SEO Google local listings
-
Hello
We've recently started a campaign for a local business, and now the domain authority and the number of links to the site are equal if not more to all local major competitors (bar one) and organic rankings for relevant terms are increasing well...
However we still do not appear in the google local listings, despite having a verified location business account - fully set up and active and linked to the website.
Does anyone have any advice for increasing local rankings?
Thanks in advance kind mozzers
-
Hey Radi,
Sure! Send over the details and I will take a look.
-
Hi Ryan,
Hope you are well. Thanks for your swift response to this question last month. I have checked the things you mentioned and thought maybe time will help, however a month and a half later, I still have the same issue. Could I msg you the details?
Thanks!
-
How kind of you to say that, Sarah. It's my pleasure to lend a hand!
-
Thanks so much Miriam, your posts are always so informative and helpful. This is all really clear now and I know what needs doing. Thank you again.
-
Thank you, Sarah!
So, reviews are sentiments left by a third party who has done business with your company. In other words, I eat at your restaurant and then I go to Google, Yelp or some other review platform to leave a review of my dining experience. Google-based reviews are considered to have the most impact on Google pack rankings, but perhaps not the most impact on conversions. In the U.S., for example, Yelp profiles are often particularly influential, if they have great reviews or really bad ones. Reviews can also exist on a company's own website, using a review app of some kind that allows customers to review a product or service. Think Amazon.com.
If you are being outranked in the local packs by a competitor, reviews are one thing to evaluate as they are one of the signals (though only one) which can cause a competitor to outrank you.
Citations are partial or complete mentions of your business NAP+W (name, address, phone + website) on any third party platform, whether that's a business directory, a blog, a news site or what have you. Any time your partial or complete NAP+W is mentioned anywhere on the web (except your own website), that is a citation. It's a vital part of Local SEO to be sure that all citations feature consistent data (NAP+W is identical across the board). Like reviews, the number, consistency and authority of your citations are believed to impact local pack rankings. So, if a competitor has more citations, better consistency, or citations on more authoritative sites than you do, it can contribute to them outranking you. So, again, this is something to evaluate in doing competitive analysis.
Hope this helps clarify, and you might like to check out our free Local Learning Center for more definitions of the elements of a Local Search Marketing campaign: <cite class="_Rm">https://moz.com/learn/local</cite>
-
Hi Miriam,
As always, very useful and informative response. Can you explain what you mean by
-
Review inequalities
-
Citation volume inequalities or citation newness
What, in business do you consider to be a Citation and what a Review - I am asking from a UK market and finding it difficult to differentiate between the two.
Many thanks
-
-
Hi Radi!
Your question is an important one, but without being able to look at the actual business, the community will have to provide general answers rather than specific ones. It's perfectly fine if you can't share your client's info - but it will limit the specificity of the feedback you'll receive here.
Local ranking issues generally stem from one or more of the following:
-
Guideline violations
-
NAP consistency problems
-
Review inequalities
-
Poor organic strength
-
Newness
-
Citation volume inequalities or citation newness
-
A history of past issues with the business or its account (past violations)
-
Geographic limitations (user as centroid, distance from industry centroid, etc.)
There can be other things, but these are the big ones. A look at the 2015 Local Search Ranking Factors survey is going to be the best place to start considering the many, many factors that contribute to rank:https://moz.com/local-search-ranking-factors
It sounds from your description like the business and/or your campaign are new. It's important to understand that age does matter, and that it takes time for things like citation building to go into effect. So, if you're doing the right things (building consistent citations, earning slow but steady reviews, building great content on the website, etc.) then it may just be a matter of time before you see this pay off. It's really important to set client expectations properly regarding this. But, at the same time, it's also vital to be sure that there are no guideline violations, duplicates or a past history of problems, so that you are squaring away those things that can hinder the good efforts you are currently making.
Hope this helps!
-
-
Hi,
You should try Reviews. Say your customers or user to give review on Business listing results and another places where site listed.
-
Hey Radi,
There could be several issues but without taking a closer look with the business details, I can't give you exact reasons why.
The most common issue tends to be NAP (Name, Address & Phone Number) consistency. You need to make sure all the details on directories etc are all the same. I would also advise you check the category of the Google+ page as this can play a key part in the local rankings.
To help push local rankings even further, I would advise you get links from local companies or from website relevant to the local area. Feel free to share the business name and address and I'd be happy to help out.
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
-
Mapping the Google My Business locations I manage?
Is there a way to see all of the business locations I manage on a map, so it's easy to visualize and check? Like a Google Custom map, but I don't want to create a custom map because then I'd be updating information in two places. I thought this would be a built-in feature of Google My Business but I can't seem to find any information about this. Thanks! -Ryan
Local Listings | | RyanD.0 -
Google My Business answers not appearing
We've been trying to use the GMB Q&A feature as a lot of customers seem to be engaging with the listing/asking relevant questions. However, sometimes we answer a question directly from the business listing account but it does not appear (no error message is shown when posting either). When we go to re-post the answer, the text is sometimes still visible in the answer box field. Any ideas what might be causing the issue?
