Local Landing Pages struggling with rankings although I've done most things needed. Any idea?

[PeteC12]

Hi Mozzers,

I am wondering if someone could advise if there's anything obvious here as to why my local landing pages suck ranking wise even though I have done all of the following.  http://goo.gl/Lr4HXa

I am trying to rank for Garden tool hire Bristol on my landing page. Main category page is garden tool hire

1. Consitant NAP - Citations.
2. Local branch address on Page , in title tag, H1 tag and the address is in on page content which is unique.
3. Schema.org has been set up with address in this aswell etc.
4. Pagination set up and view all page has concanical tag pointing to page 1
5. Speed not an issue as this is a fast site.
6. Currently all the product links on the page are H3 tags but I've seen this on lots of other sites.
7. All my NAP Citations point to the parent branch pages although I don't have any individual deep links pointing to this page.
8. Unique Content

I currently don't have internal links to relevant articles on my blog page as I have those on my main category landing page as you can see here  -  http://goo.gl/sO9A9U but I can add these as well to all my location specific landing pages if you think it would help.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated

Pete

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Hi Pete,

Just a very quick observation, you might be running into pages that are quite similar:

1. http://www.bestathire.co.uk/branches/bristol-tool-hire-shop
2. http://www.bestathire.co.uk/garden-tools-bristol

Then you also have...

3. http://www.bestathire.co.uk/garden-tools

Pages 2 & 3 appear to be exactly the same, but with a different title, heading, etc. Google won't thank you for that.

I would spend some time thinking about the phrases you wish to rank for and making sure your pages are all suitably different in content and offerings.

-Andy

[PeteC12]

Hi Andy,

Yes I see what you mean but I have a main category page and then branch specific landing pages of those category pages each with unique content on each of them.

The title tags etc all have the location in there to make them unique although the products are the same on the pages.

I don't see how else one can rank for specific location pages for their categories any other way as it's to competitive to try and compete with the majors so local search for each branch is an better way forward if I can get it work.

thanks

Pete

[Andy.Drinkwater]

although the products are the same on the pages.

This is what is going to prevent you from reaching these goals. Google isn't going to rank two pages the same with just a difference in basics. It isn't enough for them.

There is usually a lot more to look at in these circumstances if you want to start ranking for location phrases too, because what you are doing there alone isn't enough. This is more likely to bring down problems than help you gain rankings.

-Andy

[PeteC12]

My competitors do it and they do okay ranking wise hence I thought it may be page specific issue.

thanks for your input though, I will try and see what can be changed.

Pete

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Peter,

My own preference for doing this type of Local SEO/copywriting is to structure sites like this:

1. A page for every office or a page for every city served

2. A page for every service

I feel like once you get into trying to cover every possible city/service combo on landing pages, there can be some danger of creating thin or throwaway content. Unless your city A lawn mowing service is somehow totally different than your city B lawn mowing service, you probably shouldn't be creating these pages. Instead, have a page for city A, a page for city B and a page for lawn mowing.

I'm not saying that what I'm describing is the only way to do this - just that it's my personal preference for small-to-medium businesses.

[PeteC12]

Many thanks Andy and Miriam, I think you may well be right. Whilst this technique was extremely successful a couple of years back for me  Google changes have stopped this method performing as well so it may be perceived as spammy in their eyes. Whilst I've got unique content etc , I could still be getting affected by some form of algorithmic penalty

Will have to look at how to restructure things.

thanks

Pete

[MiriamEllis]

My pleasure, Pete, and don't overlook the nice medium of the blog for continuing to showcase your involvement in various cities. I think Google is still very much in love with fresh content

[DoyleDigital]

Content needs to be vastly different, not just slightly varied.

This can be painful, and take a lot of time and creativity to figure out how to write the same 300-500 words in a different way.

I wrote a personal blog post not too long ago on ways to write content for location pages: http://doyledigital.com.au/content-for-location-pages/