Double Ranking, Organic and in the Maps

[Marie Ysais]

I had a question about double ranking. Is is always possible to double rank or are there instances when Google won't allow a double ranking?

I have been able to double rank a lot and used to be able to double rank the home page. Now, I am able to double rank using interior pages and not so much the home page.

But is there an example of when a double ranking with home page or interior page won't be able to happen at all?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Marie, my Dentist I showed you in Local SEO training still has his double page one.
Right now he's the top local Dentist listed in organic but is #2 below a YP listing but still above the pack PLUS he's A in blended.

I think as long as you do it the way I showed you it's possible. Don't think Google is preventing a double per se.

BUT like everything else depends on KW and competition. If it's a KW that tends to have tons of authority site, yellow pages and directories and it's a big city and competitive market, it's going to be harder to get page on in organic, etc.

 

[Andrew Polanski]

@ Linda:
Wow, I very rarely see a scenario like that. Is the page that's ranking in organics the main homepage, or is it an innerpage on the site?

@ Marie:
From what I've read, the only way to have a double listing (organics and in the maps) is to rank an inner-page on the site.

So your G+ Local website URL would be abcdentist.com, and then your inner-page that you'd create that you'd also be trying to rank would be something like abcdentist.com/cityname-dentist/.

 

[Marie Ysais]

Hi Andrew,
I have read the same but couldn't remember the sources. I have also seen the double home page listings dwindle and rely on ranking the home page and an interior page.

If you can remember any of your sources where you read about this can you post them? I am currently searching for mine and will do the same.

I wondered if it was a Google thing or merely a competition thing? I know that in some of my markets I lost the ability to rank the home page twice and relied on the interior pages ever since.

 

[Jeffrey Taylor]

My experience with double rankings is the organic listing is an inner page and the Google Places listing is the home page.

I have several clients that have double rankings. One is a dermatologist ranking #1 in organic, above the Places and B in Places. The organic listing is an internal page.

Although there is no exact science, the key is to pay close attention to your internal web pages and optimize one of your internal pages to hit your main keywords without duplicating title tags or internal content.

Too many businesses focus so heavy on their home page optimization that they miss the boat on the value of well optimized internal pages. One of the biggest mistakes i see is listing all your services on the same page and expecting Google to figure out what keywords you are targeting.

If you provide services make sure your list has a link to a unique service that is keyworded for that exact service + local modifier. Use internal linking to help each page get noticed by Google. If possible create a video that targets those keywords and do a little video SEO (I love video SEO!!!) e.g. AC Repair City

Link to that page in your Youtube video description. Even though they are no follow, Google sees the link. Remember Google owns YouTube!!

Sorry for the rant, but too many websites are so homepage centric that they miss all the low hanging fruit.

 

[Andrew Polanski]

@ Marie:
LOL, I'm in the same boat as you. I can't remember where I read that.

 

[Marie Ysais]

Hi Jeffrey, I totally agree with your rant! And thanks for adding the seo tips for youtube!

 

[Nick.SEOSpark]

Great tips from Jeffrey and Marie.

I personally think that this stuff (double ranking) is the perfect way to do Local SEO. It's a competitive marketplace on the front page and you need all the coverage you can get.

As Jeffrey mentioned, have good internal linking to the "inner page", get some external links to it (aka- Deep Linking). Also, it's good to cross-link to it from Blog posts. I really like the idea about doing some video as well. Those no-follow links are still valuable for an inner page and still increase its Page Authority. Also, gotta do all the "SEO 101" stuff like image optimisation/H1s etc.

 

[Jeffrey Taylor]

Great points Nick!

How about a triple listing folks! Yup a well targeted video that is optimized for Google can actually grab a third page one listing.

I have done this using video. First of all, do keyword research to ensure that the keyword phrase you are targeting triggers a video.

The same thing goes for image bar SEO results. If the keyword phrase triggers a place panel, organic and video, you have a shot at a threester. This is more effective when targeting internal pages and service keywords versus main keywords.

