At the Nashville SEO Meetup gathering, we did a quick review of the Hydro Pro Pressure Washing Services Google Place Page & website. I’ll review the initial findings we saw together but I stumbled upon a couple major problem when I was able to dig deeper. Read on for more of the story:
Hydro Pro Pressure Washing Services
1005 Rodney Drive, Nashville, TN 37205
615-498-3248
hydropropressurewashing.com
Shaun’s business is Pressure Washing in Nashville. He has a local focus so he wants to get customers in the Middle TN area. He wants to pay attention to Google Organic search, Google Local Search & Google Place Search.
Here’s what we found together
Hydropro Google Place Page
Place Page: Unclaimed although Shaun thought it was claimed
Reviews: None
Citations: Under “More about this place” there’s 10 citiations displayed.
Other than claiming the Place Page, everything looked fine at 1st glance. Not great but nothing unusual.
“Nashville Pressure Washing” appears to be the best keyword phrase to target. Shaun’s website shows up as an organic #1 above all the Place Search listings. That’s great! However, it’s not tied to a Place Page so Shaun is missing out on the extra attention that his listing would draw if it were tied to his Place Page.
Looking at some Local SEO factors for the top ranking Place Search listings we see:
1st Place: Place Page claimed, added 5 categories, no reviews, 6 citations
2nd: Place Page not claimed, 2 reviews (both bad), 25 citation
3rd Place Page claimed, 1 review, 4 citations
4th: Place Page claimed, 1 review, 7 citations
1,2 & 3 are much closer to the middle of Nashville (remember talking about “Proximity to Geographic Centroid”?) than Hydro Pro Pressure Washing Services but the 4th Place Search listing is in relatively the same location. That helps us know that Shaun’s location probably isn’t a big problem. So how come Shaun’s site doesn’t get a good Place Search ranking?
RED FLAG: You’ve got a duplicate Place Page
Having 2 Place Pages is bad. Among other things, it can dilute the power that’s rightfully yours so that you don’t rank well. This could be a problem originated on Google’s end or it could have been due to something Shaun did or that someone did on his behalf. I think Shaun said that he had been paying someone to help with this. Shaun, can you tell us more?
I’ll hold off my recommendations on the Place Pages until we get more info from Shaun.
Let’s look at Shaun’s website:
hydropropressurewashing.com
We were rushed for time so we didn’t notice at the meeting today but the domain name redirects to http://hydro-pro.web.officelive.com/default.aspx
Once on the site, there’s really some good unique content on the site. Text, images, videos… all very good. Your home page has a good title tag & you use a good meta description. Not a SEO recommendation but I would recommend that you try to improve the general look and feel of the website.
Google displays 2 inbound links from other websites.
2 things for Shaun:
1) Do you have Google Analytics or other statistics that you can share with us?
2) Did you or someone else create the duplicate Place Page that’s claimed & has the different address? Can you tell us when & why?
For everyone else from the SEO meetup, post your questions and suggestions about Shaun’s website for us to discuss together. Check back daily for updates as we help Shaun improve his website.
About
Thank you for everything at the MeetUp and for continuing outside the meeting! I know there is alot for everbody to learn by looking at my website. Haha.
The 2 Google Places was done by me. I did this last year when they began place page. The local listings seemed to be much more localized and I was not showing up for searches on the other side of town…..so I decided to make a place page at my moms address. All the information was different except the website and the phone number. I aslo used diffent key words in the business title hoping that would be found under different searches. This was not advice given. I just thought I would give it a try. In some cases it was beneficial, when both of my listings would show up on the front page, therefore knocking another competitor off. But obviously this is not what I need to do. The “Hydro Pro Pressure Washing Services” is the original and correct place page. It looked like my other listing “Nashville TN Power Washing” has been claimed. Shall I go ahead and delete this?
I do not have Google Analytics set up but I do have reports from Microsoft Office Live where my website is registered. I made screen shots of all the pages. Would you like me to post them somewhere? If so, where?
You said my organic listing was not tied to my place page. How do we do this? Is it done automatically when I claim my Place Page?
I hope everyone is managing ok in the snow. I obviously won’t be pressure washing so I should be close to the computer. Feel free to ask any questions etc.
Thanks Ross!
One more thing. We spoke shortly about me using a company to get listed. I used this company for the last two years but discontinued service December 2010. For the most part they did what they said but they still seemed a little shady. They promised to get your website listed in the top spot on the local listings. They would do this for 10 key words (that you believed would be searched) Not sure of their methods but I do believe they had computers search your site everyday with these terms. My number of searches per month dropped from 160-200 down to 50 after discontinuing. It was a flat rate of $89 per month. After discontinuing I do not show up in the local for near as many search terms but I knew there were better ways of achieving the same results. Ross pointed out many at the meeting:)
Best to stay away from companies like that one who seem a little shady.
Shaun & I have found more problems with his current web situation that need to be fixed but we’ve also found some really good opportunity. Look for an update on HydroPro’s Web Presence in time for the next SEO meetup.