Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Hi Echo,

Double and even triple first page rankings were common for dominant businesses prior to the Venice update about a year ago. Now, it is extremely uncommon for any local business to have more than one page one ranking. If they have a local ranking, they probably won't also have an organic one for the same keyword and vice versa. There are some exceptions to this, but they are very few and far between.

Hey Sam,

I started a thread on this over here: https://moz.com/community/q/the-local-stack-rollout-a-new-day-in-local

Please, pop over.

Hi Adam,

Good for you for learning something new and trying to act on it. Yes, it's critical that each business directly controls its GMB listings. The key reason for this is that client/agency relationships end, and it places a big burden on the client if the agency is the one who "owns" the GMB listings. It's just not in the client's best interest. There has also been a theory over the years that GMB listings created under the company's email extension (vs. a third party extension) are more trusted by Google, but it has been quite some time since I heard anyone mention this nuance.

At any rate, yes, you want to get ownership transferred from your agency to the client, to protect them, and also to protect your business from the headache of having to do this later when clients move on.

Here's Google's guide to transferring ownership: https://support.google.com/business/answer/3415281?hl=en

Hi David,

Yes, it's fine to have unique Place pages for the partners in a legal firm - you are correct. But, you are saying that they are unverified? Then, yes, I would recommend that the firm verify any listings that belong to them. This will bring the listings within the control of the account and offer a measure of protection against hijacking. I also recommend that you read some of the recent posts by Mike Blumenthal on the new rollout of the Google Places for Business so that you are aware of changes going on in the system that effect different business models in different ways. Here are a couple of links:

http://blumenthals.com/blog/2013/04/02/analysis-google-places-for-business-or-g-pages-lite/

http://blumenthals.com/blog/2013/04/02/google-local-rolling-out-places-for-business-upgrade/

Hope these resources are helpful!

Hey Donna,

Agree with you. So much white space on so many SERPs, it looks like a blizzard. One thing I've been thinking about regarding this, as many Local SEOs are speculating that this could be a step on the path to monetized packs and also considering Google's move into the home service fulfillment arena - what if we will see an iteration of this in future where you have to pay to get your address/phone to show? And on mobile, what if Google started charging for clicks on the phone icons? I wonder...

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this!

Good morning!

Great question and good discussion happening here. I have two recommendations for you:

1. Harness all possible features of the Google Knowledge Panel, including description, posts, photos, reviews and review responses, Q&A, etc. Set up UTM tracking wherever you can to assess which particular activities and features are driving traffic and conversions. Google is slowly but surely on a path the replace your website as the interactive level your customers experience for more and more searches. While your website still definitely matters, viewing the Knowledge Panel as a secondary, quite powerful mini-website is appropriate in 2018. Experiment and analyze.

2. Focus on in-store experiences that drive consumer content (reviews) and loyalty. Take advantage of the fact that, for many businesses, Google is still driving new customers their way, basically for free, except in those verticals where free packs are being replaced with paid packs. If Google gives you a customer once, it's up to your in-store staff to turn them into a repeat customer. Emphasize building a loyal consumer base now, while Google leads remain "free", as a preventative measure against the future in which less and less of these leads will be free. What can your business do to create the kind of consumer experiences that win customers for the long term, and prompt word-of-mouth recommendations to their network of family and friends?

Hope these two ideas help!

Hi Echo,

Sorry I didn't see this question earlier. I agree with Chris. For SABs, this really wouldn't have value.

