Why might a business suddenly drop from google local top 5 to page 4

[booini]

I am the webmaster for a local hotel in Panama City beach Fl.

Our business listing has consistently appeared in Google's top listings taken from the 'Places' page for the past 3+ years.

Recently (past 4-5 weeks), we found our places listing dropped to the top of page 4 - hidden away in obscurity, and not likely to be found by any users searching for the term "Panama City Beach Hotels" - whilst we now have an organic listing on page one instead.

Out places listing has been completed to 100% for some time, and no changes were made to the listing immediately prior to the change.

We consider this to be a significant source of traffic to our site, and something we'd like to correct.

Any help, insights, or advice is appreciated

Thank You!

[j0a0vargas]

What is your site?

[lhc67]

I've been in similar situations. It's very frustrating. Have you tried reviewing your Google Places data within the Dashboard view? That info may give you some insight.

I did read that even Google Places was affected by the Panda update. I haven't personally experienced this but perhaps it's the case. If you're on page 4 now you may as well try giving your listing some love - add some recent photos, videos, write a special offer.

While you are trying to fix this issue you could try running a Google Places Boost ad.

Good luck!

[booini]

Thanks for the insights.

We were listed to 100% completion, i.e. 10 photos, 5 videos, payment methods/opening hours - basically all possible fields were filled in.

@LIsa, I actually removed, and re-uploaded slightly modified photos, and added 4 coupons, since ours expired. I have read the google place listing more times than once person should ever need to!

@Joao - Our site is http://www.sandpiperbeacon.com

The owners have declined to invest in google boost sadly, and I think the 'Tags' (which we did use) have now been retired from google.

We did allow our yellow pages listing to lapse at around the same time, and I believe google does use yellow pages as an authoritative source to verify a business location / telephone number etc. So it is possible that this listing alone has had such a big impact. We expect to be back listed on yp.com this week, and will be watching for any changes.

Any other advice / input is always appreciated

[booini]

@Joao - Our site is http://www.sandpiperbeacon.com - and the business name: Sandpiper Beacon Beach Resort

[j0a0vargas]

Michel, your record in "google places" is active? From what I saw, your on-page has both good and bad things. For example at bottom of page has a link sitemap written, with a page made for google, not for the clients, this can bring some kind of punishment because it can be interpreted as a "doorway page". It also has two links: Panama City Beach Hotels | Sandpiper Beacon Beach Resort on every page that link to the home, include the home. Why are two links with different anchor texts on the same page linked to the same place? Only to transfer Relevance, that way would think a consultant of google when viewing the page if was reported.

As much as this kind of technique has on-page results, can be risky and google does not like this kind of manipulation, which occurs at least in my conception.

I asked if Google Places was ok because even when typing the exact name of the hotel (the domain), the places not shown, which is unusual.

If i was you, i would clean the on-page bad technique, update the register google places, including video, photos and new information from the hotel and wait a week to see if the places come back. If not, i would send a request to to google, without even knowing if there is some sort of punishment or not, saying there were errors that were corrected on the site, and that places the the hotel was not appearing.

I hope I helped.

[booini]

Thank You Joao...

I am currently taking your advice, and removing the link (sitewide) to the homepage from the text 'Panama City Beach Hotels' and just leaving it on the business name instead.

The site has a .xml sitemap for google, and a html sitemap for users.

Google places is OK. I have replicated the search in google for the business name, and I see the places listing at the top of the page, so it seems active.

I will make updates to our information as you suggested though, and resubmit as "corrected" as you suggested. I appreciate your time to help

Thanks again!