Local Directory / Lead Generation (1/2 Ass Case Study....Results)
[Updated: Scroll down to the 3-1-2016 update.]
[Updated: Scroll down to the 2-19-2016 update.]
This won't be any new, groundbreaking info for most people, but I thought I would share anyway in the hopes to offer some alternative approaches and ideas to local business directories or lead generation. Perhaps people can add their own results for what works and what doesn't work?
* And when I say "results" - I mean just that. Not opinions, theories, regurgitated crap you constantly see spewed from WSO's here in the forum and elsewhere...etc - you get the point. *
That being said, my 1/2 ass case study is for a home improvement contractor niche. In fact, it's a niche that is sometimes overlooked. I say that because many times, people focus on a particular kind of contractor rather than a specific type of high-dollar job that a contractor may want if you are going to be selling leads or maybe selling/renting space on your directory.
Example:
There are a ton that you could come up with once you understand an industry. For example, Boiler Repair is usually a commercial/industrial type of need....these are repairs that a contractor can usually flip into a full replacement. Or you could just focus on Boiler Replacement right out of the gate.
Anyway, here's what I did.....
1. Just a little over 30 days ago, I bought a new domain that is specific to a particular state. (no previous registrations, backlinks, DA/TA...etc).
2. Built a directory site using WordPress. The goal was to start off with building a siloed sited with 10-12 counties and every city within those counties.
3. Put 4-5 100% unique articles (500-1000 words) on the site as posts.
4. Bought a plugin similar to SERP Shaker and created about 250 pages on the site using the plugin. All I did is optimize the Title and H1 tags...and spun the {city name} within the content on the page (but I used duplicate content on purpose}.
4. I also created a YouTube channel with a siloed architecture as well. County --> largest city --> all other cities.
5. Set it and forget it.
Fast forward to current day and here's my results so far:
1. As you might expect, the YouTube videos ranked almost immediately in some areas. Imagine that video thumbnail image at the very top of the Google for something like {Boiler Repair + Your City}.
2. The website also had some pages rank pretty quickly, but this was mainly in very small cities where competition is minimal.
Like I said, nothing spectacular so far. I might add that some of these "high dollar service specific" types of keywords have absolutely no searches (according to Google keyword planner). However, that doesn't mean that people aren't searching for them. Remember, the KW planner only shows searches starting at 10+ per month.
And even though someone looking for this is probably going to look for a specific type of contractor most of the time (Plumber, HVAC, Roofer..etc), there are likely times when someone will search for a specific service. These are the non-obvious terms you can focus on. At the end of the day, it's all about ROI. Do you know how much an HVAC contractor would make for just 1 boiler replacement/repair job per month?
I have some additional ideas/theories which I'm going to share again in another 30 days (remember....the time to discuss the theory is after you get the results ).
So, if anyone out there wants to share some actual results they've had, please do share.
************* Update: 2-19-2016 ********************
Soooooo, I'm back with a little update. Again, no fluff here, just raw data. Here we go....
The "theory" I wanted to test was to see what would happen if I ran a few SAPE links to (1) well optimized YouTube video. Would it work? How long would it take?
Remember, for my example below, I'm giving you fake keyword terms, but the real metrics as they apply to the keywords I'm actually trying to rank for. Here is the average Keyword Competitive (KC) score from LongTailPro...
plumber miami florida - 24
miami plumbing contractors - 30
miami plumbers - 29
plumbing contractors miami- 31
plumbers miami - 30
1/26/2016: Bought (3) SAPE links off of Fiverr (yeah, I didn't expect quality here). Within a few days, the links were live. The sites were in English.
SAPE Links:
1. URL #1 - (TF: 41 / CF: 39 / PR: 4) {miami plumbers}
2. URL #2 - (TF: 29 / CF: 27 / PR: 4) {miami plumbing contractors}
3. URL #3 - (TF: 31 / CF: 25 / PR: 4) {plumbers miami}
Google Page Rank - 1/27/2016 11:00am EST **************
plumber miami florida - pg 7
miami plumbing contractors - pg 5
miami plumbers - pg 7
plumbing contractors miami- pg 4
plumbers miami - pg 6
Google Page Rank - 1/28/2016 12:27pm EST **************
plumber miami florida - pg 7
miami plumbing contractors - pg 5
miami plumbers - pg ?
plumbing contractors miami - pg 4
plumbers miami - pg 6
*** SAPE Links added 1/28/2016 12:48pm EST ***
Google Page Rank - 1/29/2016 9:45am EST **************
plumber miami florida - pg 7
miami plumbing contractors - pg 5
miami plumbers - pg 7
plumbing contractors miami - pg 4
plumbers miami - pg 6
Google Page Rank - 2/1/2016 4:29pm EST **************
plumber miami florida - pg 8
miami plumbing contractors - pg 5
miami plumbers - pg ?
plumbing contractors miami - pg 5
plumbers miami - pg 11
Google Page Rank - 2/2/2016 12:24pm EST **************
plumber miami florida - pg 8
miami plumbing contractors - pg 5
miami plumbers - pg ?
plumbing contractors miami - pg 5
plumbers miami - pg 11
Google Page Rank - 2/3/2016 9:29pm EST **************
plumber miami florida - pg 8
miami plumbing contractors - pg 5
miami plumbers - pg ?
plumbing contractors miami - pg 5
plumbers miami - pg 14
Google Page Rank - 2/19/2016 10:43am EST **************
plumber miami florida - pg 6
miami plumbing contractors - pg 7
miami plumbers - pg 6
plumbing contractors miami - pg 5
plumbers miami - pg 5
As of today, my links are still live and there has been some improvement overall. Obviously, there are still a lot of variables here (quality of the SAPE Links, KC of the keyword terms...etc), but I think it's a good start.
************* Update: 3-1-2016 ********************
Well, looks like we're going backwards now. I attribute this to the quality of the SAPE links as they are not even in a relevant niche. Plus they are probably getting spammed to death.
Every ranking is the same as it was on 2/19, except for "plumbers miami" which dropped from page 5 to page 6.
Google Page Rank - 3/1/2016 10:49am EST **************
plumber miami florida - pg 6
miami plumbing contractors - pg 7
miami plumbers - pg 6
plumbing contractors miami - pg 5
plumbers miami - pg 6
************* Update: 3-8-2016 ********************
This week it looks like I moved up one page and then moved back on another page, so it was a wash. I also noticed that the SAPE links are no longer in effect this month as I manually inspected the links.
The next tactic will be to try to find some 2-3 expired domains with good metrics (TF, CF, MozRank, PA, DA) that have a "city name" in the URL or that are in a somewhat related niche/broad niche - and then do some 301 redirects to hopefully pass on some linkjuice.
I've never done a 301 redirect before, so I can't comment on its effectiveness.
Google Page Rank - 3/8/2016 1:27pm EST **************
plumber miami florida - pg 6
miami plumbing contractors - pg 6
miami plumbers - pg 6
plumbing contractors miami - pg 5
plumbers miami - pg 7
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