Top of Google Places but not Organic
-
Hi There,
My website www.drivingbrighton.co.uk is number 1 for Google places for my area, however I'm not on page 1 of google organically. Is it possible to do this, or does Google not let you have a places and organic links?
Any opinions welcome!
Ant
-
Hi Antony,
I haven't seen a heatmap study or clickthru-type report covering this specifically. However, my gut feelings is that you are better off being #1 with places attached as the listing is so large and visible. I think you have cause to jump for joy with that top local ranking. I bet you are getting the lion's share of interest on that page of results.
Sorry I don't have anything to quote you. It's possible someone has done a heatmap study and that might be something you could research.
-
Thanks Miriam,
Much appreciated.... Heres one more quesiton then. Is there any eveidence on whether it is better to be top of Organic search or like myself top of places?
-
Hi Antony,
Marcus has given an excellent response. Yes, the organic and local algos are separate. Looking at the results for 'driving lessons brighton' from California, I am seeing a mix of pure organic results and blended results. It is technically possible to get more than 1 spot in the SERPs. You can have an organic result as well as a local result, but as you've guessed, the factors for doing so mean engaging in a strong traditional SEO campaign as well as what you are doing with Local SEO, or, having very little competition. It looks to me like you've got lots of local competitors, but if you can out-do them, there is some chance of seeing an organic result for your business in addition to the local one. I do note, though, that Google is not giving this special treatment to any of your competitors (at least not in the results I'm seeing). Each one either has an organic results or a blended places result, and this may be due to there being so many businesses competing for this term. Google has a lot to choose from.
Still, if you can utterly out-do some of them, there is a chance.
Good luck!
Miriam
-
Thanks Marcus,
Really good reply. Yer im just link building at the moment. Finding a good quality directory is the challenge! Feel free to send me a message if you know of any!
So when you say "but the page of results blends content from local and organic (and other areas)". So if im number one for google places then i might not appear on the other positions on that page?
I'm writing articles, blogs etc to try to improve the content. Yep im getting traffic from places and getting business from it. But not 100% sure how much as analytics doesnt tell me this (but i saw an article on here about this so hopefully will have a look at this over the next couple of days).
-
Hey Anthony
The local and organic results are a separate entity but the page of results blends content from local and organic (and other areas).
' I am guessing your targeted search term is 'driving lessons brighton' and there is no reason why you could not get a well placed organic listing to complement the local listing given that you did a little content development and some gentle link building. The competition for these terms is pretty weak so really, a little content, some good quality directories, maybe some guest posting if you can get your content out there. You could even offer a discounted first X lessons to people who +1 you which should give you more visibility for those users if they search again.
I would also look at the paid search listings as a way of getting a little more page coverage if you feel that is needed. The PPC can be turned off when you have a full schedule and kicked back into action when you need to fill a few more slots.
Out of interest, is this local listing driving traffic to the site? Is the traffic converting? If so, at what kind of rates? I am not sure how much business you need but a broader keyword strategy, some PPC and some very gentle content driven SEO should keep you busy.
Hope it helps and fire away with any questions.
Marcus
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
-
Googles Search Intent – Plural & Singular KW’s
This is more of a ‘gripe’ than a question, but I would love to hear people’s views. Typically, when you search for a product using the singular and plural versions of the keyword Google delivers different SERPs. As an example, ‘leather handbag’ and ‘leather handbags’ return different results, but surely the search intent is exactly the same? You’d have thought Google was now clever enough to work this out. We tend to optimise our webpages for both the plural and singular variations of the KW’s, but see a mixed bag of results when analysing rankings. Is Google trying to force us to create a unique webpage for the singular version, and another unique webpage for the plural version? This would confuse the visitor, and make no sense.. the search intent is the same! How do you combat this problem? Many thanks in advance. Lee.
Algorithm Updates | | Webpresence0 -
Google Panda July 2016
Hi Does anyone know what impact the recent slow Panda roll out may have? Obviously content, but would it perhaps include engagement/user behaviour factors regarding your on page content too? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | BeckyKey0 -
Desk top rankings differ from mobile rankings
Hi there! We are working on clients site for SEO. We have noticed that our clients 'desk top search results' on Google differ from the 'mobile / tablet search results'. For the desktop - the client is in the top 4 results of page one for Google, but for mobile / tablet results they are at the bottom of page one. We converted the clients site to be responsive 6 months ago. We have been through Google webmaster tools and made all suggested alterations. All programming is to a high standard. Competitors all seem to keep their current rankings - whilst our clients seem to drop. Any suggestions what the issue is would be very much appreciated 🙂 Thanks in advance. Phil. . We re-built their website so that it was responsive. We have been But -
Algorithm Updates | | Globalgraphics1 -
Where can I find a breakdown of google search volume by specific industry/vertical? For example, what % of people searching in google are looking for housing? Cars? Restaurants?
