Has Google Local search algorithm changed in the last 6 months?

[MiriamEllis]

Hope it helps! I see you've included some keywords, above, that you're not ranking for as well as you used to. Are you able to mention which company is yours?

[CalicoKitty2000]

Sea Leveler Sport Fishing Charters

[MiriamEllis]

Hey Calico!

Thanks for sharing. I did a 3 minute look at this and do not see any of the MAJOR problems I look for first, and I also see that your citations appear to be in very good shape for this business : https://moz.com/local/details/JTI1NUIlMjUyMlNlYSUyNTIwTGV2ZWxlciUyNTIwU3BvcnQlMjUyMEZpc2hpbmclMjUyMENoYXJ0ZXJzJTI1MjIlMjUyQyUyNTIyMzI5MjAlMjUyMiUyNTJDJTI1MjJTZWElMjUyMExldmVsZXIlMjUyMFNwb3J0JTI1MjBGaXNoaW5nJTI1MjBDaGFydGVycyUyNTIyJTI1MkMlMjUyMjUwNSUyNTIwR2xlbiUyNTIwQ2hlZWslMjUyMERyJTI1MjIlMjUyQyUyNTIyMzI5MjAlMjUyMiUyNTJDJTI1MjIzMjE3OTQzNDc0JTI1MjIlMjU1RA==

You are centrally located in the industry centroid, I don't see obvious duplicate listings and you definitely have more reviews than all but one of your competitors who are outranking you (Orlando Princess has 51).

On your website, your content is on the modest side. Could be built up to more impressive heights :). I recommend that you put your complete NAP at the top of both the Contact Page and the Location page. Complete = name, address and phone.

Going through that checklist I linked to earlier may help you turn up more nitty-gritty stuff you could be doing better, but the good news is that I'm not seeing some obvious oh-no problem at first glance. You'll need to dig deeper into competitive analysis to discover why you're being locally outranked when your organic strength is so excellent (at least for the term I looked at: deep sea fishing cocoa beach). You are doing so many thing right, it's going to take some real effort to find out why that effort isn't being rewarded in the way it seems to deserve. Sometimes, a business will drop simply because it is standing still while competitors move forward, so identifying whether you have competitors who are marketing more aggressively than your company is would be something to aim for, as well.

Sorry not to have an easy solution on this one. You've passed most of my quick tests with flying colors

P.S. Meant to add ... some of your optimization is not quite clear on the website. If Cocoa Beach is your main location, tags and text need to reflect that over any other city you might be aiming for. Content development and diversification could be very helpful here.

[RobertFisher]

Miriam,

YOU is a ROCKSTAR!

[MiriamEllis]

Aww, thank you, Robert!

[CalicoKitty2000]

Thank you for taking the time to look at my site!!!  So kind of you!

I will make the updates on NAP on the Contact and Location page, good suggestion!

I have tried to balance my on-page SEO for searches for 4 of the local cities and do rank 1-4 on most of them.  So, maybe that is why the optimization isn't as clear as it should be.  I used to have keyword pages for each of the locations (when that was sort of the thing to do and I didn't know very much about SEO). Over the last 2 years, I have been redirecting them and re-organizing my site. Sometimes I feel like it might be easier to start over rather than keep tweaking my current site.  I am considering a move to WP.  I am just afraid of hurting my current rankings.

When you say "your content is on the modest side", what would you suggest I do to build it up to more impressive heights?  Are you talking technical on-page SEO?  Or, better/more photos?  Better on-page organization?  We are trying to start doing a better job at our blog (which is on WP), so my site is sort of an html / WP hybrid.  And I do know that I need to optimize image sizes, it is on my list of things to do.

Sorry if my questions seem rudimentary, I am not SEO trained and do it all myself.  I just try to do what Google says in their guide and what Moz says in their articles.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Calico!

So glad you are getting helpful input from our cool community, here

I did not see that you have a blog! Where is it? I'm not seeing it in the top menu. That would contain the kind of content opportunities I was thinking of. Your homepage is good. The Boats page might be a little more descriptive; effort is there and basic technical info is there, but maybe a little bit more about why each boat would be the best choice for certain 'user' groups? And I think there is more opportunity for customer stories here. I notice the 'Our Daily Catch' section at bottom of the site and that is cool, but maybe if you could work with a few of your best customers to tell their stories of what it's like to hire your services, that would provide some more color and excitement.

Excited to know you have a blog. Definitely would be important to be sure it's easy to find and regularly updated.

[CalicoKitty2000]

Thank you again so much!  It is amazing to find people willing to help out us small businesses. You have no idea really how much I appreciate it!

The blog is listed on the front page about 3/4 the way down (http://www.sealeveler.com/flfishingblog/florida-fishing-blog).  I have been thinking I should put it in the menu, but my husband doesn't want me to change the menu. I would have to get rid of something that's there, or make a pull down menu.  He is against pull down menus because he thinks a large portion of our customers get confused by pull down menus (a large portion of our customers aren't very computer literate and always compliment us on the simplicity of our site). But, our customer base is slowly changing to those that are used to technology. But, he likes how simple our menu is... so I keep it.... for now.    If I make my move to Wordpress... this will provide an opportunity for menu redesign.  lol!

Our blog is a combination of fishing reports and fishing stories told by my husband.   Many of them are about customers and are pretty good stories.  One of them has a video our customer sent to us and allowed us to use.  A teenager put the video together and did a great job!  We have been lacking on the stories lately because I have been starting a new business and put most of my focus there.  We will need to get back on the stories though.  We have also started fishing forecast reports, which are getting a lot of attention through facebook.  And, I plan to start to share fishing charter videos via the blog as well.

I agree on the boats page and I need to do that.  It is validating to hear you say that as well.  We are in the process of upgrading many of our boats and plan to take better photos as well.  So, thank you for mentioning that.  It puts more of a fire under my backside to hear you say that.

[CalicoKitty2000]

This is an example of one of our blog posts... one of my favorites.  Maybe I should highlight these better somehow...

http://www.sealeveler.com/flfishingblog/summer-time-highs-lows-go-pros/

[MiriamEllis]

Thanks so much for letting our community know you're finding a lot of help here. That's wonderful!

Sounds like you have some good improvements planned migrating to Wordpress. To me, it looks like location/contact could possibly be turned into a single page, making more room in your menu for a blog link, but that's a call you'd need to make. I can see from the blog post you've shared that you're looking to put lots of effort into the blog, so giving it a priority link makes sense to me!

Good luck with all you're doing!