Removed huge spammy location footer, looking to rebuild traffic the right way
-
Hello,
On this site, I removed a huge spammy location footer with hundreds of cities, states, and dog training types. The traffic and rankings have gone down a lot, and I'd like a discussion on how to rebuild things the right way. There's some local adjustments to be made to the home page content, but other than that:
My plans:
1. Analyze top 10 Google analytics keyword queries and work them into the content as best as possible, though I am debating whether the client should make new pages and how many.
2. I'm going to suggest he add a lot of content to the home page, perhaps a story about a dog training that he did in Wisconsin. I'll think about what else.
Any advice is appreciated.
Thanks.
-
Hmm, I'm not a huge fan of clients who refuse to implement their marketers advice, but photos are at least a start, accompanied by stories.
BTW, Bob, this would be a good article to share with a client in this market:
https://www.ethicalseoconsulting.com/25-email-lead-generation-tips-from-social-media/
Some good marketing ideas in there that your client might latch onto, given the visual nature of his business.
-
Mariam,
We're still working on this. He refuses to do video, though he has pictures. How do you recommend we pull this off without video?
-
Hi Bob,
Not that I can share with you, no, but hopefully the ideas are enough to go on. So glad if they helped! A company whose city differentiation I've always admired is REI's. But, it's a big franchise so a somewhat different model. The way they do their city pages is quite nice, however
-
Hi Bob,
You're mostly on the right track here, especially with taking out that footer spam. Rather than just relying on Analytics to locate your keyword targets (most of this is obscured these days and it only shows how people are finding you now rather than where they could find you), take a quick look at the Moz and Backlinko guides on advanced KW research.
These guides are very thorough and the process involved is time-consuming but worth the effort. If you are very heavily time-restricted, I'd suggest at least grabbing data from Google's Keyword Planner and SEMrush to point you in the right direction.
In terms of the content, there are two things to be mindful of there; both quality and quantity. The quality should be the most important factor, addressing the user intent rather than just filling an arbitrary word count. As for quantity, my recommendation is always 1500+ words per landing page. Of course, this much content should be styled in a way that doesn't just appear as a massive wall of text.
In terms of creating new pages, just create the ones that are going to make sense to the user. Rand did a great Whiteboard Friday that I find myself referencing a lot around here on how to go about ranking for multiple locations when you only have the one office.
-
Miriam,
Superb advice. Can you give me an example of a website that has implemented this 5 or more page testimonial idea really well as well?
The client also wants to see a website that has done a really good job of showing where they are at immediately when they come to his site. He had a hard time understanding that it wasn't clear enough. I can find one, but do you have a superb example?
I want to make this good.
Thanks so much,
Bob
-
Hey Bob!
First off, way to go in advising the client to remove footer spam. That's really a big first step. Here are some thoughts:
- This is not great, on the homepage:
Larry has worked with clients from Milwaukee and many other locations including Chicago and the Racine Kenosha area. Dogs from Waukesha, West Allis and Wauwatosa have been trained at Salty Dog Farms. Clients from Sheboygan, West Bend and Fox Point have been pleased with Larry’s dog training skills.
I understand what you're trying to do here, but it's coming across as forced. Here's how I would recommend approaching this, in a totally natural way:
- I see that Larry is located in Cedar Grove, so from a truly local standpoint, he is only 'entitled' to rank in Cedar Grove packs, right? So, we have to think of organic rankings and the only connection I can see is that his clients (the dogs) are located in various towns and cities. So, here's what you do.
You get Larry to document with text, photos, videos and whatever else you think would be good for 5 dogs he has trained or is going to train - one from each of the cities he is hoping to associate his business with - and in addition to documenting key moments of the training process, you also get a text or video testimonial from the happy owner at the end of the program. For example, "Sunny used to jump on the table whenever the family was eating. Here he is doing that. Here's Larry training sunny that this is not good. Here's Sunny behaving at dinner time."
