Category: Local Listings
Examine the impact of maintaining consistent and accurate local listings on your local SEO strategy.
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Does a lot of Google Business Account create website SEO keyword spam?
Nothing like that. But dont know whats the issue then
| Navya12340 -
Local Landing Page Optimization and Multiple GMB Listings
100 locations? Are you a franchise or a large brand? When I see this type of question the first thing that comes to mind is to be very mindful of the guidelines. Not saying you are doing this, but you cannot use employee homes for listings or virtual offices. Ok, so assumptions aside. If you are truly in the guidelines legally and location wise then BrandA” vs. “BrandA” - Brooklyn Office is the way to go, adding a city descriptor is against the guideline unless that is how you represent your business in the real world. You can use labels to differentiate them in the dashboard. But really, read the guidelines closely, you could end up ina very bad place, Guidelines for representing your business on Google Hope that helps
| Ben_Fisher0 -
Google's Search Algorithm update to 'Local Snack Pack'
Hi I know this question is a bit old, but there has not been any real major shakeup in the local Algo. I believe in August there was a local algo glitch but hat was fixed in a few days.
| Ben_Fisher0 -
Fighting spam on Google Maps
So there are a few points to clarify here. 1. You cannot report spam on social to GMB anymore. 2. Your Local Guide level will not impact your results, it is all about the quality of edits. (look at your ratio of applied/not applied) 3. The turnaround on sam removal is 1 -2 weeks. Anything not removed has been either missed or deemed valid. (Submit it again) 4. You can't submit spam to the GMB community, it will be removed due to privacy concerns. Check out this article I wrote on getting stellar results from spam fighting https://www.brightlocal.com/blog/how-to-use-googles-spam-redressal-form-to-level-the-local-playing-field/
| Ben_Fisher0 -
Multiple SAB listings - Optimal Setup According to Proximity?
Easyer way is site.co.uk/city-page/ or site.co.uk/city-page-2/ etc and fill it with well (unique) written content.
| Vanderlindemedia0 -
optimized GMB
Lee, Have your read through this? https://moz.com/blog/how-to-optimize-your-google-my-business-listing. I don't skimmed through it, but really learned it to the point where you can evaluate how well your competitors know what in there. There is a lot more to GMB than keyword rich content and asking for reviews. You will really have to work on your pages to get them up there.
| Chris.Menke0 -
Adding a Directory to Website
Properly implemented, curated, and maintained, there's not really a risk of problems with Google. It's just that for 99% of them there's so little-if any-ranking benefit to it, why bother. It's not necessarily great for your brand, either.
| Chris.Menke0 -
How do I rank for a different business categories on google local?
Hi Scott, My apologies for you not receiving a speedier reply. First, be sure you're using as many Google categories as are applicable to your business, while not being redundant. In other words, you can have both "physical therapist" and "sports medicine clinic" as categories if they accurately describe what your business is. Review the categories you've chosen in your GMB dashboard to be sure you've made the most of what's available to you. Next, if you have a menu of different services you offer, you can use a google menu to list those out. I can't guarantee that this will impact what you rank for, but it is at least a feed of data you are giving Google about what you business should be a candidate for. Beyond this, your ability to rank for different terms is going to be based on a number of different factors including your reviews and your organic strength. You will need to focus strongly on the organic content of your website and the links this content earns that describes these various services in hopes of this building your authority around these topics in a way that is strong enough to influence how Google views your business in relationship to these secondary search terms. Highly authoritative brands can rank for many, many terms in their overall service or product menu, so building authority over time is your goal here.
| MiriamEllis0 -
How are you all handling temporary closings on GMB?
