Questions
-
Location pages for Landing pages
Content Marketing Approach I would approach this from a content marketing view rather than adding pages with links. Use your blog to discuss case studies as they occur in different cities. Example, in Milton, a homeowner needed a general carpet cleaning but requested green non toxic cleaners because of small children. We went in with our top rated brand of xyz cleaner because it did this and that and solved the clients needs. Maybe there is a story in every cleaning that can be developed to educate a reader about carpet cleaning - at least one paragraph - enough for a short blog post. Announce Your Story on Social Media Then post a short notice about this on Google +, Facebook, and Twitter with a link to the blog - Milton homeowner benefits from green carpet cleaning alternative, etc. If the client wants to offer a review, send them links to where they can do that (Google + is my first choice, but Yelp is also good for carpet cleaning). Over time, your client may have numerous case studies within the specific cities as these would build a "content hub" for that city. Google may start to recognize your client as an authority for carpet cleaning in that area and then page ranking may start to happen. What Does Google Want? Google wants authentic, real content rather than an obvious attempt to try and fool their search engine algorithm. You could also set up separate blogs with separate domain names for each city such as miltoncarpetcleaning.com but I'm not sure that that will have as much page ranking juice as it used to. Following the trends in Google we need to be careful about how we are using links and trying to take shortcuts for page ranking when shortcuts are being shut down. Authentic content and the social response to it is what will be driving page ranking as we move forward in this second guessing of what Google will do next. Google Places and Landing Pages Revisited - Case Study - A Place for Mom Then again, there is also the Google Places issue. It's hard to compete when you do not have a physical location in the same city. However I have seen a national company get placed above local listings. A Place for Mom uses landing pages to compete with local assisted living businesses, and in my area they do it very well. If you do want to go with the landing page approach, use them as a model, if they are ranking above the Google Places in those cities, and see how much content they create that is relevant for the local area. A lot of it is educational information. They have huge domain and page authority. Check out their links to the local pages with Open Site Explorer for ideas.
Local Website Optimization | | DaveBrown3330 -
SEO For sub locations for specific services
Hi Tony, I have most experiencing in consulting with true local businesses. Their business models typically fall into 1 of 3 categories: They have a single physical location (like a restaurant) to which clients come They have multiple physical locations (like a chain) to which clients come They have a central office from which employees go to render services at clients' locations in various cities (like a landscaping company) In the second case, the norm is to create a set of location landing pages on the website (one for each location) and to link to these from the main site menu. Each page would be optimized with the complete NAP (name, address, phone number) and would contain as much unique information as possible about the respective office. In the third case, the norm is to create city landing pages for each of the cities in the company's service radius. The content would need to be unique on these, but they need not simply be a repeat of information from page to page. For example, in the case of the landscaper, he could have one set of pages describing his services (softscaping, hardscaping, water feature installation, etc) and these main pages would be optimized for his city of location, as this is the one Google will care about when it comes to his core Local SEO. Then, he can create a second set of pages showcasing his work in each of the various cities in a unique manner. He could include a brief summary of all of his services on these city landing pages, but the bulk of the content would be a showcase of his projects. For example, 'here is an arbor we built in San Jose', 'here is a pond we installed in San Rafael'. His city landing pages can be a text and image-based gallery of his design projects. Your case is a bit different, Tony, because Google does not view website design firms as truly local and doesn't display them as local results. Everything for you will be organic in nature, but your scenario is most like my case #3 in that you can take similar steps to showcase your design work for clients in various cities. You don't need to offer an enormous explanation of your HTML, PHP, WordPress and Joomla work on each of these landing pages, repeating yourself ad infinitum. You can have a separate set of pages that go into the specifics of these services and create different types of content on the city landing pages, hopefully showcasing the sites you have developed for clients in various cities. If you need to create a CSS-based (read: crawlable) dropdown in your menu to include these pages under headings like 'See our San Jose Web Design Projects', then that would be fine, because you definitely do want these pages to be indexed as highly important. Do avoid duplicate content - this is very important. Yes, it's going to take effort, but here is a chance for your creativity and love of your work to really shine through. Get energized! This is really important work and developing pages that wow your potential clients and make you proud of your company should be a fun and exciting challenge for your firm.
Search Engine Trends | | MiriamEllis0 -
Branding Association for SEO, and Google's understanding of a "brand Name"
Hello Tony, I agree with the below opinion that a unique name (or different variations of your current name) would be best for branding purposes. However, I know that at this stage it may not be a viable option. While having your brand name mentioned frequently can be a positive aspect, that is only the case if it is recognized as your brand. It would be possible to market your brand while leveraging its popularity through brand association and search engine optimization, however it will be difficult and will require much effort.
Branding / Brand Awareness | | JMacSupply1