Local on-page SEO

[indicoll]

If it feels like you are doing something wrong, then you 'probably' are...

Local on-page SEO

When optimising a page for local SEO, and trying tick all the usuals boxes, you find yourself adding words like 'golf clubs leeds' which sounds awful when part of a natural paragraph of text. Does Google recognise this poor use of grammar? We try to be as creative as possible, as not to offend the visitor, but it feels wrong... any advice?

Thanks

[Adam_Cochran]

I'm sure you've heard the saying "If you build it they will come" - it's a famous movie quote (I want to say Field of Dreams, but I can't quite remember off the top of my head), but more importantly it's a great mantra to build off of for SEO.

When you are trying too hard to improve your rankings you are going to fail. The most important thing you can do to improve your SEO is improve your site for your users. Google will identify your poor grammar stuffing time and time again - and let me tell you that's going to hurt you in the long run.

If you are a golf store in leeds then make sure you have an address in your footer including your city name, make sure your business is listed (and verified) on Google Places (<cite>www.google.com/local/add/</cite>‎) and if you have a trusted and notable business listing directory in your area like YellowPages make sure your business is listed with their digital directory. (Do NOT ever take the time to list on directories that aren't big notable companies it will actually have a negative impact)

Next it may be worthwhile implementing the Local Business schema markup (found here: http://schema.org/LocalBusiness) or schema events as they geotag as well (http://schema.org/Event)

Other than that keep your content organic, focus on your visitors needs, don't try and stuff in keywords and hit percents it all looks unnatural. Focus on getting your users the website they want to see and your CTR, Time on Site, and Bounce metrics should alter in a positive fashion lending themselves to a bit of an SEO boost anyway.

To stray away from the SEO and get a little inbound it's worth while to set up a Facebook profile with website and address information for your business as well, not only driving traffic but giving you more locational and social authority.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Indicoll,

I'm glad you've brought this up. An example  like 'golf clubs leeds' is a good one. You are correct that this is unnatural language. You don't want to be writing, "We have the best golf clubs leeds", because it sounds unnatural to your human visitors, and also, because Google takes poor writing into account.

As Adam has pointed out, you can signal geography in many ways on your website and you should not have to rely on stating 'golf clubs leeds' over an over again in order to rank. Of course, there are some instances in which you feel you simply must find a way to work an exact match phrase in, in which case, creativity can sometimes come to the rescue. This would be a legitimate:

"The Golf Clubs Leeds Pros Reach For, Course After Course"

Something like that would be okay and would include those keywords in exact order, if it's essential to do so, but for the most part, Google will understand the meaning of a properly-optimized page without too much effort on the website owner's part. Optimize your tags and sprinkle keywords in a natural manner in thorough copy and you should be good to go. By contrast, awkward language can drive customers away and flag a site as spammy. It's good you are thinking about this. It's quite important!

[Adam_Cochran]

Very true Miriam,

Also I thought I may add that Google respects syntax - one of the modern debates in relation to your content is all about LSI relations. Google expects to see things like "Golf Clubs in Leeds" and will still rank it for "golf club leeds"!

You don't need the exact phrase zeroed in to rank.

The best way to research this is to use the google keyword tool (https://adwords.google.com/o/Targeting/Explorer?__c=1000000000&__u=1000000000&ideaRequestType=KEYWORD_IDEAS)

Throw your target keyphrase in there and look at the and let it populate ad group ideas (only seen when logged in). What you'll notice is a lot of these adword ideas have the EXACT same monthly traffic, local monthly traffic, difficulty and CPC price - that is because Google treats them as the EXACT same phrase.

Golf clubs leeds
Golf clubs in leeds
leeds golf clubs

They will all likely be treated as interchangeable in Google to some extent and a diversity of them will really help to hammer home your SEO while making it look natural.

[indicoll]

Thank you for your replies, it is nice to hear we are not alone in this challenge... great answers & valuable advice.

Sincere thanks.

[MiriamEllis]

We're here to help! So glad you found help here.