Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • MozCon
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • MozCon

        Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers

        Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. SEO Tactics
    3. Reporting & Analytics
    4. Easiest way to get out of Google local results?

    Moz Q&A is closed.

    After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

    Easiest way to get out of Google local results?

    Reporting & Analytics
    4
    7
    1555
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • ccgale
      ccgale last edited by

      Odd one this, but what's the easiest way to remove a website from the Google local listings? Would removing all the Google map listings do the job?

      A client of ours is suffering massively since the Google update in the middle of last month. Previously they would appear no1 or no2 in the local results and normally 1 or 2 in the organic results. However, since the middle of last month any time they rank on the first page for a local result, their organic result has dropped massively to at least page 4.

      If I set my location as something different in google, say 100 miles away, they then rank well for the organic listings (obviously not appearing for local searches). When I change it back to my current location the organic listing is gone and they are back to ranking for the local. Since the middle of July the traffic from search engines has dropped about 65%. All the organic rankings remain as strong as ever just not in the areas where they want to get customers from!! The idea is to remove the local listing and get the organics reranking as the ctr on those is much much higher.

      On a side note, anyone else notice very poor ctr on google local listings? Maybe users feel they are adverts

      thanks

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • MiriamEllis
        MiriamEllis Subject Expert last edited by

        Hi Carl,

        You are not alone in wondering about this phenomenon in which a local listing appears to make organic visibility disappear. We've had several questions come into Q&A about this recently. In fact, what is happening is that the organic listing has typically been absorbed into the local blended listing which contains both first party data (like, from the company's website) + 3rd party data from Google's local index and other sources.

        If clients are concerned, it will be helpful to educate them about this and, also, to show them heatmap/eyetracking studies like this one that shows how local listings get the lion's share of eyes on them in the SERPs:

        http://www.seomoz.org/blog/eyetracking-google-serps

        Many such studies have reached similar conclusions. Because of this, a high local blended rank is generally to be prized.

        In the past, it was common for dominant businesses to have both a local listings and an organic one on the same page of the SERPs. I saw this everywhere, all the time. Now, I am hard put to come up with a single example of the results being configured in this way. Now, pretty much all local results are blended results and the appropriate goal for most local businesses is to get a high blended local listing for their main search phrases.

        Regarding deleting the local presence from Google's index, it's really important to realize that this can be really tough to do - some would say impossible. Remember, Google can create a local page for any business at any time from third party data, hence, all the unclaimed listings that have always existed in their local index because they were created from third party sources and not from the say-so of the business owner. So, unless the client were to remove every reference to his local business from his website and across the entire web, there is always the chance that Google will re-create a profile for the business without his permission.

        Because of this factor, and because of the vast power Google now has over the local business scene, business owners have had to determine to learn to play the 'game' with Google as well as they can. In most cases, the highest goal being aimed for is a high-ranking blended listing, which it sounds like your client has achieved. So, typically, this would be a time for congratulations rather than concern.

        Hope these thoughts are helpful to you!

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • JustDucky
          JustDucky last edited by

          Carl - A couple of peple have questioned whether their listings in local caused declines in non-local results.

          You mentioned that the problem you described coincided with a Penquin update.    Penguin appears to be penalize the keywords contained in the offending links as well as set a sitewide ceiling on organic referrals per day.

          Is there a reasonable chance the site is penalized by Penguinn?  If so, are the offending keywords the non-local or local variety?   You've probably done so, but I'd inspect the IBL's carefully before I'd delete any reputable links.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • ccgale
            ccgale @ccgale last edited by

            yes, will give it ago. Annoying to lose the local potions but would rather have the organic ones back. thanks for the help

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • tomcraig86
              tomcraig86 @ccgale last edited by

              Hmm, this sounds very strange.

              If removing the places page will fix your problem temporarily then perhaps this is something to do then, but continue to look online to see whether there are any other things you can do to get those listings back!

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • ccgale
                ccgale @tomcraig86 last edited by

                Hi Tom

                Thanks for the reply. Yes, all the pages on the site are optimised well. Prior to the middle of last month the client would rank normally 1 or 2 in organic and have a local listing on the same page. However, since the middle of last month (the date seems to exactly match the last Panda refresh) we cannot seem to have a local and organic listing on the same page. The organic listings still rank very well if the location of the user is removed from the box so the google local vanishes.

                All very puzzling. While it would be ideal to keep the local listings, at the moment they are causing considerably more harm than good as they are stopping us ranking organically.

                Have checked other competitors in the niche and it appears the same with them. All the sites in the local listings have vanished in the organic listings.

                tomcraig86 ccgale 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • tomcraig86
                  tomcraig86 last edited by

                  Technically, yes, removing the Google Page will remove the results, but I'd think twice before doing it personally.

                  Have you checked all of your on page content to make sure your page is fully optimised for your location? I've found that our Google Places listing compliments ours, but yes the places listings get a lower click through rate.

                  ccgale 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                  • 1 / 1
                  • First post
                    Last post

                  Got a burning SEO question?

                  Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                  Start my free trial


                  Browse Questions

                  Explore more categories

                  • Moz Tools

                    Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                  • SEO Tactics

                    Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                  • Community

                    Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                  • Digital Marketing

                    Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                  • Research & Trends

                    Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                  • Support

                    Connect on product support and feature requests.

