Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Hey Rickey!

What you are referring to is called an Editorial Summary. Originally, these came from Zagat, but at this point, Google's documentation simply mentions that "Writers compile these short descriptions, which give you a quick snapshot of a popular business." They may be based, in part, on 3rd party sources, and do not appear to be algorithmic. Google does not give any further specifics about the identity of these 'writers', but I think it's a fascinating and poorly documented facet of local business listings.

Are you seeing a bad editorial summary you're trying to correct, or were you just curious about this?

That's a good link from Dmitrii, but this one is newer (from just last week): https://moz.com/community/q/google-my-business-two-businesses-same-location

Please, read through my answer on that, which sounds like it exactly describes your client's scenario. Then, if you have further questions, please ask them

Hi Varun,

While you can't disable the suggest an edit feature, you can report incorrect edits to the Google My Business forum:

https://www.en.advertisercommunity.com/t5/Google-My-Business/ct-p/GMB

Be sure you give the complete details of the listing, the history of the edit that was made, and anything else you can think of that would help. Cross your fingers that a Top Contributor will take a look at your post and help you. Hope this helps!

Hi Beachflower,

I want to be sure I'm understanding the finer details of this. What I think you are describing is that there is actually just one business: Corporate Data Recovery, but that they have built 4 different websites representing the main business + 3 different cities. Is that correct? (Please let me know if I've misunderstood).

But, if I'm understanding correctly, then, yes, this is a problem. As things presently stand, Corporate Data Recovery would be allowed to build just one Google My Business listing and 1 set of citations across the various platforms to represent it. It would not be allowed to build citations for the Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne websites that have been built.

If the business wants to keep running the 3 city websites in addition to the Corporate Data Recovery site, they should:

1. Remove all addresses and phone numbers from those city websites. They should each have their own, unique phone number and should not be citing the physical address of Corporate Data Recovery in any way.

2. Be sure those sites are not duplicating one another's content in any way

3. Be sure those sites are not using bad cross linking practices in an attempt to promote one another (see Rand's recent Whiteboard Friday on this: https://moz.com/blog/backlinks-maximize-benefits-avoid-problems-whiteboard-friday)

4. Be sure you are not building citations for these location-less city sites. If citations exist, close them.

To bring some further clarity to this, businesses sometimes create this scenario your client is in because they are trying to hone in on a particular geography/keyword via the creation of a mini-site for that phrase. While this can sometimes work at winning specific traffic, it's important to understand that these mini/multi sites do NOT represent local businesses. They represent keywords. Corporate Data Recovery is a local business with a physical address and phone number, but the Brisbane/Melbourne/Sydney sites are NOT local business websites: they are simply marketing materials, and therefore, ineligible for many of the tactics one would use to promote a local business.

The main danger here is that the multi-site approach will actually weaken the NAP (name, address phone) clarity of Corporate Data Recovery (the actual local business). So, if the client wishes to continue running those other sites, they should implement the 4 practices I've highlighted, above, to lessen risk of negative outcomes.

It's because of the complexity of scenarios like these that many Local SEOs will advise clients to build a single, powerful website for their brand, with content on it targeting each of their desired terms/markets. It's a great deal simpler to market a single website, with no concerns about NAP degradation, duplicate content, etc. That being said, there are some cases in which mutli-sites can be valuable, if the company knows how to manage and use them properly, resulting in benefit to the business, rather than harm.

Hope this helps!

Hey There,

So, that horizontal display would be a 'carousel' of results, like Google rolled out a couple of years back. Bing rolled out their local carousel in 2014. Interestingly, the order of results in the carousel you've highlighted  does not in any way match Bing's local-finder-type results here. Nor am I seeing an immediate correlation between the carousel and what is appearing in the organic results.

What you've highlighted, in the larger scheme of things, is the lack of information our industry has published regarding Bing local ranking factors. Google has gotten all the love! The last article I can recall of this sort was written 4 years ago (http://searchengineland.com/10-basic-bing-local-optimization-tips-109158) and it's pretty basic stuff. It's hypothesized that Yelp reviews may especially help you on Bing, and I've also seen it posited that Facebook likes could be a factor. The major factors are likely similar to Google's, but they may be weighted differently and there may be unique Bing factors Google doesn't consider. And that's just the purely local factors I'm referencing ... as for how they are ordering their carousel results, I'm afraid I have no resources to which I can link you.

