Does SEO work?
-
Hello, I have a question which I really want to get to the bottom of.
We are carrying out some SEO for a client. Im currently using the tools in Moz to help me with this. Im currently trying to target "Dentist Balham". We are following all the "rules" creating content, created a mobile friendly site etc. However the site that is coming top is www.balhamdentalcare.co.uk which carries non of the things we are doing, in fact a lot of the content is PDF downloads. They don't do well in the SERP Report compared to other sites. Its basically not a great site but its coming up first. Does any one think this can be beaten or does it just come down to the fact that they use "Balham" in the domain name?
Thanks for your advice.
Ade -
Thanks for that, i feel inspired! I know it can be done its just sometimes you feel your doing a lot of work and you look at another site and think "there not doing half this stuff, why are they doing so well?" Im of course also looking at other areas/keywords to improve the SEO but as you know most clients get certain terms into there heads that they want to show up for. Thanks for your help.
-
Thanks Jeremy, I've not been working on the SEO that long, less than 2 months. I guess my question is more to do with the fact that its hard to say to a client "This is SEO and this is what needs doing on your site" then for a client to simply turn round and say " well this company doesnt do that and they are top".
-
I took a quick look at the BalhamDentalCare site.
You ask... "Does any one think this can be beaten".
In the organic SERPs, yes, absolutely. They can be beaten. There are many things that competitors could do a LOT better. But those competitors would have to do a LOT of work to match them.
In the local results. They have great position - but a smart competitor who is willing to work hard could beat them.
You also ask.... "or does it just come down to the fact that they use "Balham" in the domain name?"
Having the word "Balham" is slightly helpful. But that word in the domain will only decide their position against weak competitors. When competition increases a word in the domain means very little compared to all of the other work that needs to be done to be competitive.
Quite honestly. balhamdentalcare.co.uk has done a fantastic job creating content. If they ever learn how to do really good SEO or hire a really good SEO then the other "dentists in Balham" are going to have a difficult time beating them. If they simply write better title tags and sharpen the optimization of their pages they will be a lot stronger.
A small amount of smart work could make them a lot stronger, but most competitors have an enormous amount of work just to pull even with them in their current state.
Beat them now while they are in low form and hope that they don't get smart.
-
I think an important thing you forgot to mention was how long you have been carrying out your SEO strategy for this client. This is essential to know - high ranking websites do not happen quickly.
Having a keyword in the domain used to be extremely beneficial, but Google has began not factoring it in nearly as much.
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
-
Had a local SEO client completely drop off in all rankings...?
Hey everyone! I wanted to ask the Moz community on what I should be on the lookout for in this situation; I have a local SEO client, an orthopedic clinic, who out of nowhere completely dropped off the map. Their Search Visibility is now at .001%. I really have no idea what would have caused this... I have dozens of other local SEO clients and have never seen this before.
Local Listings | | TaylorRHawkins2 -
Google maps SEO
We rank #1 for our main keyword and location, however, the top 3 google maps listing doesn't include us. We have more reviews than any of our local competitors (they have around 1/2, we have 25 all 5*) & we only seem to appear as an ad on maps listings. What can we do to resolve this?
Local Listings | | RayflexGroup0 -
Citations, SEO and a skeptical client
What do you say to a client who recently purchased an online business and says 'I don't really care if the phone number or address on a directory is old or incorrect'?I've tried to explain the value from an SEO point of view, but he's not really buying it.Anyone encountered this skepticism before and if so, how did you handle it?
Local Listings | | muzzmoz0 -
SEO without a budget and Cheating Competitors
I have law clients in the atlanta ga area. I have worked with one client http://bestdefensega.com for the past 4 months trying to get him to the top. We blog 3 times a week, have manually built citations and legal directory profiles. My client doesn't have a large budget to purchase profiles on some of the larger legal directories like findlaw, lexus nexus etc.. With that said,
Local Listings | | underdogmike
Using Open Site Explorer I have discovered that his competition all have multiple business websites pointed back to their main websites.. So each law office has several really generic websites in addition to their main site. Other's appear to be receiving links from some type of link farm and really generic directory sites.
The domains of these guy's are older and more established. Where as, my client has a new practice and a new domain. How do I compete in the local market without a budget for the premium legal directories? So after 4 months my client appears in the local pack search results for only select keywords. Criminal defense attorney woodstock ga. His competition appears in the results for all variations, where my client only shows for this one term. How do I get me client in the local pack for all variations of Criminal Defense in my area? According to Moz, my site has a couple spam score issues and the explanations are not clear enough for me to make some types of changes.
**How do I make these changes to reduce the spam score? My site has more back links than Moz is reporting why?** All of the other sites that I manage perform well and my clients are realizing their ROI with relative ease. But criminal defense is a different beaat and it is starting to frustrate me. RAR! Thanks in advance!0 -
Local SEO Benefit
Hi Our company is looking to increase our local SEO footprint and wondering what is the industry average for traffic increase to quantify investment. Can’t really find anything online. I understand this can be very subjective in relation to market size, competition, localization, etc but just trying to get a sense of opportunity if we cross our t’s and dot our i’s, what's the potential? Context: We’re a national brick and mortar with eComm. We’ve already done a lot of leg work in optimizing our NAP but very little citation building/claiming. Please provide resources for stats Thanks for any input. Cheers
Local Listings | | WMCA0 -
Google Local Business SEO
Under "http://moz.com/blog/everybody-needs-local-seo" Q) There is a paragraph saying "If your business has multiple locations, you should have a unique location landing page for each Google Plus Local listing." Does it mean that for each of my shop (location), i have to create an brand new google plus page for it? Q) There is a paragraph saying "you're dealing with a single location, then we're talking about your home page - but these elements should also be locally optimized on product and services pages. City and state in the title tag. City and state in H1 heading" For example, if my country is australia, i have to create a page within my website and the it is optimised to the keywords "Gold Coast | Australia" in my 'product and services page'?
Local Listings | | kevinbp0 -
How do we setup renting space without hurting our local seo?
Currently, one of our offices has two businesses in it that our owned by the same person. The law firm and the title company. They both use the same address, but they both rank locally for this area. I'm worried that having another company rent space here that is not affiliated with the owner AND is using the same address will hurt us. What are our options here? The best thing I can think to do is have them add a suite number or something to their listing, but I'm not sure exactly how to do that. Do I need to get the post office is to verify that? Will google and the rest just overturn it, if it's not in their records? Anyone know how best to proceed with this? Thanks, Ruben
Local Listings | | KempRugeLawGroup1 -
How does dynamic call tracking affect local SEO?
I would like to begin tracking calls and offline conversions, but I am concerned that if I add a dynamic call tracking software that it will negatively affect SEO.
Local Listings | | FluidAdvertising1