Local Keywords Not Ranking Well in a Geographic Location (but Rank Very Well Outside of Geographic Location)
-
Has anyone experienced, in the last few months, an issue where a website that once ranked well for 'local' terms in Google stopped ranking well for those terms (but saw a ranking decrease only within the geographic location contained within those keywords)?
For example only, some 'root' keywords could be:
- Chicago dentist
- Chicago dentists
- dentist Chicago
- dentists Chicago
What happens is that when a searcher searches from within the geographic area of Chicago, IL, the target website no longer ranks on the 1st page for these types of keyword phrases, but they used to rank in the top 3 perhaps.
However, if someone was to search for the same keyword phrases from another city outside of Chicago or set a custom location (such as Illinois or even Milwaukee, WI perhaps) in their Google search, the target website appears to have normal (high) 1st page rankings for these types of terms.
My own theory:
At first I thought it was a Penguin related issue but the client's rankings overall haven't appeared to have been affected on the date(s) of Penguin updates. Authority Labs and Raven Tools (which uses Authority Labs data) did not detect any ranking decrease and still reports all the local keyword rankings as high on the 1st page of Google.
However, when the client themselves goes to check their own rankings (as they are within that affected geographic area), they are no where to be found on the 1st page. :S
After some digging I found that (one of) the company's Google Places listings (the main office listing) became an 'unsupported' status in Google Maps. So now I am thinking that this phenomenon is due to the fact that other listings are now appearing in search results for the same location.
For example, in this case, an individual dentist's Google Places listing (who works within the dental office) is being displayed instead of the actual dental office's listing. Also, the dentist's name on the Google Places listing is being swapped out by Google with the name of the dental office, but if you click through to the Google Places listing, it shows the name of the individual Dentist.
Anyone encounter a similar issue or have any other theories besides the Google Places issue?
-
Oh, that's great, Scott. Linda is terrific. Please, say hi to her from Miriam. Good luck! Miriam
-
I have actually, since, contacted Linda regarding her services and training. Thanks!
-
Hi Scott,
It's a full time job keeping up with all of the changes in Local these days. I really hope the articles have helped - particularly Linda Buquet's workaround post. Thanks for using Q&A.
Miriam
-
Thanks Miriam, I'll take a look at those resources.
I actually have a correction to make in my original scenario. It is not that the place is 'unsupported', it is rather that it seems that one listing merged with another listing.
Thus the main office listing (along with 3 positive reviews) merged with one of the individual dentist listings.
It is worth mentioning that one Google rep did reply to me regarding another incident saying to check if the place was existent in Google Mapmaker. This opened up a whole other ballgame. If Google is using data from Map Maker, I can see why there are issues. That is a user driven database, verified by volunteer 'reviewers', etc...
I see some of the change histories for some of the places there a little scary. I think some 'users' don't realize that it is within Google's guidelines to have multiple listings for a single place if they are lawyers, dentists, etc.... or perhaps like some of the comments in the article links you posted mention... the listings are prone to competitor sabotage.
-
Hi Scott,
While I haven't personally experienced this, I have a couple of resources for you to check out regarding quite significant changes in the way Google is handling medical practices with multi-practitioners:
http://marketing-blog.catalystemarketing.com/google-places-duplicates-doctor-dentist-lawyer.html
http://marketing-blog.catalystemarketing.com/google-places-duplicate-listing-dentists-doctors.html
From the scenario you are describing, I believe you will find some familiar situations described in the above. I recommend you take the time to thoroughly read the posts I've linked to, as well as the comments following them. Please, let me know if this helps. Thanks!
Miriam
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 for keyword?
