No longer ranking for non local local terms

[ccgale]

Anyone seen this lately; I have a client who is in the food catering business and for the seo we target a lot of local keywords (event catering Hampshire, for example). In the past couple of weeks search engine traffic to the website seems to have dropped by about 60%. However, rankings do not seem to have dropped.

What I have noticed is that up until a couple of months back, the client would be ranking first page in the Google local and also have a listing in the 'normal' serps. It appears that the non local pages have vanished. Checking a couple of their competitors and it seems the same there.

This has led me to start to believe that Google are now only giving a local position or a normal position on the first page and not both, as previously. The non local pages are sitll listed but seem to have dropped way back to the 4th or 5th page when previously they would have been first page.

It would of course help if the client were to give me access to the webmaster tools!!!  Hate it when client's only give you half the information you need and then expect you to tell them what's up!!

Anyone seem this?

Thanks, Carl

[zeepartner]

Hi Carl

Yes, it sucks when clients don't hand out account logins, particularly for GWT, where there is hardly any sensitive information....

I don't have much experience with Google Local, but it seems that this might have to do with the change from Google Places to Google+ profile pages: http://searchengineland.com/google-places-is-over-company-makes-google-the-center-of-gravity-for-local-search-122770 Either way, I suggest to set up a Google+ company profile page and link it to your web site (and vice versa).

You didn't describe the exact type of business, but this article also contains some important things to consider in case your client's business serves customers outside the company's address: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/why-you-may-need-to-hide-your-google-places-address-asap

[ccgale]

Philip,

Thanks for the reply. I will check out that link.I also seo for another seo for same client and that has been impacted too. I seo for about 20 terms for that client. 19 of the terms are ranking as well as ever, however, the only term which they have a google local listing for (motorhome hire) has seen the organic listing drop down to page 3 from page 1.

Looking over the analytics for both websites it appears that the drops started about 2 weeks back which seems to tie into a Google Panda refresh.

The type of business in my first post is a BBQ catering company, they run catering for parties, weddings etc.

[zeepartner]

aha, since it's a catering company it seems like a good idea to have a close look at the second link!

[ccgale]

yes, very useful. Many thanks