Cannot rank Local UK service business site

[m82s]

Hi all! firstly thank you to Linda for responding to my member introduction thread and pointing me in the right direction. For some reason I have an issue where return key isn't working on the forum but ill address that asap.

So my local uk business site is nearly 5yrs old and has had a ton of stuff done over the years (admittedly not the best things for local search like links from all over the place). I have done many other social, bookmarking and articles etc but im totally at a loss now. every few weeks ive toyed with titles and descriptions etc but I just cannot rank. I used to be in top 10 organic but now im a fair few pages back at about position 200 for main keyword+city.

My site is m-t-i.co.uk and main phrases are Electrician Leeds, Electrician in Leeds and plural with Electricians. Also reverse giving city+keyword. I really would appreciate any help you can offer and ill post some more details in a minute. Im not a complete newbie with seo but its obviously not my strongest point nor my day job! My G places listing is an issue but ill move onto that later.

I have many seo tools and ill put up some stats etc. I really do need to employ someone to sort this all out and get me ranking better with on site stuff first but my budget is little (or non existant) for the next week or so because im getting little if any work due to loss of rankings recently. Please ask questions and I really do thank you in advance! ill sort this browser return key issue now!

 

[m82s]

Re: cannot rank local uk service business site

So here is where my poor rankings are today. Its a multiple services site but my main service and qualifications are electrical so I have mainly targeted electricians for the homepage and also added an internal dedicated page for it too along with my other services which are briefly mentioned on the homepage. I can add stats for these too if it helps anyone. Besides electricians, I have one or two mores services that I want to eventually target and these will be service+city but these can be done later by means of optimising the inner dedicated pages

 

[Jo Shaer]

Hi m82s

Are you running the business from your home? It looks like it from the satellite image but your address is still being published on your G+ page.

You will need to go into your dashboard and check the box for Service Area Businesses so that your address is not shown.

That's normally the main reason why businesses stop showing on Google Local.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks Jo!

Sorry I invited you to post then never had time to reply. Still buried tonight but some quick feedback then others may weigh in tomorrow.

Jo is right, must select service area, we go out to customers and if you have a setting that says do not show my address tick that. You can get deleted for violating that rule.

You have some other MAJOR violations. Check this: Google Map Maker

Go down to categories - they are totally in violation. Worst I've seen in a long time.

Electrician, tv wall mounting installation leeds, freesat installation leeds, cat5 cable installation leeds, custom built pc computers leeds, telephone points installation leeds, sky installation leeds, freeview installation leeds, AV installation leeds, audio visual installation leeds, alarm installation leeds, Alarm Installation Leeds, Cctv Installation Leeds, Pat testing companies Leeds, Portable appliance testing Leeds, PAT Testing Leeds, PAT Testing company Leeds, Electrical Contractors and Electricians, Satellite and Cable Television Sales and Installation Service, CAT5 data cable installation and computer networking leeds, internet installation leeds, Audio visual installation leeds, freesat installation leeds, freeview installation leeds, sky installation leeds, multi room av installation leeds, Audio Visual Equipment Supplier, CCTV Equipment and Services, Home Cinema Installation, Security System Installer

You ONLY get 5. And they must be a traditional business category like electrician.
And ONLY 1 PER FIELD. You can't just stuff in a bunch of keyword strings like that.

PLUS you can't put city in categories. That alone even once can get you suspended.

Plus look at all the names at the top of that page. That suggests to me you've been using a bunch of different versions of your name online and Google merged some of those together into 1.

Do you have more than one listing claimed in the same or different dashboards?

Sorry that's all I have time for right now. Am on deadlines for consulting projects that are due.

 

[m82s]

Hi all, Thanks for your responses and detailed input.

My first reason for coming here was not directly and issue with my G places listing but with my own local website and im currently getting some feedback on this as we speak to see what needs to be done.

Thanks for the input regarding me G places. I admit to having several spammy versions of my places but didnt know any better when they were built a while ago and i was trying any old tactics after loosing business however, some did work but in the long run wouldn't of helped. I updated my now one and only single places listing a few days ago and it has only just updated. The "Business sections" that Linda pointed out (that whole long spammy list with city on end of each term) should now not be present since it was all removed some days ago and i have just the allowed amount of category listings which are all ones that google offers and matched as i typed to be nearest matching.

I deleted out all my old profiles and stuck with the one for this website (shown in pics above) and i have one other listing which is not live within my dashboard but is disabled. It is for my other business website and has different categories and different website listed although the NAP is the same etc. Should i delete this out? will it cause harm?

I think i may need to get this outsourced if it becomes beyond my basic skills

kind regards

 

[Jo Shaer]

Don't delete any listings that are in your account dashboard. Just suspend them from showing on the map.

 

[Linda Buquet]

No don't suspend from Maps. If they are similar NAP they are likely partially or completes merged with the main listing so that can end up deleting your main listing too.

I recommend doing just the opposite. If they are dupes of the same location just slightly different names OR if they are bogus listings for locations that violate the guidelines, get them out of your dashboard. Click delete. Then remove from my account.

 

[Jo Shaer]

Thanks Linda - have I not been paying attention again? The minute my back is turned, Google changes things that I thought were written in stone!

 

[Linda Buquet]

Yep blink and it all changes.

Well and too delete from maps does not usually work any more. Even if you find a listing and claim/delete in dash to suspend it - they won't remove it from Maps if there are any citations for it.

I've even seen folks go to the G forum and threaten to sue because they deleted in dash and it's not gone and they want their listing removed. Google won't delete it if there are mentions of the business on the web.

So my warning not to use that option is two-fold. Does not usually do anything now, but back when it worked it would take out the main listing to if partially merged.

 

[Simon James]

1. If you lost rankings your very first point of call should be your WebMaster Tools account. Does Google give any warnings to you there about unnatural links?

You have almost certainly had a Penguin Slap. For example, there are 520 links pointing to your website from a website called BenFrostIsDead. In fact you have so many spammy links pointing to your site that it would probably be better to start a new one rather than try to take down 8000 bad links and put in reconsideration requests with Google.


2. Talk about keyword stuffing your pages!!! I'd be amazed if you haven't already had a Panda Slap.

Try to remember that it is human beings (with problems that need solving) who are reading your website and making a decision whether or not to call you. The top half of your home page is entirely about YOU, YOU, YOU.
Searchers don't give a monkey's about you. When they land on your website they have a conversation going on in their head and the first headlines, bullet points, images or other text they read, needs to recognise that problem and assure them they are in the right place to get help.

Google ranks webpages based on one very important philosophy: The searcher has a problem that they need an answer to, so which web pages have the BEST answer to that problem?

3. Your home page screams industrial installation contractor, not local electrician in Leeds. If my leccy had gone at home I would hit the back button as soon as I saw your site.

4. And while we're on the subject, what does your Analytics say about the number of searchers using a mobile phone? I'll bet it's around about the 20% mark, and yet your website isn't even remotely responsive... so you are burning 1 in 5 visitors straight away.

I could go on, but I haven't got another 3 hours to spare...