Hi There! We have been building our website (https://systemfarmer.hu) for years, and had a great position for the keyword "office 365" in hungary. Now our site dropped in the middle of nowhere in natural search list. Is it possible that google penalized us? Tried to find out the reason without any luck. Thanks! Laszlo
Technical SEO | | laszlosf0 -
Keyword ranking fluctuations
Hi For last month my website was ranking to 5 positions for this keyword (Magento Development Company). But recently (28-nov) it's out of 100, some time it's showing on 25 position but not showing in top 5 position. Here is my url (for analysis): https://magnetoitsolutions.com/services/magento-development/ Please explain why my keyword rankings are often not showing in the search listings. Note: There are some other keywords of different pages start getting ranking drop. please let me know is there anything i need to change. Thank
Technical SEO | | harrysamson0 -
Drop in keyword rankings with a multi-region website
Hi everyone, I know that variations if this question have been asked on this forum and have been answered by Google also. Google's response seems to be clear that "Websites that provide content for different regions and in different languages sometimes create content that is the same or similar but available on different URLs. This is generally not a problem as long as the content is for different users in different countries." This was our approach when launching a new .co.nz website recently to coincide with us opening a new office in Auckland. Our original site is still our .com.au site. We went with a new domain name over a sub directory or sub domain for the reasons in the same Google article. After launching the NZ site in February and steadily growing some rankings, we've noticed in the last week or so a drastic drop in our keyword rankings (and traffic) for no apparent reason. There are no apparent issues in Search Console or with the Moz Site Crawl, so I'm wondering what's going on? I know rankings can fluctuate widely, especially when you're not on page 1 (which we're not) but the sudden and drastic drop did concern me. Currently, our AUS site's content is basically being replicated on the NZ site (e.g. blog posts, about us, company history, etc.). I just wanted to bounce it off you all to see whether you think it could be the "duplicate content" on the NZ site, or could it be something else? I'd really appreciate your input! Cheers, Nathan
Technical SEO | | reichey0 -
Best tool to find Related keywords with a Keyword provided.
Hi, Best tool to find Related keywords with a Keyword provided. Basically i want to give a keyword and find all related keywords we can use to write articles. Also any way we can find what keyword a page is getting traffic based on? Thanks
Technical SEO | | skandlikp90 -
Eligible To Rank For Few Queries
I can't figure out why this site (www.liveathomeseniors.com) is eligible for so few search queries on Google Webmaster Tools. I know there is a lot of work to be done, but this is my biggest puzzle right now. What am I not seeing? 379 pages are indexed and yet the site is has only been deemed eligible to rank for 3 queries over the past 3 months. Is it all the repetition in the way the content has been structured? I'd appreciate people's thoughts on this. I can't see the forest for the trees. Donna
Technical SEO | | DonnaDuncan0 -
Excessive use of KeyWord?
Hey I have an Immigration website in South Africa
Technical SEO | | NikitaG
MigrationLawyers.co.za and the website used to be divided in to two categories:
1st part - South African Immigration
2nd part - United Kingdom Immigration Because of that we made all the pages include the word "South Africa" in the titles. eg.
...ers.co.za/work-permit-south-africa
...ers.co.za/spousal-visa-south-africa
...ers.co.za/retirement-permit-south-africa
...ers.co.za/permanent-residence-south-africa I'm sure you get the idea.
we since, removed the UK part of the website and now are left only with the SA part. Now my question is: Is it bad? will google see this as spammy, as I'm targeting "South Africa" in almost every link of the website. Should I stick to the structure for new pages, or try to avoid any more use of "South Africa". Perhaps I can change something as it currently stands? Kind Regards
Nikita0 -
After fixing duplicate pages problem - keyword rankings have fallen off a cliff!
We have recently signed up to SEOMOZ and found that our site had over 2,500 duplicated pages. We reported it the the web designer and they found links on the website to an old prototype version of the website and so they did a SQL run to get rid of them. Doing this got rid of 90% of them. However, this morning, moz has just done another crawl of our website and our keyword rankings have fallen off a cliff. Particularly, important one that we were at position 1 for. We are now on the fifth page. Can anyone shed any light on it? Will this be temporary? Thanks Stuart
Technical SEO | | Stuart260 -
I think my ranking report is not accurate.
I think my ranking are not accurate... It says this but it think it is fault. Under here i put what it says. Is it possible that i get the wrong results? The site is www.mando-control.es And an other questions is : when people in spain search do they automaticly search on google.es or google.com ? | Mando a distancia
Technical SEO | | seoroyal
| Moved unknown 0 spaces | 1 | Moved unknown 0 spaces |
| Mando distancia | pending | Moved unknown 0 spaces | 2 | Moved unknown 0 spaces |
| Mandos a distancia | pending | Moved unknown 0 spaces | 1 | Moved unknown 0 spaces |
| mandos distancia | pending | Moved unknown 0 spaces | 1 | Moved unknown 0 spaces |
| mandos distancias Keyword History Ranking Analysis | pending | Moved unknown 0 spaces | 1 | Moved unknown 0 spaces | | pending | Moved unknown 0 spaces | 1 | Moved unknown 0 spaces |
| Mando distancia | pending | Moved unknown 0 spaces | 2 | Moved unknown 0 spaces |
| Mandos a distancia | pending | Moved unknown 0 spaces | 1 | Moved unknown 0 spaces |
| mandos distancia | pending | Moved unknown 0 spaces | 1 | Moved unknown 0 spaces |
| mandos distancias Keyword History Ranking Analysis | pending | Moved unknown 0 spaces | 1 | Moved unknown 0 spaces |0