Is it important to have a geo modifier for local SEO link building?
-
If anyone here is familiar with local SEO, you may have noticed that there are different local results for:
"city + Keyword" and just the "keyword".
When building links will you end up targeting both with a geo modifier in the link, or is it beneficial to build links without the geo modifer for the keyword?
-
Thank you for clarifying and sharing your knowledge. I think it is easy to get stuck in a link building rut with little variance when working on local, so this will very much help.
-
Absolutely. In my presentation at SMX Advanced this week, I touched on the critical need for inbound links to have a healthy variety of anchor text, as that is the only way to emulate natural links.
Brand variations
domain name
high level keyword phrases
mid level keyword phrases
long tail phrases
generic textThese should all be part of the mix, over time. And this would include, for local sites, anchors with and without various forms of geo.
-
Glad you're willing to Google it Chris. I've no idea where to buy utility kilts And you bring up a very important concept - out of town searchers. There are millions (billions?) of people who travel - for vacation, business, permanent relocation...
-
I agree with you Alan in respect to the need for geo modifiers. I was just thinking of my own individual brick and mortar business. Making me extremely selfish in my questioning.
Do you see any value in linkbuilding for a local brick and mortar business without the geo modifier in the anchor text?
-
-
I like you critical thinking Alan. Too many times people react without thinking through the consequences of those actions.
Don't forget about the geo searches for people who are not in your area but are looking for information on it. I am in Florida but will be doing searches to find out what is going on in Seattle during MOZcon at the end of July. That includes car rental, restaurant, tourist traps (my wife is coming too), maybe even your overnight multi-day pet-sitting service if we bring the dogs as well are heading to Maui for a week to absorb everything the experts can teach me.
By the way. What is that place in Seattle that sells utility kilts? Think I will Google it.
-
Forward thinking is critical to sustainable SEO. However I partially disagree - some geo search will always exist. As in my examples of "bay area" relatd phrases. The "bay area" I live within is hundreds of square miles. there's no way humanly possible leaving that "bay area" out of the query will ever get me info on companies 40 or 50 miles away.
-
While most people currently search with the geo modifier, my belief is that many will no longer use this modifier in the future as they become comfortable with the understanding that searches know where they are located automatically.
I think it is important to be ahead of the curve and work on terms that may not be readily searched for, and that includes simply typing in the "keyword" only into google and looking at the local results.
For that reason I would love to know if backlinking for the "keyword" only will have an effect without the geomodifier to influence the local results.
-
I was under the assumption that it made no difference if the site was set for local under webmaster tools or not, and Google would figure it out.
Is this actually of benefit in local search?
As far as the local search volume goes, I am unsure how that matters, since their are two sets of results with and without the geo modifier. So how can backlinking influence the one without the geo modifier?
-
Including geo modifiers is always a good idea if it's a brick-and-mortar business that wants to ensure reaching the local and semi-local market online. It does not prevent reaching other prospective customers in a significant way if done properly.
Be aware that some local terms don't show as having any traffic in the Google system. This does NOT mean they're not searched, just that keyword suggestion tools are known to not be very helpful for local specific except for major geographic areas.
And given that, also consider including some next-larger geographic area phrases. Here in my area, local could be "keyword + Sausalito" (the town) or "keyword + Marin" (the county), or "keyword + bay area" (the region) or "keyword + North Bay" (a slice of the region).
In some cases none of these show in keyword tools, in other cases, some do, and in some cases they all do.
Another factor to consider from this regard is the specific business. If it's an overnight multi-day pet-sitting service (for vacationers), their customers might be willing to drive a bit more for better service. If it's a car detailing service, not so much.
-
It depends on the keyword you want to target. Check the local search volume in the Google Keyword Tool, and target that term. Make sure the site is set in Webmaster tools to be targeted locally. It is no different from any other keyword.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Link building for a new site... where do I start?
Hi all, I'm new and have just launched my website. I need to start building my backlinks and I need to know how I can go about getting started? I read the beginners guide but still stuck on where to start? Any advice Thanks
Link Building | | edward-may0 -
Link building external trusted help out there?
Hi there guys and Girls, I am a newbie to the seo world but learning quickly. Unhappy with seo services offered for startups I have taken on the role myself for my website. I think so much of what can be learnt online here I can implement myself with a few hours of work each week. So my dilemma! I have lots of ideas of for content which i know will be valuable and I was considering outsourcing just for link building (the long haul work) The trouble is I am wary of who to use and if such service is out there? I have tried searching on o'desk and freelancer etc but I guess i am too frightened of spammy links or postings on irrelevant sites. I guess initially I am looking for someone who can help my link building campaign whilst I build up my own blogging contacts etc. Does anyone know if these types of services exist? and if any are recommended for small companies? Thanks Michelle
Link Building | | nutjobshell0 -
Is anyone using Pinterest for link building?
They have dofollow links and I have read somewhere that every repin will be counted as a new link. Is this true?
Link Building | | BridalHotspot0 -
How to link building 5days domain
i like to start give some backlinks to my brand new domain any advices for new domain ?
Link Building | | cutekid10 -
Got a link building question here
I've been doing a lot of back link analysis on my competitors and noticed that a lot of links are coming from wordpress.com, blog.com, blogspot.com, etc blogs. These are free blogs in the format of http://www.username.blogplatform.com. These individual blogs seem to have product reviews and mentions for many different products (we are an e-commerce website). I would like to know if anyone has done any outreach to the owners of the third party blogs. This looks very different from guest blogging and I want to know if there is a way to reach out to these blog owners in order for them to write something about our products. Please let me know if anyone had any success with this, Thank you
Link Building | | BryanCroft0 -
Looking to outsource some of our link building...
Hi Everyone, We are a small online marketing firm in the UK and we are starting to hit a bit of a bottleneck in terms of the resources that we have that can be devoted to link building. As a result, we need to outsource the link building for some of our clients (around 10). Obviously, we only want ethical, white hat link building to take place and it really is a focus on quality rather than quantity. As you can imagine, being a fairly small firm, we also have a very limited budget! We would ideally like to work with UK link builders but would definitely look at overseas partnerships if it worked out more cost effective and the standard of the link building meets our standards. Just so that I'm not wasting anyone's time, we have a budget of around £200-300 for this (I know, its a very limited budget!). I understand that with this budget comes limitations so we would be more than willing at looking at some stripped down packages (for example, we already have in-house bloggers, so we wouldn't need that). Let me know if you are interested or if you would be able to recommend anyone to me. It would be a great help. Matt
Link Building | | MatthewBarby
Wow Internet
[email protected]0 -
Link building without using trademarked names
If a particular brand's terms & conditions stated that you cannot use their trademarked names in your backlinking strategy, what are some good ways to rank higher for those names?
Link Building | | aidin30000 -
For a new site, does it matter which sites I get back links from first? I.e., are the first back links more important than later ones?
I've heard that when a site is new, the sources from which it gets its first back links are very important -- that the early links are more important for ranking than later links. Is this true. If so, what would be some good places to get these very first links? Thanks.
Link Building | | sigma3x0