Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Thanks everyone for responses, although it's not been figured out. To recreate the issue (which still exists), use Bright Locals local search results checker: Choose "dermatologist" in zip code 10006, which is the location of the practice:https://www.brightlocal.com/local-search-results-checker/Then open up the Maps results to see all of the dermatologists listed. My client Wall Street Dermatology isn't appearing at all under "dermatologist" which suggests some kind of suppression that we're trying to get to the bottom of.

Hi VELV, So glad you came back to the thread. Can you clarify some things for me, please? Is this your company: https://www.ifixappliancesla.com/ Is it in any way related to this company: http://ifixappliancerepair.com/ When you are searching for just "iFix Appliances" and not seeing either your Van Nuys or Beverly Hills Google Business Profile come up, where are you physically located when doing those searches? If you are standing in your location in Van Nuys and doing the search, what do you see? And the same with Beverly Hills. Is there absolutely no Google Business Profile (what you called the knowledge panel) coming up even if you are standing in the location of each while searching? When you do add the geo-modifier (Van Nuys or Beverly Hills) does the GBP then come up? How long ago did you create the listings for these 2 locations?

Hi Joe, Thanks for your reply and your suggestions. I don't think that we are allowed to choose the first option -creating multiple GMB profiles for a business as there is only one business but supplying different products. I believe this can cause a penalty. I'm going to confirm the second option with the GMB support and update here as well so maybe can help any other person facing the same issue. Have a nice week!

My pleasure, Simon! So glad I could help.

Thanks, Joe. Appreciate you taking the time. All the testing from my team and the client show no signs of fire now too. So, mission accomplished. One takeaway here seems to be that Google actually pays attention to the Feedback tab.

Hello Larry, Thank you for bringing your question to the forum. I'd like to address this in two parts: I'm honestly concerned that a Google support rep has given you bad advice. This does happen. P.O. boxes are not considered valid addresses and are expressly cited as ineligible by Google's guidelines which read: "Use a precise, accurate address and/or service area to describe your business location. P.O. boxes or mailboxes located at remote locations are not acceptable." So, unless I'm missing some aspect of your business model, what the Google rep told you is incorrect. As I've said, this sort of thing does happen, and I'm concerned that your listings could be removed at any time for a guideline violation and this could even possibly prejudice Google against your account, in general, including its legitimate listing in Lincoln. So, I think this is the biggest problem you face right now and in your shoes, if you want a second opinion I would do the following. Go to Google's Forum and  title your thread: Gold Product Experts, Did a Google Rep Steer Me Wrong? Then, in the post, share the information about your business listings and repeat the advice that was given to you. Gold Product Experts are Google's top-level forum volunteers and the best source of an educated second opinion when something Google says seems off. I strongly guess they will point to the guidelines I've indicated and that you will end up removing these listings as ineligible. You're not alone in facing some confusion surrounding this, and I believe a read-through of my recent Moz blog post on the topic of wanting to rank beyond your physical location could help you level up your strategy regarding this common challenge. See: https://moz.com/blog/rank-beyond-location Your second question regarding hiding/showing your address is the center of a discussion that's been going on for many years in the local search marketing industry. On the surface of things, hiding your address is not supposed to negatively impact your ability to get your listing ranking well. However, I can personally say that I have seen enough evidence to the contrary to convince me that hiding your address can, indeed, negatively impact your rankings. There are some local SEOs who strongly believe that doing so can even doom the listing. So, know that your question is valid, but that the topic is controversial, with experts frequently stating that hidden addresses do negatively impact the ranking scenario. I hope this is helpful. If you have any follow-up questions, I hope you'll ask!

I'd go for the EMD, for the reasons stated above, since you've gone to the expense of buying an EMD. But, strictly speaking, if you market your product correctly people would search for that, not the company name. Also, Goole auto-corrects mistyped domains, so a hard to spell wors is no longer an issue.

For this reason you can contact to yelp that tell them people make fake feedback for your list.  Also you can see there report review option.  It will also work for remove fake review.

Miriam, Yes, that was very helpful! We will make sure to follow these steps.

Hi Jason, Yes, there is a known bug going on right now with GMB Insights. I recommend this thread for further info: https://www.localsearchforum.com/threads/gmb-insights-reporting-bug.54225/page-2#post-155357

thanks Alex

Hi Wagada, I've seen this come up before at Google's forum: https://www.en.advertisercommunity.com/t5/Basics-for-Business-Owners/quot-Owner-quot-Q-amp-A-Responses-not-being-displayed/td-p/1675268 Read that one, and then I suggest you post a thread there on this topic and see if there is currently a known bug surrounding this.

Thank you, I will follow your advise!

My typical advice to business owners near the borders of a larger city they serve is to be honest about their physical location, but build relationships with/content surrounding the larger city. Your case is different, in that you are half-in/half-out of both cities. The client's physical address is in Racine, as attested by the Google Business Profile, so this is how I would most strongly market and identify the business. Racine has more than 2x the population of Mount Pleasant, so it is definitely your bigger client pool. So, unless I'm missing something about your client's client base, I'm guessing the majority of your efforts on and off the website will be optimized for Racine. Without a deeper dive into the client's scenario, I'm not sure what you should do about Mount Pleasant. It has a pretty good population of its own and it would be good to reach that audience. But, I'm wondering whether it would be better to leave that geotargeting to PPC rather than the website, if you're trying to make the biggest push for Racine. You only have one office you're working with, so I'm not a fan of optimizing the site for both without a creative plan to make it reasonable to do so. So, I think the ball is in your agency's court to deeply review the scenario and decide on the best way forward for consolidating or dividing optimization. Good luck!

very interesting thread. Is there an update? Reviewed same and though the links stand out. Am inclined to believe as google amps up the power of GMB. It is more address proximity on map that is skewing the outcome. Lakeway is simply a little too far out of Austin.

You're welcome, Tim, and good luck!

Okay thanks. I wasn't aware how much the cost would be.

I'm not hugely knowledgeable on GMB, but no I don't think that GMB checks an associated / verified website, and then uses data from within it to sort its own internal GMB listings. I could be wrong, so I'd wait to hear from a couple of others. As far as I know though, GMB rankings are affected by GMB data and wider-web rankings (on Google's main search engine) are affected by a rich mix of data, including open-web data. But GMB rankings, are not (I don't think) affected by open-web data

Justin, As a rule of thumb, you need to refer to Google's guidelines in representing your business. If your business entity(s) fit the following criteria, then you are safe. If not then I would not risk it. 1. Both have a separate LLC (or business entity) 2. There are separate offices (doors) for each business. 3. The Name of the businesses/Phone numbers are different (good to have suite different but not needed) 4. There is distinct signage for each business entity. Based on how I have heard this question phrased in the past, I think you may be just asking if having a separate domain is enough, and the answer would be no.

Hi David, Yes, unfortunately, Google's support is often not the best. That's why I'm recommending you take this to the forum and ask for the help of the expert volunteers there.