This is one of my local small business sites. Normally I am trying to just get the on-page basics in place for SEO and that is often enough for a local business. This one I really want to see in the top 10 (first page) on google uk for some obvious and local search terms. It should be easy - I don't think there are ten businesses of this type in the county - but it is proving frustrating. For a site like this we are only looking for local enquiries.

 

We were quickly at no 2 on Bing and Yahoo but Google is the problem. I had a holding page on the domain since June, launched the site end of August and have been tinkering only since. I can't see anything in particular wrong or lacking but would appreciate someone else taking a look. Or is it just a question of waiting? Is it just a suprisingly competitive field? Nobody is going to blog or spend a lot of time trying to get back links, we really need to depend on on-page stuff. I am in the process of getting a google my business page location-verified but I don't know if that will affect position in results.

 

The site: www.somersetvintagechina.co.uk

 

The main search I am tracking:

vintage china hire somerset

 

What do you think?

Hmmm it's a waiting game, but I can see you on page 2 (incognito). One thing however I noticed is there is no HQ address but it says "You can contact us by mobile, landline, fax, facebook, mail and email". With a company address the mighty Googles can work out where you are rather than relying on keywords, your rivals I checked out all have a postal address. Even a part address with a postcode would help search engines work out where the business is, at the moment it's unclear, Somerset is a big place

 

Just my 2 pence worth.

A postal address, Yes, good thought, thanks. We are creeping upwards in the results. I am surprised how many businesses there are doing this old crockery thing.

Its matter of time, you need some more time to your business. Yahoo and bing is not the big shark to deal with but the google. It always update its ranking, so that its user not get stuck with any wrong stuff.

Google has been known to put newer sites on a slower scale than older more established sites. Like the other said. It is a waiting game. Though it looks like you're making some progress, so that's good.

In any order:

 

Add your meta properties, Twitter cards, etc. This at least duplicates the description and title a few times.

 

Change the description: (sorry to shout) The first few words you have in the description don't even reference the item or service. Think of it as when you talk to a translator machine. The more you say - the more difficult it is to find a translation. You start with `For hire'. Talk about a wide niche parameter. Hire a boat, TV, my gran, etc. It could be the start of hiring anything on the planet.

I recommend you start with Somerset or Vintage or China, or all 3 of those, or something close to `Beautiful China for hire in Somerset - All Vintage', or `Beautiful china in Somerset for hire - All vintage'. Don't worry at all about having a similarish description to the title.

 

Then when you get close or just underneath your competitor, start your description with a letter which is alphanumerically superior to their description. So, if they say fantastic China in Somerset, you start with something like excellent china in Somerset, or brilliant china in Somerset, etc.

 

Then of course keep Google Webmaster tools and Bing Webmaster tools informed of your sitemaps, urls, etc.

 

I also think it's good not to dilute the title with other less necessary words.

I notice that a competitor uses the word china twice, which is a good idea. They also neglect to use the word `in' which is one less parameter google needs to `translate' or compare.

 

I'd bet my bottom dollar on the top first 2 suggestions, regardless.

Edited December 17, 20169 yr by Grant Barker

Thanks Grant. Food for thought there.

Tim,

I've only had 3 sites before, and it worked on all 3.

I've only had 3 sites before, and it worked on all 3.

It not this, it's something else. Google hasn't used the meta description as a ranking signal for years. There are been hundreds of tests and not one has ever reported a ranking improvement after changing the description.

 

The page title is the key to everything. Get this right and make sure the rest of the page and all inbound link relate to the page relate to the title and you have done most of the hard work.

 

The other problem with your home page is you have no focus - most of the content doesn't relate to the target keywords. And there is very little content on the site so Google doesn't have much to index. And there are no calls to action, weak internal linking and the contact details could do with grouping together. And caption the images and give them meaningful alt text: 'cake stand' doesn't connect to anything on the page.

 

Each thing you do makes a small difference but collectively they add up to a lot.