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Local Sites Ranking with Little Content?

by dannyl
8 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hi,

For most local business websites that are reasonably competitive, the sites that seem to rank wll have quite a bit of content/text on the homepage. Could somebody have a look at this site and tell me how it ranks so well as there seems to be very little content but for terms like luxury chalet la tania it is number 1?

Thanks,
Dan
#content #local #ranking #sites
  • Profile picture of the author powerofschool
    It all depends on the Quality of the website, Quality Backlinks, Optimization, less competition etc.
    You may get good ranking with little text in the page some times.
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
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    The amount of text on a web page is irrelevant for ranking pages.

    I see it on this forum often, people get distracted by sites like Wikipedia (example) that have lots of text per page, so they think the large amount of text is necessary for ranking pages (it isn't).
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    • Profile picture of the author dannyl
      Originally Posted by yukon View Post

      The amount of text on a web page is irrelevant for ranking pages.

      I see it on this forum often, people get distracted by sites like Wikipedia (example) that have lots of text per page, so they think the large amount of text is necessary for ranking pages (it isn't).
      I see many people say comments like thin sites or thin on content? Is this not a factor then?

      Bearing in mind that local sites don't tend to be big authority sites which can just put up a page with little done to it. There has to be some factor that makes these small local sites rank above one another and some times it isn't down to backlinks as a lot of the time they don't have many. So for example if you have 2 sites, both with the keyword in title and h1 tag, very few back links to both, would it not be the case that the site with more text will rank above the one with less?
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    • Profile picture of the author BrianMI
      Originally Posted by yukon View Post

      The amount of text on a web page is irrelevant for ranking pages.

      I see it on this forum often, people get distracted by sites like Wikipedia (example) that have lots of text per page, so they think the large amount of text is necessary for ranking pages (it isn't).
      So if the amount of text isn't as important, then what factors are important?
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    • Profile picture of the author Weedy92
      Originally Posted by yukon View Post

      The amount of text on a web page is irrelevant for ranking pages.

      I see it on this forum often, people get distracted by sites like Wikipedia (example) that have lots of text per page, so they think the large amount of text is necessary for ranking pages (it isn't).
      This.

      Yukon is so spot on.

      Same deal with articles. People think it HAS to be 500 words or in that sweet spot.

      It doesn't.. Mix it up, real sites don't do that.

      At the end of the day links > content in all honesty.

      Take a look at brands with little to no homepage content, ranking all over the place with millions of links.
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  • Profile picture of the author FrankRumbauskas
    Agreed with yukon, "content" is mostly a myth that Matt Cutts uses to blow smoke and throw SEOs off track.

    Having said that, local SEO is really easy except for ultra competitive niches like personal injury lawyers, etc. So it only takes a handful of good quality links, things like press releases from SBwire, etc. And of course citations on their G+ page.
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    • Profile picture of the author paulgl
      You people are mixing up a regular IM(?) website and local.

      Local is a different animal, driven by local/maps. That's where
      a local business should concentrate. That and YP, newspapers, radio, etc.

      Trying to come up with a website and SEO it for "local" is like putting
      a square peg in a round hole.

      Most of the "local" websites I see, depend more on maps. Also, the
      websites are just stock websites with images, flash, etc.

      The title is probably the most important thing if you are doing SEO for
      local. But SEO for local almost an oxymoron. People see the map listing and
      click on your website.

      If you are a real local business, and you depend on SEO, man are YOU in
      trouble.

      Besides, why should some bozo in his mother's basement, living in Hoboken, NJ,
      rank #1 for Los Angeles plastic surgeons? If that's the kind of people you
      think you want or need to compete against, man that's just lame. And if
      you peruse the WF, you'll find clowns just like that doing similar...

      Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author Simon Walker
    Quality Content and Quality links - A combination of both. Remember quality links coming from locally hosted relevant websites.
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