Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • SEO Q&A
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • Case Studies
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      What is your Brand Authority?
      Moz

      What is your Brand Authority?

      Check yours now
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • SEO Q&A

        Insights & discussions from an SEO community of 500,000+.

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • Case Studies

        Explore how Moz drives ROI with a proven track record of success.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. Research & Trends
    3. White Hat / Black Hat SEO
    4. Google places VS position one ranking above the places.

    Moz Q&A is closed.

    After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

    Google places VS position one ranking above the places.

    White Hat / Black Hat SEO
    6
    11
    2576
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • Bodie
      Bodie Subscriber Banned last edited by

      Hi Guys,

      Will creating a new Google places listing for a business have any effect their current position one spot for their major geo location keyword?

      I.e restaurants perth - say they are ranking no 1 above all the places listings if they set up a places listing would they lose that position and merge with all the other places accounts?

      Or would they have that listing as well as the places listing?

      I have been advised it could be detrimental to set up the places account if this is the case does anyone know any ways around this issue as the business really needs a places page for google maps etc.

      Appreciate some guidance

      Thanks.

      BC

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • itrogers
        itrogers @SparkSEO last edited by

        I have a client where we put the specific local listing page url (example.com/locations/phoenix/location1) in the Google Places URL field. It works out really well as we get the home page ranking organically (depending on the query) and the specific places result locally. Sometimes they are combined and other times they are not, but we are in the mix somewhere almost always.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • SparkSEO
          SparkSEO last edited by

          Curious if anyone of you guys has experience pointing the places listing to a different URL other than the homepage?

          I have read a few articles that stated various different outcomes, some mentioning that it didn't effect their Organic result, but was harder to rank the places URL.  Just curious of findings!

          itrogers 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • MiriamEllis
            MiriamEllis Subject Expert last edited by

            Hi Bodie,

            Yes, I think this is playing in the grey area. If the business owner actually wants to make his used and new car dealerships two companies with completely separate legal business names or DBAs, addresses with separate walk-in entrances, phone numbers and websites with completely unique content, then yes, you'd be talking about two different businesses, but that seems like an awful lot of real-world trouble to go to just to get a second Place page, eh? Chances are, a car dealership with both used and new cars is simply a single business with different specialties and should only be running a single website with a single Place/+ Local page.

            What would happen if you went ahead with this plan, anyway, without the company actually being two legally separate entities? Honestly, you might be able to get away with it for awhile. Google is often not super sharp about upholding their policies and iffy stuff can ride for a long time. But...the risk is big. Should Google ever decide that they don't like what they are seeing, they could penalize or remove the listing from the index and if there is any association at all between the 2 listings, they could penalize the whole profile. This isn't a risk I would take for my clients, and for a business model like you're describing, like a car dealership, I would not advise the hypothetical approach you are considering. Rather, I would recommend that the client build the strongest local profile he can for his business and then consider other forms of marketing such as Social Media, Video Marketing, new content, development, etc. to continue to build additional visibility.

            Hope this helps!

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • Bodie
              Bodie Subscriber Banned @MiriamEllis last edited by

              Think more along the lines of a car dealership with a 'NEW' and "used car' department? 🙂 would i be pushing it ? My question to you is how would the association be made between the pages and businesses if the new site was branded differently and had a new address and a unique non associated domain? The only way i can think is if they were interlinked, but many non associated sites are linked. Is this playing in a grey area? 🙂  Thanks again

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • MiriamEllis
                MiriamEllis Subject Expert @Bodie last edited by

                Hi Bodie,

                My pleasure. Are you stating that you work at a large business that has more than one front entry door for clientele (like a hospital with an emergency room and a separate radiology department?) If so, then you are allowed to create more than one listing for the business under the following Google Places Quality Guideline:

                Departments within businesses, universities, hospitals, and government buildings may be listed separately. These departments must be publicly distinct as entities or groups within their parent organization, and ideally will have separate phone numbers and/or customer entrances.

                If this is an accurate description of your business model, then I would simply have a single website with unique landing pages for the different public offices and tie these pages to the distinct Place Pages/+ Local Page for the business. Anything that doesn't really fit the above would not be a good idea.

