Dropped from Universal Result: Local
-
For quite some time our Google Places listing has been in the Universal Results...(for this keyword there is a 7-pack result). Which was great, we had a PPC ad at the top of the page, we were 3rd in the Universal Results (there was 3 places listings before the natural results)...and we were 6th in the natural results - meaning we were on the first page 3 times...which means a happy boss....and lots of traffic.
The old places listing was linked to our new Google+ Page pending the eventual demise of places and the merge.
The merge has happened, all information from the places listing has migrated (apart from reviews and photos??) and the places listing has been deleted (URL returns 404 error).
Problem is now my Google + Page is not even within the first 2 or 3 pages of places results never mind in the Universal results. So it would appear the rank / authority that the places listing had...hasn't been transferred to the Google+ page.
My competitors...who were in 1 + 2 in the universal results above the natural results and who have Google+ Pages with NOTHING on...bar their name, are still there!
Why would I be dropped when my Google+ Page, has more info, more followers, more photos, more relevant content (they don't have any content ) than my 2 competitors. It seems I've been penalised....somebody suggested that I had the keyword twice in my "About" and twice in my "Introduction" info and that could be it. I thought the loss of the review might be it too...but neither of the businesses now occupying the first 3 spots..have any reviews at all.
Anybody else suffered from this? Anybody any other suggestions to why I might have been dropped so dramatically in the places listings? (My SERP listing is unaffected for this keyword)
Keyword being mentioned twice hardly seems like "stuffing"!
I'm actually not too concerned about the places ranking....not a great driver of traffic...but appearing in the Universal Results did obviously drive traffic...and to appear in the Universal Results...I've now got about 30 positions to climb......
The whole Google+ Local / Google Places thing has been a nightmare from start to finish....
Thanks in advance for any help or advice!
-
Just curious,Do you know of a way to include universal results in rank report exports? I have been unable to figure out how to do this.
-
Just a thought after further digging...the keyword in question is "Marbella Property" hence there being places results. I know that "In the past, owing to wording in the guidelines, it was not considered a best practice to put any type of geographic data in the description"...that makes sense for a places listing. But my Google Page has far more info on and of course I'm going to say we sell Marbella Property in our description on the Google Page!
The one review we did have....was from the bad old days before I took over...not real in other words. But as this hasn't been carried over to the Google+ page I cant see that I'd be penalised for it.
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
-
Suddenly ranking dropped in US: What actions required to retain?
Hi Moz community, Our website has global audience, visitors and clients. Suddenly our website dropped in rankings for main keyword in US; which is our primary targeting country. Not sure why? This is been happening for last 2 months, we waited it to recover and now trying to fix if we can do anything about it. Is there anything wrong with back-links? What might be the factors contributing here for global website? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Rankings Drop Week Beginning 19 May
Hi All I have experienced quite a significant rankings drop since week commencing 19 May. I have heard there has been a Panda roll out recently was it around that time? Thanks Gavin
Algorithm Updates | | gavinr0 -
Added the Review rich snippet and rankings have dropped?
Hi Mozzers, I am really surprised what happened here. I conducted a small campaign by adding reviews rich snippet to 10 different microsites(covering different locations). Today I was checking if the snippets were showing up correctly in the SERPs and noticed that most of these locations with review snippet dropped in the rankings? How weird is that? Can anyone explain what happened here? Has anyone experienced this? Thank you!
Algorithm Updates | | Ideas-Money-Art0 -
Google News Results
This is more of an observation than anything else. Has anyone noticed any strange results in Google News, in terms of very old content hitting page 1? My example is football, I support Newcastle so keep checking for the latest transfer failure or humiliation. First page for couple of days is showing old articles (April, May) from the same source rather than the usual spread of tabloid and broadsheet news.
Algorithm Updates | | MickEdwards0 -
Top resulting sites sites for a specific keyword
I'm teaching myself SEO so that I can speak more intelligently to it with my clients. I've spent a great deal of time on seomoz and love it. The more I learn, the more I realize I don't know and that brings me to my current question. I can search on a keyword and see results, however I see every URL available. I'm looking for a simple way to see the root domains for the top 100-500 resulting websites for a specific keyword. Is there an easy way to get this information I'm sure it's right in front of me, but I can't find it. Many thanks, ahossom
Algorithm Updates | | ahossom0 -
Is anybody else seeing large scale rankings drops in Bing this week?
I track around 1000 keywords for this site, and my rankings in Bing dropped for about half of them on Wednesday. No major changes have been made to the site, rankings are maintaining or improving in Google for a majority of these same terms. The average drop seems to be around 9-12 places, which to me signals more than just standard fluctuation. Anyone else seeing anything strange with Bing this week? Or does anyone have any ideas? I looked for posts about an algorithm change but haven't found anything. Thanks.
Algorithm Updates | | BrianCC0 -
Organic ranking vs Local ranking
After reading this blog entry from Dr Pete on Mirametrix, my question would be:
Algorithm Updates | | echo1
What's more important for a local company, being in the 7 pack or in the top 10 organic results? Which one attracts more clicks? Is the optimization for local ranking just became more important than the traditional SEO?0