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Thank you! That's where my mind is too on this- I agree on all points!

Hi everyone,

I have one client that is located about 45 minutes (25 miles) outside of a large city and I can't seem to help them rank within that large city.  They're a relatively new business in the service industry (meaning they'll travel to an individual's residence) and in the surrounding cities closer to their physical location, they rank extremely well.  In this large city, they have 3 keywords in the top 10, 2 snack pack rankings and then everything else is below 51!

I have a feeling that distance depends on many things, but I am wondering if anyone has ever figured out how far away is **too far **to be considered local by Google.  My feeling is that sure it would be nice to rank locally for this large city as it would open them up to a really large customer pool, but that maybe 45 minutes away is just not local (I know I personally don't consider that "local").

Again, I understand that ranking locally depends on a really wide range of factors, but I'm considering only distance in this question.

Thanks so much!

The domain name stayed the same, I believe.  And the pages that existed beforehand were killed-- not just content.  They come back as 404 errors.

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.

Thanks so much for your response.  I really appreciate your thoughts, and inherently agree with your viewpoint.  I just wasn't exactly sure where the lines are drawn for duplicate content.  You've given me some great thoughts and certainly some ideas of how to jump in and start fixing the problems.  I appreciate your help and that you took the time to answer.

Thanks!

Thanks very much for your thoughts.  Your comments were both what I was anticipating and sort of afraid would happen.  Since I took over these clients fairly recently, I can't help what was done in the past, but I can certainly work to better localize them and create more unique content between each client.

I really appreciate you taking your time to give your input!

Hi everyone,

I am working with a business consultant in the HVAC industry and doing SEO for 8 of his clients (all HVAC businesses from around the US and Canada).  Each website is essentially a mirror of the business consultant's website with really the same information-- it applies perfectly well to each individual website, but it IS nearly, if not, identical.  I'm getting ready to implement a blog on the original HVAC page and have been considering using the same content (customized to reflect each business-- but still the same information) for blogs for my other 8 clients.

My questions are:

1. Is the mirroring of the website a duplicate content problem? Example if you're interested: http://www.mcair.com (original) and http://www.jpsheating.ca/ (client).

2. Is using the same blog across 8 different website (customized for each client but the same basic information) a duplicate content issue?  For example-- a blog about getting your air ducts cleaned... the information is going to be the same (and relevant) with each business and each business could benefit from sharing that information with their customers.

Thanks so much for your help and explanation