Hello Daniel, You are right - this is an unusual time for all of us, and local businesses are facing some real challenges. If you need to temporarily close your location, contact Google via twitter at @GoogleMyBiz. Mike Blumenthal reported on the 16th that Google will be pushing out a "temporarily closed" label on businesses that local and state governments have ordered to close. Other areas of your GMB listing you can use to push out info about the changes include: Hours of operation Google Posts Description Google Q&A (remember, you can write questions AND answer them as the business owner, but you can't apparently mention COVID-19 in this area.) For restaurants, Google is apparently allowing them to edit their business name to state that they are offering takeout. I recommend reading this post from Darren Shaw for more ideas: https://whitespark.ca/blog/keeping-gmb-accurate-during-covid19-pandemic/ I hope this helps, and I'm wishing you well.
| MiriamEllis2 -
Way to see clicks on GMB Products
HI, Easiest way is to use UTM variables in the links you declare for each product and then check in google analytics. For an overview of UTM see: https://neilpatel.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-using-utm-parameters/ You could make urls for example like https://example.com?utm_source=GMB&utm_medium=GMB&utm_campaign=Product1 https://example.com?utm_source=GMB&utm_medium=GMB&utm_campaign=Product2 https://example.com?utm_source=GMB&utm_medium=GMB&utm_campaign=Product3 Hope it helps!
| LynnPatchett0 -
Google map pack confusion
Hello Rob! Thank you for bringing your question to the forum. If I'm correct in understanding that you have a Service Area Business (SAB) then here's what I can tell you: You are not allowed to create multiple GMB listings for your service areas, in most cases. Most SABs are allowed a single listing ... not multiple listings covering all the cities/suburbs they serve. So, you could be having trouble because you've created ineligible listings. Definitely read Google's guidelines on this: https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en It's fine to create whatever pages on your website you want to in order to represent your service area. However, only create such pages if they have a real purpose beyond targeting keywords. Recommend that you read: https://moz.com/blog/rank-beyond-location For your eligible GMB location, you can either choose to point the listing to your homepage or to a landing page on your website. The homepage will typically have higher authority, so some businesses with multiple physical locations do choose to point all of the GMB listings to the homepage URL. Others feel it's better UX to point mutli-location business listings to the location landing pages on the website. It's a choice each brand has to make. So, for a legitimate physical location of the business, if you had a listing pointing to the homepage and then changed the URL to point to a location landing page with lower authority, that could cause a drop in local pack rankings. I hope this feedback is helpful. Main thing will be for you to determine the number of listings you are eligible for, based on your number of physical locations. Please, feel free to let me know if you have any further questions.
| MiriamEllis0 -
GMB Account Fallen Off Rankings in past 24 hours
Thank you for bringing your question to the forum, Daniel. Likely, what you will need to do is a full competitive audit (for which you can find some guidance here: https://moz.com/blog/basic-local-competitive-audit) to discover why your business is being outranked by a competitor. My glance at this here in the forum can't replace an audit, but I will take a look and jot down some notes about what I see. 1. You mention that you were previously in the 3 pack for "escape room Chicago" but on March 10, you dropped. Looking from my location on the West Coast on March 16, I see you are at position #10 in Google's local finder (the mapped results you see when you click on the 3-pack for more info). So, you haven't disappeared altogether, but you have definitely fallen at least 7 spots since you last enjoyed your 3 pack ranking. When you search from your location at the place of business, what position are you seeing yourself in today? 2. Your review count is many times greater than that of any competitor, with the exception of Fox in a Box also having over 1,000 reviews. You currently have 1,399 reviews vs. the top competitor for this search term, Escape House, which has 95. Pardon the frank question, but are you certain you haven't done anything to violate Google's review guidelines in a way that might have prejudiced them against your listing? This would include incentivizing reviews in any way for your business, having employees review your business, etc. The advantage should be to you here, in your far greater number of reviews, but when the total number of reviews is so much greater than most of the rest of the field, it's important to be sure guidelines are being adhered to. 3. Your overall star rating of 4.9 is .1 greater than Escape House's 4.8. Advantage to you. 4. Your categories are the same as your top competitor's. No difference there. 5. Your competitor has written Google posts in the past. None are showing for you. Advantage to them. 6. You are doing a much better job responding to reviews than your top competitor is. Advantage to you. 7. What is going on with your business being located next door to two other escape businesses? Do you have a relationship with Escape House or Safe House? What is the scenario here? 8. In terms of business names, the name on your street signage as seen via Google Street View does not match what you have called your business in your GMB listing. Your street sign reads: The Escape Game. Your GMB listing is titled: The Escape Game Chicago. Adding extra keywords to your listing title is considered spam. Meanwhile, Escape House does not have extra keywords in their name. Technically, because Google's algorithm is still rewarding business name spammers, the advantage in this could be to you, but on the other hand, it could be possible that your business name was reported to Google and they are docking you for this. 9. The MozCast reported a bit of heavy weather on March 9th which could have included a shakeup in your pack. Local Rank Flux also reported a "hot" day on the 9th (see https://www.localsearchforum.com/threads/sudden-gmb-ranking-drop-for-all-keywords.55923/). So, these are some things I'm seeing at a glance. I would recommend that you follow through with a complete audit between yourself and the business ranking #1. And those questions regarding your reviews, your business name, and the geographic scenario regarding your business and the 2 competitors being next door to one another deserve a closer look. You aren't being impacted by the Possum filter, from what I can see, because you are present on the map despite your close proximity to the two other competitors, but you are in a densely competitive area, for sure. Please, feel free to come back with answer to the questions I've asked or with further questions of your own.
