Grr . . . Just can't seem to get there

[kayweb]

mrswitch.com.au is one site that we are consistantly struggling with . . . It has a page rank of 3 which beats most of the competitors, but when it comes to Google AU searches such as Sydney Electrician and Electrician Sydney etc, we just can't seem to get there and the rankings keep dropping.

We backlink and update the pages on a regular basis

Any ideas? - Could it be the custom CMS system?

[RyanPurkey]

Are you trying to get in the local listings? If that's the case just get the address on the page and start submitting through Google Local.  If it's a chain submit the bulk listings and/or service areas.  Pages like this: http://www.mrswitch.com.au/location are going to hurt you as the engines will see it as a keyword stuffing attempt to manipulate results around any Sydney suburb + "Electrician". I'd recommend getting rid of the location page in its current format and replace it with a few of your actual locations.  Use your keywords sparingly, and use the tools Google provides, especially mapping and reviews.

[MikeGracia]

I agree fully with what Ryan suggested above, if local is your target. Also consider using the hcard microformat on your address, as that can't hurt either.

[SteveOllington]

Also, when you say you backlink regularly, from where? Try to get backlinks from local sites to local pages... i.e. Sydney Electrician: get backlinks from local sydney directories, blogs & sites about Sydney, etc...

I haven't checked any of these for whether they're paid, nofollow, etc... but just as examples:

http://www.sydney-city-directory.com.au/

http://www.sydneycity.net/directory.htm

http://www.sydneybusinessdirectory.net/

http://www.expat-blog.com/en/directory/oceania/australia/sydney/

http://sydney-city.blogspot.com/

http://blogs.usyd.edu.au/sydneylife/

And obviously mix that with relevant links to do with electricians... and preferably sites that are electrician and Sidney based combined if possible... easier said that done I expect.

The same for other trades and other towns.

[SteveOllington]

What's the score with hcards? I don't know much about it.

[MikeGracia]

It's a micro format of HTML.

You can use it to, for want of a better word, 'tag' your address, so basically it is a way of saying to bots that hey, you know this string of characters that follows, it is an address... there is some conjecture as to its usefulness, but I believe it is best practice to use it, especially with local search focused projects.

More info here: http://microformats.org/wiki/hcard

And a nice tool here: http://microformats.org/code/hcard/creator

I hope that helps

[SteveOllington]

Awesome, yeah that does help. Thanks

[MikeGracia]

No probs Steve, glad I could help

[kayweb]

Thanks for the help! - Perfect advice!