Brand Name Pulling Into Search Results Incorrectly
-
Hi Moz Community!
I have a client, Acme Stove Co., whose branded search results are pulling in the wrong name. A Google search for "Acme Stove Co" returns pages with the title "Acme Stove & Video." Really not sure where this "& Video" part is pulling from - there is no mention of videos on the pages that are ranking with these terms, and Google is definitely using a title tag other than the one that we have worked to optimize. It appears to be happening on the homepage and our store location pages. Screen shot of search results is attached.
The company definitely does not offer any sort of video services whatsoever, so we're really stumped as to where this may be coming from.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated!!
-
My gut feeling is that Google is doing the same thing to the BBB entry (re-writing, that is) and not that BBB is the cause, but it's a little hard to separate.
-
Thank you, everyone, SO much for your responses! We did see that BBB listing and were able to contact them and have the name of the business changed to the correct one. We will definitely try the Meta NOODP tag and re-work the homepage title tag and meta description and see if that helps. The weirdest part is that this just started happening recently - our search results didn't used to look like that.
We'll keep working on it. Thank you again, everybody!
-
I saw the BBB and noticed it does mention it but couldn't figure if it was any real cause -
-
It's definitely odd. I am seeing some evidence of bad data in DMOZ:
http://www.dmoz.org/search?q=acme+stove
...so I'd definitely try Meta NOODP (). Sometimes, it can shake that stuff loose.
What's weird, though, is that Google is crossing that same bad title into your listing on other sites. For example running an exact match search for ("acme stove & video") and Google is putting that title on the BBB listings, even though it doesn't appear on those pages either. It is possibly that it's bleeding over from a bad local listing or something in the Knowledge Base, but that won't usually impact title tag rewrites.
Your home-page title tag is a bit keyword-heavy, which doesn't help. It's basically:
"Product Location | Product & Product Location"
...and doesn't even mention your brand. Unfortunately, that reads a little spammy, and that makes Google more inclined to do a rewrite. I'd personally tone it down a bit and get the brand in there.
-
Don't know if this helps or not. Acme Video Fireplaces & Stove is/was a real place and was located in Harrisburg, VA.
Sometimes Google will rewrite or add the brand to your url and in this case, it changed your title tag w/this brand. How to fix it? I'm guessing you will need to increase your use of brand signals until Google catches on.
-
Very Strange indeed META NOODP tag? It can help if Google decided it likes DMOZ more though you don't seem to have a link but its handy. You can also implement some Rich snippets - https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/99170?hl=en to help Google know e.g the name of your site etc.
Hope that helps sorry i couldn't get to the bottom though another clever person here might be able to.
Good luck
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
-
My Company Doesn't Appear in the Search Results on the Right When I Search for It
Hello, I just found that one of my companies (iFix Appliances) doesn't show on the right in search results when I search for it. I found it accidentally, I just wanted to check if it shows Request a Quote button as recently I enabled messaging on GMB. Yet it's not there at all. Could you please help me figure out what happened and why it's not there? Is something wrong with its GMB listing? I have two locations so I created 2 GMB listings for one company. Is this something that might have caused the issue?
Local Listings | | VELV1 -
Google Local Changes Randomly & Our Site Keeps Dropping Off Search
I work for a university where we have 2 law schools. We have our one school on the other side of the state that has been around for a very long time, and then a newer school that is right on our main campus that has been around for about 5 - 10 years now. The newer of the 2 schools is having so much trouble being able to claim the name of the school in google search. If you type in the name of the school the other school (the one that has been around longer) was coming up in the google local on the right of the screen and their web URL was never showing up in search. This is a huge problem because the accreditations of the 2 schools are different, and students are showing up at the wrong school for their interviews. Search will only show a domain name that used to be owned by the older school but now gives information for both of the schools. So it'll show up in search results, but only under that other domain and not their own domain that has their name in the domain name. This school has an updated google mybusiness listing, and a google+ page with the correct listing. I've added some schema data around the business address on their site and JSON for the google+ page, and have re-indexed their sitemap a few times after some changes have been made and we are using their name more in the site. This fixed everything for a short while and we were getting the appropriate google local listing and their site was appearing in search results above the site that advertised both schools. Now, after about 3 months, it has reverted. I had the older school showing up in the google local, and the site that advertises both schools is the ONLY domain appearing. I've re-indexed the site after finding out that Drupal's timestamps that they automatically add to sitemaps aren't optimized for how google reads it. This has gotten the local listing back, but I still have the wrong domain appearing, it is the one advertises both schools instead of the domain that has this school's information. I don't mind that the one advertising both shows up, but if a user is searching for that particular school I would really like to get that domain to appear first above the one advertising both schools and the older school. Right now the new school isn't even in search results except for being under the site that advertises both. I wasn't sure if this was something that Moz Local could help me fix by adding the listing across the web, or if there is something else on the sites I can be doing to help them solidify their name in google search/local. Also - is this subdomain that is advertising both of them hurting them or help them? I was thinking about taking that domain down to one page that acts as a direction source to the 2 domains rather than having a ton of information and keywords that take over the results for their name since that domain is older (and used to be associated with the old school only before the new school was built) Thank you for any advice on this issue as I'm still pretty new to SEO and to the university. Thanks again!
