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Thank you for the further details  Mª Verónica.

It is always so hard when Google moves in on a territory where we were formerly doing well. Think of how, ten years ago, individual hotels had a chance of ranking their websites fairly well with a little work. Now, Google's hotel product + all of the other hotel rental mega sites out there are about all that ranks for queries like "hotel San Francisco".

It sounds to me like what you are witnessing with the client in Dublin is the encroachment of Google into this space, and you are right to realize you can't really beat this. Based on this, and without being able to investigate your actual client, I have a couple of things to suggest:

1. There's an old saying: If you can't beat them, join them.

The client needs to become a master at posting to Google Jobs. They need to dive deep into learning how to ensure that their jobs are the ones coming up in the Google Jobs interface. I am not familiar enough with this topic to give expert advice, but here is a start: https://jobs.google.com/about/. And, if this data is being pulled from third parties like Monster or ZipRecruiter (see https://support.google.com/hire/answer/7326138?hl=en) the client needs to master inclusion on those sites.

The thing to remember is that hotels are still getting leads. It's just that less of them are likely coming from the website. They are coming through Google now. Your client may simply need to realize that their website is no longer going to be their top source of leads. Leads may have to come from other sources, now. It's a strategic shift the client likely needs to confront.

2. This does not mean the client should give up on their website. I would suggest that you conduct an audit for the client in which you take their job category searches (both their top ones and their longer tail ones) and identify all the sites outranking them for those searches. Then analyze those sites to see:

• Which ones the client can be listed on

• Which ones aren't job listing sites but might link to your client via a list, a guest article, a sponsorship or other unstructured citation opportunity.

I would consider the old concept of Barnacle SEO (https://moz.com/blog/barnacle-seo-whiteboard-friday) to see where it can get the client.

3. Finally, after taking care of everything you can do online for the client, I would advise them to evaluate their offline opportunities. If your client has a physical office in Dublin, what are the offline connections they need to make with job seekers in Dublin? What events can they sponsor, attend, speak at? Where do they need to advertise (billboards, newspapers, local radio, local TV?). What can they do on their physical premises to bring employers and job seekers into the building? Host events? Offer additional trainings and services? What would bring people in the door for a face-to-face interaction?

Google cannot replicate face-to-face communication. If your client can master the personal touch, offline, then they will be doing something Google can't rob them of, as you've said.

I hope these suggestions are of some help with creating a strategy for the client. Good luck!

Hi Mª Verónica,

Just want to be sure I'm fully understanding the query. Your client is a job center in Dublin, and is being outranked by competitors with a higher DA. Is that right?

If I've understood correctly, and you're convinced that it's the DA-related metrics that are causing these competitors to outrank your client, then the answer would be to improve your client's DA-related metrics, too. Is there something specific you were thinking about and wanted particular advice on about improving your client's DA?

Hi Dakota_G,

This is a good topic and you've come up with some good ideas to get started on your content development. You might find some of the suggestions in this article useful, as well: https://placester.com/real-estate-marketing-academy/real-estate-local-seo-tips/

Competing with a company like Zillow, if you are marketing a small-to-medium realty firm, may not be a realistic goal to set, at least not for the top search phrases you'd probably most hope to rank for. You may need to think of sites like that as places to get listed rather than to surpass in the SERPs for core terms.

So, where does this leave a company like the one you are trying to market? Typically:

1. Competing for longer-tail searches

2. Competing for something other than the "10 blue links", like featured snippets, video results, image results,  local pack results, etc.

Some of the ideas you've had, like providing weather results, are probably not going to be worth your time. People already have apps for that, or get their info on that right inside Google's results. But if you can come up with the best possible answers for questions that people are asking and that haven't already been covered with a perfect answer by a huge powerhouse publication, you might be able to start seeing some more visibility.

I would identify long tail terms that directly relate to your geographic and industry market. Do the searches for these terms. See what comes up. Look at featured snippet opportunities, People Also Ask boxes, Answer The Public, Google Q&A queries, Quora topics, etc. I'd begin gathering direct feedback from your firm's clients. What are their FAQs? Investigate FAQ schema to answer these queries.

Finally, I would look at those top sites that are outranking yours and see if there are opportunities for you to be interviewed by them as an expert, to be listed on them, to guest post on them and similar activities so that you at least have a presence on platforms you can't surpass.

I hope these suggestions help.

Hello There!

