I am ranking for local broad terms, but I am not ranking when geo-modifier is included.
-
I have noticed that my rankings for broad terms have dramatically improved in the area I service. But, when I put the broad term in my search query with a geo-modifier I notice I am still not ranking even though my domain authority and page authority is higher than the competitor who is ranking. Why might this be? I am not penalized, or have a manual action. I am also featured in more hyperlocal niche directories.
-
Sounds good, Taysir:)
-
Thanks for the reply!
I appreciate the detailed article! I am going to review my campaign again and go through the article to see what needs to be fixed, I will report back.
Thanks again!
-
Hi Taysir,
This kind of scenario is not going to be easy for the community to troubleshoot without actually being able to look at the specific players and queries in question. It's completely understandable if you cannot share your client's info here on the forum, but that will limit the specificity of the advice you'll receive.
Donna has highlighted some good questions for you. I will add, In the absence of being able to look at the actual situation, I would recommend you do a run-through of this article to see if anything stands out to you:
-
Hi Taysir,
Hard to tell without more information or domains and keywords that we could try and observe ourselves. You might want to supply those to us. Are you observing organic or local search rankings? Assuming you're observing local search results:
- What's the relative proximity to city center, you vs the competition?
- Who has more or better citations?
- Have you claimed and completely populated your local listings, most importantly, your Google local listing?
- Is it properly categorized and is that categorization reflected in the terms you use throughout your site in keywords, headings, body text, geo and schema tags?
- Have you created and submitted a geo sitemap?
- Are you using a consistent name, address and phone number on every page of the site?
- Do you have a Google map embedded onto your contact page?
- Who has more reviews?
Don't feel a need to respond if any of my questions triggers the answer you're looking for. But if it doesn't, probably supplying us with your keywords and domain would be your next best bet.
Good luck!
-
Thanks for the detailed response!
My competitor oddly enough only has one page on his site which is his home page. He has one back link which is from the chamber of commerce, which I am already listed in. My competitor does not seem to be implementing any SEO strategies from what I can tell because his NAP information is not even on the homepage.
Thanks again for the help!
-
Thanks for the response!
The address is listed on my site, and on every page in the footer. Every page on my site has content that includes a mention of my brand name and the city it services. My domain name also has my keyword and city i service. My competitor who is ranking only has one page for his entire site which is the homepage. The page has a DA of 7 and a PA of 22 and he is ranked 1st with the geo modifier.
-
Without having any additional context, my best guess would be one (or likely more) of your competitors have targeted these keywords with standard local SEO tactics: hyper-localized, local address/business schema markup, address and other local neighborhood information, relevant on-site content, etc.
Maybe they've focused more on semantic aspects of on-page SEO factors (co-citation, location of targeted keywords in relationship to one another, other semantic relationships) than you have? While it sounds like you've done a good job including your website (a backlink) in high-quality local directories (more than your competitor[s] have at least), but what about links overall?
While local-relevant links are nice, high-quality links in general will still carry a website a long way as far as ranking and consistent organic traffic. It appears Pigeon - the most recent local update - is steering closer to generic web ranking signals, not just the local stuff.
Hope that helps! Would be happy to try and provide more information if you're able or willing to answer some of these questions.
-
What kind of local optimization are you doing on your site? Is you address posted on your site, maybe in the footer so it is on every page? Do you have any content on your site that optimizes your location?
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
-
National services provider and localized SEO (no physical stores)
Doing work for a telecom provider who operates in over 25 states. They are not trying to drive traffic to their brick-and-mortar stores. They want their marketing website to show products/services/pricing dynamically when a user enters their zip code. Previously, we could not show this until the shopper was already in the purchase flow that began with their serviceable address. They want to move these location-based details more forward in the shopping experience. They would likely have a "default" zip and set of services/pricing displaying until a user changes their location. My question is how does Google treat local SEO on a site where all location-targeted content is dynamic? Will the website suffer in localized search, when a shopper, say, in Colorado, wants to search for Internet providers? Is it better to have distinct landing pages for each territory with services/pricing?
Local SEO | | sprydigital0 -
Getting Schooled in Local by 'Lesser' Brands?
