Local Keywords Not Ranking Well in a Geographic Location (but Rank Very Well Outside of Geographic Location)

[OrionGroup]

Has anyone experienced, in the last few months, an issue where a website that once ranked well for 'local' terms in Google stopped ranking well for those terms (but saw a ranking decrease only within the geographic location contained within those keywords)?

For example only, some 'root' keywords could be:

• Chicago dentist
• Chicago dentists
• dentist Chicago
• dentists Chicago

What happens is that when a searcher searches from within the geographic area of Chicago, IL, the target website no longer ranks on the 1st page for these types of keyword phrases, but they used to rank in the top 3 perhaps.

However, if someone was to search for the same keyword phrases from another city outside of Chicago or set a custom location (such as Illinois or even Milwaukee, WI perhaps) in their Google search, the target website appears to have normal (high) 1st page rankings for these types of terms.

My own theory:

At first I thought it was a Penguin related issue but the client's rankings overall haven't appeared to have been affected on the date(s) of Penguin updates.  Authority Labs and Raven Tools (which uses Authority Labs data) did not detect any ranking decrease and still reports all the local keyword rankings as high on the 1st page of Google.

However, when the client themselves goes to check their own rankings (as they are within that affected geographic area), they are no where to be found on the 1st page. :S

After some digging I found that (one of) the company's Google Places listings (the main office listing) became an 'unsupported' status in Google Maps.  So now I am thinking that this phenomenon is due to the fact that other listings are now appearing in search results for the same location.

For example, in this case, an individual dentist's Google Places listing (who works within the dental office) is being displayed instead of the actual dental office's listing.  Also, the dentist's name on the Google Places listing is being swapped out by Google with the name of the dental office, but if you click through to the Google Places listing, it shows the name of the individual Dentist.

Anyone encounter a similar issue or have any other theories besides the Google Places issue?

[MiriamEllis]

Oh, that's great, Scott. Linda is terrific. Please, say hi to her from Miriam. Good luck! Miriam

[OrionGroup]

I have actually, since, contacted Linda regarding her services and training.  Thanks!

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Scott,

It's a full time job keeping up with all of the changes in Local these days. I really hope the articles have helped - particularly Linda Buquet's workaround post. Thanks for using Q&A.

Miriam

[OrionGroup]

Thanks Miriam, I'll take a look at those resources.

I actually have a correction to make in my original scenario.  It is not that the place is 'unsupported', it is rather that it seems that one listing merged with another listing.

Thus the main office listing (along with 3 positive reviews) merged with one of the individual dentist listings.

It is worth mentioning that one Google rep did reply to me regarding another incident saying to check if the place was existent in Google Mapmaker.  This opened up a whole other ballgame.  If Google is using data from Map Maker, I can see why there are issues.  That is a user driven database, verified by volunteer 'reviewers', etc...

I see some of the change histories for some of the places there a little scary.  I think some 'users' don't realize that it is within Google's guidelines to have multiple listings for a single place if they are lawyers, dentists, etc.... or perhaps like some of the comments in the article links you posted mention... the listings are prone to competitor sabotage.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Scott,

While I haven't personally experienced this, I have a couple of resources for you to check out regarding quite significant changes in the way Google is handling medical practices with multi-practitioners:

http://marketing-blog.catalystemarketing.com/google-places-duplicates-doctor-dentist-lawyer.html

http://marketing-blog.catalystemarketing.com/google-places-duplicate-listing-dentists-doctors.html

http://blumenthals.com/blog/2012/06/20/why-googles-new-policy-on-professional-practices-practitioners-makes-sense/

http://blumenthals.com/blog/2012/06/25/a-step-by-step-to-recover-your-we-currently-do-not-support-this-location-in-mapmaker/

From the scenario you are describing, I believe you will find some familiar situations described in the above. I recommend you take the time to thoroughly read the posts I've linked to, as well as the comments following them. Please, let me know if this helps. Thanks!

Miriam