First Post! Local Electrician Site.

[MRiley]

I have a site for a local electrician that I just can't seem to get to move up the SERPS. I've tried everything form on-page optimization to local link building but It seems to always hover around position 11-17 for my keyword 'electricians grimsby' - which is not very competitive.

Any advice would be invaluable.

[KarlBantleman]

Hi Matthew, welcome to Moz!!

Have you done a Google Places listing for the website yet? If not, then this would increase your visibility for "electricians grimsby". I'd look at expanding your keywords as well, you could go for "electricians in yorkshire" too.

Find some local directories as well, this is the reason they exist. Just did a quick search and found this one www.localelectrician.co.uk. If you are going to submit to directories, just make sure that the page the link is going on has been cached recently or it won't be worth it.

[Jonathan_Hatton]

One thing I would add to what Karl has just said; If you are thinking of creating a places listing and your primary keyword 'Electricians Grimsby' is on your homepage, make sure you create a separate subpage targeting that keyword. If you target that keyword on your homepage and then create a places listing which is then placed on page 1, Google might merge the listing. This means you will loose your organic rank. Obviously make sure  you are not duplicating content and meta on the new page.

Just something to consider!

[KarlBantleman]

I've never seen this happen before, is this something that you've experienced in the past Jonathan? Seems very odd!

[MRiley]

I had a Google Places listing for this site, I apparently made the mistake of registering x2 businesses at the same address though. Even though they were x2 businesses (an electrical contractor and a solar panel installer) Google first merged them as one listing, then de-listed them both entirely. It's been a long process of trying to get them back in to Local and still not there yet. I've jumped through all the hoops Local-Help@Google have suggested but no luck yet after several months.

[Jonathan_Hatton]

Hi Karl,

Yes it has happened with 2-3 of my clients. I believe the only way to reverse the effect is by either deleting your places listing or creating a subpage as mentioned above.

The only other mention I have found online regarding something similar, is on this forum!

There doesn't seem to be any case studies on this that I can find.

[MiriamEllis]

Good discussion going on here fellows!

Matthew, I am just going to throw out a bunch of ideas for your consideration, and some of these will be questions to gauge a better understanding of your client's unique scenario.

1. Is the client physically located in Grimsby? Have they established a unique (non-shared) physical address there now? As you might imagine, if the actual local record has been merged and then suspended, it is going to pretty much kill the business' chances of achieving high local rankings. As the Local SEO on this project, your top priority is to get this worked out with Google, and it will take time. You've got to be incredibly persistent.

2. Have you cleaned up the total web record of citations for the business? If the client was listing two businesses at the same address in Google's local product, chances are, this data exists elsewhere. If the issue with the addresses has been resolved on a physical level, you need to engage in a citation cleanup campaign to edit all references so that they reflect the new, allowable address for the single business, if the client has now got this straightened out. Remember that Google looks at the whole data cluster about each business and draws information about this from the whole web. If Google continues to see two businesses at the same address, they will continue not to 'trust' the business.

3. You mention ranking around 11-17, so, here, I am assuming you are talking about organic rankings rather than local ones, meaning that these results will be most influenced by organic SEO factors (domain authority, age of domain, content development, links quality, on-page SEO, etc.).  Has the client given up trying to rank well in the blended local pack of results because they've been de-listed? Have you decided to focus on organic results only, because of this?

In sum, the typical goal for a local electrician is going to be to get as high in the local pack of results as he can, with a combination of local and organic factors enabling his high ranking. If the business was actually de-listed by Google, that is an extremely tough situation and one that the company has to work night and day to overcome via direct dialogue with Google staff. Until this can be resolved, the client will always be held back from being where he needs to, and in your shoes, I would be doing a full audit of all elements of marketing the client has engaged in to be sure they haven't made other spammy choices or violations. They have got to be squeaky clean in all areas and plead with Google to re-consider their eligibility for inclusion. You may or may not be able to achieve this for the client and should be operating under that understanding. It's very difficult to get back into Google's good graces once they've hammered down on a violation, but this is what has to be seen as the big goal.

Sorry not to have better news, but I hope this information helps!