More threads by vmessina

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Rank Puzzle - When a Dentist Ranks who is doing EVERYTHING "wrong", or doing NOTHING.

I have a puzzle that I would LOVE to see solved. It is indeed one of my clients, but it presents a troubling scenario.

My client is at the bottom of page one for the primary search phrase in her town. However, those above her have zero content, a much lower MOZ Rank, in come cases NO Google page and a much lower overall marketing grade when run through Hubspots grader.

Her citations, while I havent done a complete audit, are in much better shape then those above her, AND, she has been around for 20 years.

The search phrase is "dentist sudbury ma"

This dude has the top spot.
Dentistry, Sudbury Dental Smile Center - Ronnie Du DMD, Sudbury MA

This dude has the second and third spot
Kirk Dental

my client is near the bottom
http://www.drjspada.com/

Seriously, Kirk dental has a website where literally EVERY title tag is his NAME!!!!

He has 7 indexed pages compared to 110 on Dr spada's.

Ronnie atleast has some title tags...but nothing else. He has virtually zero social engagement and the only content he has is the page stuff...no blog.

Here are the actual search results:

https://www.google.com/search?sourc...gs_l=hp....0.0.0.4054...........0.ok7EwNWwJxw

None of them has what I would deem an abundance of links, so I dont think linking is the issue.

Either way, this troubles me to no end. The Kirk website violates literally EVERY major criteria for effective search ranking, yet is at the top.
 
Re: Rank Puzzle - When a Dentist Ranks who is doing EVERYTHING "wrong", or doing NOTH

Thanks for taking my advice and posting here Vin.

I LOVE ranking puzzles!

By posting here you'll get the benefit of insights from lots of other pros. And everyone here can learn a lot from all the info we'll have to share.

However, I'm tied up this AM so will be back when I can.

But I hope others will start to dig in on this one in the meantime.
 
Re: Rank Puzzle - When a Dentist Ranks who is doing EVERYTHING "wrong", or doing NOTH

I see this often with packs relating to dentist and orthodontists. Sometimes I just wonder why such spammy listings rank well. I would focus more on what is happening with your GMB, website and citations. With some cleanup and cohesiveness I think it could push you up.


A couple things I am immediately see:



  • Your introduction in G+ looks spammy. Write it for the user.
" Dr. Spada, a Sudbury MA Dentist, offers general and cosmetic dentistry in the towns and communities of Massachusetts including Sudbury, Marlborough, Hudson, Worcester, Framingham and the Boston Suburbs."


  • Your categories for that GMD listing has a ton of categories, with the main being Establishment / Point of Interest. Was there a hidden listing somewhere? http://goo.gl/NQW5DZ
Establishment / Point of Interest
Dentist, Cosmetic Dentist, Leading Cosmetic Dentist, Dentist, Cosmetic Dentist, Dentist Framingham, Cosmetic dentist Framingham, General Dentist, Emergency Dental Service, Teeth Whitening Service, Gentle Dentist, Sudbury MA Dentist, Dentists, Physicians & Surgeons


  • Citations are a bit confusing showing different names. I would continue cleaning that up.

Spada Janice E DR
Spada-Horne, Janice E DDS
Janice E.Spada,DMD


  • Build up reviews!
  • Look over the Title tags again. Some are mentioning a Keyword 3 times.
 
Re: Rank Puzzle - When a Dentist Ranks who is doing EVERYTHING "wrong", or doing NOTH

I stand corrected. That is your Map Maker listing.

Your categories for that GMD listing has a ton of categories, with the main being Establishment / Point of Interest. Was there a hidden listing somewhere? http://goo.gl/NQW5DZ
 
Re: Rank Puzzle - When a Dentist Ranks who is doing EVERYTHING "wrong", or doing NOTH

Thanks so much Justin, great overview. Thanks for helping!

Vin, below are some issues with your client's listing.

Categories:

Dentist, Cosmetic Dentist, Leading Cosmetic Dentist, Dentist, Cosmetic Dentist, Dentist Framingham,
Cosmetic dentist Framingham
, General Dentist, Emergency Dental Service, Teeth Whitening Service,
Gentle Dentist, Sudbury MA Dentist, Dentists, Physicians & Surgeons

All of the categories in red above are violations and the ones with GEO are especially serious violations.

But I'm pretty sure that listing has a hidden merged dupe which is also another violation and it will usually hurt your rankings too.

Because none of those categories are allowed in the new dash. So I think there may be a hidden merged dupe holding you back from being upgraded. OR your listing in dash is clean, but it's merged with one that's filled with violations.

Can you give a screenshot of the categories in your dash?

The organic ranking order rules the top of the pack so that's why those other 2 are on top.
They rank #1, 2 and 3 in pure organic.

Vin said: "in Some cases NO Google page". Think you were referring to Kirk. But no Kirk DOES have Google Local pages. 3 in fact. But he has numerous problems with his Google+ Local pages so is locked out of the pack. (No violations, just dupes and a closed listing and other problems on the maps side of the house.)

So Kirk WOULD be #2 in the pack if he didn't have those problems, which would push your client down one more.

Your client ranks # 6 in pure organic. So that's part of why she is so low in the pack.