That's a great question, and it represents a challenge local marketers have faced for years without a good solution. I have some good news on this topic that I hope will come at just the right time for you. At Moz, we are currently in beta with our new Local Market Analytics software which is breaking ground in multi-sampled local analytics. Check out these two screenshots, please, for a sense of what Local Market Analytics provides, including local keyword volumes and rankings:

https://imgur.com/a/2eFUZJm

https://imgur.com/a/7kz8FN3

I would like to personally invite you to come join the beta and, especially, to participate in an experiment our engineers are  currently running surrounding scenarios just like yours that involve neighborhoods/boroughs within markets. For example, if you look at the above screenshots I've shared, above, you'll see analysis refined down to the level of the borough of Queens. To sign up to be part of this beta experiment, please go here:

https://moz.com/local-market-analytics-announcement

We're extremely excited about developments and would love to add you to the beta and have you be part of this experiment!

Very helpful, Daniel, and congrats on the good ranking!

Here is what I would do to try to jog Google:

1. Remove the logo image from the dashboard

2. 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.

Hi Daniel!

If you're able to share the client and search term so that the community can actually take a look, that would definitely help narrow down feedback to what is most relevant to your scenario. If you don't have permission to do that, though, it's okay. Advice will have to be a bit more general, in that case.

I have some questions:

1. I want to just confirm that you are talking about the image showing up WITHIN the 3 pack in organic search ... not something you are seeing in Google Maps, and not just the image you see on your solo Google Business Profile. Is that right? We're definitely talking about the 3 pack image here?

2. What is showing up as the cover photo on your Google Business Profile when you do a brand name search for your business? Is it the logo or is it one of your actual photos?

3. Have you uploaded the logo in your Google My Business dashboard, or are you saying it's not in the dashboard and Google is pulling it from elsewhere?

4. Are the photos that you have uploaded for this location of high quality and in alignment with Google's guidelines?

5. Has the logo always been what you've noticed on this listing, or was it previously showing a photo and then suddenly started showing the logo?

Please, let me know!

My sincere pleasure, Julie!

Hi Julie!

So sorry to hear of the trouble you're having with that. It's not an uncommon scenario. There are basically two steps to take to try to resolve this:

1. Do a competitive audit between the business and the partner. Set up a spreadsheet so that you can compare the metrics of the two entities you're investigating. Look at keywords in business title, DA, PA of the GMB landing page on the website, review count, rating and sentiment, possible duplicate listings, citation accuracy/spread for each, etc. Once you have those metrics, you may be able to spot some specific reason why Google is favoring the partner over the firm. If not, move on to step 2.

2)  If the client judges that the partner outranking the firm is harming a critical metric like conversions or revenue, you can decide to minimize the partner listing to try to demote it, if the client agrees. Remove photos, remove hours of operation if you can, point the listing to a low PA page on the site (typically a partner page rather than the home page, unless your partner has a strong landing page?), remove any keywords from the partner's title, etc. At the same time, try to earn a few good new links for the landing page of the firm, and showing a bit of extra love to the firm's listing can't hurt. Add new photos, maybe start scheduling some Google posts, do some Q&A.  Hopefully the combination of minimizing the partner and maximizing the firm will generate the desired results.

This won't be the right solution for every scenario, but if it's deemed that the partner outranking the firm is negatively impacting the business to a degree that the partner's listing prominence needs to be sacrifice for the sake of the brand, hopefully my instructions will help!

Good morning!

Did your images appear? If not, answering EffectDigital's questions could help the community troubleshooting this with you. Also, if you can provide a link to the actual listing, that would be really helpful, if you have permission to do so.

Yay! You're welcome, Bryan. So glad that worked out!

Hello Ash!

Sorry to hear you're not yet ranking as well as you'd like to be. You're right that SEO is a long game, but here are some tips I hope will help you.

1. Remember that there are no absolute local or organic rankings. For each customer, the results will differ based on their locations at the time they search. This means you have multiple chances to rank well for different customers in different areas of your geographic market, for each search phrase you are focusing on.

2. When trying to assess why competitors are outranking you, you need to first find your true competitors. If you want to do this manually, here is a simple tutorial:

https://moz.com/blog/find-local-competitors

If you don't want to do the work manually and are a Moz Pro customer, please check out Local Market Analytics, which finds your organic competitors for you: https://moz.com/local-market-analytics-announcement

3. Once you know who your competitors are, you are ready to audit them. The purpose of an audit is to stack up your metrics against theirs to discover why Google might be seeing them as a more relevant result than your business. You'll want to look at things like:

• The absence/presence of spam/guideline violations in both your business listing and in the listings of competitors

• Keywords in the business name and domain

• Google My Business accuracy, activity, etc.

