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"if my business is using keywords that do not map to a local business category, then placing location in the title tag will not help me rank for non geo queries."
I always like to repeat the question to make sure I've understood what you're asking.
Your statement is true. Adding location data to your title tag might hinder your rankings for non-geo searches because you'll be wasting valuable pixels on characters the searcher cares nothing about and Google will consider irrelevant.
Hi JP,
Dr. Tenley Lawton shows up as the 7th local search result when I search for "Plastic Surgeon Newport Beach CA". Because she's the 7th search result, you have to use the slider on the results window to scroll down to see her first-page listing.
The Ranch at Laguna Beach, CA shows up as my first local result when searching for "golf course Laguna Beach, CA".
So I'm not seeing what you're seeing. What search terms are you using? Where are you searching from?
A well architected and engaging website, SEO and social media are all intertwined. Each one helps the other. How much depends on your objectives. Alexandra Tachalova's post demonstrates how social media can impact exposure, links, and engagement.
Can you see if it's cached? Try cutting and pasting the entire URL into the search window, minus the http://. If it's indexed, it should show up in search results. Not the address bar, the search window.
Looks like you're competing for terms with very low traffic and high competition.
I see you have Google Analytics installed, so your tracking is probably working as it should.
When you look at Google Webmaster Tools under Search Traffic > Search Queries, are you seeing any impressions? That would give you a sense of whether anyone's searching for the terms you've chosen to optimize and whether you're showing up in search results. Not always, but it's a sign.
I think you just have a lot of work ahead of you and you're not yet ranking. I used SEO Book's rank checker tool to do a quick check to see how you're ranking for "architect in new jersey", "nj architect", and "residential architect in nj". (I got those terms from title tags on the site.) It indicated you weren't ranking at all.
Here's why I'm confused JP. As I said above, when I look at the maps tab, I DO see your clients listed. Dr. Lawson is listed as the 7th ranking entry on the map. (See attachment.) The Ranch at Laguna Beach ranks #1.
So I'm not seeing what you're seeing.
Hi there Sassy Nails.
If I've understood your question, you want help cleaning up your local listings? Moz can definitely help with that. If you go to this "Publish Your Business Listings" page, there are instructions for what you need to do to kick-start the process.
If I did not understand your question, please try to restate it another way and I'll try again.
If anything changed between the 15th and today, it'll help ensure it gets updated. But that's all.
Not to be a smart ass or anything, but it sounds like you answered your own question JP.
There is no right or wrong answer to "are meta descriptions really necessary". Often times it is best to let Google self-generate the meta description so it matches the intent of the user query. Especially when, as it sounds like in your case, you're talking about an ecommerce site with maybe (?) a lot of product pages and long-tail keyword queries your pages could be eligible to rank for. In my mind, the real question is whether you'd be better off spending your time creating great content, or trying to craft unique meta description tags for product pages that are already "generating a better CTR than if I were to plug something in there myself."
It's a judgment call.
Makes sense! Two other quick things I noticed are: (1) you're parking your blog posts in the root directory versus the blog folder. That will dilute your SEO equity on main site pages. (2) You should no-index your author, category and tag pages for the same reason.
Wow. That's an excellent assessment by Miriam. Kinda hard to add to that!
I looked at citations using the same example as Miriam. You have more than the top 2 ranking sites and 35 less than #3. The quality of your citations is excellent and I see a few that actually use the words "santa barbara" in their name. I agree that it would be worthwhile trying to acquire more, and more specific to Santa Barbara, to see if that helps. Whitespark offers a good service to help you ID some of those, or you could inventory the citations of the top 3 and see if they have some you're missing. I have those if you want me to send them to you.
Just adding to what Dmitrii said...
Rand offered an explanation in August on this Q&A - https://moz.com/community/q/august-3rd-mozscape-index-update-our-largest-index-but-nearly-a-monthly-late.
Like Dmitrii, while I can understand why the delays are happening, I hate learning after the fact that the update is delayed. I've concluded that every two months is the new normal, at least for now, and am setting my own and client expectations accordingly.
Hey Mark,
Yes, "flat" IS confusing. I'm very concrete. When I hear "flat" I picture a plank. Yet when it comes to SEO, you should really envision (and aim for) a short, wide, pyramid-shaped information architecture. You want to keep the most important (money) pages closest to the top of the structure as they tend to receive the most SEO equity and therefore have an advantage when it comes to ranking.
I also agree there's little consistency when you're scanning blogs looking for examples. Blogging is still relatively new and I think you'll start to see more consistency as competition and player sophistication continues to grow.
I like your thought about using topic labels instead of a vanilla "blog" folder; it's the number of topics I'm not keen on. I think a good rule of thumb is to aim for no more than 5-9 pages at the top of your information architecture for the reasons you yourself have observed above. People do search for "wedding blog" and a bunch of other related but similar terms (perhaps one in your niche? "wedding planning blog") so that could work.
I also think your goal of having rich static + variable topic content pages is an excellent one and agree that yes, once you get there, they should definitely be indexed.
Hey NYWA,
It's hard to tell based on the information provided. I suggest you experiment a bit with the keywords and locations you're trying to rank for.
For example, if you're trying to rank for "Southampton automotive repair services" and there's very little competition, then there's probably no need to try to rank separate pages for engine repair, heating and AC, brakes and rotors and so on. Just optimize for "Southampton automotive repair services" and be sure to include keywords when describing the different services offered in your page copy. If, on the other hand, there is a lot of competition and they have gone all-out to optimize pages for each of these distinct services, then you'd be best to do the same, only better.
Make sense?
Alick's right. Keep your eye on the "last detected" date to make sure new problems aren't cropping up. Otherwise the errors should diminish as Google reindexes your site.
Bright Local just released a new (free) tool you can use to specify a location and search term and see Google or Google Local results. You can specify city, state or ZIP. Seems to work pretty well.
Appreciate the update. Thank you!
Canonical pages still get indexed at Google's discretion.
A related question was asked in March 2013 that I think, explains what you're seeing. I've cut and pasted the relevant part below. Mememax is the author.
"Normally the only thing which will prevent a page from ranking is noindex tag. If you don't want to have it indexed just noindex it, if that page has been laready indexed, put the noindex tag and delete from index using GWT option.
Concerning the canonical tag thing, it will consolidate the seo value in one page but it won't prevent those page to appear in rankings, however you may have two cases:
the two or more pages are identical. In that case google may accept the canonicalization and show always the original page.
the two or more pages are slightly different, it's the case of paginated pages which are canonicalized using rel next/prev. In that sense the whole value will be consolidated in page 1 but then the page which will be shown in the rankings will be the one which responds to that query, for example if someone is looking for blue glass, google will return the page which shows blue glass listing if that's different from the first one."