Nick is absolutely right on about local SEO being a great place to do this. Think about it, many local businesses focus on one thing to get to page one., while you are focusing on 3 areas. A well optimized video can grab a page one spot.

Even better, if you are targeting cities outside your Places area and can't seem to get your organic listing on page one, try a video using the targeted keywords and the city.

When we talk to clients about content we must explain that Google sees much more than web pages and blog posts as content. In highly competitive markets a low budget client may not be able to afford my organic SEO, but is excited when i can grab a page one ranking for a video at a lower cost to him.

 

[Nick.SEOSpark]

Thank you for all the valuable advice you have given Jeffrey.!

On the video side, I'm fairly new to "Video SEO" - I build citations with all the video providers but new to the "video rich snippets" side of the house.

When you speak about ranking a video (in addition to the SERPs), do you mean the YouTube URL or an inner page on the website (with a video rich snippet)?

 

[Jeffrey Taylor]

That is a great question Nick! I am referring to a straight YouTube video. However, i have been researching the rich snippets for video and am getting ready to test a plug in by Joost de Valk (Yoast).

When i target a keyword for a video, i can usually outrank a page one video using my SEO and social signals formula. However, i have been starting to see more inner pages w/ the video ranking high, and find it harder to outrank. My philosophy has always been, if you can't beat them, find out what they are doing and do it better!

Once i have some concrete evidence, i will gladly share it with you.

One good tip: When embedding your YouTube video into a blog post or web page, put a link under the video to the video url or your channel on YouTube using anchor text for your keyword.

2 things Google loves is embedded YouTube videos and back links to Youtube videos. You are killing 2 birds with one stone.

 

[Marie Ysais]

Hi Jeffrey,
You mentioned in another post about embedding the video and using keyword anchor text under the video leading back to the Youtube video page. I have used this technique during testing and was able to push the video into Google search results.

I don't do a lot of SEO for videos but I was wondering if you had any other tips to help the videos make it into the google search results for your keyword.

You mentioned doing research and seeing if your keyword triggers a video in the search results. If the keyword does not trigger any videos on the first few pages does that mean you couldn't rank a video for that keyword?

 

[Jeffrey Taylor]

Hi Marie,

I am headed out to buy my 6 year old new cleats. I will put some more important tips up tomorrow.

Here is a good indication that a keyword phrase is not triggering a video in Google.

No videos on the first 3-4 pages of Google results. Next go to YouTube search engine and type your keywords in there. If a lot of decently optimized videos appear there, Google probably is not showing a video.

If I see no videos or just a few poorly optimized ones appearing in the YouTube engine, i may take a chance and create one anyway. If it doesn't stick, i either repurpose it and target another city that is showing video or slightly change my keywords.

I always want to go for the absolute best keywords, but will settle for less popular ones if they get decent traffic.

Example - Scottsdale keyword - no video
Cave Creek keyword - video!!!

 

[Marie Ysais]

Hi Jeffrey,
Whenever you have time I was wondering about the name of the video. I would assume you would title the video as you would a title tag of a website, aiming at your keyword phrase.

 

[Nick.SEOSpark]

Yeah (same as Marie), I'd also be interested in what you think the title of the video should be - and whether to have it like a standard title.

Anyway, thanks so much for the tips you have given Jeffrey, and when you have time, let us know some more! It's very valuable! - - Many thanks!

 

[Jeffrey Taylor]

Hi Marie and Nick,

The first thing that is important to know is that the Algorithm regarding YouTube video optimization is not as strict as the Google algorithm.

Although we never want to keyword spam our video title or description we can be a little more liberal when optimizing our keywords.

First of all, make sure your video is named with the keywords you are targeting before you upload. Just like image SEO.

The Title is extremely important.

Always put your targeted keyword and local modifier first. If the competition for the keyword is not fierce, you can finish the Title with a few other relevant keywords or even a phone number.

On the other hand, if there seem to be quite a few people targeting the exact same keyword you are targeting, then we need to get a bit creative.

