Problems ranking in St Louis
-
Hello everybody
We have noticed that when tracking several keywords across the United States, the keywords in St. Louis are almost always ranked the lowest. We rank on the first page for 46/47 locations for several keywords, but St. Louis ranks on page 4 or later. Any ideas? One thought we've had is the different spelling of the city name, St Louis, St. Louis, Saint Louis. Should this have any bearing on the problem?
Thanks in advance, I look forward to any insight you can provide!
-
That's the issue. For every other location we track, we are on page 1 or 2 for every keyword. But in St Louis, we are on page 4-8.
The issue I think has to do with the landing page. When we rank that low, the landing page is our generic sales page, rather than the specific St Louis sales page. We've been working on local citations, but it hasn't moved the needle TOO much yet.
And bring it on! (preferably in a city other than St Louis though)
-
I must've missed that article, thank you!
-
No problem! We like to think that we know St Louis fairly well, as we are one of the few companies to rank for St Louis SEO company, St Louis internet marketing, and St Louis web design companies all on page one, sometimes more than once
I hope that this information helps you with your local efforts, and gets you showing up. If you are already on page 2, chances are you are just missing a smaller piece of the puzzle. Page two is a sign that you already have a lot of the right elements in place, and something needs to be added or adjusted to bump you up a page. If we ever get a client in St Louis that offers the same local services as you do, we will be sure to see you on the battlefield! Lol
-
Really nice answers from both David and Jeff, here. Very thoughtful, fellows!
Kevin, you might want to do a run-through of this article just to make sure your bases are all covered:
-
Thanks Dave, that's a lot of information. I will start diving into that right away!
-
Having worked with multiple companies in St Louis for rankings, it can be difficult.
I agree with Jeff that people search for things adjacent to their exact neighborhood, as metro St Louis is a very small portion of the "city". There are also people that search for items using the STL, Saint Louis, and St Louis (St Louis being the local lingo and the most popular)
Before you begin modifying anything, I would manually go and check that your keyword reporting tool is working correctly (AWR, MOZ, or whatever you use). Go to Google and see that your suspicions are correct. If they are, then proceed to do the following. Also double check in Bing and Yahoo to see if there are any trends. Chances are if you suck at ranking across all search providers for St Louis, you need more local authority.
1. Manually track what keywords and phrases that rank low. Look at competitor keyword phrases and SEO for signs of what Google is giving the authority status to, and then look for why.
2. Look at the backlinks of those sites. Having worked with a lot of local companies, most high ranking sites are pretty good about doing their citation site and local optimization. Being a larger focused company, you will have to think of ways to get your St Louis-specific content to become "more valued" and authoritative than the local sites that offer the same services. For example: If a local provider has a 100 backlinks from local St Louis citations, all stating that he does "KEYWORD in St Louis" you are going to have to prove that your St Louis content deserves that spot.
3. Look at avenues within the local area where you can distribute content and get people linking back. Easiest and fastest way? Most likely a few Press Releases from one of the larger companies with a wide distribution network that can hyper-focus your content to St Louis. Look for openings or opportunities from The St Louis Business Journal, St Louis Post Dispatch, Local Channel 5, STLtoday.com and any other major news outlets. All of these sites have very high page ranks, and domain authority. Link these releases back to your local St Louis content in various ways and formats, but "St Louis" will most likely be your best bet since most locals type it that way.
4. "My question may be more related to on-page optimization. We rank pretty well when adding the various keyword modifiers at the end of the regular keyword" The on page optimization will have to cover the St Louis area (unless you use those pages to rank in multiple areas under the main keyword phrase), for all of the reasons mentioned above. I know that you are trying to use the local setting within Google, but that is only so accurate as your physical IP is going to be from a different place. Might be worth it to set up a few localized pages on your site to see if it makes a difference in your placement.
5. You also may be seeing this change as a part of the algorithm updates, that do more to separate local and nationwide search. Seems like they are going away from using the IP and location information as one of the most important factors, as users search queries often include the location if they are looking for local. People's search habits change, and Google responds.
Hope any of this helps, and best of luck!
- Dave
-
Jeff
Thanks for the quick response and insight into the area!
My question may be more related to on-page optimization. We rank pretty well when adding the various keyword modifiers at the end of the regular keyword (stl, st louis, etc).
The type of searches that we struggle with are when you change your browser location as if you are searching from St. Louis, then type in the keyword that we are targeting. This works well in every other city, just not St. Louis. We just can't figure out what is different between St. Louis and our other cities, it just doesn't make sense.
Thanks!
Kevin
-
I grew up in St. Louis, so I might have a little bit of insight... It is possible that St. Louis is spelled differently by different people, but most normal users who live in the area are not spelling out "Saint." Google's ability to show synonyms and close words should obviate this issue, too.
While St. Louis - the city - has had a bit of a resurgence in recent years, become more urban and hip, most of the population of the St. Louis metro area doesn't actually live in St. Louis, and probably doesn't use "St. Louis" in broad search terms. The population of St. Louis is actually quite small. Instead, the city is surrounded by many smaller cities that people might identify more specifically with.
