Really great video, thank you!

Hi, I am looking through my site structure and I have a lot of pages left over from the days of article keywords.  Probably 7 or 8 years ago, someone sold my husband on article key word pages.  I have slowly gotten rid of a lot of them as they have fallen out out of the ranks.  I would like to get rid of the rest, probably 5 or 6 pages.  Will it hurt my rankings to delete pages and redirect them?  My customers really like the simplicity of our site and I want to keep it that way, plus clean up flags that Moz is telling me is a problem. I think its easier to keep less pages top notch than have to worry with a lot of them.  Especially since my customers aren't viewing them.

Thanks in advance!

Thank you!  I do plan to keep the internal linking the same, except the URL will change of course.  The site structure is staying the same, except the blog will be moving to the root directory instead of being in a sub directory.

Thanks for the advice on the XML sitemap!

Good to know!  Most of my searches are very specific, so I would say they are long-tail keywords.

Thank you, this is also very helpful!  I've never used Screaming Frog SEO Spider, so I will look into this!  As for scheduling, that's why I am doing this in January.  We are a tourism business, so we will peak in Feb / Mar.  I'm hoping that 4-6 weeks will be enough to bounce back if we drop any.  I do run Google PPC as well, so if it does drop, I'll have to up my PPC campaign.  How long does it usually take to settle back out?

Thank you!  That is very helpful.  I will test the 301s!  And thanks for letting me know to expect a 15% loss.  Will that come back over time?  I don't even want to lose one spot!  Haha!

I am in the process of having a wordpress site developed to replace my current HTML site. (I currently have my website in html and a blog in wordpress in a sub directory).  I am doing this in phases to try and preserve as much of my good rankings as possible.  My first phase is to replicate my site with the exact same pages, meta data, and site structure.  I'm hoping that google will see this as not much change and not change my rankings for the worse.  I also made it a goal that my site speed tests be at least equal to what they are now. We will have to 301 all of the URLs however since it will be going from /example.html to /example.  I believe my blog will also need to move into the root directory as well, so I need to 301 all of those pages.

I plan to wait a couple months for Phase 2.  Phase 2 involves replacing old content (photo galleries), and introducing new content (virtual tours, videos, new pages, etc.) One of my reasons for moving to wordpress is to keep up with current trends a little easier since I have very little time.  (I am owner, website maintainer, SEO - all on my own).

My question here is three parts.  1. Do you think this strategy will work to preserve my current rankings? 2. Do you have any lessons learned or advice to share with me to make this as smooth as possible? 3. Do I really need to wait to add new content?  I might get antsy and want to do it sooner!  

Thank you in advance!

The official address of the restaurant, store, and marina is 505 Glen Cheek Dr. However, if you plug 500 Glen Cheek Dr into a GPS or Google Maps, it takes you to about the same place. The dropped pin actually looks like it is in the water a little.  I don't think anyone else is officially using this address. Although, some of the other charters do what we do.  Eventually, they could end up changing just because they notice that we did.

I have the same feeling you do... I feel like I should wait.  Plus, if I made an address change, it would be a ton of work.  And I would never be able to truly change all of the citations.

Ugh!!!  It really is that.  I did a lot of searches and each time a different fishing charter comes up for 505 Glen Cheek Dr.  This is so aggravating.  Our marina has the most hard core competitors... actually the best fishing charters there are in the area. Plus, there is a party boat at that address and since they are so large, they can afford a good SEO. The other marinas don't have as much competitiveness, so Google really isn't showing "the best" results to their searchers.  How do we get this feedback to Google?  This is clearly a BAD idea!  There are so many businesses that share a building or strip... this really is unfair to any business that shares an address. This is our family business and how we feed our family and our captain's families. These changes really stress me out.  

Miriam,

It really looks like Google is only picking ONE person from each address to display.  This makes me wonder if I should take the painstaking task of changing my address slightly.  For instance, people can still find me if they type in 500 Glen Cheek Drive versus 505 Glen Cheek Drive.  Since we don't receive mail at the marine (our office is at home), then I only need it for driving directions.  Of course, I can only change the ones I created. There are no doubt a ton of citations that I didn't create with my address on them.  So then that might be worse because then Google will see 2 addresses. What do you think?

Thank you,

Amber

1.  Yes, my address is Cape Canaveral, but we are located at Port Canaveral.  So, that does get confusing.  And even more, there are multiple private charter boat companies, including a larger head boat, a restaurant, marina, and marina store all at the same address.

2. YES, I read the entire article!! Thank you!  I saw examples of EXACTLY what is happening to me!  Thank you for that link.

3. I did look in the console and my web master tools to see if any actions had been taken against me.  I didn't see anything.  And when I called GMB, he said my account was not suspended.  He just kept giving me the "you need to optimize your site" speech.  He kept iterating for me to refrain from editing and to only add photos and review responses.  I think Moz local edited my listing in July and I edited it after I saw the drop.

4. I don't know how to see my edit history.  But, he told me it was edited in July and again in Sept and kept telling me that was way too frequent.  Conversely, in the video he sent me, Google says to "keep your information up to date".

5. I will post in that forum and see what happens.  Good idea, thank you!

Okay... I did what you said and zoomed in and back out.  I did find myself, so that is good news. Now, I just need to figure out how to reach the top again.  I also noticed on my phone that if I click the filter at the top for "top rated" then I pop back up to the top.  I haven't seen these options before, so maybe they are new. It does seem like there is A LOT of flux going on here.

Thank you for all of your help and keeping up with me!

When I search for my business name, it shows the Google my Business knowledge panel on the right hand side.  It has my name in big letters.  Under that, it has my reviews.  Then under that it says in gray letters "Fishing Charter in Port Canaveral, Florida"

Hi Miriam,

Thank you for taking a look.  My issue is not resolved.    I used to appear in the top 3 for nearly every search term.  So for instance, on my knowledge panel, it says "Fishing Charter in Port Canaveral, Florida".  But, if I type that in a search bar, my business is not listed in any of the map results.  (But I still rank #3 on the organic search results).  I have more reviews than most everyone else.  And a 4.9 rating.  And there are business that are closed down showing.  And businesses that seem to have never claimed their listing showing.  I'm just not understanding why I am not.

I called Google My Business and they were not really any help at all.  He kept telling me that I made a recent edit and that makes popularity go down.  I told him that I dropped out of the results and had edited after the drop.  There was another unverified business listing there.  It was listed as an AdWords account.  So, we got rid of that.

Another thing... if I look at the Google Maps analytics, I am still getting views.  I'm just not sure how I am still getting views when I can't even find myself on maps using a variety of search terms.  Is there any way to see what search terms are used for maps?

My website is www.sealeveler.com and the name is Sea Leveler Sport Fishing Charters. I have been getting these recorded calls saying my business is not verified from "Google" for a long time now. I always just hung up. I know it wasn't Google because they say they don't do automated calls. But, I guess somehow there was a duplicate listing for some time now. I have no idea how it got there.

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.