Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Can I add multi location business cities to homepage meta title or desc.?
-
I have a business with 6 locations (in the same state) but very different cities. We we expanded from one location with the city name in the URL we followed best practices to move to the new domain without the singular city name in the URL. We definitly took a hit on the organic side and I'm trying to figure out best practice for where to add geo info.
Currently I have geo info:
-In footer
-Contact Page-On local page
It's a WP site and each location has it's own page (ie. locations/geolocation_keyword). I know all other locations will take sometime but my concern is the hit we took on the original location that had geo-target URL.
I guess really my question is simply can I include city names in homepage meta title and desc.?
and is there anything else I can do to bounce back organically on the original city faster? -
You're welcome, Beehive, and good luck with the work ahead.
-
That is exactly the scenario. Thanks for your response and time.
-
Hi Beehive,
Was the Google+ Local page for city #1 previously pointing to the homepage of the old website, but now pointing to a landing page on the new website for just that one city (among the other 5 new city landing pages)? If so, chances are your old homepage had more clout than the new local landing page, which could possibly explain the loss of organic rankings. After all, you used to have a whole website devoted to just this one city. Now you've got just one page on a larger site devoted to it. Chances are, you've got to build up the authority of these new landing pages, if the scenario I've described is accurate, in order to regain your organic authority.
-
I did 301 redirect and google webmaster tools site change tool.
I updated all the citations on yelp etc. to point to the now local page url (/locations/city_keyword)
I guess I figured I knew that this was the right answer and response but it's obviously difficult when you have a strong hold on many keywords and then you fall below the fold. Luckily most keywords do trigger at least 3 map results (after 3 organic listings) in which we are first.
However we did have the trifecta of 3 results above the fold (PPC, Organic, Maps) and now just showing for 2 of the 3 with the one missing being the biggest traffic driver.
I guess my follow up question is currently our organic listing is the serp page with just one mention (footer) of the original city. Should I expect that the local page prevail on serps eventually (ie /locations/city_keyword)?
-
Hi Beehive,
This is a good question. So, as I understand it, you originally had a city-specific domain name when you were a single location business. You now have six locations and have moved to a purely branded domain rather than a city-specific one and this site has a unique page for each of your locations (which is good - a best practice - provided the content is unique on each page).
I would not recommend putting all six city names in your homepage title tag or in the title tag of any other page. Once a business expands like yours has, you've got to come up with a different strategy than the one you were using for a single location.
Questions:
Did you 301 redirect the old domain to the new one?
Did you update all of your citations to reflect the new domain name? Realize this will take time to go into effect. This is very important.
Suggestions:
You might like to read this post about local landing pages: http://moz.com/blog/local-landing-pages-guide
Study the part about Business Model III in the above guide, if you've not already read it. It applies to your business model.
A multi-location local business that I think is doing a good job with their Local SEO is REI.com. Check out their location landing pages.
You must now start building the authority for each of the 5 new locations, with content development, citation building, review acquisition, social outreach, etc.
I hope some of these thoughts will be helpful to you.
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
-
Need help with Meta tags generator
Hello, I am doing SEO for my business website. I am trying to generate Meta Tags here
On-Page Optimization | | webdropyyc
https://webdrop.ca/seo-tools/meta-tag-generator What should I enter for "Search engines should revisit this page after ". We are not going to change content on daily basis. 7 Days or 30 days are good enough?0 -
How unique should a meta description be?
I'm working on a large website (circa 25k pages) that presently just replicates each page title as a meta description. I'm thinking of doing a 'find and replace' in the database so I change: to where the preceeding and following text would be the same in each case eg Is this unique enough? Obviously the individual keyword would make it technically unique each time....and manually changing them would take the rest of my life 🙂
On-Page Optimization | | abisti21 -
How much text is recommended for a homepage?
I'm working with a client who is redesigning their site and the new design is very image heavy. Does anyone have any recommendations on the minimum amount of text the homepage should have so that it will rank (or at least not be penalized)? It's a site created by a known brand, but the site itself and URL are relatively new. Katherine
On-Page Optimization | | KatherineWatierOng0 -
Difference in using dividers in TITLE TAG
Hi everyone, i know that dividers in title or even title tag doesnt have much of an impact on better rankings. I had great rankings for many keywords, not using dividers or using only one divider. However for better reading comprehension and usability, and also aesthetics i started to use the pipe as my main divider and other secondary dividers. I saw many pages drop in rankings vs other less competent and with less content pages. My format was as follows: Product Brand | Product description - Additional info or local info ie. Fiber Glass MBI | Insulation Batts for Home and Commercial use - Acoustic and Thermal Insulation I changed the format for a handful of pages, and saw immediate results on rankings and traffic on those pages. Product Brand with Product Description - Additional Info ie. Fiber Glass MBI Insulation Batts for Commercial use - Acoustic and Thermal Insulation. Does it sound like something i should implement page wide. I personally like the aesthetics of the pipe as it gives a cleaner look, but the better rankings on the changed pages with using only one divider makes me think. Does it sound familiar, or its just a coincidence, Regards,
On-Page Optimization | | JesusD0 -
Different title tags and meta descriptions for desktop and mobile?
Is it possible to use different title tags and meta descriptions for mobile users? For Example: In the SERP for desktop you'll see the desktop title tags and meta descriptions, but in the SERP for mobile you'll the mobile versions of the webpage.
On-Page Optimization | | alex19780 -
Selling Products with a similar meta description
Wondering if anyone can help when selling similar products with very similar meta description and product descriptions in general. Have around 500 products - a lot of products have around 10-20 products which are very similar only different is sizes and a maybe a few lines of text if that. Is this a problem in search engines? How does other ecommerce stores selling similar products solve this problem...
On-Page Optimization | | royRR0 -
How To Change Wordpress Category Title
My categories are indexed and I want to change the category page title. At present it just defaults to the category name but I want to set a different page title. For example I want the category to be 'Motor Cars' but I want the category page title to be 'Buy Motor Cars - New And Used'. How can I do this?
On-Page Optimization | | SamCUK0 -
Dash or vertical bar in titles?
Hello. Should I use a dash or a vertical line in title tags? Thank you!
On-Page Optimization | | nyc-seo0