New site setup questions

[c2g]

Working with a law firm with a well-established website that wants to build a separate website for their affiliate title insurance company. Currently, they only mention this company (and list a phone number) on their Real Estate page under Practice Areas.

Although the affiliate company doesn't have a website, their location and phone number are listed in tons of local business directories. I'm currently working on a law firm site that was just built, and the process of getting that one listed in all the directories has been time consuming, so I'm guessing this new site will be much easier, since all I'll have to do is claim ownership of the current listings so I can add a link to the new website (and add additional info to make the profile complete). Would I be correct in assuming this will be a much easier link campaign?

As for new site setup questions, they will obviously get some strong links coming from the existing law firm site. Should they host this new site on a different server so the SE's give more power to the law firm links? Is there really a value to reserving the new domain for 3+ years right off the bat?

Any other suggestions welcome. Thanks.

[BrandonShoupe]

I can't tell you if the link building campaign will be easier or not with the supplied information. I guess it depends on how easy it is to claim the listings. Can you log in and do it yourself? If so, does anyone still have the log in credentials? Do the directories seem to be actively maintained? What if you have to email the web master and they don't respond? I would not bank on getting all the directories updated with the correct information.

There may be some benefit to hosting on a different C-block server. I think seohosting.com sort of automates that process for you. I'd be really interested to see how big of a difference it made. For instance, if you set up hosting on the same server for a few months and moved it to a different one.

[c2g]

While the firm I currently work with is 2hrs away, there's some overlap with the local directories that the new one is listed under. Found all the current ones using OSE, and for the most part, I usually get a login within a few days of claiming the listing. Claimed the firm I work with's manta and avvo profiles, made the profiles as complete as possible (including soliciting client and peer reviews), and I've seen some traffic start to trickle in. For other local directories, I've found thought-through emails to the webmasters to generate equally thought-out responses. Since this is a new firm and the site was built from scratch, I warned that it would take a while to get traffic without spending money on ads and directory links, but I'm hoping the "submit to respected relevant/local directories" approach pays off in the long run.

[SparkplugDigital]

There should be value in hosting the new site on a different server because it will have a different IP address. However Google may still determine that you are the owner of both sites because it can look at things like your domain registration information.

The value for registering a domain for 3+ years is probably small. You might as well do it but I wouldn't expect it to help your rankings.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi C2G,

Is the legal business name, street address and local area code phone number for the law firm COMPLETELY distinct from that of the insurance business? I ask this question because Google does not permit the creation of additional Place Pages for specialties within a given business. For example, a company that washes windows cannot have a separate Place Page for their gutter cleaning services. This is only allowed if the 2 things are separate legal business with separate offices and phone numbers. I thought it was important to jump in here and ask this vital question.

[c2g]

Yes, separate location and phone #.

[MiriamEllis]

Thanks for the clarification, C2G,

I'm the Local SEO Associate here in Q&A. Speaking from a purely Local perspective, yes, the job ahead of you for the separate insurance business will be to build a good website with strong geographic hooks in it, following basic local optimization best practices. You will want to linkbuild to the site. Off the site, you will want to claim any existent profiles, make sure there are no violations on any of them, check for duplicates and other problems and fill in the blanks where there are not currently listings but should be.

In my opinion, the absolute easiest tasks are for brand new businesses with no Internet presence at all, because you are starting from scratch and have total control over getting things done right the first time around. I find it a little more challenging doing the sleuthing for an existent business in order to turn up all records that pre-exist for their business to verify their correctness, but this is certainly not impossible.

Regarding reserving the domain name...it has long been considered a good trust signal with SEs to purchase a domain name for at least a few years at a time. Insurance is a dog eat dog world...you want to encourage the client to do all he can to appear trustworthy.