                I would not recommend associating an identical business name with two different websites and Place Pages if it is really the same business. What Google wants is for you to make a totally realistic representation of your business on the web; not to try to appear like you are larger, more diverse, or different than you really are in real life. I know how important it is to do all you can to gain the broadest visibility, but I believe that all efforts must be founded on an authentic presentation of any business, and this appears to be Google's view, too. Hope this helps!

                Bodie 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • Bodie
                  Bodie Subscriber Banned @MiriamEllis last edited by

                  Thanks for your response, would it be deemed black hat to set up a new site specifically for the Google places listing if it had a strong geo location in the URL and was attached to a different address?

                  ie website Hillarysrestaurant.com.au (ie hillarys is the suburb) and i was to register Perthrestaurant.com.au and attach that to a different address as the restaurant takes up 3 blocks ie 6-10 so i run the real website as it always was on 6 and set up the new site as a push site/squeeze page on 10 and use it just for google local?

                  i really hope this makes sense. Thanks again for your help and SEO wisdom! 🙂

                  P.s its not a restaurant im just using this as an example.

                  MiriamEllis 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • Laurean
                    Laurean @WhoWuddaThunk last edited by

                    We have the same experience as Cody.  Google Places is like ADDING another listing to the SERP.  From what I understand the Google places, is supposed to rotate around.  But your #1 or #2 spot should stay firm - unless you get knocked off by a competitor!  We have several clients that are in #1, Google Places and then #4 or 5 - so it is possible to take up quite a bit of real estate on a SERP.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • MiriamEllis
                      MiriamEllis Subject Expert last edited by

                      Hi BC,

                      Yes, you can typically expect the organic rank to be subsumed into the Places rank if you create a Google Places/+ Local page for the client. This is a very common outcome and it remains uncommon, though not impossible, for businesses to have more than one results per SERPs page.

                      Bodie 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • WhoWuddaThunk
                        WhoWuddaThunk @itrogers last edited by

                        I work with around 50 companies, and that's typically what I see.  My #1 listing will just get changed to a Places listing, but it will still be in the #1 position.

                        Laurean 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
                        • itrogers
                          itrogers last edited by

                          In my experience, I had a client with the positioning like yours. We created the Places account and it just went into the local / maps results. The good news was that the SERP didn't contain any other organic listings at the top. If you have prominent and consistent rankings and are confident in your strategy, then you might not need to create a places account. Just be aware that moving down 1 spot could really be 8 or 9 spots on the real estate of the SERP. Moving down to #2 organically could mean being below the entire local results. You will need to judge the risk / rewards. Hope that helps.

                          WhoWuddaThunk 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                          • 1 / 1
                          • First post
                            Last post

                          Got a burning SEO question?

                          Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                          Start my free trial


                          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.

                          • See all categories

                          Related Questions

                          • newwaves

                            My indexed site URL removed from google search without get any message or Manual Actions???

                            On Agust 2 or 3.. I'm not sure about the exact date... 
                            The main URL of my website https://new-waves.net/ had been completely removed from Google search results! without getting any messages or Manual Actions on search console ?? but I'm still can find some of my site subpages in search results and on Google local maps results when I tried to check it on google 
                            info:new-waves.net >> no results
                            site:new-waves.net >> only now I can see the main URL in results because I had submitted it again and again to google but it might be deleted again today or tomorrow as that happen before last few days
                            100% of all ranked keywords >> my site URL new-waves.net had been completely removed from all results! but I'm still can see it on maps on some results I never get any penalties to my site on Google search console. I noticed some drops on some keywords before that happens (in June and July) but it all of it was related to web design keywords for local Qatar, but all other keywords that related to SEO and digital marketing were not have any changes and been on top My site was ranked number 1 on google search results for "digital marketing qatar" and some other keywords, but the main URL had been removed from 100% of all search results. but you can still see it on the map only. I just tried to submit it again to Google and to index it through google search console tool but still not get any results, Recently, based on google console, I found some new links but I have no idea how it been added to links of my website:
                            essay-writing-hub.com - 9,710
                            tiverton-market.co.uk - 252
                            facianohaircare.com - 48
                            prothemes.biz - 44
                            worldone.pw - 2
                            slashdot.org - 1
                            onwebmarketing.com - 1 the problem is that all my high PR real links deleted from google console as well although it still have my site link and it could be recognized by MOZ and other sites! Can any one help to know what is the reason?? and how can I solve this issue without losing my previous ranked keywords? Can I submit a direct message to google support or customer service to know the reason or get help on this issue? Thanks & Regards

                            White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | newwaves
                            0
                          • Jacksons_Fencing

                            Does Google want contact numbers in the meta description?!