You create 5 new pages on the site - one for each of his 5 most important target cities. These pages are something like "Dog Training: Chicago - The Case of Sunny, The Adorable Pomeranian" and "Dog Training: Waukesha - The case of Bingo, The Tough Terrier". You'll need to carefully choose very happy customers who are willing to participate in having their dog featured in a training story.
The videos don't have to be professional, but they need to be socially shareable. If the dogs are funny/cute/weird, that would help! The stories need to be told very well.
You create these pages with a good balance of text to images/videos and, finally, to make the link to the city authentic, Larry goes to visit the dogs in their homes and takes a short video, which he transcribes to show how Sunny and Bingo are now happy dogs in their Chicago/Waukesha homes. You put this on the pages, too. It would be nice if he could meet up with the owner and the dog at some recognizable landmark in the town.
Further, you take the welfare of Chicago and Waukesha dogs to heart, and also on these city/dog pages, you do some homework and surface resources for them ... dog parks, pet food shops, most popular vets (based on reviews) in that specific city. You include these as resources for dogs there.
And, finally, think of something other than what I've suggested. Brainstorm with Larry. What would really help dogs/owners in the cities? Include this in the pages, too.
Pick the 5 most important cities and start with those. It will be a big project. Don't just aim for good, unique content - aim for 10x content and try to make it as share-worthy as possible. Fortunately, people are crazy about dogs, so this is a really good industry to try this for! What you will end up with is a stronger page than many competitors will have, that not only ties Larry to cities, but also showcases his expertise.
-
The website needs some local work. It's not clear from the first impression where this business is located. Look at the homepage. You have to scroll to the bottom of the text to get a hint of geography. Improve geo-signals, not just with text but with visuals, too. How about a photo of Larry and his dog entourage somewhere geographically recognizable?
-
Nothing about the way the business is currently being presented is immediately telling me why I should use this company instead of another. What is the key selling point? Gentle training? Satisfaction guarantee? 30 years experience? Find the message that persuades and make it much, much clearer.
-
Some usability work is needed. Logo doesn't link back to homepage, etc.
-
If the footer was spammy, have you checked out NAP consistency in the citations?
I think you know you've got a ways to go with this, Bob, but the good news is - it's a very 'friendly' industry and there is definitely hope of taking this business from where it is to where it wants to go! Hope you'll get further feedback!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Service Area Location Pages vs. User Experience
I'm familiar with the SAB best practices outlined here. Here's my issue: Doing local landing pages as described here might not be ideal from a user experience point of view. Having a "Cities We Serve" or "Service Areas" link in the main navigation isn't necessarily valuable to the user when the city-specific landing pages are all places within a 15-mile radius of the SAB's headquarters. It would just look like the company did it for SEO. It wouldn't look natural. Seriously, it feels like best practices are totally at odds with user experience here. If I absolutely must create location pages for 10 or so municipalities within my client's service area, I'd rather NOT put the service areas as a primary navigation item. It is not useful to the user. Anyone who sees that the company provides services in the [name of city] metropolitan area will already understand that the company can service their town that is 5 miles away. It is self-evident. For example**, who would wonder whether a plumbing company with a Los Angeles address also services Beverly Hills?** It's just... silly. But the Moz guide says I've got to do those location pages! And that I've got to put them high up in the navigation! This is a problem because we've got to do local SEO, but we also have to provide an ideal experience. Thoughts?
Local Website Optimization | | Greenery1 -
Store Locator Apps - Which Do You Use?
Hey Everybody! I'd so appreciate feedback from our web developers and Local SEO wizards here regarding store locator apps (you know - type in a city/zip and get shown the stores nearest you). There are a number of different paid options out there on the market, and a couple of free ones. If you are managing the websites/SEO for multi-location clients, would you share with me which store locator app you chose, why you chose it and how you like it? I am particularly interested in two things about these: Does you app allow you to build a permanent landing page for each store location, including the ability to fully customize the content on that page? In terms of ensuring that these landing pages get crawled, have you used an html sitemap, some type of directory page with crawlable links or some other feature that allows bots to reach the landing pages? Or, if you're not doing any of that, do you believe Google is crawling javascript/ajax/something else to get through your store locator widget to the landing pages? Thanks, in advance, for helping me with my research on this topic!
