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Why Your "City" Pages May Hurt Your Rankings & What You MUST do About it
With all the turmoil going on with Google updates in recent weeks, these guys are launching yet another algorithmic change that will target and penalize what they are calling doorway pages. Those who have pages on their site that are meant to generate more traffic by using tactics that are not necessarily admirable will take a bit hit in rankings if they do not conform.
At lot of Plumbing & HVAC companies are at risk with this change because so many of them have an outdated "City Targeting Strategy". Because most Plumbing & HVAC contractors serve a 25-50 mile radius they want to rank in each of the sub-cities & suburbs within their service area. It has become a common practice to have pages on your site for each of the sub-cities in your service area (in some cases 10 – 30 separate sub-city pages or more). While this isn't necessarily a bad strategy if it's not implemented correctly Google will view those "city pages" as "doorway pages" leading to a noticeable drop in rankings across the board. So what can you do to ensure that you remain in Google's good graces along these lines?
For those of you that believe your website may be on Google's naughty list there are some things to check for to determine whether or not you will survive the update without your ranking being affected. Here are the most crucial things to correct if you happen to notice that your site has one or all of these issues:
- Blank pages: If you are in the process of creating a new website or you have decided to add some additional segments make sure you do not include them on your site until they have been properly constructed. Ensure that they all have interesting and relevant content that is around 500 words before going live. Thin content or a complete absence of it on your page will surely be crawled and spotted right away, significantly lowering your Google ranking. Many different algorithms are designed to check for this and if you originally established a page one position you will immediately be knocked back and may never be found again.
- Difficulty locating pages: Your site must be simple to navigate through. Visitors should be able to effortlessly maneuver through your site and always locate the specific pages that they want, without any complications or difficulties. If a page on your site is designed to increase traffic but cannot be found it will be labeled as a gateway page and your ranking will surely suffer.
- Launching before you're ready: Don't jump the gun on setting up links for your blog, reviews and testimonials section, or any other page that is dependent upon routine participation. Wait until you have generated enough content for your blog and be prepared to update it frequently before moving forward. The same goes for customer reviews, make sure you have an adequate number of testimonials ready so you are not left vulnerable to Google's sneaky little web crawler. Any other pages that contain things that are pertinent to your website should be looked over and evaluated before you go live.
- Duplicate content: Whether you have several pages dedicated to targeting the same city through the use of duplicate content, have copied information that can be found in multiple areas throughout your site, or even the same customer reviews on more than one page, this will all need to be taken down. Each page must be separate of each other and consist of different text.
- Numerous sites: Multiple sites that are constructed to target various keywords or locations, but essentially have the same information that is simply repeated again and again are not a good idea. In actuality you should be building one strong website that users can go to when they are interested in learning more about your goods and services.
With this update approaching and existing algorithms always on the look out for devious SEO strategies you must adapt and face the facts, Google will not let these infractions slide. If you think you can get away with it, smarten up, because eventually everyone gets caught. Orchestrate any needed changes and stay on the straight and narrow or Google will find you, and you will not be happy with the end result.
If you would like to speak about how we can help to make sure your city page strategy is sound, and get your Plumbing or HVAC Company ranked on PAGE ONE, just click here to schedule a time to talk with us or call 866-610-4647.
