Trouble moving my website up in rank.

[JimFranco]

I still cannot seem to improve my ranking for my cleaning company Mighty Clean Home, its been stuck at the bottom of the first page for "house cleaning roswell" and some other serps for a while.

I added 3 what I thought were good links the last couple of months with anchor text only my business name. I figured I had enough optimized anchored text already .

Anyone have any suggestions or see something I am missing ?

these are the new 3 backlinks I got recently

11 Things You Should Never Clean with Baking Soda

10 Ways to Use Salt to Keep Your House Spotless

How to Start an Apartment Cleaning Service

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Hi @JimFranco what is your search location when you are checking the rankings? And I am assuming you are referring to the localized organic results but can you confirm if you are also referring to the 3-pack/Google Maps rankings?

Thanks

 

[JimFranco]

Hi,
I am in Roswell, GA. I know I show up sometimes in 3 pack a lot of the time. But, I am referring to organic.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Hi @JimFranco Other than the MaidRight website it looks like all the sites that outrank you organically are authoritative review sites.

This could be a tough go trying to move up past them. The first thing I would do is make sure that your barnacle SEO is solid for those particular review sites.

I'd also re-write your title tag and Meta Description since you need to make your SERP snippet as attractive as possible. Keep the main keyword in there but write the rest with a CTR focus.

 

[adammaxum]

ditto on what colan said..

additional tips
- re-write your title tag to say " Roswell House Cleaning Services - Business Name"
- include "rosewell house cleaning" in description tag somewhere
- make sure your business is listed on all those 3rd party directory sites
- if you're link building - do 1-2 links that use the anchor text "roswell house cleaning" or "house cleaning roswell" and you'll jump up above the directories eventually.

I didn't look at website but I assume the other on-site SEO is fine.

 

[JimFranco]

thank you guys

 

[JoshuaMackens]

How long have you been working on the SEO? How old is the website?

 

[JimFranco]

been working on it for awhile the website is about 11 years old

 

[Tim Colling]

This could be a tough go trying to move up past them. The first thing I would do is make sure that your barnacle SEO is solid for those particular review sites.

I agree with what @Colan Nielsen said above.

How certain are you about your on-site SEO? I looked at your website an visually it's a bit of a hodge-podge of text. (Sorry)

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Hey Jim,

A few thoughts:

1) I didn't see a link in the realtor.com article. Others have links in there though and they are followed. Reach out to them and ask for a retro link.

2) Your link on bizfluent.com is nofollowed.

3) If you just got the rd.com backlink in February, sometimes it takes awhile for backlinks to kick in.

4) I believe you can move past all of these guys, you just need the backlinks to do it.

 

[JimFranco]

I have gotten more backlinks since then too.

for instance
How Often Should I Replace These Household Items?

https://www.vonigo.com/service-companies-increase-bookings/

etc , etc





plus that Rd.com backlink was shared on many sites such as 11 Things You Should Never Clean with Baking Soda

11 Things You Shouldn't Clean with Baking Soda

not sure how that counts as a backlink ? if content is shared with backlinks in them ?


plus I try to get brand mentions from AP that get distributed. I dont know how much brand mentions are worth it but I do that too

6 things small businesses can do to improve cybersecurity

6 things small businesses can do to improve cybersecurity


but so far no movement . I dont know what kind backlinks I should be getting otherwise or mentions.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

It's hard to know with brand mentions. However, most of the time you have a brand mention because they won't link to you. If that's the case, that's all you can do and a brand mention is better than nothing. See if they'll mention your location in your brand, that way Google can tie them together hopefully.

I think it's honestly only a matter of time, especially if you keep going after these links. Have you tried to do anything locally in the papers?

 

[JimFranco]

It's hard to know with brand mentions. However, most of the time you have a brand mention because they won't link to you. If that's the case, that's all you can do and a brand mention is better than nothing. See if they'll mention your location in your brand, that way Google can tie them together hopefully.

I think it's honestly only a matter of time, especially if you keep going after these links. Have you tried to do anything locally in the papers?

what do you mean locally in papers ? Like trying to get printed in an article ? or ads ?

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Editorials on the website with a backlink.

 

[Steven12]

If you're looking long term for this maid service, Roswell is a very populated dense area. Take small bites of it by expanding your service area. Now a days, most searches are done "Maid service near me." When this type of search is made, Google knows exactly where that query came from. How big is your "near me"? Slowly expand your service area in both GMB and produce"City Pages" for your website. GMB doesn't allow radius areas any longer, so use that to your advantage through hard work. Add towns and neighborhoods with zip codes to your GMB service area. Then produce a "City Page" for that town with a link to your GMB. Pick all of the low hanging fruit & you'll eat like the Big Boys. Here's a list:: (Only 10 mile radius)
Roswell,North Point,Roswell Oaks,Oak Chase,Boulder Creek,Plantation North,Plantation Place,Carriage Lakes,North Forest,Sturbridge Village,Greenway,Garrards Crossing,Waterfront,Coventry Green,Mountain Creek,Westfield,Hedgerow,Chimney Lakes,Heartwood,Glenforest,Forest Brook,Coventry Downs,Lake Colony,Manning Farms,Villa Chase,Princeton Lakes,Mill Glen,Marlanta,Windrush,North Point,Wildwood Springs,Chattahoochee Heights,Hampton Lake,Highland Colony,Oak Point,Brookfield West,Heritage Glen,Spalding Hills,Rivergate,Verdon Forest,Withmere,Horseshoe Bend,Alpha Park,Dunwoody Knoll,Redfield,Sweet Apple Crossing,Dunwoody Heights,Crabapple,Lake Villas,Princeton Walk
Have fun & ask for a raise. lol
Let’s do some math to illustrate: Google's default radius is five miles.
If your radius is only 5 miles, your coverage is 78.5 sq. miles.
If your radius is 10 miles, your coverage is 314.2 sq. miles.
But, if your radius is 20 miles, your coverage is 1256.6 sq. miles
Bottom Line: Increase your radius to 10 miles and quadruple your business. Even better, expand your radius to 20 miles, and your business will become 16 times greater. I would drive 20 miles to see my dog get the best treatment available, and so will many others.

