Do people search using postcodes?

[G. Lasagne]

Not something i have ever thought about optimising, but a customer rang up the other day and when is as ked what he searched he said "plumber ne5" and my google adword appeared, i assume because its geo targeted.

After doing some searching it appears that google reckognises what postcode belongs to what area, as if you search ne5 , newcastle related searches show up.

Another pointer is that if i put [plumber whitley bay] in adwords it shows up as low search volume, however if i put [plumber ne26] it becomes eligible.

i mean its a no-brainer really as all its probably going to take is to put all the postcodes in my footer, just wanted any opinons on this?, and does anyone elses analytics (those who optimise for postcodes) show any searches for postcodes?

Dave

 

[Matt1959]

from my stats - 4300 visits, I had just 2 that used a postcode....quite surprising really..

 

[Paul Norman]

The stats say people do. Personally, I dont!

 

[UKSBD]

I think we've spoken about this before,
Rest of the UK - No
London - Yes

 

[G. Lasagne]

I think we've spoken about this before,
Rest of the UK - No
London - Yes

Now you mention it i think we did, think i will just put them in my footer, i have added the postcodes as adword keywords and will report back in a week or so and tell you the impressions.

Even if its 1 job a month its worth having them in.

 

[G. Lasagne]

from my stats - 4300 visits, I had just 2 that used a postcode....quite surprising really..

have you checked to see that you rank for all your postcodes, i know i dont at all.

 

The stats say people do. Personally, I dont!

I suspect the majority of the stats come from people checking address's.

Earl

 

[G. Lasagne]

I agree that the search volume would be low, but lots of low search volumes make a big search volume, or summick like that

can anyone explain why adwords think that theres decent traffic for [plumber ne26] but not for [plumber whitley bay] which is the postcodes town?

 

[Matt1959]

have you checked to see that you rank for all your postcodes, i know i dont at all.

that actually is a great point - Just done a few searches and on one I'd expect for me to show up in the organics, I'm only coming up on maps. Think I'll look at this as lack of searches could be down to some postcode searches not finding me. Both searches in my stats use only the city and first/ second digit not the second bit.

To rank for postcode searches, is it just a simple matter of listing all the relevant ones along the bottom page of my website?

 

[G. Lasagne]

To rank for postcode searches, is it just a simple matter of listing all the relevant ones along the bottom page of my website?

Im no expert but i would of thought so as its not gonna be very competitive, like i say i have set up the keywords in adwords and i will see if they get any impressions.

I have noticed that all the sites that rank for [plumber postcode] have the postcodes in the footer, also i am wondering that if google knows what postcode goes with what area (which it obviously does) then maybe having the postcode on the site will add strength to searches like "plumber newcastle" if you get what i mean, either way it cant hurt

 

[Jeff FV]

I would (use the postcode) & do - perhaps its just because I'm lazy, but if I'm looking for something local I'll type 'keyword' BA4 (BA4 is the start of my postcode.) rather than 'keyword' shepton

Did it just the other day - albeit looking for a B&B, the in-laws announced they were coming to stay!

 

[saxondale]

name here - single letter (S) postcode, see?

 

[Empire1]

When i first started up my company 2 yrs ago we used adwords and you can put in the settings how mean miles you want it to go out to, But then someone told me about google local joined and after abit you will show up on there map at the top, But then my website went to the top of google when before it was pages back, AND ITS FREE!!!

 

[G. Lasagne]

name here - single letter (S) postcode, see?

What does this mean, you search using postcode, or using place name?

 

[Empire1]

What does this mean, you search using postcode, or using place name?

Google local uses key words and phrases same as adwords. Only difference is that it is free. It takes about a week or so for your comapny to show up' If you put in car valeters in surrey you will see that we are at the top of the google maps and also our own website is on the front page. Our name is Empire. As long as your website will be picked up by the spiderbots you will be shown. Yuo can also be picked up by postcode and location. You set the settings so you decide your own search criteria. Also go on as many directories with free listings as possible as this will also get your website up the listings.

 

[G. Lasagne]

To rank for postcode searches, is it just a simple matter of listing all the relevant ones along the bottom page of my website?

This thread is number 3 for plumber ne26 already, so postcodes in the footer should be more than enough.

 

[Empire1]

Yes that sould be more then enough, All you need now is for you website to get loads of clicks so all the search engines can find it, All the best.

 

[saxondale]

What does this mean, you search using postcode, or using place name?

place name - Sheffield, otherwise we just get plurals LOL

 

[G. Lasagne]

I said i would update you on this, so far i have had 43 impressions since the start of this thread for [plumber postcode] all in all the postcodes went from ne1-ne40 for some reason ne10 and ne4 got 22 of the impressions between them, its not a super amount of traffic, but thats in 10 days and in a quiet time so you can assume that in a month postcode searches will give 120+ potential visits, and thats just for plumber, so from my stats, optimising for postcodes as well as place names is a must

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

Yes, they do search on postcodes, partic for services where you need someone local to you and you live in a large city - you're going to get a lot of results returned for plumber, london.

Also, when you search based on postcode you tend to get businesses based in that area, rather than business that cover that area. Very important if you're looking for a local independent.

 

[streetslocal]

Wouldnt all the postcodes in the footer possibly be seen as keyword stuffing?

 

[G. Lasagne]

Wouldnt all the postcodes in the footer possibly be seen as keyword stuffing?