Local Website Optimization | | MiriamEllis0 -
Traffic drop for all clients
There are approximately 20 clients that we have that all show a drop in traffic in GA this month (anywhere from 5-25%). any idea what could have happened? How to fix? Thanks so much,
Local Website Optimization | | lfrazer1 -
Looking For A Chicago Marketing Agency
Hi guys, I am looking for a trusted, digital marketing company specializing in local search services and SEO. I would prefer to be from around Chicago due to the type of business we are in, limousine business, but ultimately, I would be willing to try someone from a different city but it needs to have experience in this type of business. If you know someone, please send me a private message and I will give you more info. I am not looking for a 2-3 man company, we are past that stage. I know about Moz's recommended companies, none of them are from Chicago, bummer. Thanks!
Local Website Optimization | | echo10 -
Moving to a new Location: SEO Website
I'm moving to a different state and want to keep my business and clients in both locations. Is it better to build two separate sites, one for Ohio locations and create a new site for Tennessee content? (www.ohiosite.com & www.tennesseesite.com) Or is it best to keep one site, and install a second wordpress site in a separate folder like ( www.site.com + www.site.com/tennessee )
Local Website Optimization | | morg454540 -
Local SEO case with two physical locations
I hope someone can help me make some decisions. I did read a lot about Local SEO lately but I’m not sure what way to go with this client. Client: Service provider with two physical locations (service is provided on the physical location). In the coming 12 month there will open 1-2 new physical locations in other cities. Has only one phone number. I will try to advise them to get a local phone number for both locations. But they prefer one (mobile) number to keep things simple. Clients are willing to travel for the service, since it’s a one day course they take. Current clients do come from a lot of different locations. The competition for around 5-6 big cities is pretty low since there aren’t a lot of service providers who deliver these courses. Questions: Should I put both addresses in the footer? It’s a best practice with only one location. I think it’s handy for users with two locations as well but I’m worried about how Google sees this. Also this will get confusing when the client passes 3-4 locations. If the client sticks with one mobile phone number, should I make a Google + local page for both physical locations? The Google guidelines clearly state they prefer a local number as much as possible. If I add “Our service areas “ to the top navigation and make a unique place page for every city (to rank organic aswell) is it wise to link those local Google + pages to the unique page about this service? Normaly I would go for yes, but I want to add places with and without a physical location under the same navigation. With just one location I would just focus on that city and add unique pages for the other pages. I’m getting a bit stuck between best practices since the client got opportunities with multiple strategies. I hope you guys (and girls 😉 ) can help!
Local Website Optimization | | Bob_van_Biezen1 -
One location performing worse than the rest despite no major difference in SEO strategy
Hi all, I'm flummoxed. I'm dealing with a business that has 15 or so offices in three cities, and one city is performing horribly (this includes every office therein). The other two cities have shown consistently stellar results with massive traffic increases month over month for the past year; the city in question dropped unexpectedly in June and hasn't ever recovered. We didn't perform any major website changes during or immediately prior to that time period, and the website in general hasn't been negatively affected by Hummingbird. All locations for the business are optimized in the exact same way and according to best practices; there's no significant difference in the number of local listings, reviews, G+ fans, social signals, etc across locations. All meta data and content is optimized, NAPs are all consistent, we've built links wherever we can: the SEO for every location has been by-the-books. We've run a competitor audit in this particular city that included pulling our top competitors and exploring their domain authority, meta data, on-page keyword grade for the term we're trying to rank for, number and type of inbound links, social signals, and more; and we didn't spot any patterns or any websites that were significantly outperforming us in any area (besides actual rankings). It's frustrating because the client is expecting a fix for this city and I can't find anything that needs to be fixed! Have any multi-local SEOs out there run into a similar problem? What did you do about it?
Local Website Optimization | | ApogeeResults0