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As long as all the pages have real value (and it sounds like you have that covered) I think it makes sense to have an index of all webinars, AND to link a webinar to a blog post or other piece of content if it expands on the ideas in that post or page. Depending on the goals and path of the user, both options should provide value.
Ya, no new listings just for the virtual service... but you should make sure you are taking full advantage of all listings for current locations. I looked at the Multicare site at your urgent care location pages, and those could definitely be optimized better. I also did a few test searches, and from what I've seen you rank very well in cities where you are located. So based on this quick checkup, there is nothing urgent, but still some room for improvement. I don't want to hijack this thread too much, but let me know if you'd like to discuss how your local listings could be better tied into your website, along with other SEO ideas for those locations.
Hi Jeremy,
Interesting question. My company has been working with urgent care clinics going all the way back to 1999, and over the last 5 years or so we have developed a fair amount of experience with telemedicine. In many cases, we have an individual clinic that already has business listings, and we are just adding on a new service. But I've also worked with a national telemed company that had ties to some local practices who had listings, but they themselves did not as they didn't have a base of operations in each state/city.
In addition , I've worked with some smaller practices that are in between these extremes. These are primarily virtual clinics, but not 100%. They may see some patients in person (more of a concierge model mixed in with the urgent care), or they may just have a home base from which they network, and get a big chunk of their clients from one community where they live. In these cases, there is enough of a local tie to justify a local listing. Also, these are generally newer startups.
So in general, if you are dealing with a business that has a system with docs who are licensed in multiple states, and don't have some real presence in the localities, then listings are not appropriate. But if the doctor has a legitimate tie to and base in a particular community, then a local listing makes sense.
If you have more details about your specific situation, I may be able to give you some additional ideas.
Ira
Interesting, must be a new thing Google is doing, showing the thumbnail instead of the website and directions icons. When I try the same 2 searches, I get the thumbnail view for both. I also am seeing that style for all the other local searches I'm doing. Maybe you caught those 2 searches while the changes were being rolled out? I'm curious if you are still seeing the icons on any searches.
As for optimization issues, this makes it more important than ever to claim your Google Business listing and to optimize it with good photos.
Hi Drew,
This article has the best info on the facebook.com/referral question that I've seen - https://www.en.advertisercommunity.com/t5/Articles/facebook-com-referral-on-Google-Analytics/ba-p/539366.
As for the discrepancy you are seeing between FB and GA, I've seen similar issues at times - hoping someone else will have some insight into that one!
Ira
I was doing some research today and came across a business that has 5 reviews, all 5 stars. For some reason, their average is showing as 4.8, instead of a perfect 5.
Looking at some other businesses, I see one with 4 5-stars, 1 4-star, and 1 1-star. 25/6 = 4.1666666. That would round to 4.2, but Google lists them as 4.3.
Is Google just bad at math, or are they using some other factor in calculating these averages?
Ah, wasn't even thinking about the fact that you need to provide an address either way, but it definitely seems they are only looking for physical places that people are likely to visit. There is a prominent link to claim the business, but of course that only matter is you are the actual business owner or representative. So as an agency, we have our normal options (which in our case luckily includes Google's GYBO program).
In the case of my flooring contractor, he is still just a prospect, so I thought this might be a great first step. It is pretty rare that I find any established business that is in no way listed in Google Business, but here is the whole list of categories in that can take advantage of this new option:
So, 20 that are actually business categories, focused on food, healthcare, and retail, along with 5 different ways of identifying a living residence rather than business. It will be interesting to learn how effective this method of adding info to Google becomes, and whether they expand it to new categories.
Just to clarify, they actually do have a physical address. So it wasn't that I was trying to add them as a SAB without a physical address, just that the categories are very limited. Other than the 10 or 20 listed in the dropdown, it appears you can't choose any other categories for now.
Hi,
Can you provide a list of some of the long tail phrases you think you should rank better for? By helping you with a few specific examples, we can likely help you better understand what you should be doing across the board.
Ira
Normally the theme name would be listed in the main CSS file on the site, which in this case appears to be http://www.zoompondy.com/wp-content/themes/zpondy/style.css, but it seems to be missing (not sure how they got away with that one). Based on the amount of custom code in the style.css, I'd guess this is a custom theme rather than a child theme.
In case this helps, they used what appears to be almost the same theme on this related site http://www.zoomsydney.com/, but that one doesn't give us any more details about a possible parent theme.
In general, the closer a word is the the start of the title tag, the more weight it will have for SEO.
Beyond that, I think the "Blue Linen Chesterfield Sofa, Duck Egg" format reads better, so I'd go with that approach.
Hope this helps,
Ira
Interesting... just tried to add a flooring contractor, but there is no relevant category available. The list of categories seems to be very limited, at least at this point. Specifically, service area businesses don't seem to be included yet.
It has been my experience that the distance between a business location and the search location depends on the amount of competition for that product/service. If there were 10 competitors in the zip code where someone is searching, you are not likely to see results in the top 3 from outside of that area. But if there aren't many options in or near that zip code, you'll see results from further away.
Another factor that seems to influence where results are displayed is the location of people who review the listing. If a listing has many reviews from a given town, it seems that Google is more likely to display that listing to others in that town. And, since you have reviews on both of your listings, but your competitors do not seem to have any, your ranking is being bumped up as a result. Good job on the reviews!
Hope this helps,
Ira
Interesting, I was not aware of that... but unless the info on that page is out of date, the ability to send email notifications on new reviews is not included yet, and that is critical to my clients. Definitely getting better though!
Overall, it is nice that we are getting more legitimate options for assisting with all phases of the directory listing and review process.
Thanks (as always) Miriam.
Those are helpful, and I'm going to be testing Synup soon. I'll report back here when I have an opinion.
One big reason I'm looking into them is that they combine review monitoring, which I currently pay another company for, with the listings service. The lack of ability to monitor reviews is why Moz Local isn't a very good fit for my needs.
Thanks Miriam. I'd seen that thread, was hoping for something more recent. Seems like they are going beyond what Moz Local offers, but I'm definitely concerned with the lack of any recent reviews or reports on their value.
Thanks. The other option I'm considering is signing them up with Yext or Synup, which in theory would get us access. Any thoughts on either of those?
I'm working on a listings project for a client that has a well established business. Overall we are in great shape, but we've hit a snag with the YP (yellowpages.com) listing. We are not able to access or claim the listing to update it. Customer service claims to have no way to allow us access without the original email address that some former employee must have used to set up the listing. They are telling us the only option is to mark the listing as closed, and start fresh. This would lose us some reviews, although those are pretty old and were imported from Citysearch, so it would not be a huge loss.
Has anyone else ran into a similar issue with YP when trying to manually manage their listing? Any suggestions to overcome this problem?
Hi Dave,
Just wondering if by any chance you gave Synup a chance are are still using it. Seems their model has changed a bit since your post from 2 years ago, and on paper it looks great, but I have not been able to get any feedback from people using them.
Ira
They are now promoting themselves as an alternative to Yext. In theory it sounds good, as it includes listings management that publish updates within 72 hours, along with review monitoring and notifications. I'm wondering if they live up to their pitch.