Cleaning up citations from a retail store that moved online only
-
Hey Mozzers!
We're working with a client that has closed it's home theater store and moved online. Both the online store and the retail location operated under the same name, but we've now launched a new site and rebranded the name and look.
When I search the old business name, it shows the Google local business as permanently deleted, and also shows deleted Yelp profile and other directory listings. The first organic result is the new site, which catches the footer that reads a trademark of (old business name).
How can I clean up the citations for the previous business? Also, I'd like to have more control over the old business SERP page. My idea was to create a press release addressing the new business change in name and branding. Any other ideas?
Lastly, the new business name SERP is completely bare. The second organic result is the new site, but the remaining listings are confusing and unrelated. The press release should help here. Other than that, should I build out new directories for the ecommerce site? Maybe start building profiles and participating in related forums to show traction in SERPs?
Thanks for your help!
-
Sorry I misread your issue. Since you are online only I would not claim any local listings. I would clean up and remove all those citations if possible though.
-
In my experience I've only ever used business directories to build local SEO campaigns. I wasn't sure that the directories applied to ecommerce sites without a physical location. So you'd suggest moving forward correcting all the outdated listings to the new name, and use our warehouse for new address?
-
Hi Localwork,
I agree with Jordan—utilizing Moz's local search tools will be your business asset through this transition from a storefront to the online market. This is one of the best tools to update citation information across multiple directories. However, even with this method is can take 4 - 8 weeks for the online directories to make any adjustments to the information.
I would also like to point out that it can be more difficult to get a company that is only online to rank well in the organic SERPs. Why? Well, without an address tying you to a particular location, you will be ranking for more general keywords instead of "product + city + st" keywords. In order to help improve the rankings for your new website, I would focus the first few months on increasing the domain authority on the new website.
In a May 2013 video right before Penguin 2.0 rolled out, Matt Cutts put it pretty well:“We’re doing a better job of detecting when someone is sort of an authority in a specific space—you know, it could be medical, it could be travel, whatever—and trying to make sure that those rank a little more highly if you’re some sort of authority or a site that according to the algorithms we think might be a little bit more appropriate for users.”
Here are today’s SEO success secrets for improving your domain authority:
- Valuable content
- Outbound linking
- Blogging
- Social media
An easy way to get started with outbound linking would be to (like you mentioned) create AND OPTIMIZE a listing for your business on a variety of online directories. This is help provide links back to your website and is a great place to start.
Hope this helps with the new venture online! Good luck.
-
You can clean up your local citations by using Moz's local search. You can see which citations are off and make adjustments as needed. As far as Google local business and Bing listing if the address didn't change I would claim that local listing if you haven't or contact Google and explain the issue and they should help update the listing.
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
-
Considering Moving to New Domain and SEO
Hello, One of our sites has been using a domain since 2005 and is shown below. The domain is terrible for multiple reasons, hyphens and doesn't even reflect our actual company name. Not to mention its embarrassing when telling a customer to email us at support @ pro "dash, yes the hyphen" gift.... I wanted to change it long ago but feared it would hurt my SEO rankings. After taking Bruce Clay's training class back in 2004, we managed to rank top 10 for most targeted keywords. My ranking have slowly dropped over time due to neglect and decaying IBL's. We still rank for a few targeted keywords but it was just August of 2017 we were still top 10 but something happened and we dropped out of the top 100 right before our holiday season. We had to run Adwords and BingAds to supplement traffic this holiday season. So I am wondering before I restart my SEO efforts should I move the domain now before trying to build new content, IBL's, etc? I was always under the impression Google used domain trust a major factor which wasnt only IBL but also domain age. Our preferred domain I purchased from another owner and it has ZERO links to it. It was basically a parked domain with the "domain for sale" stuff. I am a little nervous about moving it over because Google didnt even have it in its index. I put up a coming soon page and hosted it on my server, same C Block, and requested a crawl from my webmaster console. I added some text to the new domain index page and it appears Google is showing results for our old domain! At first I thought it was duplicate content but its not Google obviously has deciphered current site is my old domain and is displaying the title and meta data from the old domain. I have never seen this before. Google cache shows the current domain the new domain url. A few questions: Will my site get sandboxed after 301 redirecting and going webmaster console move features etc? Does this reset the trust factors? I have read examples in my research where some people say it only took a few weeks and everything was back to normal and others that have said it took years. Any experience or insight is greatly appreciated. I am currently relearning SEO and going over the SEO tutorial articles provided on moz. Thanks again! New Domain - matches our company name, no hyphens, better branding http://www.giftbasketpros.com/ Google index https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Awww.giftbasketpros.com Current Domain, since 2005, has ranked well for years until this summer http://www.pro-gift-baskets.com/
Branding | | DMAC441 -
Domain Transition: Moving over paid traffic campaigns first
We're planning a domain name (rebrand) transition, and considering our options. We rely heavily on paid traffic. To reduce risk, we’re considering moving AdWords and Bing Ads over campaign-by-campaign to the new domain first, while organic traffic continues to direct to the old domain. Each of our ad groups has a custom, noindex’d landing page. In order to serve paid traffic, we’d at minimum need a front page, and likely a privacy policy page in addition. Here’s a rough outline of what I think a transition like this might look like: Launch new domain with a simple front page, and privacy policy. Move over ppc landing pages on the new domain (noindex'd, robots.txt) Create new ads in existing ad groups directing to the new domain. Monitor ad groups for some time period to verify sustainability. Once we're satisfied with ppc performance, and planned the rest of the organic page migrations, 301 redirect everything to the new domain. Is there any problems or things we should be concerned about with this approach? I'd think it should be fine, but I've been bitten enough from large-scale redirects in the past, that I know I should be nervous.