What we do in this case is use our main keyword in the title twice. ? I even take it a step further by formatting my title using the main keyword twice, but also setting up to allow myself to also get ranked for an additional relevant phrase or two.

Example:

Low competition:

AC Repair Phoenix | 602-123-4567 | Air Conditioning Repair

High Competition:

AC Repair Phoenix Review Phoenix AC Repair

The filler word Review helps it read better

1. AC Repair Phoenix
2. AC Repair Phoenix Review
3. Review Phoenix AC Repair

This technique works in YouTube. I don't usually have to do this but if you are competing for page one and trying to knock another video off page one it works.

Description:
It is common knowledge to put the URL at the top and point it to the desired web page.

However, it is important to repeat your Title Keywords again right after the URL. If Google doesn't rank you after a few days, move the Title keywords before the URL and ping the video to see if Google likes that better.

Long description do better and you can scatter your keyword phrase around 4 times throughout the text.

Add the video URL in there also so video scrapers can pick it and get you more exposure.

Finish with a good call to action!

Add Nap to the bottom! Make sure it is congruent with the Google Places NAP. Why not grab a citation!!

Tags - Make sure your keywords are in the tags in several formats.

example - phoenix ac repair, phoenix-ac-repair. phoenixacrepair etc... add additional secondary keywords. Tags can be 30 characters and no more than 500 total characters.

Getting Social Proof - views, likes, comments, that for another day!

I hope a few of the tips above help.

The main point is, the YouTube algorithm is not the same as Google and your keywords must be clear so Google knows what the video is about!

Sorry for the delay! Busy busy week!

 

[Marie Ysais]

Hi Jeffrey,
Thank you for the tips! video seo is very new to me and I have not heard of half of the tips you just gave us!!
I am actually testing out your tips now....to see what happens. Looks like I need to tweak my title a bit more with your latest tips!

What I wonder is why some terms pull Youtube videos and other terms do not. In your business if a video is not showing up on the first few pages do you still try to rank a video for a certain term or is it not worth it? I wonder if you would test out keywords to see if it was still possible?

I find it all fascinating so I appreciate you getting back to us and giving us some of your tips!

 

[Nick.SEOSpark]

Thanks so much for sharing all of this valuable information Jeffrey - That's what this place is all about!

 

[Jeffrey Taylor]

When Google changed the way they show results pages in 2007, it opened up major opportunities for local businesses to get noticed on page one.

I try to keep my clients production costs low by using photos and creating a slideshow type video with a music background. I charge more for narrative.

I use http://web.photodex.com because it is 10x better than animoto.

Make sure you scatter call to actions throughout the video. Some viewers will not watch the whole video, so we want a phone number - website address to appear in different time periods of the video. Don't make them watch the whole video to get your contact info!!

The length of the video is usually around 1-2 minutes. Keep your eye on the videos already ranking for your keywords and log their time. If they are all around 1-2 minutes that should be your target. Creating a 4 minute video when YouTube and Google are ranking 1-2 minute ones can hurt your chances of ranking.

If you can get your clients to send you photos, start a folder so you have plenty of photos to keep making videos.

If they have short clip videos, you can insert them into your photodex video.

There are no guarantees that your keyword will trigger a video on page one. If there are already videos there, you know you can do it. If no, sometimes it is worth the risk to go for it!!

I can produce and edit a video in under 20 minutes. Video SEO takes about another 20 minutes depending on the description. Make sure you geo tag the video to your clients address in the advanced options.

Clients get excited when they see a video on page one. Viewers love videos and often will skip over web pages to watch one.

Keep the video short and related to the keywords with a strong offer and call to action and your client will get calls.

 

[Nick.SEOSpark]

Thanks so much for all the advice you have been giving Jeffrey (even though I keep saying it). You are sharing some very useful advice that is certainly helping myself and Marie, and probably many other members as well

And to that cause, I would like to share this:

OneLoad | Video Distribution Simplified

It's a service I've heard about recently for speeding up the Video SEO distribution side - I haven't tried it yet but it looks good.