11 replies to this topic

[Arye]

Hi everyone at High Rankings,

I produced a website that even after 4 months only appears on page 2 on Google for searches for our business name in Hebrew (we are a farm in Israel). The sites listed before us are all web articles or listings about our farm. I did quite a lot of SEO and now my site does very well for a variety of general searches (particularly in English) related to what we produce on the farm BUT STILL! our site performs terribly for searches for our business name in Hebrew. I can understand it I'm not even interested in blooming SEO, I just want to be ranked number 1 for our business name.

Any ideas how I can resolve this? The website link and the farm's name in Hebrew is contained in my signature at the bottom of this post. The domain I used is obviously not the farm's name in Hebrew but rather a loose translation of the farm's names into English. If the domain was in Hebrew I guess I would have a much better chance of a high ranking for our business name but domains in Hebrew aren't really possible. On the other hand would anyone suggest I buy the equivalent of my current domain with an Israeli extension (co.il). Perhaps Google favourises searches in Hebrew for websites with Israeli extensions as I note that all the sites above our site for searches for our farm's name in Hebrew use Israeli extensions?

Any tips would be most, most appreciated, Leao

[Randy]

Did your "quite a lot of SEO" include getting links from other places pointing to your page where the anchor text is the company name in Hebrew?

Google still places a fair bit of emphasis on anchor text in links.

[Arye]

Did your "quite a lot of SEO" include getting links from other places pointing to your page where the anchor text is the company name in Hebrew?

Google still places a fair bit of emphasis on anchor text in links.

We have a few backlinks with our company name in Hebrew as anchor text but from forums, nothing particularly potent. We have asked many of the sites that rank higher on searches for our business name to include a link to our site. Some have said they would but still haven't got round to doing it. One has finally put up a link but with anchor text that is just our plain URL. On the other hand we don't have any backlinks with anchor text for the search terms that we do perform well on Google for, so although I'm sure backlinks would help a lot I have a feeling the main problem lies somewhere else. I thought that the clue might lie in the fact that we perform much, much better on searches in English than in Hebrew and that maybe we need to move our site to an Israeli .co.il domain.

Thanks again,

Leao

[Randy]

It might help, at least for searches conducted from within Israel. Where is your hosting/server located? Does that come back to an Israel physical address?

FWIW, forum links really aren't worth much on the link building front these days. They can still be okay as general marketing, but lots of forums (like this one) don't even show forum signatures to the search engines. Try it sometime. Surf around here as a Guest and you'll see no sigs.

[qwerty]

I don't know if Google's Local Business Center is available for businesses in Israel (the page is available in Hebrew, at http://www.google.co...e...hl=iw&gl=IL ) but if it is, you definitely want to get listed there. I think that will make a big difference.

Apart from that, if your only competition for ranking for the business name is other pages mentioning the business (as opposed to other businesses with the same name), then it shouldn't be difficult to get a few directory listings. By default, most directories use the business name as the link's anchor text, so that should be enough to do the trick.

By the way, are you referring to the farm's name in Hebrew as expressed in Hebrew or Roman characters? Is there a difference in the results between those two searches?

[Arye]

I don't know if Google's Local Business Center is available for businesses in Israel (the page is available in Hebrew, at http://www.google.co...e...hl=iw&gl=IL ) but if it is, you definitely want to get listed there. I think that will make a big difference.

Apart from that, if your only competition for ranking for the business name is other pages mentioning the business (as opposed to other businesses with the same name), then it shouldn't be difficult to get a few directory listings. By default, most directories use the business name as the link's anchor text, so that should be enough to do the trick.

By the way, are you referring to the farm's name in Hebrew as expressed in Hebrew or Roman characters? Is there a difference in the results between those two searches?

Thanks qwerty, I listed my business at Google's Local Business Center and the site has jumped to the first page for searches for our business name in Hebrew (with Hebrew characters). It however is still only ranked 6 and not numero uno.

What other directories would you suggest I try to list my business on. Lots of the directories seem to demand money to be listed on.

Many thanks again,

Arye

[Arye]

Wow! It's gone up to number 3 now. Maybe it's only a matter of time when it will be numero uno?

Arye

[qwerty]

The site may work its way to the top for its own name on its own, but I'd still recommend some link building. Most of the general directories I recommend charge submission fees, which run from about 40-300 USD. The exception to that is dmoz.org -- the Open Directory Project -- which is free, but it takes forever to get in. Find the right category for the site, submit it, and just hope for the best.

What's likely to help you more would be getting listed in niche sites, like local directories, or directories that list sites in your various niches. Off the top of my head, I'd suggest looking into gourmet foods, cheese makers, and restaurants. Look for niche directories on sites like the Internet Search Engine Database, or check the backlinks of some of your competitors' sites.

Also look into the sites of businesses you already deal with. Are there shops or restaurants that sell your cheese? Maybe you can recommend them to your readers and they can recommend you to theirs.

[Arye]

Hi,

Thanks qwerty. My site is now numero uno for searches for its business name in Hebrew, presumably in no small part to your suggestion to list it on Google's Local Business Directory. We have a lot of other links to us too now although often the anchor text people use to link to our site is just the URL but this must help a little anyway.

Another question - Is it possible to translate entries into Google's Local Business Directory? Our business is listed in Hebrew but it would be great to have it in English too without adding another entry as if it were a separate business. This would look silly on Google Maps to have 2 businesses on the same marker. What I really want is if people search for our business on maps.google.co.uk or maps.google.com it should show up our English name but on Google Israel maps.google.co.il it should come up in Hebrew. I didn't have any luck when I searched for an answer.

Arye

[Arye]

I don't know if Google's Local Business Center is available for businesses in Israel (the page is available in Hebrew, at http://www.google.co...e...hl=iw&gl=IL ) but if it is, you definitely want to get listed there. I think that will make a big difference.

Is there a way of listing a business on the Google Local Business Directory in multiple languages? At the moment my business is listed in Hebrew, which can be a problem if I want to give directions to French or English speakers with Google Maps to drive to my business.

Arye

[qwerty]

According to this Google Help Forum thread, you should have access to both a Hebrew and an English interface, where you can enter both sets of information.

[Arye]

According to this Google Help Forum thread, you should have access to both a Hebrew and an English interface, where you can enter both sets of information.

Cheers QWERTY! That's really helpful!

Arye