                  • See all categories

                  Related Questions

                  • Cocoonfxmedia

                    Google Analytics - Average Position

                    Hi Just trying to get some clarity on Google Analytics Average Positions in "Aquistions/Search Engine Optimisation". For a very competitive keyword Google Analytics is saying i am on average position of 6.  Is this Page 6?  I am assuming position six would be 1.6?

                    Reporting & Analytics | | Cocoonfxmedia
                    0
                  • KarlMarxTheBear

                    Google Analytics Real Time Not Working! :(

                    Hello Everyone, Today, the real time feature in my google analytics stopped working. I am able to see that traffic is visiting my site, but not in real time. The real time count is usually at 0. But, there are some instances where real time will come back online, but there will be only 1 unique visitor.  At any given time, our website usually has 20 visitors or so..Has anyone encountered this issue? Where should i start looking for fixes? What are the possible problems? Thanks!

                    Reporting & Analytics | | KarlMarxTheBear
                    0
                  • carl_daedricdigital

                    Getting google impressions for a site not in the index...

                    Hi all Wondering if i could pick the brains of those wise than myself... my client has an https website with tons of pages indexed and all ranking well, however somehow they managed to also set their server up so that non https versions of the pages were getting indexed and thus we had the same page indexed twice in the engine but on slightly different urls (it uses a cms so all the internal links are relative too). The non https is mainly used as a dev testing environment. Upon seeing this we did a google remove request in WMT, and added noindex in the robots and that saw the index pages drop over night. See image 1. However, the site still appears to getting return for a couple of 100 searches a day! The main site gets about 25,000 impressions so it's way down but i'm puzzled as to how a site which has been blocked can appear for that many searches and if we are still liable for duplicate content issues. Any thoughts are most welcome. Sorry, I am unable to share the site name i'm afraid. Client is very strict on this. Thanks, Carl image1.png

                    Reporting & Analytics | | carl_daedricdigital
                    0
                  • tiffany1103

                    How can I see what Google sees when it crawls my page?

                    In other words, how can see the text and what not it sees from start to finish on each page. I know there was a site, but I can't remember it.

                    Reporting & Analytics | | tiffany1103
                    0
                  • accessKellyOCG

                    Google as referring domain

                    Hi all, a colleague asked a question, which I could not answer (never even noticed this "problem") 😞 When we are logged into our GA account and go the referring domains section, we find Google. I always thought that these visitors came via Google Image Search, but not all of them do. Most of them come via "/imgres", but some come via "/" (always thought that "/" was the homepage?), "/url" and "//" Maybe I am just stupid, but honestly I could not explain what these strings mean... or how these visitors landed on our site... Can you help me???

                    Reporting & Analytics | | accessKellyOCG
                    0
                  • csfarnsworth

                    How to get a list of robots.txt file

                    This is my site. http://muslim-academy.com/ Its in wordpress.I just want to know is there any way I can get the list of blocked URL by Robots.txt In Google Webmaster its not showing up.Just giving the number of blocked URL's. Any plugin or Software to extract the list of blocked URL's.

                    Reporting & Analytics | | csfarnsworth
                    0
                  • BigBlaze205

                    Google Analytics - Keywords (not set) or ( not provided) WHY???

                    In Analytics, most of my visitors are landing on my home page, but when trying to see wich keywords they use, most of them are: (not set) or ( not provided) See screencast: http://screencast.com/t/AKwPW76qLVsN Can you tell why? What is going on? Is there a way to solve this? Thank you, BigBlaze

                    Reporting & Analytics | | BigBlaze205
                    0
                  • Red_Mud_Rookie

                    Why does Google Analytics think PPC traffic is organic?

                    I have a bastard of a problem... Google Analytics is incorrectly tracking PPC traffic as SEO which is screwing up all my reporting . I don't care for rankings, I care for actual SEO traffic and I can't be sure that what i am seeing is correct which is driving me nuts. Any ideas?

                    Reporting & Analytics | | Red_Mud_Rookie
                    1

                  Get started with Moz Pro!

                  Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                  Start my free trial
                  Products
                  • Moz Pro
                  • Moz Local
                  • Moz API
                  • Moz Data
                  • STAT
                  • Product Updates
                  Moz Solutions
                  • SMB Solutions
                  • Agency Solutions
                  • Enterprise Solutions
                  Free SEO Tools
                  • Domain Authority Checker
                  • Link Explorer
                  • Keyword Explorer
                  • Competitive Research
                  • Brand Authority Checker
                  • Local Citation Checker
                  • MozBar Extension
                  • MozCast
                  Resources
                  • Blog
                  • SEO Learning Center
                  • Help Hub
                  • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                  • How-to Guides
                  • Moz Academy
                  • API Docs
                  About Moz
                  • About
                  • Team
                  • Careers
                  • Contact
                  Why Moz
                  • Case Studies
                  • Testimonials
                  Get Involved
                  • Become an Affiliate
                  • MozCon
                  • Webinars
                  • Practical Marketer Series
                  • MozPod
                  Connect with us

                  Contact the Help team

                  Join our newsletter
                  Moz logo
                  © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                  • Accessibility
                  • Terms of Use
                  • Privacy

                  Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.