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SERP Results Questions: My business shows for City, State but not City

by alxvallejo
6 replies
  • SEO
    • |
My client runs a marriage therapy business and we show up on page 1 for the City, State results but not for just the City.

Is there a way to optimize your website to make sure you show up on page 1 for both?

Our organic traffic dropped significantly from just one particular city so I am trying to optimize for that city.

Any ideas are much appreciated.
#business #city #questions #results #serp #shows #state
  • Profile picture of the author alxvallejo
    Just to clarify, our business shows when we type in "marriage therapy city, state" but not "marriage therapy city"
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  • Profile picture of the author Jack Chase
    The backlinks you build - is the anchor text "marriage therapy city, state" or "marriage therapy city"?

    The anchor text of your backlinks has an impact on what keywords you rank for.
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    • Profile picture of the author rbrShorty
      You could tinker the title tag of the homepage. That would help the most in my experience. However, although Google claims opposite, searches for "city keyword", "keyword city", "keyword city, state" all return different results in many cases. What type of SERP does appear when you search for both keywords - is it a standard 7-pack or an O-pack (merged search)?
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      • Profile picture of the author alxvallejo
        Originally Posted by rbrShorty View Post

        You could tinker the title tag of the homepage. That would help the most in my experience. However, although Google claims opposite, searches for "city keyword", "keyword city", "keyword city, state" all return different results in many cases. What type of SERP does appear when you search for both keywords - is it a standard 7-pack or an O-pack (merged search)?
        I believe it's a 7-pack. I'm actually not quite sure what the 0-pack is. I don't have a clear definition other than it's a hybrid of organic listings and Places listings.
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    • Profile picture of the author alxvallejo
      Thanks for the reply.

      I'm kind of new at the whole backlink strategy. Can you give me some tips for building your backlink portfolio? Where to look, how to ask. I imagine that when I start sending out backlinks to my site, I would simply mention the business name because we market ourselves to around 70 local cities and towns.

      I'm also trying to build citations as I understand they increase your rankings for your Google Places page. I'm applying to local business directories, dmoz, and other business directory listings.

      I'm thinking that our organic traffic is underperforming compared to last year due to the increased importance in Google Places. What other factors could there be? Competition has remained constant in our market and our conversion rates have gone down.

      I'm trying to explain all of this to my client but she wants answers!
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      • Profile picture of the author paulgl
        You need to get listed in google places.

        I guess nobody has thought of the fact there are numerous
        cities that have the same name. So, needing a state attached
        seems quite normal.

        If your city is the most searched city and state, it would probably default
        to first page. Google is, after all, guessing which state if it is
        left out.

        Paul
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        If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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