For example, people might use Chesterfield, Creve Coeur, Ladue, etc, as a much more detailed way to search.
I hope this helps!
-- Jeff
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
-
Strange Ranking Results
Hi Any ideas why doing a search for 'Family Portrait Photographer' from my location on the Isle Of Wight (after deleting cache/history) etc results in a load of results relating to Cardiff Wales (local serps and main listings)? I am close to cities like Southjampton & Portsmouth as well as few other all much neaer than cardiff ! All Best
Local Listings | | Dan-Lawrence
Dan0 -
How to rank for local keywords (cities) when you don't have brick and mortar stores
Hi folks, We have developed a site that connect local consumers with local businesses (brick and mortar). The keywords that consumers search for are e.g. "plumber san diego" or "hairdresser" + "local area" and so on...good old fashioned local searches. Sometimes even without the location added in the search. But how do we BEST optimize our site to get the most organic traffic from these local searches? We don't have brick and mortar stores or offices but our service is of high value and will save consumers lots of money and even help the local businesses when in need of extra customers. Thanks in advance for all your input. Have a nice day. Chris
Local Listings | | Henrik_Kruse1 -
Home Page not Ranking on Local Community Sites
I am helping out with a couple of community sites and am seeing the same problem on both. They are small non-commercial local websites. One has 5 or 6 relevant links to the home page, and the title tag and content have been optimised for the name of the group and the location (and in any case the phrase is completely non-competitive). The other one has few links and isn't optimised. Both sites are fairly new. Both sites have the same problem in that when you search for the name of the group, it is not the home page that comes up but another page. My experience is mainly in the more competitive commercial arena, so I thought that these community sites would be simple! Can anyone point me in the right direction as to why this might be? No spammy links on either. These are community sites that are not particularly well maintained, but the phrases I am searching for are non-competitive. I have checked that the home pages are not no-indexed. Any tips much appreciated!
Local Listings | | Wagada0 -
How can I rank for keywords Locally?
For this test I am using google's "Ad Preview and Diagnostics" tool in adwords. And I took some screen shots to show you my problem. My company name is PhillyDoors, Inc. and the website is phillydoors.com Keyword: garage door repair.
Local Listings | | phillydoors
Location: 19116, Philadelphia, PA (Location Of Office)
Ranking: 1 Locally, 1 Organically
Picture: 1 2) Keyword: garage door repair philadelphia
Location: 19116, Philadelphia, PA (Location Of Office)
Ranking: 30 Locally, 1 Organically
Picture: 2 Keyword: garage door repair.
Location: Philadelphia, PA (Location Of Office)
Ranking: 1 Locally, 1 Organically
Picture: 3 4) Keyword: garage door repair philadelphia
Location: Philadelphia, PA (Location Of Office)
Ranking: 30 Locally, 1 Organically
Picture: 4 I have done some link building in the past that is helping me rank number 1 organically. I am also using moz local and my score is 86%. (pic 5) I simply do not understand why I am ranking so well organically but my local rankings are pretty terrible. While the listing "Garage Door Repair Service" is ranking at the top of the list. I understand that it is against Google's policy to name the listing something like this when your company name and website name is completely different. What can I do to rank better locally for more keywords and more cities rather than just a single zip code? hrsZZfF TTFr1rQ aDJSwWV BnyZP BnyZP0 -
Should I change my local listing Service type from Brick and Mortar to Service Area in Google? And will it affect my ranking in a negative manner?
Currently my company Big Boy Bail Bonds, Inc is ranking very well for the city it is located and, currently service type is brick and mortar. But my Company does not only service people at our location but we service the entire county of Los Angeles. And I wanted to know if you would advise me on weather I should change the service type from brick and morter to service area. and if doing that would effect me in a negative manner when it came to my ranking? Plz advice Thank you in advance.
Local Listings | | LittleDog1 -
Awesome ranking (place 1/2) but my CTR is damn low! Some thoughts...
Hey all, with a few projects I'm ranking really great. Having a good amount of impressions with terms that have decent search volume. Webmasters shows: "tax consultant city" Ranking 1.4 => 1056 imp => 3% CTR "seo city" Ranking 1.2 => 329 imp => 1% CTR Whats up here? Competitors are seaching a lot but not clicking? Brand issues? Can't believe that. Title is boring? German titles a are longer... So I don't have enough room to play. Should I get rid of important keywords? Maybe I don't need them to rank? Gives me room for tests. Local Box is steeling all the clicks? We are in the local listings and above. Payed Ads are steeling all the clicks? At this point we don't use AdWords because of high costs and our great organic rankings It would be great to hear your thoughts. Cheers
Local Listings | | PascalKremp
Pascal0 -
Organic and Local ranking changes UK
Hi, Has anyone seen any major fluctuations in local and organic rankings over the last week? I'm recording some significant changes, cannot fathom why at the moment other than Pigeon is still maybe rolling out... Dan
Local Listings | | SEOBirmingham810