| MiriamEllis0 -
Google My Business - Service Area - Use Zip Codes or City Names?
Hello There! I'm so sorry it took me a couple of days to respond on this. I have two pieces of advice for this: Remember that however you choose to set your service area, it will likely have no effect on your rankings. SAB settings have never been demonstrated to impact rank. What you do choose should properly reflect the service area for that particular location of your business. I find it easiest just to list the service cities and, unless you have some specific case for doing otherwise, that may be easiest for you, too. So, for example, if my bakery is in Berkeley, CA and delivers to Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond and Daly City, then those are the cities I would select. I wouldn't add extra cities just because Google allows it. I would just be accurate in reflecting where I deliver. Then, if I had a second Bakery in Ukiah, CA that delivers to Redwood Valley, El Largo and Calpella, I'd select those cities for that listing. And, of course, please be certain that any listing you are creating for an SAB business model meets Google's guidelines https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I'm happy to tell you anything I know.
| MiriamEllis0 -
Google is surfacing non-urgent care facilities for urgent care searches on Google Maps. How can I fix this?
Hi Marty, This is definitely not okay. Please answer a couple of questions for me. Does Instacare have a physical location in Sandy, UT? You are referring to "instacare near me" as a search people would make looking for urgent care. Does your research indicate that people in this area actually search for "instacare" instead of "urgent care" or "ER" when they have urgent healthcare needs? Is this only happening for the search "instacare near me" in Sandy, UT, or are you saying this is happening for multiple facilities in multiple cities? Have you contacted Google about this? If so, how did you contact them and what did they say?
| MiriamEllis0 -
GMB page for law not ranking but individual attorneys' names are
Hi Elisa, If your law practice were my client, I would have them take these steps: Get a unique phone number for each practitioner. It can be any number the lawyer is reachable at during listed business hours. It can be their cell phone, a phone at their desk, etc. Diversify categories as much as possible so that the lawyers aren't competing with the practice. Link each practitioner's listing to a landing page on the website for just that practitioner. Put the name, unique phone number and address as the top of each practitioner's page and then write good, useful content for the page, optimizing it for longer tail terms rather than the head terms the practice is targeting. Be sure you've updated all other citations that exist for the practitioners on other sites, so that they include the new phone number, more diverse categories and appropriate landing page link. Build long-tail kw focused links to these practitioner pages. These listings can be an asset to the business in widening the number of search terms the overall practice is able to target. So, before you consider abandoning them, I would advise the client to think seriously about how the listings could benefit the practice. I'd implement all of the above tips I've given and then give it a year to see how the practice feels about the benefits coming from having these more diversified practitioner listings. Of course, be sure you are tracking this in Google Search Console for the year! And do be sure you're having the client assess whether it's actually negative if the lawyers are getting leads, regardless of how rankings are playing out. If it's income for the practice, is this a good thing or a bad thing? If, at that point, the practice feels it really dislikes having practitioner listings, it could strip out all of their details to de-optimize them. Remove all but one category, remove photos, hours of operation, etc. But, before doing something drastic like that, I'd really evaluate the good that could be done with the listings, in properly handled instead of being a muddle like they currently are. Good luck!
| MiriamEllis0