Search engine optimization in Sayville.

Google already ranks us here. There was nothing to land on.

Over the last twenty-eight days this site appeared 23 times for “search engine optimization sayville” at an average position of 31, nine more for the company version at 26.8, and — the interesting one — twelve times for “search engine optimization company west sayville” at 24.2 and six for the shorter West Sayville search at 19.8. About fifty searches a month across the pair, and until this page there was nothing written about either place.

That is the entire argument for going narrower. The same site sits in the fifties for “seo company long island”. A hamlet search puts us on page two or three with no page at all; the Island-wide search puts us on page six with a page built for it.

Claim both names or lose half of your own town.

They are two places and customers treat them as one. The numbers above show it plainly: West Sayville actually ranks better for us than Sayville does, on fewer searches, which only happens when Google is unsure which of them a business belongs to. A listing that names one and not the other is invisible for a good share of the searching that concerns it.

This is free to fix. Both names in the service area, both in the copy where it is honest to say so, and the ambiguity stops working against you.

A main street, a maritime museum, and a ferry season.

Sayville has a real Main Street, which most of this stretch of the South Shore does not, and that changes what a website is for: the competition is along the same pavement rather than two towns away. West Sayville carries the Long Island Maritime Museum and the county golf course, so it takes visitor traffic that the hamlet proper does not.

And the Sayville ferry runs to Fire Island — Sailors Haven and the Sunken Forest — which puts a hard seasonal shape on trade here that businesses three miles inland simply do not have. Anything aimed at that traffic has to be ranking in March, because Google needs months and the season does not wait.

Proximity decides most of it, and proximity is winnable.

At hamlet level the map pack does the work, and the map pack is decided far more by how complete and consistent your details are than by how old your domain is. That is the good news for anyone who is actually here: the thing that wins is the thing you control.

Categories set properly rather than roughly. The same name, address and phone everywhere they appear. Hours that are true today, including the ones that change for the season. Both Sayville names claimed. Then a page that says what you do and where, in words a person would use.

Before you spend a dollar.

Should I claim West Sayville as well as Sayville?

Yes, and it is nearly free. They rank separately in search and customers treat them as one place. Our own site actually ranks better for the West Sayville searches than the Sayville ones, which only happens when Google is unsure which of the two a business belongs to. Naming both resolves that in your favour.

My trade is seasonal because of the ferry. Is a page worth it?

It is worth it precisely because the season is short. Google takes months to trust a page, so one built in February is ranking in June and one built in June is ranking for next year. Seasonal businesses get the worst return from last-minute work and the best from early work.

Is there enough searching in one hamlet?

Less than the county and far less competition, which usually nets out in your favour. Fifty searches a month that you win beats a thousand you place sixtieth for, and at hamlet level winning is realistic in months rather than years.