 

[JimFranco]

If you're looking long term for this maid service, Roswell is a very populated dense area. Take small bites of it by expanding your service area. Now a days, most searches are done "Maid service near me." When this type of search is made, Google knows exactly where that query came from. How big is your "near me"? Slowly expand your service area in both GMB and produce"City Pages" for your website. GMB doesn't allow radius areas any longer, so use that to your advantage through hard work. Add towns and neighborhoods with zip codes to your GMB service area. Then produce a "City Page" for that town with a link to your GMB. Pick all of the low hanging fruit & you'll eat like the Big Boys. Here's a list:: (Only 10 mile radius)
Roswell,North Point,Roswell Oaks,Oak Chase,Boulder Creek,Plantation North,Plantation Place,Carriage Lakes,North Forest,Sturbridge Village,Greenway,Garrards Crossing,Waterfront,Coventry Green,Mountain Creek,Westfield,Hedgerow,Chimney Lakes,Heartwood,Glenforest,Forest Brook,Coventry Downs,Lake Colony,Manning Farms,Villa Chase,Princeton Lakes,Mill Glen,Marlanta,Windrush,North Point,Wildwood Springs,Chattahoochee Heights,Hampton Lake,Highland Colony,Oak Point,Brookfield West,Heritage Glen,Spalding Hills,Rivergate,Verdon Forest,Withmere,Horseshoe Bend,Alpha Park,Dunwoody Knoll,Redfield,Sweet Apple Crossing,Dunwoody Heights,Crabapple,Lake Villas,Princeton Walk
Have fun & ask for a raise. lol
Let’s do some math to illustrate: Google's default radius is five miles.
If your radius is only 5 miles, your coverage is 78.5 sq. miles.
If your radius is 10 miles, your coverage is 314.2 sq. miles.
But, if your radius is 20 miles, your coverage is 1256.6 sq. miles
Bottom Line: Increase your radius to 10 miles and quadruple your business. Even better, expand your radius to 20 miles, and your business will become 16 times greater. I would drive 20 miles to see my dog get the best treatment available, and so will many others.

that list is a list of subdivisions you can add subdivisions to gmb ?

 

[Steven12]

Yes, for sure. The three pack is all about Maps. Location, Location, Location. You have to have a well defined service area. Spell it out for the algorithm. Study "Post Codes", (Not zip codes). They have created there own longitude and latitude. Also, driving directions, map stacking, local points of interest. You can own Roswell and Alpharetta too. It's all changing fast.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

There is no evidence currently that using service areas changes anything in Google Maps. They may be headed that direction but they're not there yet unless something has changed in the last 1-2 weeks. If anything, something like that could seem spammy to Google.

I'm doing my own test as we speak. If something changes, I'll report back.

 

[Steven12]

Why is it spam if you service those areas? I would keep it inside of a twenty mile radius for sure. However, Google specifies plural in it's own language.
Add or edit your service area
If your business serves customers within a specific local area, you can list your service area on your Google My Business listing. Listing your service area helps let customers know where you'll go to visit or deliver to them.
The service area feature is designed for businesses who visit or deliver to local customers. For example, it can be used by:

• A business that visits or delivers to customers, but doesn't serve customers at its business address (e.g. a plumber or cleaning service).
• A business that serves customers at its business address, but also visits or delivers to customers (e.g. a restaurant that also delivers food).

How it works
You can set your service area based on the cities, postal codes, or other areas that you serve.
Note: You can no longer set your service area as a distance around your business. If you previously entered a distance around your business, you won't be able to edit it. Instead, you'll need to specify your service area by city, postal code, or other area(s).
When updating your business information, you have the option of entering your address, service area, or both.

• If you don't serve customers at your business address, leave the address field blank and only enter your service area.
• If you serve customers at your business address but also have a service area, enter both your address and service area.

How to add or edit a service area
To add or edit your service area details, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to Google My Business.
2. If you have multiple locations, open the location you'd like to manage.
3. From the menu, click Info.
4. In the service area section, click Edit
   
   .
5. Enter your service area information. You can set your service area based on the cities, postal codes, or other areas that you serve.
   Note: You can no longer set your service area as a distance around your business.
6. Click Apply.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Google isn't going to come out and tell you what is spam and what is not. That's just giving the spammers the ability to navigate around it. So you always need to be careful of running afoul of invisible spam traps.

With that being said, I am not saying doing this is 100% spam. It may not be. But half of SEO is doing the right things while the other half is avoiding doing the wrong things and tripping over the unknowns. In this case, where designating your service area does not have an impact on ranking (yet), why risk it? 5-6 years ago Linda Buquet identified soft penalties were happening for people who put their brand name in their GMB description (no longer an issue). Would you have ever thought that was spammy? I wouldn't have. GMB can be fickle. A good rule of thumb is to do what you know works and be extremely cautious about anything that might not. Especially if it looks spammy, which this does if you're putting in neighborhoods when putting in the city itself would suffice.

Again, not saying you're wrong and it's spammy. Only that my own advice would be to avoid it for now. But I've been wrong before and will be again.