Basically, if there is a particular carousel you want to get into, you'd need to analyze the top 5-10 competitors in that pack to see what their strengths are. Is it Yelp reviews, links, on-page, citations, something else?

You've reminded me how much I would love to see our industry throw a little more attention Bing's way, in terms of Local, but Google has hogged more than its share of attention, and I plead as guilty to this as anyone else in Local. It would be really neat if someone with the time/resources would do a study to pin down what is driving the various types of local results in Bing.

And, if our community knows of something I've overlooked, please shout it out!

Hey, fascinating! Thanks for the link, and cool to know Google is investigating this. Thanks for the update, Jason.

Hi Meier!

No hard sell here but have you checked out Moz Local for active location data management? The main concern you're surfacing - that your clients are investing quite a bit of money and getting listed on directories you don't really consider to be of great value - is a common one. Moz Local pushes to far fewer partners than a competitor like Yext, but they are all really core platforms. Here's a list:

Acxiom, Bing, Best of the Web, Citygrid, Foursquare, Factual, Hotfrog, Infogroup, Localeze and Superpages

We've also made recent announcement about new partnerships with NavAds (to manage Apple Maps) and with Yelp, as well as adding a Google Sync feature which enables you to manage your Google My Business listings from the Moz Local dashboard. So, you might want to check this out as an alternative to your clients' current provider.

Basically, what most of the top Local SEOs recommend these days in terms of citation building is that you hit the majors, which is easiest with an automated service, and then you manually build a few more additional citations on the highly specialized platforms that rank well for your client's industry or geography. For example, if your client is a general contractor in San Diego, there may be either trade association sites or San Diego sites that are very popular and where you want to get the client listed. This process of automated management of the majors + manual management of geo/industry-specific platforms is typically a good recipe for citation health.

I like the way you are thinking ... trying to get rid of clutter and hone your Local Search Marketing down to what clients really need. You might really enjoy this recent Streetfight Mag article in which Local SEO gurus Mike Blumenthal and David Mihm discuss exactly this same topic: http://streetfightmag.com/2016/12/12/building-the-essential-digital-marketing-bundle-for-local-businesses/

Hey Julie, Happy New Year!

Coincidentally, Nyagoslav Zhekov just did a truly comprehensive study on this a few weeks ago: https://whitespark.ca/blog/what-happens-when-you-cancel-yext/

Well worth reading. He's one smart fellow!

Hi Paul,

Are the website URLs on your current citations going through redirects now? If so then, yes, you'll definitely want to correct that as Google specifically states that they don't want URLs that redirect. If you're a Moz Local customer, you should be able to get those URLs corrected in just 1 step on all the supported platforms. If not, you'll want to do this manually on the top platforms where you have listings.

My pleasure, Paul. Have a nice weekend!

Hey There!

Are you saying you are considering changing a number phone number for a vanity number (letters instead of numbers?). I just want to be sure I'm understanding correctly. Thanks!

Hi Meisha,

Wow, that is a conundrum!

I'm going to start with some outside-the-box thinking here. If this were my client, I would tell them that (much like a grocery store floor plan) their current floor plan has highlighted a customer pain point. They are causing consumers frustration by making them go across the street to check in, which feels unnatural to the consumer. If it felt right, it wouldn't be a pain point. So, my first piece of marketing advice to this client would be to make a physical adaptation to put the check-in center in Building A, where consumers believe it should be. Problem solved. I realize this would be a hassle for the business, but when you consider that what they are currently risking now is getting off on the wrong foot with all of their customers at the very start of the 'relationship', what you have is negative sentiment>leads to negative reviews>leads to negative reputation>leads to negative impacts on revenue. That is not a path any business would want, so if at all possible, making a physical accommodation to the obvious needs of customers would be the smartest thing the client could do.