Local Listings | | Wagada1 -
2 Google my business listings for one company
Hello all I work for a small company. we do carpentings and old wooden furniture repairs. With the same company, we've started a tiny house building business, which is completly different of what we usally do and this is a national business wj The question is, can a create a different google my business listing for this activity ? It has different brand on logo but same phone number and same physical address. From what i ve found in google help pages , i would say yes, but i d take opinions about this , tks for your precious answers from google : Departments within other business, universities, or institutions
Local Listings | | uservices
Departments within businesses, universities, hospitals, and government institutions may have their own listings on Google.
Learn more
Publicly-facing departments that operate as distinct entities should have their own page. The exact name of each department must be different from that of the main business and that of other departments. Typically such departments have a separate customer entrance and should each have distinct categories. Their hours may sometimes differ from those of the main business.
• Acceptable (as distinct listings):
o "Walmart Vision Center"
o "Sears Auto Center"
o "Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Dermatology"
• Not acceptable (as distinct listings):
o The Apple products section of Best Buy
o The hot food bar inside Whole Foods Market
For each department, the category that is the most representative of that department must be different from that of the main business and that of other departments.
• The main business "Wells Fargo" has the category "Bank" whereas the department "Wells Fargo Advisors" has the category "Financial Consultant"
• The main business "South Bay Toyota" has the category "Toyota Dealer" whereas the "South Bay Toyota Service & Parts" has the category "Auto Repair Shop" (plus the category "Auto Parts Store")
• The main business "GetGo" has the category "Convenience Store" (plus the category "Sandwich Shop") whereas the department "GetGo Fuel" has the category "Gas Station", and the department "WetGo" has the category "Car Wash"1 -
How Do I Remove Address from Google Business Page?
Not very up to date in handling local listings, so here's my situation. I have an office that is not going out of business, but instead going virtual. So that physical address will no longer exist but the team is intact. So I am dealing with the Google Business Listing page for this office at https://business.google.com/ In the "Published on" section, it has Google Search, Google Maps, and Google+. I want to remove it from Maps and the address from this account. There's an address for this store, but editing it only seems to allow changing, but not removal. There is also the option of "Mark as Permanently Closed", but surely that isn't the best option since that will leave a nasty red "PERMANENTLY CLOSED" in the results when searching. What's the best course of action here?
Local Listings | | nbyloff0 -
Google Plus Pages are No Longer Available From SERPs?
We have noticed that the links to our google plus pages have become inaccessible to all of our client google plus location profiles from search result pages. I am getting lots of questions about this from our clients and am just not sure what to say. Does anyone have any idea what is happening here? I do notice that some large brands have "profiles" links below their information on the right side of SERPs that includes google plus links: https://www.google.com/search?q=american+airlines and some do not: https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#safe=off&q=nike I can't imagine we are abandoning our business.google.com location profiles but what do we know if anything regarding the plan here is? Whatsthehaps?
Local Listings | | Sans_Terra0 -
Google Reviews From Around The Web Feature Gone
Hey All My Favorite Local Community Members! I think we might start having questions come up about this, so I thought I'd do a quick post. Google has just confirmed that they have removed the 'Reviews from Around the Web' feature that has so long been a part of their local SERPs display. Mike Blumenthal confirms that this is official, here: http://localu.org/blog/google-more-reviews-links-removed-from-knowledge-panel/ Apparently, you can still see your reviews from around the web in your Google My Business dashboard, but they are gone from knowledge panels, etc. This may not be a feature greatly missed by many, as the business owner had so little control over what was displayed in this section. So ... upshot is: if you've just noticed that this feature is gone, it's official - it's gone.
Local Listings | | MiriamEllis4 -
My Google business show up on map but does not show up on list and local search on Google.com
Hello all, how are you doing ? When I merged two pages = one page " Sassy Nails" It was lost all ranking and traffic on my google plus My Google business show up on map but does not show up on list and local search on Google.com main keyword: nail salon in Sevierville tn nail salon in Sevierville Tn pedicure in Sevierville Tn nail salon in pigeo forge Tn my website : www.sassy-nails.com http://plus.google.com/+Sassy-nails please help me that search?num=100&safe=active&site=&source=hp&q=nail+salon+in+sevierville+tn&oq=nail+salon+in+sevierville+tn&gs_l=hp.3..0j0i22i30l8j38.1387.8317.0.8645.37.30.4.3.3.0.283.3120.4j18j2.24.0.msedr...0...1c.1.61.hp..8.29.2798.0.V2EADE1ATMU
Local Listings | | sassynailservice0 -
How can I add another Google Places listing to my existing business?
Hey there, Does anyone know how I can add another Google Places listing to the following account? The company now has two stores so I'd like to get both listed. https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/107389046695957843430/+FinsahomeCoUk/posts I've tried using https://www.google.com/local/manage but that only appears to let you add a minimum of 10 locations?
Local Listings | | Webrevolve0