Can I move into multiple towns through building a stronger listing?

[Former Member]

Here's my info first: We are the A position company under search term "Westborough plumber". We have a very strong listing with a solid combination of reviews and citations, despite the lack of competition in our area.

My question: There is so little competition in surrounding towns, example search "Hopkinton plumber", that Google is grabbing companies from outside towns to supply the users with a decent list of companies. My question is why is our company not being shown here? In the example search, our company location is closer than the outside competition Google chooses for Hopkinton but we are not chosen.

What factors do you think are keeping us out? Should I continue to strengthen the listing? Will this "get me in"?

Interested in anyone's opinion.

Thanks!

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Ross,

I just invested some time looking at that market and your competitors. But I have not figured out the answer. But I would def keep working on content for those cities you want to rank for and continue to build strong local signals any way you can.

I think it would help if the cities you want to rank for were on your home page.

And FYI you have a problem with your home page title tag. It's way too long. Looks like someone accidentally added your description to the title tag maybe? I'm not one that necessarily believes titles have to be a certain length but adding the following, to an already long title tag is too much and again sounds like it was supposed to be the description:

PLUS looks like spam to the algo due to all the KW repetition.

"Looking for a skilled Plumber in Westborough MA? Cahill Plumbing & Heating specializes in Plumbing, Heating, and Emergency Plumbing in Westborough MA. Call us today at 508-366-9220"

 

[Former Member]

Oops! Thanks for the find Linda! Yes that was suppose to be our meta description. I'll have to change that.

 

[Former Member]

I've found a Superpages duplicate listing of the company with an old address in the neighboring town (the one I've been questioning why I won't show up in the 7pack).

Maybe this is it! I'm jumping around the superpages site trying to get this thing removed. I know that Google does show superpages reviews now in the dashboard so they must place a lot of trust with them... so perhaps this is why I am not showing up in the neighboring town's 7 pack.

If I can get this thing deleted, I'll update with results. Any tips on how to get rid of this listing though? It seems a bit difficult?

 

[Former Member]

Just called superpages and citysearch. Both had duplicates with different addresses so I had them both removed. Hopefully this helps!

 

[Laustin1878]

Ross, you may want to consider re-writing that title. It's quite redundant and I think users will get the idea that you are plumbers...

The title is probably one of the most important on-page aspects and in my humble opinion, your title looks a little spammy. It may be working now but it looks like you could be a candidate to get snagged by Google for trying too hard.

I have recently questioned the suggested length of titles being restricted to 70 characters and how valid it is since Google has been "modifying" titles to better suit the searcher and make the titles look more relevant to the search. My thought is that if Google is switching them up, why not give them more options to choose from? I don't think throwing 140 characters into a title is the idea but if you push the envelope a little past 70, can their be a benefit? Food for thought. Nothing tested yet, just random thoughts.

 

[Former Member]

Thanks for the feedback! I agree with you. I'll try something a little less SEO'd and a little more human... that's what I gather you're getting at.

 

[Laustin1878]

For long term results, yes. It irks me to no end seeing spammy titles outranking sites that have legit, readable titles. While it may work for the short term, you usually see the more natural sites prevail in the end. I would be lying if I told you I've never done it before though

Besides, with the new algo and semantic search being more prevalent these days, I wonder how much longer key term targeting will survive. Soon, you'll be able to rank for key terms without even having them in your title. Pretty impressive stuff.

 

[Linda Buquet]

The title is probably one of the most important on-page aspects and in my humble opinion, your title looks a little spammy. It may be working now but it looks like you could be a candidate to get snagged by Google for trying too hard.

Thanks for the feedback! I agree with you. I'll try something a little less SEO'd and a little more human... that's what I gather you're getting at.

Ross I teach folks never to repeat KW (including synonyms) more than twice in title. Since plumbing is in your name, you have plumber, plumbing, plumbers.

There is a fairly new algo at play that makes no logical sense to me.

I think it's factoring in something new but I can't figure out what's in control.

Maddening!

Your search term was a great example.

Google: Westborough plumber. There are several other plumbers in that cluster of small towns. Why does Google out of all of them, award Assured Service with the C spot? It's in a different town. Further away then some other plumbers. AND it does not even have Westborough on the site. Does not even have the city it's IN on the home page.

assureplumbingservice.com
title tag: Assured Service - Home

So this is one of those sites that does not look optimized at all. Yet Google likes it enough to rank it 3 cities over. WHY???

I checked some citations and stuff but didn't check backlink anchors.

But I suspect if we could figure out why this one ranks it would give us a piece of the puzzle on this new algo. And give YOU an idea of how to rank in other cities.

 

[Former Member]

Ross I teach folks never to repeat KW (including synonyms) more than twice in title. Since plumbing is in your name, you have plumber, plumbing, plumbers.

There is a fairly new algo at play that makes no logical sense to me.

I think it's factoring in something new but I can't figure out what's in control.

Maddening!

Your search term was a great example.

Google: Westborough plumber. There are several other plumbers in that cluster of small towns. Why does Google out of all of them, award Assured Service with the C spot? It's in a different town. Further away then some other plumbers. AND it does not even have Westborough on the site. Does not even have the city it's IN on the home page.

assureplumbingservice.com
title tag: Assured Service - Home

So this is one of those sites that does not look optimized at all. Yet Google likes it enough to rank it 3 cities over. WHY???

I checked some citations and stuff but didn't check backlink anchors.

But I suspect if we could figure out why this one ranks it would give us a piece of the puzzle on this new algo. And give YOU an idea of how to rank in other cities.

Exactly! Solve the assured service puzzle and we may figure this whole thing out. Very smart Linda. Thanks. Ill continue to research around and see what I find.

