Questions
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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.
Local Listings | | MiriamEllis2 -
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.
Local Listings | | MiriamEllis0 -
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!
Local Listings | | LynnPatchett0 -
Any reason not to group GMB locations?
While ownership of your listings is unlikely to impact SEO, be aware that Google is being extremely hyperactive about putting listings in a pending state right now following many kinds of changes. So, just know, if you make a change right now, it could have this effect.
Local Strategy | | MiriamEllis0 -
Anything I can throw money at to get a quick boost?
As you know, PPC is a great way to get a quick boost. If you are looking for strictly organic, do research on some mid & long tails. Less competitive and can quickly get high in organics. Good luck!
Local Strategy | | KevinBudzynski0 -
Why my logo is showing in map pack results
Very helpful, Daniel, and congrats on the good ranking! Here is what I would do to try to jog Google: Remove the logo image from the dashboard Upload 5 new high quality images to the dashboard, choosing one as the profile image. Google just wasn't showing me very many photos for this business and I think you should take away what you don't want and give them more to choose from among photos that you do want. Give that a shot. The change could be immediate or could take a few days. If you try this experiment, please follow up here if you can to let me know what happens.
Local Listings | | MiriamEllis0 -
Blog hasn't ranked since reposting.
For sure there would have been better ways but it was the only option at the time. Like I said, its a very long story short on the image. Now, with that said, I have inspected the URL in GSC and it is indexed and ready to be shown by Google but the rankings have not come back.
Content & Blogging | | danieldaher1 -
Competitor has built a link farm - It's working
Difficult to say, but I would say much sooner than 6 month (I would say 30-60 days or sooner). Take a look at this link scheme help article from Google and if it fits, let them know (link in last paragraph). Good luck!
Local Website Optimization | | KevinBudzynski0