Local Ranking Problems.

[jdohman]

Hello Everyone.

I do not know where to start or go but hopefully this is the place.

I have a local business doing home theater and home automation systems and I ahve been trying very hard to get into the top 3 for the google local ranking. I have followed almost every guide I have found online and tried my hardest to get citations, reviews, and everything that is supposed to launch you into the top spot.

My keyword is home theater frisco

As you can see from the picture below. I have more citations, links. website authority, and reviews the the person currently in third but yet for months I have not moved up.

I do not know how citation authority is determined but I am listed on every 100 citation website I can find as well as everything in the 90 plus which is well over 10 and my competitors may have 1 or 2. I do not know how to raise this number.

I do not know where to go from here. I went to a local company that has over a 100 5 star reviews and they said they couldn't help me. I had cash in my pocket ready to pay. So I am at a loss.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi and thanks for posting.

This was up in Local Ranking which is for general discussions. Moved you down to help and support which is for help on a specific listing.

We have the top experts in the field here and many are very skilled at ranking troubleshooting.

However we don't have enough info to go on and would be just guessing in the dark.

If you could provide a link to your Google+ Local page. (The direct page, not to your dashboard.) Then we can take a look at your listing and site to see if there are any problems or offer suggestions for improvement.

 

[jdohman]

https://plus.google.com/+Smarthomesoftexas/about

thank you very much and sorry for posting in the worng forum.

 

[JoyHawkins]

A couple things I noticed.

https://developers.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool/ - this shows you have organization markup but not local business markup. I would make sure the Schema markup is that of a local business

Your website lists your phone number using dots. Google can't understand this the same way. They should be dashes. Same thing with your title tag.

Your organic ranking is low for that keyword which tells me the issue is more related to organic factors instead of local factors. You have the keyword "home theater frisco" on your homepage a few times but not in a way that makes sense if you read it as a person and not a search engine. I would completely get rid of that footer link - it can raise flags that you don't want raised. I would also reword your content so it reads properly if a person reads it (saying something like "Looking for a home theater in Frisco" vs throwing in "home theater frisco" after sentences.

The biggest issue could also be that you're using a forwarding URL on your G+ page. It lists smarthomesoftexas.com yet that forwards to Home Theater Frisco - Smart homes of Texas - 469.644.6477 which is the URL Google has indexed.

 

[jdohman]

Joy, thanks for the info. Working on the fixes I can control.

I will try to find a solution for the forwarding web address. I didnt know that would hinder my search results. Should I change it on my google plus to the hometheaterfriscotx.com? If I do that my nap will be out of line for 130 citations.

Also. If I dont use the - Home Theater Frisco keyword in the page it gives me a flag for my seo program which is why I have been using it kind of out of place like that. I don't like it either but since its the actual keyword I was trying to target I was trying to get in in play.

 

[JoyHawkins]

All your citations and links point to the forwarding URL? I would say this is your root problem. Your organic ranking + local ranking are not connected because you're using 2 different domains.

*ideally* the link juice would flow if you're using a 301 redirect so I would probably start by updating G+ and see what that does.

However, consistency is key so I would advise any backlinks or citations you build from this point should be built to the actual URL, not some domain that forwards to it.

Google can actually suspend pages for using forwarding URLs so you need to go with the actual domain of your site.

 

[jdohman]

ill call bluehost and see if they can flip the smarthomesoftexas to the main url and then do the other as the forwarding link.

 

[heckler]

Once you clear up everything that Joy has pointed out (especially the redirect), a link or 2 with the anchor text 'home theater frisco' will certainly help (if you can find a good place to put them #linksishard).

Another thing I would fix is the address you have shown (12312 Canoe Rd Frisco, TX 75035). It appears to be in a residential area. This is a no-no in Googleworld. If you don't have a public office I would recommend hiding the address for the business (which likely means updating all of your citations).

After a quick look, you're pitting yourself against some fairly old domains, so you're likely going to have to get creative to climb that ranking. Domain age is a big factor in SEO, so do your best to not be changing the domain that the business uses.

Top 3 domains registration date:

• Stereoest - 05/07/1999
• Theater Advice - 11/15/2006
• Sonic Boom - 10/16/2012

If you haven't already I might recommend setting up a Pinterest board with the various cards for products and services with links to their corresponding pages (on your website).

Pinterest is great because you can geo-tag your board and add specific content related to a service + photos of installs/work done by the business, which can help you climb local rankings (If you're pointing the board at your TLD).