The battle of identical listings

[dertyfern]

Two identical titles for a given phrase on Google search: what factors make one outrank the other?

I have a local business that's named using a fairly generic term. My Google local listing is outranked by other business using that term for their local search title (they don't actually go by it).

Have a keyword rich domain that matches the term so I'm supposedly more relevant but otherwise am clueless.

[anallawalla]

Two identical titles for a given phrase on Google search: what factors make one outrank the other?

You didn't mention how much SEO effort you have put into the website or whether the search term includes the location. Are you referring to ranking within the Onebox or the organic SERPs (since you mentioned Google Search and not Google Local/Maps?

If you entered just "pizza", in many countries Google puts up a "Looking for local results for pizza?" box where you can enter a city or post code. This narrows down the results.

The answer is just strong SEO - on page, off page, age of domain, etc. Good examples can be seen in the travel industry, where hundreds of pages could have the same title tag.

[dertyfern]

Great, thanks for the answer.

I'm referring to the local listings (next to the map) in the organic SERPs. Don't know what Onebox is.

The site I'm referring to is new--about 5 months old--and is "getting there" in SEO terms.

Can I surmise by your comment that if I my local listing business name is "red widgets" and I add/repeat/bold/etc. "red widgets" to the copy of my home page, I could see a ranking difference? Same with inbound links/anchor text?

Thanks again.

[anallawalla]

Can I surmise by your comment that if I my local listing business name is "red widgets" and I add/repeat/bold/etc. "red widgets" to the copy of my home page, I could see a ranking difference? Same with inbound links/anchor text?

Google OneBox is the list of 10 sites next to the map.

Yes, you have to do those things in moderation both on the page and in anchor text of inbound links.

[dertyfern]

Nice anallawalla, thanks for the advice.

[AnkitMaheshwari]

I have seen that reviews on the local listing also helps in improving the position in Google Maps/Local.

[dertyfern]

That's interesting AnkitMaheshwari. Is it the number of reviews or some other factor as in length of review copy, good/bad review, etc?

[AnkitMaheshwari]

IMO more than the length, its the keywords in the review that might play a role as you can find the searched keywords being highlighted (in bold) if found in reviews.

I am unable to find any relevance regarding the number of reviews as we can always find 1/0 reviews ranking above 2/3/4 review sites. However, it seems content in review do play a role.

[dertyfern]

I'm thinking that onpage may be more of a factor than keywords in reviews. The site that I'm competing against doesn't have a single mention of our common phrase in reviews but does have it, with quite a bit of frequency, on their landing page.

I've discovered similar with other site/phrase combos as well.

[AnkitMaheshwari]

Yup, onpage can be helpful and is an advantage, however do not forget that local listing can be done by any business that even do not have a website.