I"m looking for specific breakdowns of search volume in google by: #1 Vertical (Shopping/restaurants/Services etc). For example, how many people are searching in google for information pertaining to restaurants per month? Search volume for all of 2012, 2013, 2014? #2 More granular categories within verticals, people searching for: books,apartment rentals,cellphones) Is there a breakdown of google search somewhere online that gives this type of information? Thank you MOZ community, really appreciate it!
Algorithm Updates | | AppleSauceRules0 -
What is the appropriate Robot.txt to unblock if Google cannot get all the resources from my homepage?
Hello everyone. I did some research as to why my website has decreased in the Google search rankings recently. After reading this Yoast article I believe it's because the robot.txt files I have set up on my wordpress website. The following is a screen shot of the results of a fetch & render query of my webpage.Googlebot couldn't get all resources for this page. Here's a list: URL Type Reason http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Open+Sans:400,600,700,800%7CPT+Sans:400,400italic,700,700italic%7COswald:400,300,700&subset=latin,latin-ext Style Sheet Denied by robots.txt http://www.kmollinslaw.com/wp-content/plugins/slick-contact-forms/css/admin.css?ver=3.9.1 Style Sheet Denied by robots.txt http://www.kmollinslaw.com/wp-content/plugins/contact-form-plugin/css/style.css?ver=3.9.1 Style Sheet Denied by robots.txt http://www.kmollinslaw.com/wp-content/plugins/hupso-share-buttons-for-twitter-facebook-google/style.css?ver=3.9.1 Style Sheet Denied by robots.txt http://www.kmollinslaw.com/wp-content/plugins/latest-post-accordian-slider/css/lpaccordion.css?ver=3.9.1 Style Sheet Denied by robots.txt http://www.kmollinslaw.com/wp-content/plugins/latest-post-accordian-slider/css/style.css?ver=3.9.1 Style Sheet Denied by robots.txt http://www.kmollinslaw.com/wp-content/plugins/revslider/rs-plugin/css/settings.css?rev=4.1.1&ver=3.9.1 Style Sheet Denied by robots.txt http://www.kmollinslaw.com/wp-content/plugins/revslider/rs-plugin/css/dynamic-captions.css?rev=4.1.1&ver=3.9.1 Style Sheet Denied by robots.txt http://www.kmollinslaw.com/wp-content/plugins/revslider/rs-plugin/css/static-captions.css?rev=4.1.1&ver=3.9.1 Style Sheet Denied by robots.txt http://www.kmollinslaw.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-email-capture/inc/css/wp-email-capture-styles.css?ver=1.0 Style Sheet Denied by robots.txt http://www.kmollinslaw.com/wp-content/themes/infographer/style.css?ver=3.9.1 Style Sheet Denied by robots.txt http://www.kmollinslaw.com/wp-content/themes/infographer/css/stylesheet.min.css?ver=3.9.1 Style Sheet Denied by robots.txt http://www.kmollinslaw.com/wp-content/themes/infographer/css/style_dynamic.php?ver=3.9.1 Style Sheet Denied by robots.txt http://www.kmollinslaw.com/wp-content/themes/infographer/css/custom_css.php?ver=3.9.1 Style Sheet Denied by robots.txt http://www.kmollinslaw.com/wp-content/plugins/convertable-contact-form-builder-analytics-and-lead-management-dashboard/assets/css/convertable.css?ver=3.9.1 Style Sheet Denied by robots.txt http://www.kmollinslaw.com/wp-content/plugins/google-maps-widget/css/gmw.css?ver=1.66 Style Sheet Denied by robots.txt http://www.kmollinslaw.com/wp-content/plugins/acurax-social-media-widget/style.css?ver=3.9.1 Style Sheet Denied by robots.txt http://www.kmollinslaw.com/wp-includes/js/swfobject.js?ver=2.2-20120417 Script Denied by robots.txt My current robot.txt settings are as follows; User-agent: * Disallow: /wp-admin/ Disallow: /wp-includes/ Disallow: */xmlrpc.php Disallow: */wp-*.php Disallow: */trackback/ Disallow: *?wptheme= Disallow: *?comments= Disallow: *?replytocom Disallow: */comment-page- Disallow: *?s= Disallow: */wp-content/ Allow: */wp-content/uploads/ ```What to I need to allow/disallow to allow Google spiders to properly read my website?
Algorithm Updates | | gamesotd0 -
Google Local Algorithm Changes?
