Local Search Results Tanked My 1st Page Ranking
-
My site was routinely ranking in the top 2-3 in Google for my relevant search terms. Then I started working on my local SEO. Now I'm in the map list at 1-2, but my site no longer shows up with the rest of the search results. I've heard that this has been happening to other local businesses with a big Google presence.
I'm thinking that I should create some micro sites for each location listing that gives a location specific intro and then links to my main site. Then I can sever my main site from Google places. Here are my two questions:
1) Is this going to kill my placement in the map results; and,
- How long will it take for my main site to get back to its 2-3 spot rankings in Google's regular results?
-
Hi David, That's really an interesting scenario you've described of actually preferring your purely organic result over your local one. What has likely happened is that your previous organic rankings have simply blended in with your new local ones, because most local rankings are blended these days. Thomas' suggestion is a creative one and may be worth trying if you truly feel you were benefiting more from a plain organic display vs. a blended local one, but now that you've got your local info out there, how Google chooses to display it may be difficult to change.
-
So if you had to pick just one or the other you'd prefer the non-map result...
If that's the case then change the URL in your local listing to different page. You may lose your map. It may come back. But at least you get your preferred listing.
-
I've seen a drop in traffic, but it may be a business cycle. I'm a consumer bankruptcy lawyer, and we see lots of peaks and valleys in our filing rates, which correlate to the peaks and valleys in site traffic.
When I'm in the regular search results it's clear that I'm a debtors lawyer, have a payment plan etc., because of how I set up the description text. When I'm in the map results, I'm blending in with all the other results.
-
Interesting test and question.
I've noted for a long time that Google will typically put the same URL either in the maps or on the page, but rarely both.Since the maps are part of the mixed results, the mix only allows the URL to appear once. You can however rank two separate URLs.
Part of the ranking factors within local are SEO related, so creating a microsite may not allow you to rank in the maps. Honestly, I don't think microsites are a best practice here. Plus, linking back to your main site with a bunch of microsites may appear to google as a "network". That could be bad for both micro and main site.
Proceed with caution if you must proceed. Trying to "over optimize" could cause you to loose all your first page rankings. I am a bit curious why you feel you need both. Has your traffic changed since being in the map section?
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
-
Search engine keyword rank - easiest way to check the keywords that rank across website
What is the best keyword ranking tool you have used? I have used various tools by which I am expected to identify and input the keyword I want to track... However, recently I was introduced to Searchmetrics, which I think automatically pulls in the keywords a website ranks for, without the need for manual input from the SEO (I haven't used this tool yet, so apologies if I am incorrect!). Do any other rank trackers work like this? Thanks, Luke
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | McTaggart1 -
301 redirect to search results page?
Hi - we just launched our redesigned website. On the previous site, we had multiple .html pages that contained links to supporting pdf documentation. On this new site, we no longer have those .html landing pages containing the links. The question came up, should we do a search on our site to gather a single link that contains all pdf links from the previous site, and set up a redirect? It's my understanding that you wouldn't want google to index a search results page on your website. Example: old site had the link http://www.oldsite.com/technical-documents.html new site, to see those same links would be like: http://www.newsite.com/resources/search?View+Results=&f[]=categories%3A196
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Jenny10 -
Indexation of internal search results from infinite scroll
Hello, I have an issue where we will have a website set up with dynamic (AJAX) result pages based on the selection of certain filters chosen by the user. The result page will have 12 results shown and if the user scrolls down, the page will lazy load (infinite scroll) additional results. So for example, with these filters: Filter A: Size Filter B: Color Filter 😄 Location We could potentially have a page for "Large, Blue, New York" results dynamically generated. My issue is that I want Google to potentially crawl and index all these variations, so that I can have a page that ranks for "Large Blue New York", another page that ranks for "Small Orange Miami" etc. However, I do not need all the products indexed--- just the page with the first set of dynamic results would be enough since the additional products would just be more of the same. In other words, I am trying to get these pages with filters applied indexed and not necessarily get every possible product indexed. Can anyone comment on the best way to Get Google to index all dynamic variations? The proper way of paginating pages? Thank you
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Digi12340 -
Local Google Place Ranking loss
One of our clients lost rankings on the local map results. Last month we changed the phone number on the G+ page so the number is the same as on the website but it's still a call tracking number. We also changed the url to example.nl/plumber-newyork so it directly links to the local page and we made the local G+ author of the local page in the website. Can these changes have something to do with the ranking loss in google maps results?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | remkoallertz0 -
On Page Rankings dropped without any changes
What could have factored into some of my key words dropping from an A to a C on my on page rankings. I am not sure how it happened because there were not any chages made. Thanks, Boo
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Boodreaux0 -
Search results all going to home page
I'm an author, and after doing a search for one of my books I realized that no matter what was searched, the user was getting lead to the homepage. please see the attached picture. How do I fix this and is this hurting my SEO? Capture.JPG Capture1.JPG
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | StreetwiseReports0 -
Does title text of homepage effect ranking of sub pages?
Question is pretty much summed up in the title. I realize that title text on a specific page can effect the ranking of that page. But what I'm getting a feeling of lately is that google uses the title text of your homepage to effect the ranking of the site on a whole. Thoughts?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | adriandg1 -
Need advice on local search optimization
HI all, I've found myself in a puzzling position and not quite sure which direction to push my current SEO project so if anyone who's done this particular type of SEO can offer some suggestions I'd be eternaly grateful. I am currently working on a project for a Law Firm based in New Jersey. Lets say the town they are in is Garfield. What I really want to try and achieve is see them appearing in the number one spot whenever anyone within Garfield or the immediate area searches for a lawyer relating to the individuals need. E..g searches like "personal injury lawyers", "real estate lawyer". The problem is I can see how I can easily make it to the number one position if people are specific and enter garfield in the search term but in reality they wouldn't be doing that. An additional problem is that peoples ISP's in garfield aren't located in Garfield, in some cases they're as far away as Newark so when they're doing a search for 'real estate lawyer' google is bringing up results for the Newark based firms. It seems using tools like market samurai to look at the traffic and competition is proving useless as searches like the ones I'm doing for local business are so closely tied to the ISP location I don't really know whether to target broad range searches like "Real Estate Lawyer", or to be really specific and include the town name in my page titles, H1 tags etc... I hope I put across my dilemma and someone can help me chose which direction to go in.. Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | davebrown19750