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
-
Why google is not visiting any website from past 10 days
Hi, I observed why Google is not visiting www.SubhaVastu.com from past 10 days, later I checked thoroughly, not only for my site, google stopped visiting all websites from past 10/12 days. Is Google releasing any new updates to the crawler? Any new system is releasing soon. I am expecting Google updated their crawler by this Sunday night and it may visit as usual to all sites from 12-midnight pacific time. Has anyone observed it, any information regarding on this Google step. Thanks.
Algorithm Updates | | SubhaVaastu0 -
Any Google Algorithm update?
Did Google release any seo update in last couple of days? My client is seeing 33% low traffic. The site is hyper-local marketplace website in India.
Algorithm Updates | | Avin1230 -
Removing an old Google places listing for a newer version?
Hey there, I was wondering whether you could help me out on the following; One of our clients has a Google places listing that we created for their business but it appears to be being blocked - or at least conflicting - with an old listing. As such, Google appears to be showing the old listing with an outdated URL and company name - rather than the new one. Does anyone know how I can go about removing this listing or showing that the newer one is now more relevant? Unfortunately, I don't have the logins for the old places listing. Old listing; https://plus.google.com/105224923085379238289 New listing; https://plus.google.com/b/114641937407677713536/114641937407677713536
Algorithm Updates | | Webrevolve0 -
Wrong Google pin locations
Did something happen recently that would affect pin locations on Google Maps? I've been updating Google Places pages, but not touching the address or pins - but I received a phone call from one of my locations that their pin location changed in the past month and now it is wrong. Meanwhile, another department recently had MomentFeed update the pins for accuracy. Thoughts?
Algorithm Updates | | SSFCU0 -
Why Google loves MOZ for "Directory Submmission Service" ?
I have just for "directory submission service" in Google.com ( Geo Location USA ). I got two results from moz community for same thread. Does Google don't understand 301 redirect from seomoz.org to moz.com ? What about Domain Clustering ? PFA: SERP Screenshot kn8evtt.png
Algorithm Updates | | SanketPatel0 -
Google Reconsideration - To do or not to do?
We haven't been manually penalized by Google yet but we have had our fair share of things needing to be fixed; malware, bad links, lack/if no content, lack-luster UX, and issues with sitemaps & redirects. Should we still submit a reconsideration even though we haven't had a direct penalty? Does hurt us to send it?
Algorithm Updates | | GoAbroadKP0 -
Dropped out of Google top 50 - Jan 28 2013
On Jan 28 - 2013 google dropped many of our keywords from its index.Here is the history of Rank June 24 2012 - RANK 2 Nov 18 2012 - RANK 8 NOV 25 2012 - RANK 15 JAN 6 2013 - RANK 10 JAN 13 2013 - RANK 21 JAN 20 2013 - RANK 9 Jan 27 2013 - RANK 6 JAN 28 2013 - DROPS OUT OF GOOGLE Graph http://i.imgur.com/ABYJ3MS.jpg The ON PAGE is an A for the homepage, errors and warnings are all DOWN over time. Would the last Google Update have caused this? Bing and Yahoo went UP and google dropped right out http://i.imgur.com/vP8Uvu8.jpg The red box is the keyword in question, but many others dropped out of top 50 Anyone have any ideas on what I should look for or which update could be responsible? ABYJ3MS.jpg vP8Uvu8.jpg
Algorithm Updates | | syndicate1 -
Google Rankings Jumping Around
Hi, Since January, the Google rankings for one of our sites has been jumping around. Sometimes it's on page 1, then it disappears and comes back around 1 month later. It's strange because it's only a small section of the site that it's happening to. Every other section of the site is doing really well. Just wondered if anyone else is having this problem, or has had it and can suggest any fixes. There are no technical issues, no changes have been made to the site, all I can think is it's Google messing around with their algorithm? Any help or advice would be much appreciated. Karen
Algorithm Updates | | Digirank0