Question on following schema for local
-
Hello I built out a blog for a client and used Yoast Local SEO plugin for WordPress. Here is one of the pages generated for a physical location for the business. http://water-notes.generalplumbingsupply.com/?wpseo_locations=sonora-ca
My client who manages a website for the same business built out a locations page and insists that their pages rank better for local search. I think the pages are spammy.
Individual location page for the website managed by my client: http://www.generalplumbingsupply.com/American-Canyon-CA-v1.HTML
Multiple locations page: http://www.generalplumbingsupply.com/Locations.HTML
What page should we be using? Thank you for your help.
-
So glad it helped, Edward. Thanks for letting me know that!
-
Miriam,
Thank you for your response. Your no nonsense tone reflects how I feel. Thank you for the links to the Google article and moz blog post.
-
Thank you all for your great insight. I will look into everything you have mentioned and suggested. More than worth the price of admission.
-
The bottom block of text is definitely spammy and needs to be removed, but other than that I would say that http://www.generalplumbingsupply.com/American-Canyon-CA-v1.HTML is a better landing page for SEO and for user experience. It has a better layout and provides more information. The only real issue is that the content should be customized for each location instead of using the same text for all 5 locations with swapped out location names at the end. You'll want to schema the addresses, phone numbers and hours on that page was well.
I'm not sure how long that page has been up but it's not indexed at all as far as I can tell and the top page that is indexed: www.generalplumbingsupply.com/locations-sonora.html is a 404. Also there are even more duplicate content issues because this page is indexed: http://www.generalplumbingsupply.com/Kitchen-And-Bathroom-Products-In-American-Canyon-CA-v1.HTML and has exactly the same content as http://www.generalplumbingsupply.com/American-Canyon-CA-v1.HTML. It would make sure that all pages with the same content are using one url, instead of having multiple urls with the exact same content.
This is one of those times where it's frustrating to be a local SEO, because the site is actually ranking in the cities that they have fake location pages for.
Good Luck!
-
Hi Edward,
You are totally right to be concerned. This is spammy, extremely so:
http://www.generalplumbingsupply.com/American-Canyon-CA-v1.HTML
That enormous block of links to low quality pages for cities in which the business isn't physically located would almost certainly raise eyebrows with Google. The block of city names is a violation of Google's guidelines referenced on this page:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66358?hl=en
And the duplicate content from page to page is a major taboo. The presence of this duplicate content is definitely downgrading the overall quality of the website and is likely to fall afoul of Google.
From my look at the site, it appears to me that this is a brick-and-mortar plumbing store with 5 physical locations. By no stretch of the imagination is it okay to be featuring text like this:
"Kitchen And Bathroom Products In Fairfax, CA" when there is no physical location in Fairfax.
I got to this page http://www.generalplumbingsupply.com/Kitchen-And-Bathroom-Products-In-Fairfax-CA-v1.HTML from the American Canyon page. Google Maps says American Canyon and Fairfax are about 35 miles apart, so stating that the store's products are 'in' Fairfax is simply untrue. The customer is not going to appreciate what could very well come off as an attempt to mislead him, right?
I think you are absolutely right to be concerned. In your shoes, I'd be flipping out at this extremely blatant, spammy approach. I'm not quite understanding what the relationship is between you, your client and the store, but if this business came to me asking for a consultation, I'd tell them to read their SEO the riot act. The business owner needs to understand that his rankings and reputation are being put at risk by this practice. I would get rid of all of those scores of pages ASAP and take the following approach:
-
A single, unique, high quality page for each store
-
Use the blog to write about legitimate connections with any city where the business isn't physically located. For example, if the American Canyon business owner travels to Fairfax to hold a seminar on green plumbing practices, go ahead and write it up. The operative word here is 'legit'.
I think this article will really help everyone involved in the project to correctly identify what this business model is and how to promote it in a user-friendly, safe manner:
http://moz.com/blog/local-landing-pages-guide
If there's some nuance I've overlooked in this situation, please don't hesitate to provide further details, and I sincerely hope my no-nonsense reply on this one may save the business owner from a massive headache!
