings | | Andrew_Mac0 -
Brand term for local showing wrong knowledge graph
It was discovered that when you search our brand and our city "alaska airlines seattle" that the brand knowledge graph shows a building at the University of Washington that is named after us as part of a sponsorship deal. This seems logical that it would do that since the building is branded Alaska Airlines and it is in Seattle. The problem is information listed would confuse customers that call the number posted and instead of our customer service they are getting the University. I admit I am not too familiar with local SEO so any help is greatly appreciated. r6GlDj9 wMZQnRB
Local Listings | | Shawn_Huber0 -
Has anyone ever used a specific page (instead of home page) when building links in directories?
Instead of the home page, have you ever done (domain)/page-1 for the URL in directories? I figured this would be a good way to build some page authority up for deeper pages for small businesses that can't seem to garner any attention with content / links. BTW, these directories are not considered spam directories. Thanks, Cole
Local Listings | | ColeLusby0