Google Is Linking to Wrong Local Page - How To Change?
-
Hi All
Thanks in advance for any support. I've setup two "local" pages to target the next door town for one of my clients.
One page targets "t shirt printing" and one page targets "embroidered workwear"
However when I search for "embroidered workwear town in question" google connects the search to my t-shirt printing page and not the embroidered workwear page. Would it be possible to advise on what I need to do for the correct page to be linked to the search term?
Here is a link to the search term in question
**https://tinyurl.com/vvgr5r5 **
and the page that we would like to appear in the results, not our tshirt printing page
https://tinyurl.com/s77md9o Thanks in advance for any help
-
You're welcome. Good luck to you in the work ahead!
-
Hi Miriam
Thank you so much for your detailed response.
You have exactly identified the scenario and I will work through the suggestions posted, this content I have inherited so will make a raft of changes as suggested
-
Thank you for bringing your scenario to the forum. So, as I understand it, your T-shirt page is ranking for the term you'd prefer your Embroidery page to rank for, in a city in which you're not physically located but to which you are adjacent. While it's always up to Google which page they feel is most relevant for a particular search term, here are some things I see when looking at these two pages:
-
You are duplicating content between the two pages. This speaks of a lack of effort on the part of the brand to build unique, high quality content for the customers. If you are going to create a unique page, create unique content for it.
-
I see in your menu that you have a section for "Locations". From your Contact Page, it looks like you have just one physical location in High Wycombe. Looking at this, what appears to have been the strategy here is to create dozens of pages for locations in which the business doesn't physically exist, but would like to serve. Unfortunately, as I look at these pages, I would have to say that these pages have been created for search engine rankings rather than for human visitors. There has been little effort put into making these valuable resources for people, and if the brand's only connection to these other cities is wanting to rank for them/sell to them, that's really not good enough inspiration for publishing something worthwhile. A better approach would be to evaluate whether the brand has any actual connection to these cities. For example, let's say the the company had a large commission to embroider the work uniforms for a famous commercial pottery studio in York. You could then create a page about the job the brand did for this studio in York, complete with images, videos, text, and testimonials for the company. This would be a page that would have a real reason for existing, instead of the present state of these "location" pages that have been created. Google is likely viewing this entire collection of pages as being of low quality.
3) Something odd is happening at the top of your Marlow Embroidery page. It's as if you've got a Title Tag in the text at the top of it (instead of in your code) reading: Embroidered Workwear Marlow | Embroidery Marlow | Workwear Marlow. This is not human-style language and doesn't belong in the customer-focused text on your page. To Google, this could look like an attempt to over-optimize the page in a spammy way.
Overall, the brand isn't taking an optimum approach to marketing itself to communities beyond its city borders. If this were my client, I would be advising the brand to discover if there are real relationships they can build with customers in other cities so that they have something useful and interesting to publish. The danger of continuing with the present approach is that it could easily be pushed down by a competitor who is willing to invest in higher quality content. The duplicate content issue needs to be addressed, and the Marlow Embroidery page ranking issue might be sorted out if you do this and earn a few good new links to it, but from just a quick look at the site, this brand may have greater overall needs than this, given the current state of their content strategy.
There's a very good opportunity for your agency to get this client onto a better path. Recommended reading: https://mza.seotoolninja.com/blog/rank-beyond-location
Hope this helps and good luck!
-
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
-
Best Practice to Claim a YP Listing with a Wrong #?
What are everyones best practices to claim a YP listing that has the wrong number listed? It isn't one of our numbers so we can't answer the verification call? What have you done?
Local Listings | | PSLab0 -
Is Moz Local useful for a specialized small business?
I can see the use of Moz Local for businesses for the general public, like a restaurant. But is it useful for a more specialized business like a recording studio? The studio ranks high on Google already for our city (usually #1 but some days #2). It's not like people are driving around and grab their phone to look up an emergency recording studio stop. Is it useful?
Local Listings | | amybethmegjo0 -
Where have image descriptions gone in Google+
I wish Google wouldn't keep changing things! For a while now, I have been optimizing descriptions for the images that I upload to Google my Business through Google+, since the latest update I can't find where to do this anymore. Has anyone else experienced the same problem? I have tried inputting descriptions into the images themselves through metadata, however Google seems to strip this out when I re-download the image. Perhaps the ability to add a description to these images has now disappeared for good?
Local Listings | | OliverNeely0 -
Good service for loactions for google maps
Hi guys, I have one client from the locksmith niche. His service is in almost all the us but he dos not have fiscal location. Because that all the locksmith niche are consider a bit gray, so we noticed that Google not all the time accept the address (Virtual offices). Do you know good service that can give me good solution for this ? something that will give me good reliable address... Thanks
Local Listings | | EdmondHong870 -
Citations or Links
My I just verified 2 new locations via "Google My Business" (G+) for a client. - the purpose is to get visibility and rank in the google maps for those 2 new areas. These locations are not storefronts but are verified in G+ as branches of the business. The G+ listings are set to display zip codes and not show the address to the public - this is akin to showing a service area radius. Normally I'd just do citation building. But I dont want the address to show up to the public. Most listing websites need the address and don't really allow for service area radiuses. Since they are not storefronts, I do not want to display their addresses online. My question is can I see traction to just get links other than business listing citations pointed to the G+ pages? I think that since Google trusts it's own web pages above all else so pointing links to those G+ pages should work. Who's got an expert opinion?
Local Listings | | Rich_Coffman0 -
Is there a purpose to the "google my business" description?
Hi there Can someone tell me if the description serves a purpose in the google my business profile since:
Local Listings | | coolhandluc
a) It is not displayed anywhere as far as i have seen (maps, 3 pack local results, knowledge graph, organic results)
b) It is no longer considered as a ranking factor since it was abused so much Thanks0 -
Missing Links
I've recently been researching local memberships and associations to submit my business information to as a way to get involved in the community and gain backlinks simultaneously. A specific listing I was looking into, Think Local First (http://thinklocalfirst.net/Members) has a DA of 37 with the listing page at a 26 PA ( and homepage at 42 PA). After checking out a few of Think Local Firsts's currently listed websites on OSE, I've noticed that not one of them is showing an inbound link from this organization. I would like to represent my business on this page, but would prefer to gain a link from doing so. Can anyone give me any insight as to why this isn't reflected in the business's backlinks? I did check a couple sites with majestic and Ahrefs with the same results. Thanks in advance!
Local Listings | | LMcLaughlin0 -
Different phone numbers in local listings
We are setting up Google My Business for a client who has multiple locations around the country. They use different phone numbers to track enquiries from different sources - Yell, Google+, Direct Web Traffic, PPC etc. Therefore the phone numbers can be different between Google My Business and local listings. How much does/would this affect the Local listing? It may appear that Google is penalising for businesses try to understand their customers and where they come from!
Local Listings | | Astute-Media0