We Are An SEO Company - Why Won't Google Believe Us?!?!

[timcbambrick]

Hi All,

We are an SEO company based in Brisbane Australia.

We help lots of clients, most of which are now on page #1 for the majority of their keywords.

Except for 1:

US!

Organically we float between page #2-3 for the term "seo brisbane" and page #1-2 for the term "search engine optimisation brisbane"

However, when it comes to the local pack we are nowhere to be found.

Not only are we not in the top 3, but when you click "more places" to see how far out of the local pack we are, we are not there at all!!

For whatever reason, we can't get google to believe that we really are a SEO supplier.

I'm embarrassed to have to ask, but we just can't seem to work out why.

Would anyone have any ideas?

We know that our current website is letting us down and are 90% of the way through the build of a new one and we are confident that will help with our organic rankings but when it comes to why we are not showing at all in local results, I am at a loss.

Has anyone got any advice or troubleshooting they could help with ?

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Jason!

Thanks so much for coming back on this one. I'm really glad it helped. Since I responded, one of my Moz Blog posts was published which might offer additional help. It walks you through doing a full competitive audit, with a free downloadable spreadsheet to help you: https://moz.com/blog/basic-local-competitive-audit

Going through the formal process of the audit could help you turn up some more things for your to-do list. Good luck to you!

[timcbambrick]

Hi Miriam,

I never thanked you for your incredibly helpful response. Thank you for your time and assistance on this one.

Since this was posted we have actioned the following:

• Removed the review we've posted ourselves.
• Removed the duplicate addresses.
• Remove the word 'level' on address.

And are still working on the following:

• Beating the numbers of our competitors in terms of reviews, backlinks DA, PA
• Reporting businesses using spammy techniques to rank on local search

Thanks again for your help

[MiriamEllis]

Hey Jason,

Thanks so much for the answers to my questions. Okay, I'm going to number these points for organizational purposes:

1. Holy crow! There are a LOT of Internet marketing firms in Brisbane.

2. Go to Google, look up "SEO brisbane" and then click on the Map. Now, begin zooming in on the map, click by click. From my location in the US, it took me 9 zoom levels before your company appeared. You are 11th in the Local Finder view to the left of the map at this zoom level for me. So, the good news here is that your listing does exist. The bad news is, it's not making it into the higher echelons of Google's local rankings. I'm not sure if this is a classic case of the Possum filter, because the nearest business I see to you in the same category is over on Adelaide St (Code Digital), which looks to be a couple of blocks away. I've heard some anecdotal reports of Possum having an effect at that distance, but I can't say with 100% certainty here. Nevertheless, whether this is an artefact of Possum or not, the solution is likely to be same: you've got to convince Google that it is your business that deserves to show at the automatic zoom level instead of the businesses of your competitors.

3. First, you've got to root out problems. I noticed one oddity looking at your reviews. It appears that you've reviewed your own company in the past week. You should remove the review as this violates Google's guidelines and be SURE you aren't violating them with any other reviews you've gotten. You also need to root out any potential Google My Business duplicate listings. Unfortunately, Moz Local doesn't currently operate in Australia, so you may need to do this manually, or hire a company like Whitespark to help you root out duplicate listings or other problems with your citation set. I'm also curious about the way you've formatted your Google My Business address:  Level 4/196 Wharf St, Spring Hill QLD 4000, Australia. It has been years since I've consulted with a local business in Australia. What is Google's standard formatting of floors/suites in your country? Should they come before or after the actual street numbers? I'd double check on that.

4. Next, you've got to do a competitive audit of the competitors who aren't being filtered out. You've got to stack up their numbers against yours (local ranking, organic rank, age of domain, age of listing, DA, PA of GMB landing page URL, review count, review rating, link profiles) to try to identify what elements of the competitor's presence Google is favoring over yours. Then, you've got to try to beat those numbers/stats.

5. Next, you should carefully comb through the businesses outranking you to see if they are violating any of Google's guidelines. For example, it appears that one dominant player (Webgator) may be spamming the business title of their GMB listing (they're listing themselves as WebGator SEO Brisbane) when this does not match the logo on their website. I'm unable to see street-level signage for them looking at Google Streetview, so I recommend that you a) drive over there and take a photo of their sign and B) phone them and see how they answer the telephone. If they are simply "WebGator" in either instance, then their addition of the keywords SEO Brisbane to their GMB title would be something you would want to report as a violation. You should do this same process for any other competitor who is outranking you with a spammed business name. And, of course, make sure your own hands are clean in this regard and that you aren't violating any guidelines.

6. Know that you are in an extremely competitive and crowded market. It's not going to be easy to move the ranking needle, but it's not impossible.

7. Test proximity factors. Where do you rank locally when you are standing in front of your business looking at your mobile device? How about 2 miles, 5 miles, 20 miles, 50 miles away? Remember that local rankings are NOT static and can alter drastically depending on the location of the searcher.

8. I'm not doing a genuine audit here. It's just a 5-minute glance from me, and one thing that is bothering me here is the fact that your business is coming up 12th organically for me for the search term, but isn't appearing until zoom level 9 on the map. This would make me anxious enough to do a complete audit, referenced in point number 4, and if I didn't have the in-house skills to do it, I'd hire a heavy hitting Local SEO for the job.

