Switching to a domain name with keywords in it, is it possible to make this happen smoothly?

[adriandg]

We're in there, but we are very far from the city center so we don't pop up for "toronto self storage".  It is a very competative local SERP, and the companies closest to the city center are really benefiting from the location bonus.  We do rank for some of the other smaller suburbs of toronto though, like "mississauga storage" or "scarborough storage" or even "etobicoke storage" (the only serp where we are #1).

[adriandg]

Thanks for the advice.  We have been considering this for a while now, but have not yet come to a solid agreement on which SEO to hire to do this for us.  I'm definitely open to specific suggestions.

[adriandg]

In the local serp for "storage mississauga": http://www.google.ca/search?q=storage+mississauga&pws=0&hl=en&num=10

We are ranked #3 underneath #2 which absolutely blows my mind how they outrank us.  If you compare PA/DA we beat them.  We have more citations, more reviews, and a more complete places page.  The have hardly any backlinks compared to us.  So in my mind the only way they are outranking us is from the "storage" in their domain name.

The only other factor that might be coming into play here is that they are 2Km closer to city center than we are.

Please do correct me if i am wrong here, i would love to know!

[DGSEO]

It shouldn't really matter BUT "storage" in the domain name could be the issue.  I have a couple competitors in my niche that win a high position on Google based almost entirely on their domain names.  No relevant backlinks but excellent on-page SEO.  The only reason we beat them is that we have a VERY old site with LOTS of great backlinks, content and history.  I hate it that this is true and I know Google is addressing it, but the inurl keyword deal has way  too much value.

Again...  Just my opinion based on my own experience.  I'm not an SEO for hire - I do this for my own businesses only.  There are many people who post in these forums with a much broader knowledge on this kind of thing than me. So... weigh your choices carefully - or as Guru Egol suggests, find a good consultant.  It's amazing what one conversation with a knowledgeable consultant can do for you.  Even at a ridiculously high hourly rate it worth talking to a "rock star" if you can get access to one!

[EGOL]

They are competing against your interior page with their homepage.   They are better optimized than you are.  Use your homepage as a weapon.

Your title tags are loaded with address information when keywords or value propositions could be used (your address is still visible in  SERPs so you still have that if removed from title tag).

Your server is soooooooo slooooooooooow....   really bad.

[RyanKent]

It seems you are entirely focused on off-page factors. What about on-page?

I see many opportunities for improvement on your site. I see you on SEOmoz very frequently. You ask good questions and offer intelligent feedback, but have not incorporated some basic SEO best practices into your own site.

• Image names. The first image I looked at on your site is named STW_RW-11s.jpg. How about naming it self_storage_mississauga_site.jpg instead?

• Alt text. It seems all of the images in your header have the same alt text "self storage mississauga tour". Look at the SEOmoz Page Analysis for Alt Text on your page. It shows the identical alt text about 20 times. This is not good. How about "self storage mississauga entrance", "mississauga storage facility gate" and other variations?

• Title. Your H1 tag is great "Self Storage Mississauga". How about matching your page title to it? Either "Self Storage Mississauga" or "Self Storage Mississauga | Storwell"? The fewer the words, the more weight each term carries.

• Page load speed. I tried loading your page twice. First time was 30 seconds, second time was 19 seconds. Perhaps it is an intermittent issue. Your competitor's page loaded for me in 2 seconds each time. You site scores an 80 on page speed which leaves room for improvement. I would suggest trying to get it up a bit higher. I tried to use the SEOmoz LDA tool on your site and couldn't as it kept timing out.

Your site is much nicer then your competitors. Your images, trust badges, social engagement icons, etc all offer a better user experience. I could go further and try to analyze your competitor, but you have numerous opportunities to improve! Why focus one competitor when you can optimize your site then beat many!

[EGOL]

Storwell,  If I was you I would hire Ryan for just a few hours.  Spend a phone call talking about your business and your goals so that he understands them.  Then let him spend an hour or two studying your site and your competitive position with a goal of making a plan for the onpage optimization of your site and some ideas for promoting.  Then spend an hour on the phone to discuss the plan and his recommendations.

He is one of the most active people at SEOMoz Q&A and gives tons of competent and generous advice.  I would not hesitate to have him work on one of my sites - and I am a very picky person when it comes to my sites.

I don't know if he does this type of work or if you are interested... but looks like an opportunity for you to get a carefully considered plan.

[RyanKent]

I can't begin to share how much I appreciate the praise EGOL. It means a tremendous amount to me as you are one of the people I look up to here.

I am trying to build my own site as well. I probably should reduce my Q&A time here. I had developed such a love of SEO that I find the moz experience quite addicting.

I am not accepting new clients at this time. Thanks again for the recommendation.

[DGSEO]

Sounds like a pretty great endorsement, Storwell! Pay for a few hours of help  Or at least get started by implementing the great free advice you just got!.

[EGOL]

Ryan, I think that you are giving great advice and are the most generous SEO contributor that I have seen.

Let us know when you are taking new clients.

[adriandg]

EGOL,

I agree we have been having some server issues, and were considering switching hosts. we also could do a bit of javascript and css optimization to get load times down, we aren't as optimized as we could be in that department.

As for homepage v.s. subpage, we were doing it that we because we heard that was the best way to approach multiple locations in local SEO.  See here:

David Mihm at SMX: http://www.aimclearblog.com/2011/06/08/so-where-are-you-actionable-local-seo-tactics-from-smx-advanced/

Muti-Location Tips

• Implement flat site architecture, give each site own page, make it unique, indexable

The title tags with full adresses was a mistake, i admit, it was a test, because i read somewhere to do it, it didn't work out, infact it backfired in our faces and in some cases our rankings droped. not in this particular case, but in others it did.  We have changed it back, but we are still waiting for google to pickup on the change.