Google Places rankings go away, but organic rankings stay the same / get better?
-
Hello,
I hope you all can help me out here with the information I could provide. Anyways, the past number of months I have had 1 of our clients rank extremely high organically and on Google places. For example: My client is a law firm so if you search “CLIENTS-TOWN Attorney” they would come up organically on the first page and if you were in that town and search “CLIENTS-TOWN Attorney” or even just “Attorney” they would also come up in the Google Places list. Now for some reason starting a week ago I noticed they have completely disappeared from Google Places. No changes have been done to their site and everything is the same as it was. Their organic searches are the same if not better than before. Do you guys have any clue as to why this happened and how I could possibly turn this around?
Thanks for your help in advance!
-
Hi Ben,
It's still in Beta, but I know Michael and I think it looks pretty good, from my brief glance. Michael Borgelt is a really smart fellow. You're very welcome!
-
Thanks for sharing the tool Miriam! How'd you come across it?
-
Hi WhiteHat12,
I did actually hear rumors that there was some sort of shakeup last Thursday or Friday, but do not have documentation of this to share with you.
When you state Google Places, do you mean +? Have you recently merged your client's Place Page with a + profile? Here is a list of recent issues after merging:
You might also like to try out this new analysis tool, just launched by Michael Borgelt. I've not had a chance to check it out yet, but it looks like it could be helpful in trying to assess problems:
http://www.51blocks.com/online-marketing-tools/free-local-analysis/
Without actually seeing the listing and investigating the account, it isn't possible to tell if there is a bug or penalty involved, or if the client has been surpassed by the actions of his competitors or if something else is going on. You may need to engage a Local SEO to consult with the client, because these issues typically take some hours to assess, due the large number of factors that can contribute to ranking changes. Hopefully, the 2 resources above will at least get you started in diagnosis.
Good luck!
-
The traffic has not really changed in any way. The main
reason this is important for us is because this client in particular is
obsessed with Google Places, and wants to see a strong ranking. They ranked for
every single lawyer term before, now they rank for none of them. Any idea of
the cause of this? -
The past couple of days there as been some flux industry wide. http://mozcast.com/
- How much traffic are you loosing not having Google the places listing rank?
- Are your increased organic rankings going to get you the same, or more traffic?
If you can have something better with this new change with little work, spend your time on that.
-
something could have went wrong with your places listing make sure everything is right than search your term and click on the map for certain keyword and check and see what page you are on u might have just got bumped out of the top 7 if you find yourself in the first 2 pages just build citations to get yourself back up in top 7
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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.
Related Questions
-
Google Panda 4.2 Is Here
Most of you guys probably already know - but Google Panda 4.2 has began. I would love to keep an open discussion regarding anyone who was affected by the last Panda update along with changes for the good/bad during this new roll out in addition to what vertical you are in. PANDA TIME! Your web therapist, Chenzo
Search Behavior | | Chenzo1 -
How come this one google places listing is the only one to show up google maps?
Hi there, I found a really weird thing about google places. I'm working on a google places listing optimization for a locksmith company in Houston, TX. When I was searching google maps for "locksmith houston" only one listing came up. However, when searching for "locksmith near houston" 880 results came up. This changes from time to time, but most of the time this one competitor is the only listing that shows up which is really really weird. Anybody has an idea what this competitor did to get rid of the other 879 results and show up alone on google maps??
Search Behavior | | activechase1 -
Recovering from a Hack: How long until Google reindexes changes?
In a previous post I made, I was able to determine that one of my sites; http://pokeronamac.com/ was hacked and was feeding spam perscription drug content to search engines, then redirecting to another site when clicked on Google. I then contacted my web host, and, after they did a scan of our files, they determined that something within the wp-includes directory was compromised and malicious. They removed the file, though they weren't able to determine the source of the attack, or how they god in (should we be scared?). Anyway, its been several days now ~5 and if I do a site search the spam pages still show up, but the redirect is no longer working. At this point, I am at a standstill, because i'm loosing traffic on my site by about 90%, and google hasn't sent us any warnings of malaware or the like. I know I was recommended against this before, but should I attempt to submit a reconsideration request, or should I just wait it out? Thanks for your help, Zach
Search Behavior | | Zachary_Russell0 -
Google Webmaster Tools notice of detected unnatural links to our website
Hi, We have been using SEOmoz for a good few months now and have found it incredibly useful. Unfortunately however I think we may have slipped up a little bit as we have just received the following message in our Google Webmaster Tools: Google Webmaster Tools notice of detected unnatural links to http://www.refreshcartridges.co.uk/ I have a funny feeling I might know what the problem is but I'd like a confirmation before I potentially go off on a wild goose chase. We also own the domain name www.computerarticles.co.uk and recently started introducing the author at the bottom of the post along with both a link to the website homepage and a link to a deep, popular page on our website. For example, check out http://www.computerarticles.co.uk/twitter-time-saving-tools/ We genuinely didn't realise this was a bad thing and thought it would just provide Google with a way of deep linking straight in to popular areas of our site. I would really appreciate advice as to whether you think it might be these links that are causing the problem or whether there is something else that could be causing the problem. In the event it is these links that are causing the issue would you recommend removing the entire 'about the author' page (as we have published around 500 pages on that site) and simply put a link in the blog roll or simplify it to just link to the homepage. I appreciate in advance any help you could give. Regards Chris
Search Behavior | | ChrisHolgate0 -
Pro/Cons of JUST using Google Analytics
I find myself in a situation where I am having to defend why purely relying on just Google Analytics for site data i.e. exit pages, keywords, bounce rate etc... is not good practise. So I thought/wondered if other people have come up against this. What are the Pro and Cons for ONLY using Google Analytics for your site data....
Search Behavior | | JohnW-UK0 -
Ranking Problem (my most important Q so far on here)
Hi, I have a keyword which is location specific and without any work doing to it, it ranked page 4 position 7. I did 4 guest posts all in one go and the it moved to page 3 position 5, I then left it for a week (position didn't move) and did another guest post a day after the guest post had been indexed I lost rankings and moved back to page 4, position 4. Has anyone got an idea why this happened? Is it a case its just fluxing and I could see in a few days it come back to page 3 position 2 or do you think I got an initial boost because the guest posts all went up and its just a fluke that it dropped when the 5th one went up? This is a big deal for me because I rely on guest posting a lot, I've even got a copy writer pumping out 500 quids worth of content a month just for guest blogging. I need to understand what is happening, this is one of the most important questions so far on here so I would appreciate some talk on the matter.
Search Behavior | | activitysuper0 -
Have Google changed something in Analytics
Hi Mozzers, I have a client that gets loads of traffic and since the 15th February there has been a decrease in New Visitors and an Increse in Returning. Traffic levels are the same. The returning is up and new are down by a long long shot. Have Google changed the way these visits are calculated? I can't see anything on the blog - anyone experiencing similar issues Bush
Search Behavior | | Bush_JSM0 -
We were ranked no8, and now we are no2 but...
We were ranked no8, and in one week we jumped to no2 on Google, but there is no change in nuber of our visitors. What is going on? Is it personalization of SERP? What can we do? Tnx
Search Behavior | | ProFishingStore0