                            Reading up it seems like there's complete free reign to enter what you want in the meta description and they are not considered a direct ranking signal However I have added contact numbers to the meta descriptions for around 20 reasonably high ranking pages for my company and it seems to have had a negative effect (taken screen grabs and previous rankings) More strangely when you 'inspect' the page the meta description features the desired number yet when you find the page in the serps the meta description just does not feature the number (page has been cached and the description does not carry on) I'm wondering whether such direct changes are seen as spam and therefore negative to the page?

                            White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Jacksons_Fencing
                            1
                          • juicyresults

                            HOW!??! Homepage Ranking Dropped Completely out of Top 100 on Google....

                            So I'm competing for a very competitive keyword, and I've been on the bottom of page 2 for a while now, ranking for my homepage, which is very content rich and has GREAT links pointing to it. Out of nowhere, last week I dropped completely out of the top 100 or so, yet one of my article posts now ranks on page 6 or so for the same keyword. I have great authoritative links, my on-page is spot on, all of my articles are super super high quality, I don't understand how my homepage, which has ranked for the main keyword for months on page 2, can just completely drop out of the top 100 or so.... Can anyone help provide some insight?

                            White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | juicyresults
                            0
                          • Mohtaref1

                            Black hat : raising CTR to have better rank in Google

                            We all know that Google uses click-through-rate (CTR) as one of it is ranking factor. I came up with an idea in my mind. I would like to see if someone saw this idea before or tried it. If you search in Google for the term "SEO" for example. You will see the moz.com website in rank 3. And if you checked the source code you will see that result 3 is linking to this url: https://www.google.com.sa/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CDMQFjAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fmoz.com%2Fbeginners-guide-to-seo&ei=F-pPVaDZBoSp7Abo_IDYAg&usg=AFQjCNEwiTCgNNNWInUJNibqiJCnlqcYtw That url will redirect you to seomoz.com Ok, what if we use linkbucks.com or any other cheap targeted traffic network and have a campaign that sends traffic to the url that I show you. Will that count as traffic from Google so it will increase the CTR from Google?

                            White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | Mohtaref1
                            1
                          • ClayPotCreative

                            Real Vs. Virtual Directory Question

                            Hi everyone. Thanks in advance for the assistance. We are reformatting the URL structure of our very content rich website (thousands of pages) into a cleaner stovepipe model. So our pages will have a URL structure something like http://oursite.com/topic-name/category-name/subcategory-name/title.html etc. My question is… is there any additional benefit to having the path /topic-name/category-name/subcategory-name/title.html literally exist on our server as a real directory? Our plan was to just use HTACCESS to point that URL to a single script that parses the URL structure and makes the page appropriately. Do search engine spiders know the difference between these two models and prefer one over the other? From our standpoint, managing a single HTACCESS file and a handful of page building scripts would be infinitely easier than a huge, complicated directory structure of real files. And while this makes sense to us, the HTACCESS model wouldn't be considered some kind of black hat scheme, would it? Thank you again for the help and looking forward to your thoughts!

                            White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | ClayPotCreative
                            0
                          • esiow2013

                            Does Google crawl and index dynamic pages?

                            I've linked a category page(static) to my homepage and linked a product page (dynamic page) to the category page. I tried to crawl my website using my homepage URL with the help of Screamingfrog while using Google Bot 2.1 as the user agent. Based on the results, it can crawl the product page which is a dynamic. Here's a sample product page which is a dynamic page(we're using product IDs instead of keyword-rich URLs for consistency):http://domain.com/AB1234567 Here's a sample category page: http://domain.com/city/area Here's my full question, does the spider result (from Screamingfrog) means Google will properly crawl and index the property pages though they are dynamic?