Not at all, each postcode is only mentioned once on each page, all im doing is simply listing the postcodes i cover, thus increasing the users experience.

Keyword stuffing is a keyword with a density of over 10%, ideally google reccomend 4-7% my most dense word "gas" is under 5%, so in answer to your question the answer is no.

check this link out http://www.webconfs.com/over-optimization-article-8.php

 

[MASSEY]

I always thought stuffingwas a keyword with a density over 2% where did yu get your figures lasagne

 

[SEO Lady]

I always thought stuffingwas a keyword with a density over 2% where did yu get your figures lasagne

I've had experiences where on article writing I have had to change some keywords as it flagged over 2% of use.

A recent training course I went on saw that one site I was working on was 7.2% and I was told that this was very good.

Mixed messages, I would be interested to find out a definitive answer.

Not much help from G's webmaster post, April 2010
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66358

 

[MASSEY]

I've had experiences where on article writing I have had to change some keywords as it flagged over 2% of use.

A recent training course I went on saw that one site I was working on was 7.2% and I was told that this was very good.

Mixed messages, I would be interested to find out a definitive answer.

Not much help from G's webmaster post, April 2010
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66358

is this the same class where they told you it doesn't matter the order of keywords in title tags

 

[SEO Lady]

is this the same class where they told you it doesn't matter the order of keywords in title tags

LOL That wasn't in training, that was just someone I met who also worked in SEO

 

[G. Lasagne]

This is from the link i provided:


Keyword Density or Keyword Stuffing?

Sometimes SEO experts go too far in their desire to push their clients' sites to top positions and resort to questionable practices, like keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing is considered an unethical practice because what you actually do is use the keyword in question throughout the text suspiciously often. Having in mind that the recommended keyword density is from 3 to 7%, anything above this, say 10% density starts to look very much like keyword stuffing and it is likely that will not get unnoticed by search engines. A text with 10% keyword density can hardly make sense, if read by a human. Some time ago Google implemented the so called "Florida Update" and essentially imposed a penalty for pages that are keyword-stuffed and over-optimized in general.





use the tool to check your own site its a nifty tool and shows what you can increase and what to be careful with.

 

[G. Lasagne]

I have also just read something that says that google likes about 2% and the other search engines about 5%, but apparently theres no set rules, i.e you go over a certain percent you get penalised, can anyone elobarate on this?

 

[MASSEY]

Theres that much he said she said with seo its not even funny,
I have that much crap about seo stored i dont know what is true any more

 

[MASSEY]

I have also just read something that says that google likes about 2% and the other search engines about 5%, but apparently theres no set rules, i.e you go over a certain percent you get penalised, can anyone elobarate on this?

See thats what i was saying, i was working on a template while learning and every time i took a word over 2% i got warnings so i think its a safe bet that google do only like the word to be 2% of the content for each page.

 

[G. Lasagne]

Theres that much he said she said with seo its not even funny,
I have that much crap about seo stored i dont know what is true any more

I know how you feel mate, i guess the golden rule is if it looks right then it probably is, if it looks wrong or not user friendly then the search engines arent gonna like it, but i totally agree its a complete minefield where tradesmen at the end of the day, but we should stick at it, hopefully there will be reward at the end

 

[Matt1959]

I said i would update you on this, so far i have had 43 impressions since the start of this thread for [plumber postcode] all in all the postcodes went from ne1-ne40 for some reason ne10 and ne4 got 22 of the impressions between them, its not a super amount of traffic, but thats in 10 days and in a quiet time so you can assume that in a month postcode searches will give 120+ potential visits, and thats just for plumber, so from my stats, optimising for postcodes as well as place names is a must

ok Dave, just to confirm, but you had these visitors after you put the postcodes in your footer as you have them there listed right now?

 

[G. Lasagne]

ok Dave, just to confirm, but you had these visitors after you put the postcodes in your footer as you have them there listed right now?

yeah the impressions are from adwords not analytics(organic) so i set up a campaign i.e [plumber ne1] [plumber ne10] etc etc.

so the ads were showing up for those exact searches, so people are obviously searching for "keyword postcode".

Do you see what i mean?

 

[Matt1959]

yeh I do see, good stuff - soemthing I will be doing myself now

 

[dianecorriette]

Searches on postcodes are increasing. The other day I needed to repair my washing machine so I used "washing machine repair W6" I could have used my local area too - either works. More people are using the internet to search and are performing searches like that.

If you have set your business up on Google maps you will be found based on your business location/postcode and adding your business to Google Local Center is important

Local search - Google only recognised local search in April 2009 as something they want to focus on when they discovered that a huge number of searches performed where locally based.

I have a few videos up about it at youtube my page can be found at localbusinessonline

I am NOT an SEO expert by any stretch of the imagination. I know how to get noticed online, and how to build RELATIONSHIPS with people and that is what works and what I teach. You can take the plan I help you create and give it to an SEO expert to implement or do it yourself.

I do know since having my last yellow pages delivered it has stayed in the packet on a shelf. That doesn't mean I won't ever use it but I tend to use my Blackberry or use my computer and search the internet for what I need now. More people are.

I hope that helps. Its a new area so there isn't loads of information around on it. If I can help just let me know.

I have only been focusing on helping local businesses for the last 6 months but have been online for 5 years and helping professionals for the last three. My aim is to get sponsorship through business link or some other body to run sponsored workshops in a local area. Just putting that out there in case anyone can help