Local SEO Changes - Not Hummingbird?

[Mike Pedersen]

I have clients site that got hit. Was NUMBER ONE organic and now bottom of page 3. Have no idea why.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Re: How Google Hummingbird Impacts Local SEO & Local Rankings

Have not heard about penalties or major rank drops due to Hummingbird.
Was likely something else.

 

[Mike Pedersen]

Re: How Google Hummingbird Impacts Local SEO & Local Rankings

Hmmm????

I'm seeing competitor sites rank with city THREE TIMES in title. What's that all about?

Look at this meta:
<title>Anchorage Dentist, Anchorage Cosmetic Dentistry, Anchorage AK 99503 - Welcome</title>
meta name="keywords" content="Anchorage Dentist, Dr. Patrick Dorman, Dr. Bradford Allen, Anchorage Cosmetic Dentist, Anchorage Family Dentist, Dentist 99503, Anchorage Porcelain Veneers, Anchorage Dental Implants"

meta name="description" content="Contact Dr. Patrick Dorman andDr. Bradford Allen for your Anchorage dentist, Anchorage family dentist, and Anchorage cosmetic dentist needs."

title = Anchorage Dentist, Anchorage Cosmetic Dentistry, Anchorage AK 99503 - Welcome
<meta name="description" content="Contact Dr. Patrick Dorman andDr. Bradford Allen for your Anchorage dentist, Anchorage family dentist, and Anchorage cosmetic dentist needs.">

<meta name="keywords" content="Anchorage Dentist, Dr. Patrick Dorman, Dr. Bradford Allen, Anchorage Cosmetic Dentist, Anchorage Family Dentist, Dentist 99503, Anchorage Porcelain Veneers, Anchorage Dental Implants">


FYI - This is not my client.

 

[Laustin1878]

Re: How Google Hummingbird Impacts Local SEO & Local Rankings

For the life of me, I cannot remember where I read it but there was mention that meta descriptions were back in play to help rankings. I don't recall to what extent and I cannot seem to find the article at the moment. Being as though Google modifies both the titles and descriptions based on the searchers queries, I'm not sure why it's now a factor.

I'll re-post when I find the article. I'm interested to see how local shakes out after this algo update.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Sounds like you got hit by Penguin 2.1

 

[Mike Pedersen]

Joshua,

What are the main issues Penguin 2.1 addressed?

 

[Eric Rohrback]

Penguin 2.1 was for unnatural links.

Meta keywords mean nothing to rankings, and you should remove them. I like when competitors use meta keyword tags because that is telling me exactly what they're trying to rank for.

As for description, I wasn't aware that is important to ranking. It's important for CTR and attracting the right users to the page, but I didn't hear of an update that is a ranking factor.

Title tag is spammy, and as others have mentioned in this forum; overusing the location in the title tag can contribute to a ranking penalty.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Penguin is primarily off-page factors.

It is unknown at this point what 2.1 specifically hit but traditionally it goes for things such as spammy backlinks, poor anchor text variation, sitewide links, things of that nature.

I'm sure with this update they went after more sitewide links and blog networks. Other than that, I'm not sure quite yet.

---

I've heard from both sides of the fence that meta description doesn't matter for ranking. I can't imagine Google ignoring they keywords in it, considering Google bolds the words on SERPS. It may not weigh a whole lot but at any rate, it shouldn't matter. You're going to put keywords in the description so that it bolds to the consumer for CTR.

Just write it for humans, as always, and you'll be fine.

 

[Laustin1878]

I have not been able to find where I read that Google was going to consider the description tag again with regards to rankings. As I noted, I didn't know to what extent but I did not say that it will matter. They are more used to help CTR's as also noted.

I always add meta descriptions despite Google typically using snippets from the page to display in the search results. Bing and Yahoo were still ranking based on keyword and description meta tags. It's been a while since I've paid attention to them so I'm not sure how valid this is.

The new Google Algo was supposed to lessen the effects of targeting keywords. The algo is supposed to be far more complex and better understand user intent. I wouldn't change gears completely and discontinue targeting keywords but how much emphasis is placed on this today is unknown. I've seen a site that is not targeting any keywords and has no quality backlinks and poor content that is outranking a site that is well optimized. This somewhat supports the new algo or it's a new site reward Google is giving the site. I have not confirmed this.

Going as far as to say "removing tags" is a little extreme IMO. You can simply look at the keywords on any page to see what keywords a site is trying to rank for. While these tags may not help with rankings, they certainly do not hurt. You should consider, even if it's minute considerations, the other search engines which may pay more attention to on-page attributes. Every little bit helps.

 

[Laustin1878]

Just found this regarding meta descriptions.. Is it necessary for every page to have a meta description? - YouTube

I stand somewhat corrected as Matt mentions the use or lack thereof with meta descriptions. He highlights that duplicate meta descriptions should be corrected (you can see this data if you have a Google Webmaster Tools account) and that the use of meta descriptions for every page is not worth your time. He mentions to use meta descriptions for important pages.

In some of my experiences, I have noticed crap descriptions being pulled by Google in the SERP's despite me entering a unique meta description. For the 30 seconds it takes me to write it, I will continue doing it. I can see how this becomes cumbersome on an ecommerce site or a site with many pages.

Basically, your homepage and high level pages should have meta descriptions at the minimum.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

I think maybe Matt meant for ranking purposes, it's not necessary. I did not watch the video but I think it's silly to think that each page shouldn't have its own meta description tag. 9 times out of 10 your meta description is going to show up in the SERP (if not more). I want to control what that says. If it's truly not a ranking factor, that's even better news for me because I'm going to load them down with calls to actions and other goodies.

At any rate, I agree with you. It takes 30 seconds to write and it's invaluable in my opinion.

 

[Dustybones]

Re: How Google Hummingbird Impacts Local SEO & Local Rankings

I remember reading this somewhere a couple months ago, but I think the idea faded quickly. Have looked a few times for it but found nothing.

For the life of me, I cannot remember where I read it but there was mention that meta descriptions were back in play to help rankings.