This is as far as I can go right now, Jason, but I hope it gives you a game plan. Good luck!

[Corsiva]

Hi guys,

Is it okay if I share my URL to my website here with the community too?

URL: https://www.corsivalab.com

Hope to have the privilege to receive precious opinions, for the following

1. Is the placement of keywords sufficient? - Focusing on Web Development Singapore

2. What are ways to further improve?

Corsiva Lab is a Web Design & Development company based in Singapore. At the same time, may be we can have more companies sharing their URL here so we can all learn with each other.

Hope to receive all your honest opinions.

[timcbambrick]

Hi Miriam,

Thank you again for coming back to me, I really appreciate it.

I just responded to your last comment above which may cover some of the answers but I will address them here below just to make it super clear and easy:

1. **What is the exact search term you're trying to rank for? **The exact term we want to rank for is "seo brisbane". Currently we appear on page 2-3 in the organic results for this term but I can't find us anywhere in the local listings so I feel like there might be something big that we are missing here.

2. **What is your city of location? **We are located in Brisbane, Queensland, only a few hundered meters from the city ceter.

3. **Are there any other marketers in your building or on your street? **Not that I know of or can see in the search results for that keyword.

Thank you once again, any assistance would be incredible.

Cheers,

Jason.

[timcbambrick]

Hi Miriam,

Thanks for reaching out.

These responses are all very helpful.

Our company name is Bambrick Media and the URL is https://www.bambrickmedia.com.au/

If anyone could take a look at the local listings appearing for "seo brisbane" and our GMB and let us know their specific take on why we are not appearing that would be amazingly helpful and I would be forever in their debt.

We are bottom of page #1 for "search engine optimisation brisbane" but when it comes to local listings for "seo brisbane" google doesn't seem to think we are of any relevance.

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[MiriamEllis]

Hey Again, Jason,

Looking at your Moz profile, I believe you're here: https://www.bambrickmedia.com.au/

Please answer these questions:

1. What is the exact search term you're trying to rank for?

2. What is your city of location?

3. Are there any other marketers in your building or on your street?

[MiriamEllis]

Hey Jason,

You're getting some great feedback from the community here! Are you able to share the URL of your website with the community, so that we can take a look at your actual scenario instead of just shooting in the dark? It could help a great deal. Thanks!

[Nigel_Carr]

Hi Jason

If you are a local Brisbane company then I would be making full use of local SEO and Citations. Get yourself listed in all of the safe local directories and you will be amazed. I did this and am now No.1 for my city.

Whitespark has a great guide for local SEO citations: https://whitespark.ca/best-citations-by-city/australia/brisbane/ and of course companies like Moz have their own local SEO tools.

One thing you could try as a last report is setting up a page on your site like this: yoursite.com.au/seo-brisbane - use internal linking to reinforce it and get local blogs and news sites to link to it. Have a grand website launch, a champagne party or something and get some of these guys to run the story! www.newspapers.com.au/brisbane.html

Cheers & Good Luck!

Nigel

[badgergravling]

I've helped a couple of Web Design and SEO companies who have been in this exact position. They'd ranked plenty of local small business clients in relatively niche markets against competition which either hadn't bothered with SEO, or had often invested with a company that didn't do much. But their own site was struggling.

The main reason is that there's a lot more competition among SEO companies, and you'd hope at least some of them might know what they're doing. So it takes a bit more effort to sustain good ranking positions - aside from the usual step of making sure all your info is correct and updated for all local site listings, it's really about combining quality links and also quality reviews.

The local pack is always a bit of a mystery - sometimes it appears Google will pick random sites from the first few pages, even when some of them haven't done anything above type in their business name before closing down 6 months ago. But aside from the occasional fluctuation, you should be able to maintain a decent spot by making sure your listing is complete, you have some reviews, and you've optimised a relevant part of your site for your location as well.

[Corsiva]

Hi Jason

Rather than saying Google not believing you, I would say that it's because you are new to Google. Keywords itself is an important factor which helps you climb your ranking. But having a flow in the content you are writing with the keywords must too have a flow and should not have any instance whereby you abruptly add in a keyword just to get the attention of Google. It takes time to climb up to the top ranks and besides keywords, there are other factors that contribute to your ranking. Over excessive use of keywords would make Google be suspicious and penalize you.

Everyone can look up to http://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/google-algorithm-update-february-7-2017/ a post relating to Google recent Algorithm Update - Analysis and Findings which I just recently read up on. (P.S it is a write-up by another person with video included by Google's Gary Illyes)

Do also make use of Moz Resources which is really useful as they provide guides for you to refresh on the Good, Bad and the Do & Don't when it comes to SEO.

Also, I feel you can also research on marketing content blog in the net, where tips and methods are recommended. I believe Moz too, have a lot of companies and people providing recommendations and answers.

Lastly, would like to let you know there is nothing to be embarrassed! We all have our troubles and through discussion, we can derive better answers for ourselves and for the others.

Cheers! Thank you for posting this question! Hope to see more answers from others too!