Dropping dramatically in keyword rankings

[CeCeBar]

One of my clients has always ranked well for this keyword (janitorial services, nh).

Then within a week, they dropped out of the top fifty in Google and now in other major search engines as well.

My first thought of why the drop in rankings is due to duplicate listings within online directories. The previous marketing person on staff was listing the company more than once in these directories, and it wasn't discovered until later in the link building process.

Sometimes the company was listed with "janitorial services" as part of the company name, and then listed again with "carpet cleaning" as part of the company name... sometimes with duplicate address, or using the po box instead - as if two companies.

The odd thing in all this is that while they dropped in ranking for this keyword, they still come in usually 1st in Google Places for this keyword with 12 excellent reviews. And yet when I check their Google Places account, it says that it needs to be reverified, again, it doesn't meet the terms. (company is a family owned business, for over 30 years, they have a lot of potential).

So all this duplication needs to be fixed, but how serious are duplicate listings on places like Manta, YellowPages, SuperPages, also Yahoo Business Local and Bing Business Directory?

And now that "forensics" seems to be my task, any suggestions on how to start? Any processes I should go through with Google WebMaster?

_Cindy

And, too, if I could add, the site ranks very poorly for this keyword and while I have provided recommendations, and they understand the onsite issue, they have yet to go forward with implementation, making this a little more difficult issue.

[CeCeBar]

I think basically Mark is right, good be a combination of items. I would need to sort through the first suspicions on the sudden drop and also address some of the suggestions from Mark - competition, and most definitely optimizing the site, I can only hope the client will move forward with implement ion.

thanks again for assistance.

_Cindy

[CeCeBar]

Mark,

Thanks so much for your reply, apologize for the delay. I can't add many more details, this client has had a website, for last 5 - 6 years now, family-owned for 35.

The drop in rankings for my client happened suddenly - some gradual fall the first week, 2 - 3 in rank; and then "bam" the next week not even in the top 50. This was 2nd week of March. The client has still not moved forward with my recommendations for offsite or onsite optimization.

About a year ago the client completed a new design - very professional, but lacking in some basic onsite optimization - proper use of keywords, headings, meta-descriptions, etc... some visual and user issues - though the latter minor.

Not a lot of competition online, just very basic info-type, homemade websites, still they were ranking in top 10 (keyword - janitorial services nh).  I did notice a new competitor after checking out the most recent top 10 rankings - and this competitor put in a little work to optimize the website- but that's only one of all the top 10.

Was there any new changes in Google around March of this year that could have effected such a sudden drop?

_Cindy

[Mark_Jay_Apsey_Jr.]

Cindy-

Need more info.....when did the drop happen? How dramatic a drop? Over how long a period of time?

Duplicate listings under another category are an issue if they used the exact same address and phone number, Not good......but it doesnt sound like that would be the only reason.

One other thing I would mention is that onpage optimization could be the reason if their competition has done a strong job. remember, Google is generating a relevancy/quality score for the keyword. If the competition isnt doing anything locally with the keyword, then they might have gotten an artificially good result with the keyword. Then if several of their competitors add some basic keyword content, they could get bumped significantly in ranking.

Again, I need the date of when it happened.

Mark