 

[Former Member]

Want to really start pulling your hair out? Search "southborough plumber" ... Makes no sense to me

 

[Laustin1878]

Looked at their backlinks and I saw 3 backlinks. The anchor only uses their business name or their URL. Also, their site has a PO Box on their Contact Us page.

Im looking forward to seeing how this pans out.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Just realized this was in the wrong forum. Was in Google+ Business Pages and this is not about that topic, so moved to Local SEO ranking.

 

[valesence]

Just called superpages and citysearch. Both had duplicates with different addresses so I had them both removed. Hopefully this helps!

you called citysearch? what number if you don't mind sharing?

 

[Former Member]

you called citysearch? what number if you don't mind sharing?

No prob. It actually took me some time to find. City search is a sub of citygrid media. You can call them at 800-611-4827. They will ask you for an ID number that is given to you when you claim and log in to your city grid account.

 

[Former Member]

Ok, I did what little research I'm capable of today and this is what I've found. Maybe someone more experienced can help?

This is regarding "Assured Service Plumbing Heating" of Northborough, MA. I checked all there reviews there are no keywords for Westborough. I checked the website on Majestic SEO: Trust Flow of 10, Citiation Flow of 15. The site shows 4 backlinks, (2) URL and (2) Brand Name anchors only. The website is:

assureplumbingservice(dot)com

To make it even more confusing as to why Google is choosing this company as the C spot for "westborough plumber", they have a duplicate listing under "Assured Service, Inc." in Boston, Ma. Not only that but they made a complete duplicate website at:

assured-service(dot)com

All the other possible plumbers for the town of Westborough are spam listings and have been removed from the pack a long time ago. So, Google should be selecting a plumber from a nearby town, but as to why it's Assured Service... well that's the puzzle.

That's the only "research" I'm capable of I'm sure someone can dig deeper than me

 

[Ben Bowen]

Could the 1-800 # play a role? If I was going to pull someone from another city, wouldn't a 1-800 indicate a service area beyond the little city that are located in? The other plumbers from Northborough have local area codes- different from Westborough.

Just a guess...

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks Ben,

Could be they've been in business for a long time and are well established. Could even be they do a lot of TV or newspaper ads driving traffic to their site so get lots of clicks?

There are 31,000 matches in Google for "Assured Service Plumbing & Heating" "(800) 431-3880" (a partial citation.) The B spot above them only has 40, but they are closer.

 

[Laustin1878]

This scenario has me intrigued....

I tried plugging around the assured-service(d)com site and this site has PR 1 where the assuredservice(d)com does not. So this site has more recognition or value than the site without the dash. Not to mention, none of the sites have a canonical or redirect in place to from either non www to www. Basically, you can type in the domain with or without the www and the site pulls up. It's a dupe of itself. A simple of a 301 redirect would give this site more authority. Definitely something to pay attention to if they are a competitor.

On the assured-service there is a link to Facebook. In the about section on that FB page, I saw a link which says: "Proudly Serving Massachusetts" which links to a map in Bing. The map shows the business name and shows coordinates only (42.125515,-71.498619). Putting these coordinates into a Lat/Long checker, it brings up a location different to where the business is located, just outside of Milford. I did not map where Northborough was in comparison to this nor did I map Westborough.

I'm wondering if the social signal from Facebook and Bing are playing a role. I ran out of time trying map all 3 locations and look further but a few more dots to try to connect.

Maybe you can start looking for geo-specific links for the target city and surrounding cities as well as create a page or two that has local relevance to the history of Westborough to gain a little more authority for that area. Sorry I couldnt see it through a little further but here are some links: **Note, I added a (d) for .com so the links will not work. You need to copy & paste**

https://www.facebook(d)com/AssuredService/info?ref=ts
https://www.bing(d)com/maps/default...M=FBKPL0&name=Assured+Service,+Inc.&mkt=en-US
http://www.latlong(d)net/Show-Latitude-Longitude.html

 

[Former Member]

This scenario has me intrigued....

I tried plugging around the assured-service(d)com site and this site has PR 1 where the assuredservice(d)com does not. So this site has more recognition or value than the site without the dash. Not to mention, none of the sites have a canonical or redirect in place to from either non www to www. Basically, you can type in the domain with or without the www and the site pulls up. It's a dupe of itself. A simple of a 301 redirect would give this site more authority. Definitely something to pay attention to if they are a competitor.

On the assured-service there is a link to Facebook. In the about section on that FB page, I saw a link which says: "Proudly Serving Massachusetts" which links to a map in Bing. The map shows the business name and shows coordinates only (42.125515,-71.498619). Putting these coordinates into a Lat/Long checker, it brings up a location different to where the business is located, just outside of Milford. I did not map where Northborough was in comparison to this nor did I map Westborough.

I'm wondering if the social signal from Facebook and Bing are playing a role. I ran out of time trying map all 3 locations and look further but a few more dots to try to connect.

Maybe you can start looking for geo-specific links for the target city and surrounding cities as well as create a page or two that has local relevance to the history of Westborough to gain a little more authority for that area. Sorry I couldnt see it through a little further but here are some links: **Note, I added a (d) for .com so the links will not work. You need to copy & paste**

https://www.facebook(d)com/AssuredService/info?ref=ts
https://www.bing(d)com/maps/default...M=FBKPL0&name=Assured+Service,+Inc.&mkt=en-US
http://www.latlong(d)net/Show-Latitude-Longitude.html

This is excellent I never noticed that Facebook info! Thank you for being interested in this and I really appreciate the help.

I'll take this info and see what else I can find. Report back soon