Hi Moz! First question I've asked here. I've been working on campaign for my company (regional solar installation company in Northeast USA) for close to 7 years, we've always done well in local search but recently have noticed sites that, for lack of a better word, we 'school' in terms of all the usual metrics - better/more consistent local listings, better domain strength, better backlink profile, bigger company (in the real world), brand recognition, etc... However recently we have started seeing smaller competitors beat us in state-specific rankings, using stuff I would call 'old school' SEO that is no longer really tolerated, in theory - stuffing keywords onto page, keywords in domain, etc... domains of much less strength pulling #1 or #2 terms. Based on data I don't actually think keywords like "solar + state name" are actually that powerfully but frankly it is bit embarrassing to get crushed by 1-2 person companies when you have a 150+ company with a three-person in-house digital marketing team. My strategy so far has consisted of building a better Google review solicitation process, adding schema markup to our project gallery, and some SEO 101 stuff like reworking keywords and title tags. I've noticed a strong uptick on our site of leads from outside our territory (like folks from all across the USA who are NOT in our service territory) - I'm almost thinking I've done 'too good' a job of building a nationally relevant website and not enough state-specific options. Has anyone ever experienced something like this? Any clever strategies beyond the obvious? Can share more specifics if it'll be helpful. Cheers,
Local SEO | | revisionsolar
Fred0 -
Local SEO Website Structure.
Hi everyone, This might be quite a long post so please bear with me. I am currently rebuilding my website. My previous website was built by a web designer and was very basic. 5 page html site consisting of home, services, gallery, testimonials, contact pages. None of them were great - thin content, not optimised as well as could be - no h1's etc. To be fair I knew nothing about websites and didn't bother much with the site. As a new business I used it simply as a place for people to visit for more information after receiving a leaflet and never bothered much about driving traffic to the site. A few years down the line and I have realised I need the website to be working for me as opposed to alongside me. I am building it myself via wordpress as web designer didn't want to work in wordpress. I have done my keyword research and I'm working on pages as we speak. Previously my homepage - around 80% of visitors landed here for my main keyword (driveway cleaning glasgow) as it was number 6 in the organic listing. With my services page appearing directly underneath in 7 for the same keyword. I have starting building a new page for that keyword which contains (driveway-cleaning-glasgow) in the url. I have 301'd my previous services page to this url. Now for my questions...
Local SEO | | sfrediktru8
My 2nd keyword based on volume is driveway cleaning. How do I optimise for this or will the (driveway-cleaning-glasgow) page rank for this also as the words are contained within this page? I plan on having the same structure for the remaining services - pressure-washing-glasgow, monoblock-cleaning-glasgow etc, etc. As I am building new pages for each service with location built in, where does this leave my homepage? Should I be targeting keywords for this page? It is still my strongest page and apart from the (driveway-cleaning-glasgow) page which will get some help from the 301 these are all new pages so I would expect perhaps initially to lose some traffic. But as I am not ranking well for anything other than the main 2 keywords mentioned above it can only be beneficial long term when google recognises the specific pages for each service. And when I start using Adwords I will have a specific landing page for each service. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks0 -
What is the best SEO tool for tracking local rankings
Hi Can anyone recommend what they think the best tool is to track local rankings. I want to manage several small businesses' visibility and I am not sure which one is the best. I have been told that "Bright local" and "SEO PowerSuite" are the best in the business. Is that true? or is there something better out there Thanks
Local SEO | | coolhandluc0 -
Local Printing Company Moving to a new IP - Will Our Rankings Change
I operate a local print and direct mail company located in Houston called Catdi Printing (www.catdi.com)We do very well with our local rankings and rank 2 or 3 in our main keywords ( Houston Printing , Direct Mail Houston & eddm Houston ) We are looking to upgrade our online quoting and ordering system. The software is very expensive and the only way we can incorporate this new system is to move our site and redirect our domain. The new hosting provider is located in California and might even be hosted by Google but im not certain on this point. Our current host provider is Hostgator and they are based in Houston so im not this provides any benefit. I guess my main question is will this new change affect our overall regular and local rankings? I would hate to see our positions and ranking fall because of this change. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks CATDI
Local SEO | | ChopperCharlie1 -
Local Seo Start Up?
Hi I've recently started a Web design and Local SEO business in the UK and would love some advice on best practices and resources to do best by my clients. The last thing I want to do is get their site banned or penalised by Google. In the past I have used article marketing to get 100s of backlinks but I understand it isnt that simple anymore.I might add that I always did SEO for my own sites, never offered it as a service to others. So, I'm less reluctant to take chances. From looking at the competition in the local market I won't have to get too many backlinks to outrank most other companies. Just need to get the right good quality links. I am fairly experienced with onsite SEO. ANy advice or relevant resources would be greatly appreciated.
Local SEO | | malkeenan0 -
Local SEO?
Hello everyone, I've just been through the Moz Local learning area, which is pretty informative. However, a lot of it seems like good practice for general online marketing (mobile friendly websites, goals per page...). I'm new to all this - am I missing the point? William
Local SEO | | Seabrook0 -
Local Search Question re Bulk Upload Feed
What option is best for a Bulk Upload Feed? A. Should this be done in the same Google account where we run our Adwords campaign or B. Should we use our Google account that has the Google Webmaster access? Thank you
Local SEO | | CeeC-Blogger0