Branding | | dsbud0 -
Google Trusted Store
Can a non ecommerce site become a Google Trusted Store, the company sells items but offline. How can we become one?
Branding | | aliciaporrata10090 -
What should we consider in Online reputation management - negative URL or Negative Keywords?
Hello All I have a serious confusion in terms of the Negative Keywords & Positive Keywords vs Negative URLS and Positive URLS for ORM (Online Reputation Management). Can any one please advise and explain why and what should I consider?
Branding | | barnesdorf
When we talk about ORM what exactly is more important? Negative Keywords or Negative URLS? Among these two which is more important ?? Negative URLs or Negative Keywords.? Do we need to classify keywords as negative or positive? in the report? Do we need to classify URLs as negative or positive? in the report? According to me and my fellow members either of them is actually most important but we all are stuck upon at one question "which one?" Any help would be appreciated....0 -
What would you do before starting a new online business in the financial field?
Hi, What would do before you starting a new online business in the financial field for preventing reputation issues and start to branding your new company name? Which services / tools would you choose to use? Thanks in advance.
Branding | | JonsonSwartz0 -
Online retailer has old product listing
A large online retailer in Europe used to sell a product that we sell in the US. They have not sold the product for more than a year but have not removed the item from their product listings. The price is marked down and the description says the product has been discontinued. They sell a very large number of items and have a high DA and this product listing ranks high in Google SERP. As you can imagine, this causes significant problems for us. Potential customers are given the wrong price and are also being told that the product has been discontinued. I have sent numerous requests to the retailer asking them to delete the product from their database with no success. Is it possible to send a notice to Google requesting that this product page be de-indexed? Any other suggestions? Best,
Branding | | ChristopherGlaeser
Christopher0 -
Moving Blog from www.topic.domain.com to www.domain.com/blog
Hi Fellow Mozzers, Just started off here on seomoz.org and am super happy to have joined the community! I've recently started a new job as web optimization manager for an education company. There is a lot to do and one of my first tasks is to figure a better strategy for our current blog. I've convinced our management to move our blog from topic.domain.com to domain.com/blog. My research has shown that this is a better strategy so that our blog can receive the DA of our root domain, get more people to click through our site, and even receive more natural searches (PLEASE, someone correct me if I'm wrong on this). Anyway, our blog is currently hosted as a Wordpress blog and we're wondering if it's more worthwhile to build a blog platform ourselves or continue using Wordpress. I am not a technical guy and don't know the backend stuff to make it happen, but my concern is primarily for the optimum search capacity. Also, our bloggers frequently put links to different portions of our website - does this hold any negative SEO value in terms of too much internal linking? I personally wouldn't assume so, but then again I could be wrong. Finally, we also track our main website using Google Analytics- currently, the only tracking we have installed on our blogs is the default provided by Wordpress (yes yes I know, but that's why i'm here -- to fix these weaknesses). I'm assuming we will be able to better track using GA when the switch is made. So, I guess my questions are: (1) Is my research correct in that it's better to have our blog hosted as domain.com/blog over topic.domain.com (2) Are there any best practices in making this switch and/or any negative implications with continuing to use Wordpress or should we build our own platform (we have the internal resources to do so, but would prefer to take the easiest and best route in terms of SEO and community building). (3) Will it still be just as easy to track using GA. Thank you!! Pedram
Branding | | CSawatzky0 -
What can i do to regain top 3 for local map listings if I already created a bunch of citation link to my site?
I got hit by a penguin refresh on Oct 5th and lost over 10 #1 rankings. I'm currently #4 on the places listing for my main keyword and really trying to regain top 3 position. I created a bunch of local citation with matching info and really piped out my map listing since it is 100% complete. I'm quite stumped on how to further optimize my map listing to where i can hit top 3 positions. Does anyone have any recommendations on this issue? Thanks Sam
Branding | | junkcars0