Hey Richard,

I'm sorry I didn't see this until today. Yes, Google definitely seems to be demoting Google+ in a big way. Recommended reading:

http://blumenthals.com/blog/2015/08/07/thoughts-about-the-new-local-stack-display/

http://blumenthals.com/blog/2015/08/06/7-pack-becoming-3-pack-with-mobile-like-snak-pack-rollout/

I'm not sure I'm totally following your last paragraph about the national agencies. Are you saying they no longer seem to feel G+ is as important as they used to? Sorry, not quite sure that's what you're explaining, but I can see why people would feel that way, given that G+ links have become so invisible. Nevertheless, the Google My Business dash remains as important as ever as the main source for the data now featured in the new Local Stacks/Local Finder and the other types of Snack-Pack style results. So, the dashboard is still important, but the front-end display represents a genuine departure from what we'd grown accustomed to. Many Local SEOs feel the Local Stack is a step toward a paid inclusion model and this could certainly be true.

Glad you used my favorite little trick - looking up the business on Moz Local to get to the Google+ page. Works like a charm every time

Thanks for starting a good discussion!

Hi Pau,

Thanks for contributing to this thread.

I do want to offer a very serious warning against ever buying reviews. Doing so can lead to:

1. Legal action against the brand

2. Public humiliation and irreversible brand damage

3. Removal of local business listings

Purchasing reviews is an act that has the intention of deceiving the public. It's not an honest business practice, and any potential reward will never be worth the risk of lawsuits and loss of the public's trust.

The good news is, good businesses need never purchase reviews. Deliver a quality experience to customers, follow the guidelines of the various platforms as to how you can/can't ask for reviews, and you should be just fine.

Hi Donovan,

Got your PM. What you linked to is not a Google+ Local page. It's just a Google+ page. I visited the company's website and question their eligibility for inclusion in Google's local index. There is no physical street address and the business looks virtual (does not do face-to-face business with clients). What can you tell me about this.

Also, referring back to your original question, if you attempted to merge a Google+ Local page with a Google+ Business page, that can cause problems. Additionally, if you attempted to create a Google+ Local page for a non-qualifying business, Google may have deleted it. In order to qualify for Local inclusion, a business must have

1. A physical street address (not a mailing address, PO box, virtual office or shared address)

2. A local area code phone number (not a toll free number, call tracking number or shared number)

3. Face-to-face transactions with customers.

What I see on your Google+ page you PMd me is a toll free number and no address. I see a mailing address on the company's website but no physical address. This is what is making me question whether this business qualifies as Local in Google's point of view.

Hi Joao!

This is a really good topic and you've received some very important advice from both Matt & Bryan.

Your situation is exactly why my ultimate preference is to have local businesses choose a domain name that reflects their real-world brand rather than focusing only on keywords. Your business could eventually expand to include, lawn care, yard maintenance, landscaping, snow removal, tree trimming, controlled burning and who knows what all if you are growing! You can't fit all of that into a domain name. But, if a business name is TidyYards and the domain name is simply TidyYards.com, then the business will have to focus on the strength of things like its content rather than hoping that an EMD will do the trick. I definitely understand that Google is still rewarding keyword-focused domains, but to me, this is a holdover from their less-sophisticated past that I believe will recede over time. In sum, I think building a strong real-world brand is more important than keywords in your domain. If you're considering starting from scratch, you might want to throw that idea into the mix.

I totally understand, Laura. It's really dreadful to see your hard-earned reviews just disappear, at the stroke of a pen from Google!

Something I hope will help to think about ... it's consistently found by surveys that well over 1/2 of customers will leave reviews if asked. It's just finding the best way to ask that's the challenge. If your consumer segment is particularly tough, you might want to consider checking out software like GetFiveStars, that will help you systematize review acquisition.

Sounds good, Donovan. Just be sure the client meets all three of those points on my list of must haves:

1. A physical street address (not a mailing address, PO box, virtual office or shared address)

2. A local area code phone number (not a toll free number, call tracking number or shared number)

3. Face-to-face transactions with customers.

Wishing you tons of good luck!

Hi Derek,

You're totally fine using Schema any place you have your complete NAP. For the rest of your questions, I think you're going to absolutely love this Phil Rozek post, which digs deep into which elements to use:

http://www.localvisibilitysystem.com/2014/06/30/how-to-pick-or-improvise-the-right-schema-org-markup-for-your-local-business/

Hope that hits the spot!