Local Listings | | amaray4030 -
Google My Business - two locations but same name and phone
Hello, I manage SEO for an orthopaedic practice and I'm wondering what to do about their GMB listings. They have two locations, but I'm starting to think we shouldn't have separate GMB pages for the two locations because of the advice about other GMB questions I've been reading on this forum. I read a helpful response that said you must ensure the following if you want to create separate GMB listings: Unique name Unique address (even if only a suite / office number) Unique phone number Clearly different categories on Google My Business I can only ensure one of those - unique address. The business has the same name, phone number, and categories at both addresses. What should I do about this? I would think it's important to list both addresses so that patients can be guided to the appropriate location, but is there a way to do that with just one GMB listing? Thank you, Susannah
Local Listings | | SusannahK.Noel0 -
How to perform a search as though you are in a local city
Hi community. So I live in Dubai but have a lot of clients in the UK that want local SEO. Does anyone have any tips on performing search queries in Google that reflect a true search results page as though that search was being performed in a chosen UK city? say if I wanted to see the SERPs for "hairdressers" in the city of Bristol in the UK, at the moment I get a pretty vague UK SERP from With lots of Dubai based adverts et. Any tips would be great, thanks
Local Listings | | SeoSheikh0 -
Help with Google+ business name rules
I'm marketing a franchise gym business that has multiple locations within the same city. For the business name, I used to have it set as "Business Name" + City + Tagline. For example: "Ultimate Workout South Calgary Gym and Bootcamps". and "Ultimate Workout North Calgary Gym and Bootcamps". To comply with the google business naming rules I've updated all the listing to just business name. The problem is, now the local search results for my gym locations are confusing. Half the address is cut off in the results, the city is not displayed at all. And sometimes results from a neighbouring city are shown. Anyone have an idea on how to implement a strategy where people at a quick glance understand which location is best for them?
Local Listings | | John-Ray0 -
Not all business locations showing for a brand search
I've got a client with multiple business locations however when I type the company name into Google it's only displaying 2/3 of the branches in the local pack for that SERP. The client's picked up on this and would like the third location to appear in the local pack when people search for their company name. I have a suspicion that it's because the third location (the one that isn't displaying) has an address that's exactly the same as several other businesses that are located in offices directly above or to the side of them. My (very flakey) theory is that Google is perhaps uncertain about the exact location of this business given that there are several others with the same address but different business names, so the NAP consistency is being diluted and Google is simply leaving them out of the local pack due to the uncertainty over which business is in fact located at 2 West Street. So my question is, has anyone else had any issues of not all business locations showing in the local pack for a brand name query and if so how did you solve it?
Local Listings | | PeteW0 -
Local Citations Name
Hi Everyone, I am creating local citations for a company, let's call it "Gray Marketing". That is their legal business name and has been this way for about 23 years. Recently (over the past year) they have been going by the name "Gray Marketing and SEO". They had a new logo made that appears on their companies website and location. When creating local citations. The four primary aggregators (Axicom, Localeze, Infogroup, Factual) have the legal business name. My question is, should I change it to the new name or leave it as the legal business name? Side note: I am not able to change the legal business name on Axicom. Any advise would be awesome, thanks. -Michael
Local Listings | | Mike.NW0 -
Local SEO Brand Name Question
I have a franchisee client where the standard practice is to list their brand name as (ex: "[Brand] of San Diego, CA") on their website. I don't think that's the legal business name of the company, just how corporate chooses to organize the franchisees. The client often uses this name in the offline world so it seems to fall within Google's guidelines for creating a listing on Google My Business. https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en&ref_topic=4540086 I've heard conflicting answers from Google Places reps on whether to use brand + location or just brand. I've also seen articles that state if your business name is greater than 40 characters it can often be shortened if directories choose to pull your business data from a different source and that would make the listing name inconsistent. I'd like the added benefit of keeping the location in but I know large franchises like Subway don't bother adding location though. Anyone have any experience with this?
Local Listings | | GSO0