Unusual Google+ Local listing ranking well
-
If you search for locksmith Phoenix, this Google+ page is ranked #3 in the local results: https://plus.google.com/117543374216451236579/about?hl=en
The phone number is a VOIP number, they don't appear to have many/any citations, no reviews, etc. They've listed the Yelp search results page as their website. Strange.
How are they ranking so well? Is Google ranking them well because it's associating them with Yelp.com?
Any thoughts?
-
Meant to say it's def Yelp that's boosting the rankings.
I've investigated and reported lots of cases of using high authority directory pages to help fake spam pages rank.
For a long time an atty ranked in 2 spots in the 7 pack for Los Angeles Personal Injury Attorney. One of the most competitive local phrases out there. One listing linked to the Lawyers.com search page for "Los Angeles Personal Injury Attorney" the other one linked to the Avvo.com search page for "Los Angeles Personal Injury Attorney".
Think about it. All those pages are filled with local NAPs and local keywords. +++ High authority.
BTW this is now against the GMB guidelines since I made a big case out of the LA atty and some other cases. But of course some are still getting away with it.
-
Associating with Yelp is my first thought too, but it seems unlikely.
If I had to guess, maybe a competitor or disgruntled employee destroyed an existed listing that had strength a ranked well? If that's the case, this listing should drop off soon.
-
I think there is a locksmith spam ring doing this.
I've helped a couple locksmiths in the Google forum with the exact same problem and all these spammy locksmiths are linking to Yelp category pages.
In 2 cases they were linking directly to a Yelp page of the locksmith that was reporting them.
I'll add this example to the ones I've escalated to Google management.
-
Very strange. That Yelp page is simply a listing of locksmiths in Phoenix. This company is not listed in the top ten.
No address other than "Phoenix, AZ" listed for this company. You can search for the exact company name and not find them.
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
-
Local Seo for Two Offices?
What is the best way to go about doing local seo for two offices? Everything I can research on local seo provides awesome information...if you have one office, but we have two: one is in downtown Tampa and the other in a northern suburb. Anyone have experience with this that they'd like to share? I'd appreciate it. Happy Friday! Ruben
Image & Video Optimization | | KempRugeLawGroup1 -
Once you start fixing Local citations with correct NAP, is it normal for your rankings to plunge at first?
I strongly believe that I have received the most solid Local advice I could from these forums and have started (in just a few days) to make the needed corrections. At the same time I'm somewhat excited and optimistic that it will be a long journey but that it's a learning process. About 5 days ago, I set my website up with "City landing pages" and I started plundering through google, fixing and claiming and correcting as many citations as I could with correct NAP. The journey still continues today as I just got my Bing Local card in the mail and verified. I went to check my rankings on Google Maps, just to see if anything had changed and sure enough it had. My listing had been holding strong at page 10 (which drives me nuts) and now after 5 days of solid work its on page 18. I have to assume that because I'm stirring the dust perhaps Google is confused and maybe in a month or so things might start moving the other way? Thoughts?
Image & Video Optimization | | jonnyholt0 -
Google Places ranking not making sense
With regard to the proximity to the city centre if you google 'chartered accountants swansea' you will see that the 2nd google places listing 'drpaccountants' are located way out of the city centre and they have no photos, reviews etc Where as on my listing it has a 100% completed profile but am way down the results, when many of the top places results are very basic http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=chartered%2Baccountant%2Bswansea&source=web&cd=6&ved=0CGIQFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.harrisbassett.co.uk%2F&ei=sp-mTraQEoiz8QPBqMzVDw&usg=AFQjCNG1C-xsNxgM6vWj1geoxv_u4KbD0g What else needs to be done apart from getting reviews? I have added lots of local citations to the likes of Yelp, Qype, Hotfrog etc but none are showing under the listing on google places? Also is there a reason why the description field is not being populated in the google places account? As from some of the other top places listings it seems to be picking this up from their website? The other issue is under the dashboard it displays 0 impressions and 0 actions is this normal? What is my places listing missing or have I done everything I possibly can and just have to wait for Google to re-rank the places results? I
Image & Video Optimization | | idv0 -
Local SEO - our company is in 2 very different locations
Hi, Our company nlpca.com is in 2 locations. It's doing really well in San Francisco, California But we've opened a 2nd location in Salt Lake City, Utah The problem is that our site is all about San Francisco, California. Utah is just as important as San Francisco to us and we need to start tailoring to both. People from Utah say they are confused because our site is so tailored to California. Even our domain name is the keyword "NLP" combined with the state initial "CA" for California. A new domain is not an option. One thing we are thinking of doing is changing our header to say "The NLP and Coaching Institute and the NLP Institute of California". It would say both of our company names and hopefully the first would catch the Utah people. But I don't think it's just our banner. Can you take a look at our site and tell us how to tailor to both locations and keep our current working optimization for San Francisco, California? Thanks!
Image & Video Optimization | | BobGW0 -
Is a listing in this directory really worth $365/year??
Recently i noticed one of our competitors is getting a citation out of a directory called Refer Links. I contacted them to find out their pricing, and to be listed in that directory it is $365/year. I noticed that all the links to the websites are cloaked with php redirects and rel=nofollows' so i doubt it would do much for our page rank, so strictly from a citation standpoint, is this worth it? Here is our competitors listing: http://www.referlinks.com/listing/all-canadian-self-storage-inc--mobile-self-storage.html
Image & Video Optimization | | adriandg1 -
Google Places - Under Review
Working with a new company. In the Google places listing they have two listings...obvious duplications created under the same account. Both show as "Under Review" and have been for months. SHould I try and delete one listing (tried...has not worked so far), delete both and start over? This is one of several franchises in the same area with similar names and similar issues, as well as older companies that bought the franchise and still show in Google Places with old phone number and address. Any help appreciated.
Image & Video Optimization | | AgileInt0 -
No option to claim listing in Google Places: country-wide issue
Hi, All! We were trying to advise a client about local SEO, and we ran into the issue of - their Google Places pages (yes, they have several, that's a separate issue) are "unclaimable." Meaning - up at the top of the page there is neither a "Edit this page - Business Owner?" heading or a "Edit this listing - Owner-verified listing" heading. When you try to claim it independently using the phone number (all pages have the same phone number, but different addresses), Google gives you "No address found for this phone number" and the option to now add a new page, which is not quite what we're looking for. This is an Israeli location, and this appears to be an issue with a few other random Israeli pages I checked (I saw pages with neither heading option). But a number of the Israeli pages have "Owner-verified listing." How did they get it? Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks! Regards, Aviva
Image & Video Optimization | | debi_zyx0 -
One business location and several local business listings
Hi, I'm working for an apartment rental agency.The agency is based in one country/city and naturally the Google Places listing is shown when people search "apartments + location", but what to do when we expand abroad? Naturally we want to have a Local Business listing for "apartments + location 2" as well. Is it sufficient to have a "local office"? I see competitors have urls: www.domain/paris and www.domain/london that are listed in local search when searching " apartments + paris" and "apartments + london". Basically, the same site, different locations. I'm wondering if the solution is that simple?
Image & Video Optimization | | vibelingo0