Ever create a directory of local businesses targeting a local keyword phrase through it?

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One of the problems that I see with trying to market things over the internet is that one is no longer competing with just local businesses. One's competition now becomes the entire world. Literally. The internet, in some respects, makes it even tougher to compete when the whole world becomes your marketplace.

In line with that, I have been thinking of ways to limit competition in various keyword niches and it dawned on me that one of the easiest ways to do that is to simply target keyword phrases that start with a particular city name.

Like for example...St. Paul Storage Self Service (I don't care about this phrase or city...might be great, might not be)

Or some such.

What I have noticed is that in cases like the aforementioned example a whole bunch of local business listings show up in Google.

So the first ten might be for local self storage places.

Now my question is, has anyone here had any success creating a directory of local businesses in a given category, targeting a local keyword phrase, and having the directory overtake the ranking of local businesses that stand by themselves in the SERP's?

In line with my example, creating a site that lists local self service storage places and giving each 2 pages to describe themselves and show their places through photos or whatever?

If you have done that, and successfully so, care to share some nuggets from your experience with the rest of us here?

I'd love to learn whatever I can from you.

Thanks.

Carlos
#businesses #create #directory #keyword #local #phrase #targeting
  • Profile picture of the author cniemann
    I did not create the directory, but if you google north carolina wedding photographer you will see where a directory site is ranked number one. That is one of the keywords that I target for my photography site, and I am friends with a couple of the other photographers on the first page. All of us have spent a lot of time and/or money trying to beat it. We may beat them yet, but it won't be easy.
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    • Profile picture of the author carlos123
      Originally Posted by cniemann View Post

      I did not create the directory, but if you google north carolina wedding photographer you will see where a directory site is ranked number one. That is one of the keywords that I target for my photography site, and I am friends with a couple of the other photographers on the first page. All of us have spent a lot of time and/or money trying to beat it. We may beat them yet, but it won't be easy.
      Hmm...interesting.

      That's not the two or three pages per business type of directory I had in mind but still...a good example of a directory beating out the real deal in terms of individual businesses.

      If you are talking about North Carolina Wedding Photographers they don't have much text content on the two pages I looked at on their site (the home page and one below). I mean they do have a fair amount when you lump in the individual pieces about each business but it's certainly not a huge amount of content as I would expect in a high ranking site.

      I haven't checked their incoming links but they might have a fair number of those.

      It actually looks rather minimal to me.

      Very interesting.

      I could create something like that for any number of local business categories.

      I wonder if I could simply duplicate what they have done in principal (without actually duplicating their site) and target wedding photographers in other cities where there is no directory at the top.

      I mean if they did it targeting North Carolina I should be able to target any number of more specific areas and do well. That might actually be a good way to do this.

      Look for directories at the top in whatever locales and then simply look for cities that do not have a directory in the top for the same business category. Build a site modeled after the top one's and voila! Top ranking for a proven category in another locale. Interesting.

      Do you have any idea what they charge for inclusion into their directory? Just curious.

      Carlos
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      • Profile picture of the author carlos123
        A couple of interesting tid bits about the aforementioned site as an example of a directory site.

        It targets 52 areas including all 50 states and Puerto Rico and DC Washington.

        In some of those areas individual businesses beat the site. For example under the phrase "maryland wedding photographers" it is number 2 after an individual business site that has some of the least content I have seen (no idea how they got to be numero uno in that locale).

        Under "puerto rico wedding photographers" it again is number 2 under an individual wedding photography business.

        But in many of the areas it is targeting, at least of the one's I looked at, it ranks number 1 when searching for wedding photographers statewide.

        They have apparently figured out how to rank highly and have duplicated that across a wide range of statewide locales though mainly focused on the U.S.

        Some of their high ranking could be due to riding off the coat tails of their domain authority (or perceived authority at least) regarding wedding photography. So it may be very difficult to beat that aspect in one locale in particular.

        However what I find interesting is that this is a great example of how a directory can beat out local businesses for top spot in the SERP's. It bears careful analysis and study so as to duplicate their success in other keyword phrases in either the same target areas they have focused in or in one's where they are not present.

        The UK, Australia, New Zealand, and any number of other English speaking countries could be potential targets for their phrase. Or maybe even more local targeting of cities within the states that they target.

        The other thing I notice is that they have focused their directory statewide such that more laser targeted phrases appear to be available for the taking.

        For example they are number 1 for the phrase "north carolina wedding photographers" but if one focuses locally even more and targets "greensboro wedding photographers" (Greensboro being a city in North Carolina) they are nowhere to be seen!

        There may be real opportunity going for the laser targeted local phrases under more general phrases targeted by this kind of directory.

        I am definitely going to study this example a bit more to see if I can ride the wave of their success somehow.

        It's less work for me to be targeting phrases or related phrases that others are already successful in than for me to come up with fresh phrases myself.

        They have proven their success in ranking highly and that the phrase in question can be successful targeted at the expense of local businesses in the rankings.

        Carlos
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        • Profile picture of the author carlos123
          For anyone still following this thread...

          Here are some more things I found out about the aforementioned site.

          They started their website back in 2003. Back then it was no big deal at all. Really rather simply looking. Like some cheap site actually.

          It is interesting to see the progression of the site at the wayback machine which takes snapshots of sites around the web over time.

          When they first began they had almost no advertisers. Maybe one or two per state! All they had was that and a page of tips from photographers. That was pretty much it. Along with a smattering of ads saying "Advertise here" and that type of thing. Almost like a site that wasn't going anywhere and trying to get people to advertise with them.

          Fast forward to today and they presently charge anywhere from $20 to $100 for inclusion to their site. That's monthly.

          Their parent company has started at least one other directory also related to the wedding industry.

          The owner of this company said in various press releases that he focused on areas that had a fragmented internet presence. Meaning that there were all kinds of businesses that catered to those looking for wedding information. There was no nationwide directory resource listing professional wedding photographers.

          So he apparently found a niche and built a site to cater to that apparent need.

          I find all this interesting from the standpoint that what he did can most certainly be duplicated in any number of other areas of interest that also do not at present have any kind of directory resource listing a specific segment of businesses catering to a specific interest.

          Anyway I just thought I would share more on what I found for anyone interested in such.

          If anyone has any other thoughts on how this directory site succeeded I would appreciate hearing them so that I might learn to duplicate that success.

          Carlos
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    • Profile picture of the author carlos123
      Originally Posted by cniemann View Post

      I did not create the directory, but if you google north carolina wedding photographer you will see where a directory site is ranked number one. That is one of the keywords that I target for my photography site, and I am friends with a couple of the other photographers on the first page. All of us have spent a lot of time and/or money trying to beat it. We may beat them yet, but it won't be easy.
      Chris,

      I was doing some research on that site again tonight and decided to go take a look at your site. If I may make a couple of observations that might help you in beating the site in question, SEO wise....

      I am not an SEO expert for what it is worth...you barely have any text content at all on your home page. Google loves text. Keyword rich text. You've got some very nice photographs but I don't think nice photographs alone are going to get you higher in the Google rankings.

      Google cannot tell whether your photographs are any better than anyone else's so there is nothing in your photographs for Google to grab hold of that will allow it to determine if your site should be ranked higher than anyone's else's (based on your photographs alone).

      Take away your photographs and what you have left is what Google will primarily use on-site to compare your site to any other. Notice I said on-site. Off-site factors like incoming links to your site are another factor altogether.

      I would seriously suggest that you up the quantity of text that you have on your site. Articles on choosing a great wedding photographer, whatever. Just increase the text content.

      For what it's worth.

      Carlos
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