-
-
Thank you for your hello I will watch the videos. My question is also what my client has done at the bottom of his page with all the links to different pages to towns around a store location. Is this spammy. They claim it works well for them. I'm curious.
I can add hours and additional information from the Yoast plugin. But you are also saying the Yoast page need more overall content like:
WWith friendly, knowledgeable product experts, and the latest selection of kitchen and bath products, General Plumbing Supply will help make your dream home a reality. All our store locations include kitchen and bath showrooms open to the public as well as complete contractor sales. Our Walnut Creek store also features a destination showroom. At General Plumbing Supply, you'll find a large selection of kitchen and bath products and one of the largest inventories in the SF Bay Area. Visit us today and let our dedicated professionals help guide you to products that fit the scope of your job and budget. When you are looking for quality kitchen & bath products and personal service, General Plumbing Supply is the place to shop in and around American Canyon, CA.
Thank you for your help
-
Well if I understand who did what in your example, your page is missing quite a bit of information that the other client did place on site. Yoast's local plugin is designed to fill in the schema gaps between what your client did and what you have started to do. I think that may be where the difference in opinion is coming in.
Here's some videos on the basics that should go on the location pages that you're trying to setup: http://moz.com/academy/local-content
I would also recommend that you visit Mike's blog: http://blumenthals.com/blog/
Essentially you need to apply schema to what your client set up there. Perhaps also a bit more original content on each page, but you get the idea. Don't forget to place hours of operation, address info, etc. on each location page. It might also be a good idea to put the location info in the footer with the proper schema markup in place. Yoasts plugin just helps you do this a little easier than with coding it yourself.
I would think working on the page that ranks currently would be better than starting over, but I suppose that all depends on budget, competition, etc.
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
-
I'm not ranking locally.....
Hello, We own the business BIM Fitness and Performance in Fort Myers, FL. However, when we do a search near us, we are down at the very bottom of the page. Can anyone provide some insight as to why this may be? I know SEO is the long game but is there anyway we can at least appear higher up locally?
Image & Video Optimization | | ash.gray0 -
Any Legit Local Address Services Out There?
I have a client who lives in the UK but runs a US ecommerce site. I'd still like to get him some local trust signals but he has no options when it comes to getting an address here. Has anyone found a reputableplace where you can rent an address that isn't already being used by umpteen other companies?
Image & Video Optimization | | iAnalyst.com0 -
LOCAL SEO: Franchise --> One storefront. Multiple territory. Multiple listings?
An interesting problem came our way, and I'd love your help in solving it. An individual I'm chatting with owns and manages a number of territories of a service-based Franchise business around Eastern Iowa.**His territory covers multiple cities and zips. He services all of those places, but does not have a physical presence in all. There is one company office. But he has local numbers for each territory.**The corporate franchise's website is dynamic. It shows the 'local' number and information based on the visitor's location. Basically, little microsites for each franchise territory.Three years ago he set up individual Google Places pages for each territory, using a PO box address and the local phone numbers. The Google listings are set up not to display an address. The kick is -- those addresses are now expired. Those Google Local listings still exist, and drive considerable traffic in each target city. As you can imagine, this also causes havoc on his other citations. There are scattered (YP, Yahoo, Yelp, etc) listings for each address. Their name in GetListed brings up all five different addresses, each with a number of web properties already claimed.Now that I've offered to help, I need to determine the best way to move forward. Suspend the verified listings with hidden addresses and move to a single listing for the office location? We could add all of the zips in manually, but it would cover a very wide range, and could lose its rank in local SERPs. Even with a well-optimized description. And the local numbers would likely not show up. Keep the listings. Don't touch them at all. The owner is looking to maintain the look and feel of a local business in each of his territories. That is difficult to do with a single listing. Assuming we decide not to touch the active listings (option 2), what will we do for other listings? Do we claim a local Yahoo listing for each location? Just for the corporate office? Would love to hear how others have attacked the multi-territory franchise problem, or would in this case.Thanks!
