Dropped from Universal Result: Local
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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!
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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.
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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.
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