[local seo] How to compete against e.g. yellowpages on Google Rank 1 - 4?
-
Hi Folks,
How to compete against the big SEO-powered pages like Yellowpages in the SERPs?
I mean, they have thousands of Rd -> Rd Links as well as super Page and Domain Authority.
How has a let's say Dentist or Electrician a decent chance to compete against those? Does Google give credit to them because of the Content they have on their page?
These yellowpages totally take the fun out of it for my clients.
Answeres would really much appreciated. Thank you.
For me it feels like Don Quijote.
-
So how did it go? I'm fighting these battles a lot now. For a lot of my smaller clients the SERP is filled almost entirely with Yellowpages, Superpages, Yelp, {insert random directory}
I have managed to make decent progress for one of the tougher local subjects "bail bonding". We're now doing quite well and have #1 spots for most of our targeted words. It was easier than expected. A couple good links was all it took.
-
Thank you for your kind and encouraging answeres.
I will go that way and see how long it takes.
Awesome Forum!
-
Do not fear these websites if you compete in a local niche.
First get your site into Google Places for business... read some of their success stories such as the one about Lil' Piddlers
http://www.google.com/placesforbusiness/success_lilpiddlers.html
That will get you on the places map. Here is an example.
Then broadcast to google that you are located in YourTown, FL by placing your address in the footer of your site and mentioning your physical address and local phone number generously where it fits into your site.
Then seek links from websites that are located in your community such as your landlord, chamber of commerce, community directories, business associations, tourism groups, local bloggers, local directory sites, newspaper, your Mom's blog, charities where you donate, clubs where you are a member.
Then seek links from websites in your industry such as dental associations, your dental school, professional associations, dental directories.
Now you have local link assets and industry assets that are out of reach for YellowPages and these other database sites. These should give you strength in the "yourindustry yourcity" organic SERPs.
-
Sure, you can compete. Do Google Places listings show in the results for these local search queries?
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
-
Image results Bing vs Google
I have a website with a number of images and I have optimized all of the images on both a file name and ALT text level, relevant to content on the page they are published on. I haven't created a separate image sitemap, but the strange thing is that Google has all of my images indexed and they can be found for the right keywords, but when I look in BING! images, there is no image indexed available at all ...
Image & Video Optimization | | ConclusionDigital0 -
Changing / editing street view picture of premiss without drop in Google places ranking
Ive finally got a site quite high in the relevant Google places listings, after a year or so of trying. What ive noticed is that the auto generated street view image of the business is showing a row of garages round the back of the building, rather than the building entrance. Is there a way i can update the auto generated street view images of the business without risking the google places ranking / need to submit a move of address. Has any one had any experience with doing this in the past ?
Image & Video Optimization | | Sam-P0 -
Localized SEO for Restricted Niches
Sorry for the hypothetical, it's a sticky subject! Suppose I work for a company that offers Online Widget Counseling. Due to the fragile nature of Widgets, this service is only legal in one state and must be administered by a registered and regulated Widget Counseling company. Widget counseling is only available online so there is no competition from bricks and mortar stores. Unfortunately the SERPs are dominated by unscrupulous black market outfits offering Widget Counseling illegally. If we were to use intensive and strong local signals, could we expect the SERPs to favor our pages for searches "in or about" the state in which we are registered? Thanks for your help -SEO Newbie
Image & Video Optimization | | bbarber570 -
Does google places mind listing cities on the home page
Hello, A site in our industry is listing a bunch of cities on their home page and ranking for them. Like "Our dog training facility provides services to dogs in city1,city2,city3,city4,city5,city6 state" where the cities and states are relatively in their area. It's working organically, will this confuse google places? Thanks!
Image & Video Optimization | | BobGW0 -
Image Duplicates - Does Google Penalize on this?
Hi Mozzers, I have some doubts on the images hosted on my site. I have a single image on the website coming from 3 different locations. The locations are: img.mydomain.com/site/default/serivces.jpg img1.mydomain.com/site/default/serivces.jpg www.mydomain.com/site/default/serivces.jpg Now, these 3 are the same images with the same Title (they currently do not have an Alt Tag). Now, the 2 sub-domains when opened without any internal URL, redirects to the main domain. For instance, if I access img.mydomain.com it 301 redirects to www.mydomain.com but if I access img.mydomain.com/site/default/serivces.jpg I will get the image and it does not redirect. I have checked Google Image search and the full path on the sub-domain of the image is being indexed and crawled by Google Image bot. Now, this is true for both the sub-domains which act as CDN for the images. If Google does crawl all the locations which have the same image, does it cause a duplicate issue for it? I know that if it was content, I would be in trouble but does image also has the same implications. I am planning for image optimization and faced with this situation. Any answers? Cheers,
Image & Video Optimization | | RanjeetP0 -
Local listing | Virtual office
Hi Miriam (and all Local SEO mozers), I read a couple of your answers where you advice people in different situations not to consider a virtual office when creating their Google Places listing and I would like to know if you would apply the same advice in my case. This is the scenario: I have a client who's in the limousine service in Orlando, he just bought the URL and registered the business with the City using a "virtual office" in Orlando. This virtual office provides him a physical address, local area phone number, 411 listing, a listing for the businesses in that building and an office to have his meetings. This is the part where it gets confusing when I read your answers and I will give you an example. You said here:
Image & Video Optimization | | echo1
_The requirements in order to qualify for a Google Place Page are that you have: __1. A legal business name__2. A local area code phone number__3. A physical street address (not a P.O. box or virtual office) to which customers either come to do business with you or from which your employees depart in order to serve customers at their locations (think chimney sweep, landscaper, etc.)_Number 3 says "A physical street address (not a P.O. box or virtual office) to which customers either come to do business with you".
My client is going to rent one of those virtual offices, which does have a physical address, on as-needed basis. This office actually does exist. Why would Google have anything against it?
One of the reasons why he chose that location is because he is running the business from home and he does not want the clients to see it.
Another reason is the image he wants to create for his company by having a different address where he can hold meetings and such. The phone number will be either a local land-line or a local cell phone number, in any case, it will be a _local area code phone number. _
So this is where we stand: he dispatches the cars from home (he does not have a garage, the cars stay with the drivers 24 hours) but he meets his clients and business partners at the other address. There is nothing fake about it, he does have a legal business name, a local area code number and a real place where customers come to do business with. Which address should I use for his Google Places listing?0 -
Google Maps/Places in Organic SERP
This question is regarding having a Google Places snippet consisting of your business location and opening hours appearing in Google SERP when the business name is searched for. One of our competitors who has a location within their name e.g. 'Widgets of Oxford' have a Google Places snippet appear on the RHS of the search results (where Google Ads usually go) when searched for. We are trying to replicate this for our business but cannot seem to find any information relating to doing this apart from that this only appears for them as they have a location in their name. This is because we see a similar snippet when we search for our business name in the format "OurBusinessName in OurLocation). Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated.
Image & Video Optimization | | jannkuzel0 -
Google Shopping in SERPS - What % of clicks do they get?
Howdy, Looking for any data we can get on the % of click through the shopping results are getting in Google SERPs. There are tons of variables: how many products & which position the shopping feeds and images are shown in but any hard data would be helpful. The background is that we have a client who ranks #1 in Google for a shopping related term and their organic traffic is down in 2011 for this main keyword which has ranked #1 all year since the shopping feeds are continually showing above or below the 1st Google position vs sporadic or no display in years prior. I.e. They aren't happy the traffic is down & we are looking for some data we can provide them with beyond, "Google shopping is now eating part of your organic traffic for that term". Many thanks in advance!!
Image & Video Optimization | | WebpageFX0