How to optimise a local business directory?
-
Hey All,
I've a new client who is a local business directory designed to promote local businesses across the UK but starting in it's home town of Brighton in the UK.
I'm a little stumped to know how I can start to optimise this site as most of the pages being created are from very different businesses and focus on different subjects.
I realise this is going to be a long haul but wondered if there are any tips you guys know of.
My client domain is: call-us-first.co.uk
Thanks
Steve
-
You've probably got a challenge on your hands working to promote a business directory like this.
What does the client want to acheive with this directory? Why are they running it, and what are it's business goals? How achievable/realistic are they? What's their budget? What ROI do they expect!
What's the competition like? eek
Why would real people use it? What makes this directory unique, How is this directory going to differentiate itself? How is it going to compete with the big name directories?
I'm not sure that "listings are limited to three per category" would make this the go-to place for anyone searching for a type of business...
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
-
Directory links with no follow
Hi I'm researching competitor backlinks & they have a lot of directory links which are no follow - but they rank very well. Is this type of link building even allowed by google? I know they they aren't allowed followed directory links, but will no following them help with rankings?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BeckyKey0 -
Keywords in URL: sub-directory or single layer keywords?
Hi guys, im putting together a proposal for a new site and trying to figure out if it'd be better to (A) have a keyword split across multiple directories or duplicate keywords to have the keyword hyphenated? For example, for the topic of "Christmas decor" would you use; (A) - www.domain.com/Christmas/Decor (B) - www.domain.com/Christmas/Christmas-Decor in example B the phrase 'Christmas' is duplicated which looks a little spammy, but the key term "Christmas decor" is in the URL without being broken up by directories. which is stronger? Any advice welcome! Thanks guys!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JAR8971 -
Guidelines for a second website business domain
Hi There, A client is setting up a second website selling the same products from a separate domain with the same descriptions etc. The site will have a separate URL, but will administered from the same CMS. The only difference is the new site has only one brand instead of several on the main site. E.G The main site sells all plumbing brands, the second site just one brand. Your thoughts and advice for best practise would be much appreciated. Andy (Marz Ventures)
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MarzVentures0 -
How is Google crawling and indexing this directory listing?
We have three Directory Listing pages that are being indexed by Google: http://www.ccisolutions.com/StoreFront/jsp/ http://www.ccisolutions.com/StoreFront/jsp/html/ http://www.ccisolutions.com/StoreFront/jsp/pdf/ How and why is Googlebot crawling and indexing these pages? Nothing else links to them (although the /jsp.html/ and /jsp/pdf/ both link back to /jsp/). They aren't disallowed in our robots.txt file and I understand that this could be why. If we add them to our robots.txt file and disallow, will this prevent Googlebot from crawling and indexing those Directory Listing pages without prohibiting them from crawling and indexing the content that resides there which is used to populate pages on our site? Having these pages indexed in Google is causing a myriad of issues, not the least of which is duplicate content. For example, this file <tt>CCI-SALES-STAFF.HTML</tt> (which appears on this Directory Listing referenced above - http://www.ccisolutions.com/StoreFront/jsp/html/) clicks through to this Web page: http://www.ccisolutions.com/StoreFront/jsp/html/CCI-SALES-STAFF.HTML This page is indexed in Google and we don't want it to be. But so is the actual page where we intended the content contained in that file to display: http://www.ccisolutions.com/StoreFront/category/meet-our-sales-staff As you can see, this results in duplicate content problems. Is there a way to disallow Googlebot from crawling that Directory Listing page, and, provided that we have this URL in our sitemap: http://www.ccisolutions.com/StoreFront/category/meet-our-sales-staff, solve the duplicate content issue as a result? For example: Disallow: /StoreFront/jsp/ Disallow: /StoreFront/jsp/html/ Disallow: /StoreFront/jsp/pdf/ Can we do this without risking blocking Googlebot from content we do want crawled and indexed? Many thanks in advance for any and all help on this one!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | danatanseo0 -
SEOMoz Paid Directories List.... Are paid links always bad?
We all know paid links are bad.... so it begs the question.... why does the SEOMoz directory list have so many directories that only submit businesses for a fee.... i.e. a paid link. Are they worth paying for or not? Interested to hear peoples thoughts and experiences with some of the directories listed on the SEOMoz directory list....
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JohnW-UK0 -
Google+ Local pages under review. How long does this take?
I have a couple Google+ local pages that have been placed under review. Does anyone have experience regarding the time frame of this reveiw process. Google says to give it a few weeks, but one page has been under review for four weeks now. How long should I wait for Google to review them before I delete the page and start over?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | VentaMarketing0 -
Local SEO, located just outside major city
I have never had a local website, but I have a friend who owns a company that would be strictly local so it made wonder: If a company is located just outside a major metropolitan area, is it possible for this company to compete with companies that are located within the actual city. Here's an example. A construction company located in Plano, Texas wants to rank for Dallas Construction Companies. Plano is 15 mins from downtown Dallas. Does this company have much of a chance ranking on the map for Dallas Construction companies when they have a business address of Plano, Texas?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | kadesmith0 -
Local Offices Optimization
One of my client has offices in 11 different cities and we have a page on the website for each office. I have optimized each page as well as I could for each city. Every on-page aspect I nailed and I even added a unique 100-150 words text and 3 pictures of the offices to each page to make sure Google wouldn't penalize me for having nearly identical pages. Here's one of the page (the Montreal office): http://pierreroy.com/en/offices/bankruptcy-trustee-montreal/ However, even after doing all that, I can't seem to get as many #1 rankings as I think I should. I get outranked by websites not optimizing their page properly... Is it because of inbound links metrics? How do you build links to each office page without spamming? Any advice? Thanks!!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | optimumweb0