Home-Based Business

[EGOL]

Google should look very favorably on home-based businesses.  Didn't they start in a friend's garage?  They didn't even own it.

Some home-based businesses bring in millions of visitors per month to their websites and make buckets and buckets of money.

These propeller heads need to dump that big brand attitude.  It isn't your location that's important, it's more about your velocity and trajectory.

[MiriamEllis]

Donna - the reason I'm asking so many questions is because of things like this:

http://www.localvisibilitysystem.com/2016/04/04/the-most-obscure-rule-in-google-my-business-a-nasty-surprise/

Thought I would add Hope it helps!

[RobertFisher]

Donna,

Miriam is truly an expert in Local SEO. Listen and learn from her and you will be given the best advice. She really helps a ton of people through Moz and one or two other forums.

Best

[DonnaDuncan]

Couldn't agree more!

[DonnaDuncan]

Very interesting - not applicable in this case but I think your point was more about the complexity of local SEO and unwritten rules in general. Thanks Miriam.

[DonnaDuncan]

Agree. And it's not just Google.

[DonnaDuncan]

Let me answer your questions.

1. It's a pet waste removal business.
2. There are separate addresses, phone numbers, and service areas spanning two different geographies.
3. Google My Business and + profiles are customized to each location and point to separate, locally-optimized pages on the website. They're tagged as service area businesses with real addresses (not PO Boxes) hidden.
4. Phone calls are answered professionally. "Thanks for calling Business Name".
5. Customers are served at their location. They do not come to the business.
6. Citations exist for each location - between 60 and 85. We're about to initiate an effort to acquire more.

Thank you all for taking the time to contribute to this discussion. It's appreciated. I wish there was an obvious answer but, as Robert rightly points out, Local is complicated. I guess the quality issue isn't obvious.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Donna,

Thanks for taking the time to answer. You have checked off all of the obvious reasons that I can think of for rejection. It sounds like the business is doing everything as one would advise and the fact that these locations are in 2 different states cannot lead us to suspect that Google is sensing a spamming of the SAME service area. My best suggestion here would be to phone Google and see if they can offer you any further explanation. If that doesn't work, you might want to hire somebody like Joy Hawkins at Imprezzio as she is a real detective when it comes to odd problems like this, and she is also either a TC or an RER and might have access to more information about this than the average Local SEO. I think this thread has helped clear away common problems, leaving us with the conclusion that there might be something about this scenario that is uncommon.

BTW, thanks for the kind mention, Robert!

[DonnaDuncan]

As always Miriam, SO helpful! Thanks.

[MiriamEllis]

So happy to have you in the community, Donna