Question on following schema for local

[edwardfrebow]

Hello I built out a blog for a client and used Yoast Local SEO plugin for WordPress. Here is one of the pages generated for a physical location for the business. http://water-notes.generalplumbingsupply.com/?wpseo_locations=sonora-ca

My client who manages a website for the same business built out a locations page and insists that their pages rank better for local search. I think the pages are spammy.

Individual location page for the website managed by my client: http://www.generalplumbingsupply.com/American-Canyon-CA-v1.HTML

Multiple locations page: http://www.generalplumbingsupply.com/Locations.HTML

What page should we be using? Thank you for your help.

[AaronHenry]

Well if I understand who did what in your example, your page is missing quite a bit of information that the other client did place on site. Yoast's local plugin is designed to fill in the schema gaps between what your client did and what you have started to do. I think that may be where the difference in opinion is coming in.

Here's some videos on the basics that should go on the location pages that you're trying to setup: http://moz.com/academy/local-content

I would also recommend that you visit Mike's blog: http://blumenthals.com/blog/

Essentially you need to apply schema to what your client set up there. Perhaps also a bit more original content on each page, but you get the idea. Don't forget to place hours of operation, address info, etc. on each location page. It might also be a good idea to put the location info in the footer with the proper schema markup in place. Yoasts plugin just helps you do this a little easier than with coding it yourself.

I would think working on the page that ranks currently would be better than starting over, but I suppose that all depends on budget, competition, etc.

[edwardfrebow]

Thank you for your hello I will watch the videos. My question is also what my client has done at the bottom of his page with all the links to different pages to towns around a store location. Is this spammy. They claim it works well for them. I'm curious.

I can add hours and additional information from the Yoast plugin. But you are also saying the Yoast page need more overall content like:

WWith friendly, knowledgeable product experts, and the latest selection of kitchen and bath products, General Plumbing Supply will help make your dream home a reality. All our store locations include kitchen and bath showrooms open to the public as well as complete contractor sales. Our Walnut Creek store also features a destination showroom. At General Plumbing Supply, you'll find a large selection of kitchen and bath products and one of the largest inventories in the SF Bay Area. Visit us today and let our dedicated professionals help guide you to products that fit the scope of your job and budget. When you are looking for quality kitchen & bath products and personal service, General Plumbing Supply is the place to shop in and around American Canyon, CA.

Thank you for your help

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Edward,

You are totally right to be concerned. This is spammy, extremely so:

http://www.generalplumbingsupply.com/American-Canyon-CA-v1.HTML

That enormous block of links to low quality pages for cities in which the business isn't physically located would almost certainly raise eyebrows with Google. The block of city names is a violation of Google's guidelines referenced on this page:

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66358?hl=en

And the duplicate content from page to page is a major taboo. The presence of this duplicate content is definitely downgrading the overall quality of the website and is likely to fall afoul of Google.

From my look at the site, it appears to me that this is a brick-and-mortar plumbing store with 5 physical locations. By no stretch of the imagination is it okay to be featuring text like this:

"Kitchen And Bathroom Products In Fairfax, CA" when there is no physical location in Fairfax.

I got to this page http://www.generalplumbingsupply.com/Kitchen-And-Bathroom-Products-In-Fairfax-CA-v1.HTML from the American Canyon page. Google Maps says American Canyon and Fairfax are about 35 miles apart, so stating that the store's products are 'in' Fairfax is simply untrue. The customer is not going to appreciate what could very well come off as an attempt to mislead him, right?

I think you are absolutely right to be concerned. In your shoes, I'd be flipping out at this extremely blatant, spammy approach. I'm not quite understanding what the relationship is between you, your client and the store, but if this business came to me asking for a consultation, I'd tell them to read their SEO the riot act. The business owner needs to understand that his rankings and reputation are being put at risk by this practice. I would get rid of all of those scores of pages ASAP and take the following approach:

• A single, unique, high quality page for each store

• Use the blog to write about legitimate connections with any city where the business isn't physically located. For example, if the American Canyon business owner travels to Fairfax to hold a seminar on green plumbing practices, go ahead and write it up. The operative word here is 'legit'.

I think this article will really help everyone involved in the project to correctly identify what this business model is and how to promote it in a user-friendly, safe manner:

http://moz.com/blog/local-landing-pages-guide

If there's some nuance I've overlooked in this situation, please don't hesitate to provide further details, and I sincerely hope my no-nonsense reply on this one may save the business owner from a massive headache!

[spencerhjustice]

The bottom block of text is definitely spammy and needs to be removed, but other than that I would say that http://www.generalplumbingsupply.com/American-Canyon-CA-v1.HTML is a better landing page for SEO and for user experience. It has a better layout and provides more information. The only real issue is that the content should be customized for each location instead of using the same text for all 5 locations with swapped out location names at the end. You'll want to schema the addresses, phone numbers and hours on that page was well.

I'm not sure how long that page has been up but it's not indexed at all as far as I can tell and the top page that is indexed: www.generalplumbingsupply.com/locations-sonora.html is a 404. Also there are even more duplicate content issues because this page is indexed: http://www.generalplumbingsupply.com/Kitchen-And-Bathroom-Products-In-American-Canyon-CA-v1.HTML and has exactly the same content as http://www.generalplumbingsupply.com/American-Canyon-CA-v1.HTML. It would make sure that all pages with the same content are using one url, instead of having multiple urls with the exact same content.

This is one of those times where it's frustrating to be a local SEO, because the site is actually ranking in the cities that they have fake location pages for.

Good Luck!

[edwardfrebow]

Thank you all for your great insight. I will look into everything you have mentioned and suggested. More than worth the price of admission.

[edwardfrebow]

Miriam,

Thank you for your response. Your no nonsense tone reflects how I feel. Thank you for the links to the Google article and moz blog post.

[MiriamEllis]

So glad it helped, Edward. Thanks for letting me know that!