Image & Video Optimization | | SocialJosh0 -
Google categories for local limousine service
I manage the Google places page for a SAB (local limousine company). The question is, should I add "taxi" and "airport shuttle service" as categories? I have listed only "limousine" and "car service' for now and I want to play it safe although those 2 are related to limo service. Sometimes people refer to limo service as "taxi service" or they are inquiring about prices for shuttle service to the airport and they end up booking the service quite often. Does Google look to our website to find these words in the content? Google Analytics show lots of people are finding us through those two keywords as well although you cannot find the word “taxi" on our website. The interesting thing is that when searching for "taxi + my zip code" the company shows up 4th on maps results and when searching for "shuttle service + my zip code”, the company shows up 2nd on local results and also 2nd in organic results. Is this enough to make me add these 2 categories? Second question is about the area served, does it make a difference (in rankings) if I choose “Distance from one location"over"List of areas served"? What happens is the red pin would be in a different location. If I choose "Distance from one location" the pin would be right in the center of the city (which I think it shouldn't matter anymore that much since the proximity to the centroid is not a ranking factor anymore). If “list of area” served is selected, (the city name will be chosen) then the pin would be about 5 miles West of the city center. Any thoughts will be appreciated. Thank you!
Image & Video Optimization | | echo10 -
Google local
If you perform a search in Google maps for our company and you are not signed in, it returns our Google + page, with reviews, photos, directions and about tabs, which is fine but, when you click on any of the photos, there is a window that opens to the right where you can edit the location where the photo has been taken, a comment box, photo details and above all, right at the top, MY NAME! Why my name? This is the business page, I don't want people to see that. The snip is below. Thanks! g3OTPRp
Image & Video Optimization | | echo10 -
WordPress image file names SEO question
I’m using a plugin to upload images directly from Adobe Lightroom to WordPress and while the process is very convenient it adds “wpid-“ to the beginning of every image file name, so my “seo-friendly-image-title.jpg” becomes “wpid-seo-friendly-image-title.jpg”. The plugin author claims that it’s a WordPress thing and there isn’t anything he can do about it, yet it doesn’t happen when using the same plugin to upload to the NextGen Gallery Plugin instead of the built in WordPress media manager. I’m not really a fan of NextGen though so I’d rather use the built in WordPress media management. This is obviously an SEO forum not a WordPress troubleshooting forum, but I wanted to give a bit of background. My question is whether that “wpid-” at the beginning of all my image file names is going to cause any sort of SEO issue. If not, I won’t worry about it, but if it does I’ll have to either find another plugin or just go back to exporting from Lightroom to the desktop and then uploading through WordPress. Thanks in advance for any input.
Image & Video Optimization | | StephenWeigel0 -
How far away does your Google Local Listing Show up - and how to improve.
How does google decide if a listing from one city shows up in another? When I do a search for a lawyer in my city my competition from another town shows up - but I don't show up when I search their town. Only 3 listings show up for both searches - so it's not necessarily a rank thing. Any ideas on improving the distance your listings show up for? Thanks!
Image & Video Optimization | | musillawfirm0 -
Video SERP question
Hello MOZ Helpers.. Sometimes video results pop up in Uiversal search..for example for "recycle paint" my video for recycle paint residing on my website shows up on a Universal SERP SEE IMAGE 1..This happens even when I use an ip mask or change local..the confusing part is why my personal version trumps my youtube version SEE IMAGE 2. What metric(s) is Google using to rank videos, and what kind of benefit does this provide if the video points to your site vs. a video service like youtube or 5min? I have attached 2 images with IMGUR but search "recycle paint" to recreate [" target="_blank">>](<img src= "Hosted by imgur.com") [" target="_blank">>](img src= "Hosted by imgur.com") [http://imgur.com/tdCVM.jpg](a href= "Hosted by imgur.com")" target="_blank">a> [http://imgur.com/tdCVM.jpg](a href= "Hosted by imgur.com")" target="_blank">a> [" target="_blank">>](<img src= "Hosted by imgur.com") [" target="_blank">>](<img src= "Hosted by imgur.com") [" target="_blank">>](<img src= "Hosted by imgur.com")
Image & Video Optimization | | johnshearer0