Help for a complete SEO newbie!
-
Hi all,
I've just joined seomoz today to try and further my very young education on SEO.
My major problem is i need my site to rank high in local search engines but feel that none of the customers read much of the content as i am a landscaper and feel they just search "landscaping in Newcastle" and are immediatly looking for a contact number to arrange a free estimate. I dont do any online sales, its just to generate leads.
I've spent alot of time building a better site than my local competitors but they still out rank me on alot of keywords i.e. "Driveways in Gateshead"
My question is do i keep adding more and more content hoping this will work long term or do i link build with anchor text etc or both? I cannot believe they still out rank me when i feel i have more links more anchor text and a load more origional content and images. I think it may be that my site is still under 1 year old.
I feel i am boucing from content to link building then trying something else without any real knowlegde of what i really should be doing or what should be the priority at this young stage for my site.
I have managed to get on page 1 of google for most of my keywords in local searches ( obviously not national) but still feel its been more down to luck and effort than actually knowing what i am doing when it comes to site and offsite optimization
Any help, tips etc would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks
John
-
Hi John,
You've gotten some good responses from members here. I have a few suggestions to add.
- Remember that citations are extremely important in local campaigns. Citations are not necessarily links. They are simply indexed mentions of your company's name, address and phone numbers. These might included directory listings, mentions of you in local news, on blogs, review sites or what have you. If citation building is new to you, I recommend reading Miles' Anderson's list of top 50 citation sources for the UK and USA:
http://searchengineland.com/top-50-citation-sources-for-uk-us-local-businesses-104938
-
Also, I understand your concerns that your readers may not read all of your content. That's always the case, but remember that every page on your site is potential entry page to your website. Even if someone coming to a page about 'driveways in gateshead' does no more that glance at the title and look for a phone number, at least they've come to you because you've got a page that exactly matches what they were searching for. Copywriting is critical to nearly all local marketing campaigns.
-
Finally, as you mention you are new to SEO, and I'm inferring from that that you are also new to Local SEO. Is your site well-optimized for local search with strong local hooks in place? And, have you created and claimed a complete, violation-free Google Place page for the business? Be sure you are compliant with the guidelines. And don't forget about reviews. They count, too.
Hope these thoughts help!
-
As the others have said, continual link building and constant effort will continue to build your strength. Have you analyzed where your competitors are getting links from? build relationships with local businesses and ask them to link to you.
Also... Think Long-Tail Keywords
My company is primarily a window replacement business. We have the unfortunate situation of being up against major players with huge bankrolls for SEO and advertising. How to compete?
Well, instead of focusing primarily on the major keyword of "landscaping". Try to solve some other issues that may lead into larger jobs.
Examples:
Bed Weeding newcastle, Tree/Shrub Pruning newcastle, mulching newcastle, edging, lawn care, mowing, ect....
Use your blog to create some Tips & How-To's, optimize those blog entries for the long tail keywords and soon enough your blog will be the gateway into your website.
Learn how to target longl-tail keyword searches and how to analyze keyword competition to find the right niche blog posts to create.
Also, don't forget your standard offline marketing practices. As more people gravitate towards SEO it does leave open some traditional ways of getting business.
Also, I would run some PPC campaigns using a platform like unbounce or lander
Good Luck!
-
Hi, John.
How long has it been since you started optimizing your website?
Adding unique, informative content to your website, combined with link building should be enough to compete in local markets. Try to see your competitor's metrics by analyzing their URLs with OpenSiteExplorer.
Adding your company's phone number to meta description will display it in search results. You can also add your location to the Google Places platform.
Best of luck, and let us know how it goes!
-
Hello John and welcome. You came to the right place.
I would recommend building links from local places to you keywords. If you are building links for your keywords within New York City, get links within New York City to point at your site. Definitely anchor your keywords, best to use diffirent variations of the keywords it looks more natural.
There are many ways to build links, my favorite is guest blogging. But for every niche there wil be a good strategy that works. You can refer to SEOmoz blog to learn more on link building and how to.
Also you might want to do some AB testing to check if your uses like your site. AB testing can be done within googles webmaster tools.
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
-
Should I noindex shop page and blog page for SEO?
I have about 15 products in my store. Should I noindex shop and blog page for SEO? The reason I ask this question is because I see someone suggesting noindex archives pages. And the shop page is product archive and blog page is archive too, so should I choose index or noindex? Thanks!
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Helloiamgood0 -
More pages is good for SEO? Is this true?
Hi Guys I have a question, I was told the more pages I have the better for SEO, Is this true?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | edward-may0 -
Black Seo --> Attack
Hello there, Happy new year for everyone, and good luck this year. I have a real problem here, I saw in MOZ link history that somehow the "Total Linking Root Domains" is growing from a medium of 30 - 40 to 240 - 340 links and keep it growing. I guess somebody make me good joke, cause i did not buy any link :)) even cn, brasil, jp links, my store is from Romania. How I can block these links I think google will make me bad instead. What should i do? Thank you so much. With respect,
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Shanaki
Andrei 0tYg1wB.png0 -
Bad for SEO to have two very similar websites on the same server?
Is it bad for SEO to have two very similar sites on the same server? What's the best way to set this up?
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | WebServiceConsulting.com0 -
Is anyone witnessed complete or partial recovery from Penguin 2.1 yet?
Hello Everyone, I am analyzing and working on recovery of some sites that were hit by Penguin 2.1 on 4th Oct, 2013. I have done almost all fixes including Anchor Variations Social Sharing Local Links Diversity in Back-links but still not witnessed any real recovery. Is anyone witnessed Partial or Complete Recovery From Penguin 2.1? Thanks for your feedback in advance! Regards
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Asjad0 -
Have just submitted Disavow file to Google: Shall I wait until after they have removed bad links to start new content lead SEO campaign?
Hi guys, I am currently conducting some SEO work for a client. Their previous SEO company had built a lot of low quality/spam links to their site and as a result their rankings and traffic have dropped dramatically. I have analysed their current link profile, and have submitted the spammiest domains to Google via the Disavow tool. The question I had was.. Do I wait until Google removes the spam links that I have submitted, and then start the new content based SEO campaign. Or would it be okay to start the content based SEO campaign now, even though the current spam links havent been removed yet.. Look forward to your replies on this...
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | sanj50500 -
Knowledge Graph SEO Factors
I notice when I search for my clients brand name it pulls up the Google local info and Google+ stuff, knowledge graph etc, as well as a section at the bottom, 'People Also Search For' and lists a number of the clients competitors. However when I search one of the competitors no Google local or knowledge graph stuff comes up. Client obviously wants to limit promotion of the competitors. Does anyone have any experience with this? I know Google Author rank seems to play a factor in knowledge graph results? Are the competitors doing anything on their end SEO wise? What can be done to limit this? Thanks for any help! jkn0BMT.png
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | EmarketedTeam0 -
Any e-commerce users recommend an SEO company for link building?
I manage an e-commerce site. I wanted to know if anyone has worked with an SEO company for link-building that they would recommend. I DO NOT want articled directories, bookmarks, etc.. I want real link-building from credible/related sites. If you would give me an idea of the results or the general process they use I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you in advance.
White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | inhouseseo0