What would Cause listing to fall off local search map spot?

[scott315]

Any reason a listing that was showing in Google between the 3 and 5 spot on local map search would suddenly disappear all together from the map position for a specific keyword?

[scott315]

Yes very weird, it came back even improved a spot or two a couple of time and now has been missing for a little while. Not used to seeing something always in the number 4 spot completely dis sapper.

Only thing that I have done is straightened out his directories with Moz Local which should help but YP still has a tracking number on his listing which they always did and claim that they have a way for Google to read the real number on the backend but show the public the tracking.

Not sure I believe that. Even went as far to have his YP call me when I was trying to get him to have them put it back to his real number. Don't think this would cause this though.

This is just for keyword Dentist St Louis... He still shows good for Cosmetic Dentist St Louis and Emergency Dentist St Louis

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Scott,

Losing rankings in this manner tends to stem from 1 of 3 things:

1. An algo change on Google's part

2. Being surpassed by more active competitors

3. A mistake on the business owner's part with negative consequences

I recommend that you start troubleshooting here:

http://moz.com/blog/troubleshooting-local-ranking-failures

That should help to rule out any obvious mistakes. Other issues to investigate right now might be whether your competitors have ramped up their game plan and also, if you are in the entertainment industries, researching how the recent removal of the Carousel has altered the SERPs would be important.

Hope this is a good start for you. So sorry to hear you lost your rankings. I know how stressful this can be.