I have 3 locations for my business. Queens, Brooklyn and long island New York finding it hard to rank all 3

[access5000]

This post is deleted!

[Mustansar]

I would say start listing your site on local business directories along with local Google, bing and yahoo. Yelp and yell is also good in order to give you boast in this. Moreover, have detail analysis of your site in order to understand what is wrong and where can be an issue.

[access5000]

Thanks for the reply, did the local bsuiness listing. How can I get the detail analysis from or where. I think that would be my best starting point???

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi Al

I would utilize & read the following resources (for each location):
Moz Local
Whitespark.ca
Get Started with Google My Business Verify a Local Business on Google+
Link Your Brand Page to Your Website

I would also research some keywords and queries - you use the term "car lessons" a lot. I don't know how often people search for that when searching for driver's lessons or driving school. I would also do some work on your URLs...

http://www.access2drive.com/driving-school-laurelton-queens-call-718-276-5566-laurelton-ny-11413/
http://www.access2drive.com/driving-school-brooklyn-call-718-514-2334-in-brooklyn-ny-11210/
http://www.access2drive.com/driving-school-baldwin-call-516-908-2221-nassau-county-ny-11510/

Point blank - these are odd URLs - don't put "call-phonenumber" in your URL. You're overdoing it at that point.

I would also look into these resources: On-Page Factors (Moz)
Best Practices for URLs (Moz)
Local SEO (Moz)
Moz Academy (Moz - focus on the Local section)

Hopefully this all helps! Let me know if you have any questions! Good luck!

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Al,

I believe there are two components to your question here.

One is about ranking drops and the other is about the difficulty of ranking in a competitive market.

For the first, falling rankings are typically rooted in 1 of these 3 things:

1. More active competitors are surpassing you

2. There are issues with your website or SEO that need to be corrected

3. Some practice the business has engaged in is subject to a Google filter or penalty

Determining the cause is going to require an audit of your website and SEO. Phil Rozek has written a good post about the components of a good Local SEO audit: http://www.localvisibilitysystem.com/2014/12/15/the-20-principles-of-a-dynamite-local-seo-audit/  It's very important that you make a decision as to whether you feel you have the skills to perform such an audit in-house, or whether the situation is difficult enough that hiring a very good Local SEO would be most helpful in identifying and resolving potential problems.

For the second topic, you are facing the the same challenge all local business owners do in a competitive market. Breaking into a tough, competitive market can be done, but it requires major effort backed with adequate funding. I like to think of local search ranking factors as falling into three big categories. These are:

1. Website quality, authority and optimization

2. Citation consistency, breadth and authority

3. Competitive difference makers

In a competitive market, most of your competitors will already be doing well with factors 1 and 2, and you must be sure your ducks are in as a good a row as theirs in this regard, just to level the playing field. That leaves you with factor 3, which can include all kinds of marketing opportunities, including social participation, link earning, video marketing, offline marketing, and of course, content publication. Performing a competitive analysis of the companies you would like to surpass will help you to assess if there are areas your competitors are neglecting that you can enter into and begin to shine. This third factor can encompass all kinds of creative work and the goal of it is to make your company stand out from the pack in some way that connects with your customers in a meaningful fashion.

Again, as with the first concept, whether you feel qualified to do this type of competitive analysis or need to hire a Local SEO to do it for you will depend on your in-house resources and education.

Hope this helps!

[access5000]

Thanks I have a lot of work to do

[access5000]

Thanks you

[access5000]

Man if I change that url I have so many links to it. Is there a word press plugin that can update some of the backlinks if I change that url that you know about?

[access5000]

How do you feel about a audit from fiverr.com? Anyone on there you could lead me to?

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Al,

I'm sorry - I don't have any personal experience with Fiverr that I can speak from. Personally, I would recommend that if you're hiring someone, you consider contacting some of the Local

SEOs who participated in the last Local Search Ranking Factors study (http://moz.com/local-search-ranking-factors). Look at the box on the right side labeled Contributors. Pretty much

anyone on that list is likely to be worth speaking to about your needs and their skills. Hope that idea helps!

P.S. sorry about the wonky formatting of this response - we're having a little issue with this today