Google Local oddity
-
So I spotted something a little weird... one of my client's Google Local placements in blended results has the domain name - complete with the .com extension appearing where the business name typically appears:
www. businessxyz .com
of Google reviews
Has anyone seen this? I setup their Google Places account quite some time ago and used the business name - not the url. I also setup their Google+ and Local page - using the name. None of the page titles on the website contain the url. I simply can not pinpoint where G is pulling this from or why for that matter. All competitors are appearing with business name - only my client has the domain name visible for the particular local search query.
Any ideas?
-
Thanks for the kind compliment, Dino. Sounds like hunting down citations may be your smartest move. Google draws from so many sources and even a little confusion of data can lead to significant problems.
Good luck in the hunt!
Miriam
-
Hi Miriam,
Thank you for your insight. As a matter of fact, I took a quick look in OSE a short while ago to see if I could pinpoint a citation source formatted the same. I found only one utilizing the domain url (except it contained the http://www prefix and my client's listing does not). I plan to investigate a bit more with a different tool set later. If I find anything interesting, I will let you know.
Hey! Looks like we are neighbors! Fantastic website you have - nice job!
Dino
-
Hi SCW,
There are two options I can think of.
-
There is a citation source that Google is pulling the title from (a directory listing, maybe even an old one, that has the business listed this way).
-
It's a mistake on Google's part. Google does make mistakes.
If you cannot find any citations of the business with the .com used as the business title, and you would like to try to have this rectified, I would recommend reporting the problem through Google's troubleshooter, wait 7 days to see if you get a response, and if not, report it through the Google Business Help Forum.
It's definitely an oddity.
-
-
Thanks for the response.
Nope. Fortunately, my client doesn't touch the site and doesn't care to
It would appear that G's title crafting is applicable to situations where the title is malformed. Not the case here... I formed the titles on-topic, concise, no repetition of keywords and branding at the end.
In spite of the fact that it "looks" strange a midst the competitor's listings, it actually stands-out - especially being in the #1 position. Perhaps we are just one of the "lucky" experimental subjects
-
Other than the obvious reply of your client editing the listing to show that . It could have something to do with Google's effort to craft titles depending on what they think is the best fit ( it could be expanding in to Local too ? MY Speculation )
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
-
Penalized By Google
My site name is bestmedtour .it's in English. I also want to have the Arabic version of the site. If I translate it with Google Translate, is it possible that the Arabic version of the site will be penalized?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | aalinlandacc0 -
Google is not honoring my descriptions
I finally got our title tags honored and now Google is just making the descriptions whatever it wants. This is happening on pretty much every one of our pages. An example: http://www.sqlsentry.com/products/plan-explorer/sql-server-query-view SERPS = SQL Server MVP Aaron Bertrand shares a demo kit for Plan Explorer to give you better insight into the advantages of the tool, and to help you share its virtues ... Description tag = SQL Sentry Plan Explorer is a free query plan analysis tool that will allow you to find the most expensive operators by CPU, I/O, or both. I can see the description tag when I view source so I know that it is pulling it from the table correctly. What can I do to fix this?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Sika220 -
Organic Google Sitelinks - can I edit?
A client just contacted me saying a competitor is threatening legal action threatened against a page description in a Google sitelink (just double checked and its in the serps results too). I checked the site and the content doesn't appear on that page or anywhere else on the site. I also added a Meta description to that page to see if that will have an effect. The page is the home page and I don't really want to demote it. Is there anything else I can/should do?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | agua0 -
Google Places Multiple Location
Hi everyone, I have a client with multiple locations in the same city. I would like to have their Goolge places listing show up under the main website listing. Currently, one of the Google places listings in being pulled in directly below the main website but not the other. The Zagat rating is being pulled in as well. I would like to have both locations show up when you type in the name of the business. Any ideas how to do this?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SixTwoInteractive0 -
Google Places
If you rank on google places, I have noticed that you do not rank on the front page as well. I have a site that ranks on front page for it's keywords; however, because they are (1) on google places, they don't show up when someone is localized to that area. They show up on google places but not on front page. If you turn of localization, they are first in serps. How can I get around this? Two separate sites? One for Google+ (Places) and one for SERPS?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JML11790 -
How Does SEO Help Local Businesses
Hello, I recently took a position as a digital marketing manger with a advertising agency. Its my job to grow the digital marketing department. One of the issues I am running into is 90% of our clients are local businesses. When doing keyword research it is very difficult to find keywords with lots of search. For example, if I am optimizing for a Ford dealership in Hackensack,NJ there are not a lot of searches for this term. How can I justify a larger SEO budget when there is just not a lot of search volume for these keywords? This is nothing like Dog Training Videos or something similar. Am I missing something? Where can I pull traffic from for local businesses to justify larger SEO budgets? Thanks, Bill
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | wparlaman0 -
Google plus
"Google+ members, and to a lesser extent others who are signed into Google, will be able to search against both the broader web and their own Google+ social graph. That’s right; Google+ circles, photos, posts and more will be integrated into search in ways other social platforms can only dream about." What is meant by " and to a lesser extent others who are signed into Google" ? Does it mean that non-google plus members won't be able to view Google+photos, posts ?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoug_20050 -
Multiple Google Places Listings?
Hi everyone. While I have read answers regarding this on Mike Blumenthal's blog, I have not been able to get an exact clarification on having multiple Google Places listings. According to Mike Blumethal, Google accepts multiple listings in the Places area for specific industries. e.g. One listing for a Dental office, one listing for EACH dentist. This could include a separate website for each. If this is the case, how far away are we from having one maxed out business owning muiiple positions in the local listing space in the search engines. specifically Google? I would love a good explanation of what is and isn't allowed to have multiple listings.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | dignan991