                            White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | esiow2013
                            0
                          • SDSLaw

                            Merging four sites into one... Best way to combine content?

                            First of all, thank you in advance for taking the time to look at this. The law firm I work for once took a "more is better" approach and had multiple websites, with keyword rich domains. We are a family law firm, but we have a specific site for "Arizona Child Custody" as one example. We have four sites. All four of our sites rank well, although I don't know why. Only one site is in my control, the other three are managed by FindLaw. I have no idea why the FindLaw sites do well, other than being in the FindLaw directory. They have terrible spammy page titles, and using Copyscape, I realize that most of the content that FindLaw provides for it's attorneys are "spun articles." So I have a major task and I don't know how to begin. First of all, since all four sites rank well for all of the desired phrases-- will combining all of that power into one site rocket us to stardom? The sites all rank very well now, even though they are all technically terrible. Literally. I would hope that if I redirect the child custody site (as one example) to the child custody overview page on the final merged site, we would still maintain our current SERP for "arizona child custody lawyer." I have strongly encouraged my boss to merge our sites for many reasons. One of those being that it's playing havoc with our local places. On the other hand, if I take down the child custody site, redirect it, and we lose that ranking, I might be out of a job. Finally, that brings me down to my last question. As I mentioned, the child custody site is "done" very poorly. Should I actually keep the spun content and redirect each and every page to a duplicate on our "final" domain, or should I redirect each page to a better article? This is the part that I fear the most. I am considering subdomains. Like, redirecting the child custody site to childcustody.ourdomain.com-- I know, for a fact, that will work flawlessly. I've done that many times for other clients that have multiple domains. However, we have seven areas of practice and we don't have 7 nice sites. So child custody would be the only legal practice area that has it's own subdomain. Also, I wouldn't really be doing anything then, would I? We all know 301 redirects work. What I want is to harness all of this individual power to one mega-site. Between the four sites, I have 800 pages of content. I need to formulate a plan of action now, and then begin acting on it. I don't want to make the decision alone. Anybody care to chime in? Thank you in advance for your help. I really appreciate the time it took you to read this.

                            White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | SDSLaw
                            0
                          • dean1986

                            Negative SEO - Case Studies Prove Results. De-rank your competitors

                            Reading these two articles made me feel sick. People are actually offering a service to de-rank a website. I could have swore I heard Matt Cutts say this was not possible, well the results are in. This really opens up a whole new can of worms for google. http://trafficplanet.com/topic/2369-case-study-negative-seo-results/ http://trafficplanet.com/topic/2372-successful-negative-seo-case-study/ This is only going to get worse as news like this will spread like wildfire. In one sense, its good these people have done this to prove it to google its just a pity they did it on real business's that rely on traffic.

                            White Hat / Black Hat SEO | | dean1986
                            0

                          Get started with Moz Pro!

                          Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                          Start my free trial
                          Products
                          • Moz Pro
                          • Moz Local
                          • Moz API
                          • Moz Data
                          • STAT
                          • Product Updates
                          Moz Solutions
                          • SMB Solutions
                          • Agency Solutions
                          • Enterprise Solutions
                          Free SEO Tools
                          • Domain Authority Checker
                          • Link Explorer
                          • Keyword Explorer
                          • Competitive Research
                          • Brand Authority Checker
                          • MozBar Extension
                          • MozCast
                          Resources
                          • Blog
                          • SEO Learning Center
                          • Help Hub
                          • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                          • How-to Guides
                          • Moz Academy
                          • API Docs
                          About Moz
                          • About
                          • Team
                          • Careers
                          • Contact
                          Why Moz
                          • Case Studies
                          • Testimonials
                          Get Involved
                          • Become an Affiliate
                          • MozCon
                          • Webinars
                          • Practical Marketer Series
                          • MozPod
                          Connect with us

                          Contact the Help team

                          Join our newsletter
                          Moz logo
                          © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                          • Accessibility
                          • Terms of Use
                          • Privacy

                          Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.