I was wondering if you have heard about any Google Local algorithm changes. We have about 200 franchise locations. Some of our locations have dropped significantly over the past few weeks. Locations that were showing up in the 1-3 positions are now no longer showing on the first page. This is for very relevant phrases for our main line of business (which is also in our business name)... ‘Phrase, CITY NAME’. These locations have plenty of positive Google reviews. We would typically rank well for a phrase like that based on our relevance. I did some brainstorming. Do you think any of these could have any impact? Google is all about things looking and feeling natural including link building, etc. We have used Yext which made a lot of changes across the web to fix addresses, etc. Do you think Google may be seeing this as unnatural? Too many changes at to many sites in to short a period of time? Along those same lines, do you think Google may be penalizing some of our franchise pages for being to ‘perfect’? It would be ‘natural’ for addresses to have some difference across the web and a bit unnatural to have them all match so perfectly. I know that Google has always stated the business name should be listed in Google Local the way it is listed to the general public. Things such as “Business Name Boston” should be listed as “Business Name”. Each of our franchise locations is named in house to reflect their geo location..... "Business Name Boston", "Business Name St. Louis". Many of our competitors also use the practice of attaching geo terms as well. Do you think we may be getting hit with a penalty now even though we have listed things on Google with the Geo term for years.... and is how WE refer to each location? Is it possible that by working with Yext, we drew attention to this practice? Should we remove our local listings geo term on Google Local? How about across the web? We are in a business that does not require customers to come to our location. Some of our locations have not suppressed the address in their local listings while others have. Many of our competitors have not. Do you think this could play into it? Some of our locations that are not showing in Local have good organic results. Have you heard anything about Google dropping Local if they show in organic? I know Google has been looking at social media more and more and I believe they will continue to do so. If our local pages have no social presence, could this adversely affect things? (I think this is probably not the case…. but wanted to throw it out there) I have noticed that in some cases where Local has dropped, we have multiple offices in that metro area. Is it possible that this could affect things? Have you heard of any Local algorithm changes? I know they are releasing a new dashboard sporadically, could this be in conjunction with a larger Local algorithm change? Our CMS tool does not allow us to change Title/Meta per page (I know... terrible!!). So every page has the same title and same meta description. (We are changing our CMS system! Can't wait!). Could this play into it? Thanks for any feedback!
Algorithm Updates | | MABES1 -
Lost over 65% of organic visits since Sept - Please help
Hi all, I'm fairly new to SEOmoz, i am here because i dont seem to be getting any actuall help from my SEO company, so am trying to figure this out myself. I have done a quick analysis using google analytics and have gone from 13441 google organic visitors in Sept to 4527 google organic visitors in March. (see attached image GA Sept - March) Visitor numbers seems be to fairly stable in sept, oct, nov, and perhaps a slight decline in Dec, but then on Jan17th seems a big drop, and i have never recovered... (See images GA - Oct, GA - Nov, GA - Dec and GA - Jan ) I am at a bit of a loss, i have heard about google penalties, but there are no warnings in my webmaster tools about this, the only warning i ever got was a message on Dec 24th which read : http://XXX.co.uk/: Big traffic change for top URL Search results clicks for (my site) have decreased significantly. The number of clicks that your site receives from Google can change from day to day for a variety of factors, including automatic algorithm updates. However, if you have recently made significant changes to the content or configuration of your site, this change may be an indication that there are problems. This is not a penalty notice is it? its simply google telling me i have lost a lot of traffic? Strange thing is December's traffic was pretty much fine, so do not understand why i got this message, when the drop in traffic happened a month later. I've been racking my brain for months trying to fix every little possible issue i can find with my site (its not nice, when you do not actually know what google has decided it doesn't like about your site!) but nothing seems to be helping, i've been hiring content writter's as i found loads of websites have copied a lot of content, i also decided maybe the product descriptions are being classed as duplicate so again have got in content writter's to re-write hundreds of product descriptions (all this is costing me an arm and a leg)... Nada! Then today, when doing this google analysis (see image GA Sept - March) i noticed two sites, i have renamed them on the image to: XXX-1.co.uk & XXX-2.ecomm-search.com XXX-1.co.uk was a test server where i could play around with code on my website before i actually implement changes, usually i delete all the files after i use it... but it looks like i forgot to do that.... the site is a complete copy of my website (but obviously a version where you can not actually process an order) but all the pages still have canonical links back to the proper website... Just in case this was causing issues, i have 301 redirected the site back to my main site... Is this wise? or should i just delete the site? XXX-2.ecomm-search.com is a search company i was trialing as i wanted to improve the search functionality on my own site, however the search features are hosted on their site... I was told it has no bearing on SEO as its not indexed... however if google is seeing refferalls coming from that site, which is basically a duplicate of my search pages but with better functionality, could they be considering this a duplicate content issue? If anybody can give me any advice at all about above questions, or in general about what happened on Jan 17th (as i see from web search's many people were affected but i can not seem to find people who actually know what google did) i would be very grateful. Thanks James iNiKRDq jd6FJ3l RzaqTEy 8KCtykz 2m2OGvG
Algorithm Updates | | isntworkdull0 -
Strange Refferral URL coming in from Google
Hi, I've been monitoring my referral URL's coming in and today noticed they had changed. Previously when I clicked one it would be the google search result page - however now they all seem to be like this: http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=7&sqi=2&ved=0CHEQFjAG&url=http://www.mysite.com&rct=j&q=my%20keyword&ei=Bvc3TrbgB5G0hAfvqoSvAg&usg=AFQjCNFONDCPJDl3d2PYceYvale_cL7s4Q All these URL's immediately redirect to my website pages. Do you know what they are - they seem to be tracking URL's of some sort I am thinking?? Are they trying to analyse my site with respect to certain keywords?? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | James770