• Citation consistency, spread, etc.

• Domain authority and GMB landing page authority

• Review count and sentiment

• Links

• Unstructured citations

• Content quality

• On-page SEO

• The impact of Google filters, like Possum

etc.

Here is a post I wrote in 2017 about performing a basic local competitive audit between your business and one of its competitors. The post might need a little updating, but it will at least get you started with this work: https://moz.com/blog/basic-local-competitive-audit

4. Each competitive scenario will be different, but in general, what you'll typically see is that the brands outranking you in either the local or organic SERPs have some factors in which they are doing a stronger job than you. Once you know what those factors are, from your audit, you'll know where you need to focus your efforts to meet and then surpass them. This is the basis for all local SEO strategies.

5. If this is more than you can personally take on, then you may need to reach out to an agency for professional assistance with the audit and strategy.

Hope this helps!

Hi Ryan,

I'm so sorry your good question didn't receive a reply yet. May I ask, are the pages you've published representing actual physical locations of the business (like a Taco Bell with thousands of locations) where the business meets face-to-face with its customers? Or, are they just areas of the country you are targeting without having physical locations and in-person interactions? A few details on the business model in question should help you receive some good replies here.

Hi Bryan!

Sorry for the delayed reply. I believe this thread in the GMB forum should be relevant to your scenario, but please let me know if you have any further questions after reading it:

https://support.google.com/business/thread/1859764?hl=en

Hi Davit,

I see! Yes, I do think you should start a new thread specific to technical issues, as they are different than the original scope of this thread. You could get some fresh eyes on it!

Hello Davit,

Nice to hear from you again, and good for you for investing in your website.

My apologies, but I'm not a code writer, so I'd not be the best person to ask about this.

I reviewed this whole thread before looking at your new website, and while the layout is certainly nicer, I'm still seeing some of the same issues we highlighted with the website homepage clearly focusing on DC, when your issue was that you wanted to do better in the LA area. I'm also still seeing some need for the text, itself, to be edited.

I recommend that you start a new thread here in the forum to specifically ask coders to come look at the technical issues that are concerning you. I'm sure you'll receive helpful replies. Wishing you good luck!

Good discussion going on here, for sure, about a very classic question!

If the customers of a business are local, you want local keyword volume. But it's historically been very hard to get that. Have you heard that this is a groundbreaking new feature of Moz's Local Market Analytics? It sounds like it might be just what your clients with this model need to do really insightful keyword research. And, it's a feature that just hasn't existed since I started in local SEO some 15 years ago.  We're treading some new ground.

You can learn more about Local Market Analytics here: https://moz.com/local-market-analytics-announcement and please let me know if you have any further questions about this.

Hello!

Thank you for bringing your question to the community. Unfortunately, holiday rental properties are not eligible for Google My Business listings. You can read the guidelines regarding this here. They read:

"Ineligible businesses

The following businesses aren’t eligible for a business listing:

• Rental or for-sale properties such as vacation homes, model homes, or vacant apartments. Sales or leasing offices, however, are eligible for verification."

So, while the office from which you rent out these properties is eligible for a GMB listing, the chalets are not.

Please let me know if I've misunderstood anything about your business model or question.

Hi Justin,

So sorry you were unwell and I hope you're feeling better. I'm afraid I'm not quite understanding your follow-up regarding citations. Your initial question was about use of DBAs. If you have a second question, please share a few more details and I'm happy to keep chatting!

Hey There,

So, when a business is local, it's typical that we consider what Google wants first, because of their dominant role in local search.

What Google wants you to put on your listings is whatever name appears on your street signage, how you answer the phone, etc. So, if you are Cars UK on the sign above the door, you should be Cars UK on your Google listing. This then, would make sense as how you brand yourself in other areas, as well, such as in your schema, so that Google can associate your listing name with all other assets belonging to the business.

What I can't answer for you is questions related to legal requirements in your country. That would be something to discuss with a government official or business attorney.

Hi There!

So sorry to hear that happened. Are you able to share your name/website address with the community so people can look with you?

It might also help if you could list out any changes you might have made, prior to the change you've seen, and whether there was a specific date on which you noticed the change.