Hi Anthony!

Thanks for coming to the community with your question. Please, let me know if you're able to share your website/actual business with us here. Then we can all take a look at your specific scenario instead of just making random guesses.

In addition to that query, can you please explain:

1. How many locations you have

2. Are the locations in different towns or all in the same town?

3. Did you notice a ranking drop for this problem location, or has it never managed to rank? If a sudden drop, can you pinpoint the date? If it has never ranked, can you estimate the age of its GMB listing?

Thanks, and looking forward to your replies!

Bob,

William and Chris have both provided great insight on this. Review velocity has certainly come up as a possible trigger for filters, but so far, citation velocity has not been investigated or pointed out as an issue by anyone I know in the Local SEO community.

Does this mean it couldn't become an issue in future? I wonder about this. In the 10 years I've been working on the web, I have watched the rise and fall of directory submissions as a powerful tactic in traditional SEO. I am not sure if velocity had anything to do with that, actually, or if it was simply the Google decided that these types of links were not a great signal of relevance.

Obviously, right now, directory-type listings are the core tactic of Local SEM, and it's hard for me to imagine that changing any time soon, though Google appears to be trusting social signals more and more as relevance indicators. But as to the specifics of velocity, your guess is as good as anyone's as to whether Google will, at some point, create a filter that relates to this. We'll all have to wait and see.

Hi Brian,

Yes, you can (and should) be using the location landing pages on the website as the website links in your citations for a multi-location business. So, your citations for your business in Chicago can link to mycompany.com/chicago and your citations for your business in Denver can link to mycompany.com/denver. Just be sure that:

1. You are consistently linking ALL Chicago citations to the Chicago landing page on the website. Don't link some to that page, some to the homepage and some to other pages. Consistency is key.

2. Be sure each of the location landing pages is of very high quality, with complete NAP at the top (preferably in Schema) and very good content. No thin, duplicate content.

3. Be sure each location has its own local phone number.

Hope this helps!

Hi Julie,

Thanks so much for commenting. That's actually one of theories going around - the some people might be doing this for points. There could be some cases where it's that (and albeit, that's a guideline violation in itself) and other cases where it is straight-up malicious.

In your shoes, I would watch closely for any further fake 4 point reviews. If you get enough of them, your rating will start to fall from 4.8 and you could end up with 4 stars, 3 stars, etc., and that will be the sign that the business is being targeted. A one-off case could be nothing. But if you start to see more them, I'd be concerned. Crossing my fingers that this doesn't happen to you, but if it does, do report it to Jason.

Hi Bob,

Good question. No, this does not matter. Consider the fact that when you conduct a citation campaign, the different indexes require different formatting in their submission forms. Differences like (111) 111-1111 and 111-111-1111 and 111.111.1111 are build into the system and, in my experience, Google has no problem in understanding these formats.

Hi Peter,

I'd like to be able to offer a comprehensive answer here, but without actually being able to audit the client's unique situation, we can only make guesses. What I can tell you is that, these days, Google is typically able to handle multiple businesses at the same address, provided the business is clearly unique, has a unique phone number, a unique landing page on the website and other factors like that. Here's a post on Search Engine Land about multi-location SEO problems: http://searchengineland.com/local-seo-multi-location-businesses-224732

Being very general here, your third location is likely not showing up for a branded search because:

1. There is a problem with the listing, like a shared phone number, a violation or NAP confusion.

2. The location isn't 'strong' enough in some way to be shown for the search.

3. Something odd has happened, like a merge.

My best advice here is that you get the client's permission to share their story over at the Google and Your Business Help forum, sharing complete details in hopes of getting a TC to take a look with you. But, I would only suggest you do this after you have ruled out some/all of the above so that you can tell the TCs your listing should be clean, strong and guideline-compliant.

Hope this helps.