PLUS your client may be penalized for the category violations, the hidden merged dupe if there is one. Both are serious violations. Plus the KW repetition Justin pointed out in the description could be enough to cause a ranking penalty too. (I cover all this stuff in great detail in training.)

I don't have time to do back link analysis but maybe that's why the other 2 rank higher with content that is not as good?

FYI Your client has something odd going on with the site. When I click on the home link it redirects me down to the middle of the page, so you miss the top image, title, nav and everything. Don't have time to investigate why and am not that technical on design/coding anyway.

Don't know if that's also causing some type of a problem with spiders accessing the info properly???

Hope that helps. Aren't you glad you asked? :p
 
Re: Rank Puzzle - When a Dentist Ranks who is doing EVERYTHING "wrong", or doing NOTH

Another thing I noticed is you have your Rel="cononical" set so "" is the preferred. Its pretty much a duplicate of http://www.drjspada.com/

....Off to watch USA beat the Waffles In the next round of the World Cup! Yep. I'm one of 876 Americans that say the word Football!
 
Re: Rank Puzzle - When a Dentist Ranks who is doing EVERYTHING "wrong", or doing NOTH

Hello,

This has been extremely helpful in that I hadn't considered the ramifications of the categories as far as a penalty is concerned.

What still puzzles me is, how does Google rank Kirk at all???

Does that site even deserve to be on page one?

I am all over my client to get reviews, but it is slow going at the moment. I will make the necessary changes to the listing to see if that improves things.

And, note, Ronnie, the top spot, has no content whatever. The notion that blogging helps is a bit misguided, although because of my efforts, my clients DID go from page 3 to page 1.

But with so little traffic, page one needs to be TOP of page one, to matter at all.

I really appreciate your insight into this. I will be curious to monitor things as they go, but I am still convinced that putting all your eggs in the SEO basket is a risky one.

To convince me otherwise would mean convincing me that there is a solid reason Google likes Kirk at all.
 
Re: Rank Puzzle - When a Dentist Ranks who is doing EVERYTHING "wrong", or doing NOTH

Vin, did you just edit categories in MapMaker???

That's not the place to do it and that won't help the underlying problem.

If that was not you then someone else did it. About an hour ago. The edits are pending and will likely not be approved since this is a verified listing.

Plus the edits (whoever did them) are all wrong and will hurt that listing even more.
If they edits go through she'll likely totally drop out of nowhere for City + Dentist.

But again edits like that should not be done in MM and will not even touch the underlying problem.

Need that screenshot of the clients dashboard that shows the categories and description edit screen, then I can explain more.
 
Re: Rank Puzzle - When a Dentist Ranks who is doing EVERYTHING "wrong", or doing NOTH

Hello Linda,

I sent you an email. I want help but am not willing to burden the community for free. I will pay for it.
 
Re: Rank Puzzle - When a Dentist Ranks who is doing EVERYTHING "wrong", or doing NOTH

Thanks Vin!

And FYI all, just so you know. I assumed this was his G+ Local client, but he's only working on the site.
Did not do the G+ L page and does not have access. So that's why he just tried a MapMaker edit.
 
Re: Rank Puzzle - When a Dentist Ranks who is doing EVERYTHING "wrong", or doing NOTH

Indeed, I did not set this up.

But I appreciate the insights either way.

That said, the fact that Kirk is at the top of the page makes me ill. Amazing to me that Kirk is allowed to be on page one, given that Kirk violates literally EVERY best practice, aside from a few bad categories on G+.

All the more reason why I think it is a mistake to put all your eggs in the Google basket. Makes no sense that the competition wins by doing nothing.

Thanks for some insight, and the ability to select someone to help right this ship.

Though, I suspect, given that Kirk is at the top, righting the ship will be an effort in futility.
 
Re: Rank Puzzle - When a Dentist Ranks who is doing EVERYTHING "wrong", or doing NOTH

Hello Linda,

I have the log in, and can see the dashboard now.

Question, in Map Maker, where or how do you edit the categories etc etc. I just read an article by Blumenthal that suggested how to do it, but he doesnt mention that it isnt done in Map Maker.

I am still going to have you guys do this, but now I want to learn a bit, just to understand the flow.
 
Re: Rank Puzzle - When a Dentist Ranks who is doing EVERYTHING "wrong", or doing NOTH

First thing I would do is create directory listing in Yelp, Yellow Pages Google Plus, Manta and Facebook Business Page. Have you key words in the Name of the Business. Then I would create some back links to the directory listings These directory listings are easier to move up than a website. Then I would work on back links to the web site Example here is mine "CEL Financial Services Income Tax Preparation Fillmore CA:"
 
Re: Rank Puzzle - When a Dentist Ranks who is doing EVERYTHING "wrong", or doing NOTH

Hello Linda,

I have the log in, and can see the dashboard now.

Question, in Map Maker, where or how do you edit the categories etc etc. I just read an article by Blumenthal that suggested how to do it, but he doesnt mention that it isnt done in Map Maker.

I am still going to have you guys do this, but now I want to learn a bit, just to understand the flow.

I'll answer via email when I can.
 

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