If it is totally impossible to move the check-in into building A, I have some questions:

1. What is the industry?

2. Does the check-in have its own phone number, or is the number shared with any other part of the business?

3. Does the check-in have its own entrance door, or is it shared by the conference center in building B?

4. Does the check-in have its own street address, or is it just the address of building B?

5. What, exactly, is in building A right now?

The answers to these (if you can share them) may help us puzzle out the second-best solution if the check-in can't be moved.

Hi Meisha,

Thanks so much for replying to my questions. That definitely helps me better visualize the client scenario. Okay, so bearing in mind that if this were my client I would advise them to physically change the location of the check-in from the conference center to the hotel, as this is clearly not a comfortable/natural layout for guests, if the company is unable to make this structural change, here's what they are up against:

1. If this business were in a different industry (not a hotel) there would be some wiggle room for them having 3 different GMB listings, as Google does permit multi-department listings. That works well for car dealerships (parts department, sales department, repairs department) and for hospitals (x-ray, emergency, billing). But for a hotel - no. Google is not going to have a category which represents hotel check-in, so despite this entity of the business having a separate entrance and phone number, I would not advise creating a 3rd GMB listing for the check-in. I don't believe it would fit in with Google's conception of a department and it could get the business into trouble.

2. So, since we don't want to do that, what we're left with is having the 2 GMB listings (one for the hotel and one for the conference center). But, we can't alter their names, as that would also violate Google's guidelines. Google can read street level signage, so unless the real-world name of the conference center is Green Tree Conference Center & Waldorf Hotel Check-In you cannot put those words in the business title of the GMB listing.

3. Because of this, what you are left with is listing the hotel and listing the conference center exactly as they appear in the real world, in terms of their names, addresses and phone numbers, with no additions. And that leaves guests being confused and discomfited.

4. So, if we can't move the check-in desk to the hotel, what the client is left with as options would include:

• Making it abundantly clear on the hotel site that check-in is across the street
• Instructing all phone staff who take reservations to verbally signal this to guests
• Including this also in any emails, print mail or other forms of confirmation guests receive when booking
• Hiring a staff member who manages the parking lot to greet guests as they arrive by car and personally instructs them to check in across the street.
• Anything else the business can think of to alert guests about the location of the check-in to lessen inconvenience to them.

What I'm describing here, based on my understanding of your client, would be the only safe options I can think of. Hope they help!

Hey RoxBox,

Thanks for the reply. I want to start by saying that I am only a fan of vanity phone numbers for a really limited number of scenarios: radio ads, TV ads and billboards. Beyond that, I am just not a fan. Here are some reasons:

1. You don't want to use a vanity number on your local business listings because some won't accept letters instead of numbers, and there's a serious question as to whether clicks-to-call might get hammered, too.

2. Unless your consumer base is all really young folks with perfect eyesight, vanity numbers make things unnecessarily difficult for consumers trying to see the tiny letters on a mobile phone's number pad, and even on a landline pad. I've had my phone disconnect while I've hunted around for the letter Q, for example. So, vanity numbers really aren't consumer-friendly.

So, if the business is determined to have a vanity number, I would advise them to use it only for specific advertising scenarios (like a radio ad). And if they want to connect that radio ad to UX on the website, go ahead and put it in an image in the website masthead. But keep it separate from the pure text-based NAP of the business, whether that features a toll free or local phone number. Never make a vanity number the only option for a local business. They just aren't well-liked, according to an informal poll I took of some Local SEO colleagues.

Hope this helps!

Hey There!

This is a bit of a complex one, so I'm going to number points in my reply to try to be organized.

1. First, very important to note that what you are seeing in the local results and the knowledge graph (those results to the right of the organic results which you've mentioned) are not necessarily what other people are seeing. Google targets local results based on the location of the searcher (you) at the time of search. So, if you and your mobile phone are on one side of the state, you'll see different results than you would if you went across state and did the same search there. That being said, the fact that students are showing up at the wrong school is a very good indicator that something is not right in the results they are being shown.

2. I am not quite following what you are describing about the URLs not showing up. Do you mean the website for school A is not showing up in the organic results when searching for school A, and the same thing with school B? Or are you talking about the knowledge graph?

3. I am also not quite understanding what your website situation is, given your mention of a subdomain advertising both sites. What do you have? Do you have a single website with a unique page on it for each of the schools? Or, are there multiple websites?

4. And this brings up the questions of the core NAP (name, address, phone) of the business. Do the two schools have an identical legal business name or unique business names? Do they each have their own phone number, or are they sharing a phone number any place on the Internet, including your website and local business listings?

5. Yes, if there is citation inconsistency, duplicate listings, inaccurate listings, Moz Local might very well be able to help with this. Have you looked at the 2 businesses via our free Check Listing tool to see what we're reporting? Go to moz.com/local/search and enter the name and zip of the first business. Note the results. Then do the same for the second location. Are listings coming up as duplicates, or inaccurate, or even missing? If so, the Moz Local could be very helpful to you in getting clean, separate citation sets built and managed for the for the two entities.

6. Finally, what is the situation of the law school in terms of its relationship to the university? Is it being listed as a department of the university on a campus, or is it a stand-alone entity, or am I not quite getting the arrangement?

As you can see, I'm asking a lot of questions. I think there's a good possibility that you may need to hire a consultant to whom you can 'open the books' to share all details in order to get this straightened out. Without that, our community can only make guesses, which may not result in an accurate answer. If you have permission to share the actual identities of the schools, that might help a great deal, but if not, we can take a guess at what's going on.

Hey Mike,

I believe you are asking about Google My Business listings, right?

Provided they meet all of Google's guidelines, it's perfectly fine for a company to submit all of its listings for a multi-location business from the same Google account and the same IP address.

What would not be okay would be a marketing agency submitting multiple clients listings via the same Google account. Agencies should always make sure each client has his own Google account so that his listings are controlled via that client's Google My Business dashboard - not via the agency's dashboard. It's always important that each client directly controls his own listings, even if you are helping him with them.

Does this answer your question? If not, please provide further details.

Hi Taylor,

Good topic! While it's true that a town of that size is unlikely to have a lot of geo-specific directories, all of the normal structured citations sources are still available (the ones that serve all businesses across the country), so you'll still be building citations.

If the business needs to earn local mentions, how about these options:

1. Sponsorships of local businesses, events and organizations

2. Cross-promotions with related local companies

3. Local blog mentions.

4. If the town has an online newspaper, that would be good, too.

When the town is small, you can only go so far with getting geo-specific references. Once you've explored this to its limit, you may need to focus more effort on industry-specific references, instead. Does this help?

Hi Brett!

Good question. The People Also Search For results are algorithmic, and like Ria, I've not seen a definitive study on this area of the knowledge graph. What you could do if a client is desirous of making it into that area of the display would be to do competitive analysis of the top businesses currently coming up in this type of result and see if you can find commonalities. For example:

• What are the local and local-organic rankings for those businesses?

• What is their proximity to you when you search?

• What is their proximity to the main business in the knowledge graph?

• What do their review and link profiles look like?

That's just a start, but it would be how you would need to begin exploring the results of a particular knowledge panel. How much effort you put into this should be dictated by how valuable it would actually be for the client to appear in this feature.

Hi Taylor,

When speaking of local businesses,  the term 'directories' typically refers to local business directories (like online Yellow Pages) rather than those old-school, low quality directories from days gone by. As a local business owner, you want to get your business listed on the major local business data platforms. Have you considered Moz Local for this, by any chance? Our product pushes out your correct location data to the majors and has become a popular choice for this type of work, as it saves a great deal of time. However, if you want to list your business manually, you'll want to be sure to get listed on Google My Business, Facebook, Foursquare, Factual, Yelp, Best of the Web, Infogroup, Citysearch, Superpages, YP, Acxiom and a handful of other major sources. These local business data platforms are applicable to all local business types, and so many local business owners these days use tools like Moz Local to get listed, instead of slogging through the work manually.

As for the older concept of low quality directory listings, yes, that's an antiquated SEO strategy from a decade ago and should not be pursued. Hope this helps. And, if you'd like to learn more about Moz Local, here's a handy list of features: https://moz.com/local/features

Hi Brett,

This might be of some help https://moz.com/blog/eye-tracking-2016-how-searchers-interact-mobile-serps-desktop but I haven't seen one that focused only on the knowledge panel. I'd love to see one.