Clients are not showing up on Google Places (Maps)
-
Dear Esteemed Mozzers,
I am having trouble with a few clients not showing up on the map for Google Maps (Places).
What's interesting is that for one of my clients, a number of her competitors (some of them in the same office building) appear on the maps, however, my client does not. Nevertheless, this client is on G+, uses Yext, Yelp advertising, PPC with Google, etc. and as far as I'm concerned, has signed up for every other 'local' listing service of value.
With that, I'm hoping you guys may be able to point me in the right direction to get my clients back on track and showing up on the Google Maps (Places) listings. Thank you all in advance for reading this, I look forward to your responses!
-
I just want to add, in case you haven't seen it, the latest local search ranking factors. I'd pay close attention to the top 30 difference-making factors in competitive markets when you're going through your audit.
-
Hi J.P.,
You are correct that city centroids were once considered a strong ranking factor. This was then edged out by the concept of industry centroids, but this in turn has given way largely to the concept of user centroids. Recommend you read the history of the centroid here:
https://moz.com/blog/mastering-serving-the-user-as-centroid
My answer beyond this is in two parts:
-
To discover whether your client can move up in the local pack rankings you must a) audit her business and b) do competitive analysis to discover if any competitors can be surpassed. Your audit of your client's marketing should include an assessment of their website, citations, reviews and social engagement.
-
Whether this will lead to your client appearing in black text at a lower resolution of the map is not known. I have never seen a thorough study of how Google determines which locations show at the lowest resolutions there, so this would be something you'd want to be sure you weren't promising to the client. In our sample 'newport beach plastic surgeon' the only 2 businesses receiving this treatment at the automatic zoom level are those ranking top 2 in the maps pack, but whether this is the case for every such search, I honestly don't know. If you could get your client to be #1 or #2, perhaps this would lead to them replacing one of the 2 businesses in black text, but I am not 100% sure of that and would need to look at a larger data set to begin drawing such a conclusion. Interesting topic!
Of course, the ideal is always to get the client as high in the local pack rankings/maps pack rankings as possible, but the difficulty in achieving this relates directly to how tough/strong his unique competitors are and how much motivation/funding your client has to make efforts to move up. And, these days, it's really important to bring into the discussion the fact that your client's customers are not likely to see the same rankings that he does or that you do, given the user-as-centroid phenomenon. Sometimes, in a really competitive field, going after hyperlocal or long tail keywords may enable them to earn traffic that they simply can't get from the main searches because the field is already too crowded with strong competitors.
Hope these are helpful thoughts.
-
-
I also wanted to ask you if her appearance (or failure to appear) is related to geo-positioning, specifically the 'centroid'. As I recall, years ago, a business's appearance on the Map corresponded to its proximity to whatever Google determined to be the central point of the city. I don't know if this is still a factor in ranking on the Maps and more importantly, showing up as one of those listings that appears in black, when you look at the map without zooming in.
Beyond that, is there any other ways for a business to improve its positioning on both the maps listing and the top map results portion of the search results page for a given search term?
-
Miriam,
Is there any way for us to improve her position in the listings themselves, so Dr. Lawton appears closer to the number one result and objectively, starts to appear in the 'permanent' black text on the map?
-
Hi J.P.,
I confirm what Donna is seeing. Searching Google Maps, I see your client coming up when I search for 'newport beach plastic surgeon'. Both Donna and I are making a best guess at your search term, so if you're using a different search term, please share it. I'll gladly take another look, but for what I did look up, your client is coming up at position 8 in the Maps pack and if I click on that, is being clearly shown with the red teardrop marker.
Now, what isn't happening is that the client's name doesn't appear in the 'permanent' black text on the map, unlike Cruise Plastic Surgery and Milind K. Albe MD at the automatic resolution of the map - which may be what you are asking about. If you narrow in, however, it does. So, I don't believe there is anything to be concerned about here. Please, feel free to provide further details about the keywords you are searching for or anything else that might help us better understand any concerns you're feeling about the results. Happy to check it out with you!
-
Here's why I'm confused JP. As I said above, when I look at the maps tab, I DO see your clients listed. Dr. Lawson is listed as the 7th ranking entry on the map. (See attachment.) The Ranch at Laguna Beach ranks #1.
So I'm not seeing what you're seeing.
-
No Donna, I am specifically trying to get them on the map for their local area. For instance, when you look on the Maps tab, you see a number of the competitors (some of them in the same building) but for some reason Dr. Lawton does not show up. Any ideas as to why this may be?
-
You mean you want them to show up outside of the geography in which their business is located? For example, you want Dr. Lawton's business to show up in Huntington Beach or Irvine?
-
Donna,
I was much more concerned with where the client(s) (or is fail to) show up on the Maps page. Do you know if there's anything I can do about that?
-
Hi JP,
Dr. Tenley Lawton shows up as the 7th local search result when I search for "Plastic Surgeon Newport Beach CA". Because she's the 7th search result, you have to use the slider on the results window to scroll down to see her first-page listing.
The Ranch at Laguna Beach, CA shows up as my first local result when searching for "golf course Laguna Beach, CA".
So I'm not seeing what you're seeing. What search terms are you using? Where are you searching from?
-
Miriam,
Here are the links to my clients' G+ pages:
https://plus.google.com/+TenleyLawtonMDNewportBeach/posts
https://plus.google.com/116487475034550940260/posts
Let me know if there's anything else i can do to help.
-
Hi J.P.
As Dennis and Donna have suggested, sharing further details of this will help the community look further into your question. If you are unable to share the client's details, that perfectly fine, but it will limit the amount of support the community can give.
-
Maybe share the client's business name and G+ page so we can take a look at it. Perhaps, as Dennis suggests, the business page is not verified. Perhaps it's tied to an individual and not the business. Perhaps it's miscategorized.
-
Is their Google+ My Business page verified? Just to clarify it.
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
-
Business Split into 2 Businesses - Residential and Commercial Site - 2 different URLs and both have the same address! Can we create 2 separate Google My Business Accounts?
Business Split into 2 Businesses - Residential and Commercial Site - 2 different URLs and both have the same address! Can we create 2 separate Google My Business Accounts?
Local Listings | | 9thCO0 -
Had a local SEO client completely drop off in all rankings...?
Hey everyone! I wanted to ask the Moz community on what I should be on the lookout for in this situation; I have a local SEO client, an orthopedic clinic, who out of nowhere completely dropped off the map. Their Search Visibility is now at .001%. I really have no idea what would have caused this... I have dozens of other local SEO clients and have never seen this before.
Local Listings | | TaylorRHawkins2 -
2 Businesses, Same Location, Different Google My Business Accounts?
This is not my area of expertise, but I have a customer with a unique problem. They are primarily an agency that assists student-athletes nationwide with the college recruiting process. They also have a non-profit organization that runs soccer camps for local kids only. The soccer camp would of course benefit from having it's own GMB page, but they've been told by Google that they can't use the same address as their recruiting business. They are in the same office and moving/adding an office isn't an option at this time. Does anyone have any ideas on how to overcome this issue without risking penalty from Google? Should they change their business name to combine both and add categories for their non-profit? They're such disparate businesses that I'm reluctant to have them do this, but is that the best/only option? Thanks all!
Local Listings | | camarin_w1 -
Google+ Brand Account Separate from Google My Business
Hi everyone, I tried to create a Google+ account from a client's Google My Business, but found that 'Enable Google+' is no longer available on the sidebar of the GMB dashboard. I used this tutorial to do that before - http://onlineownership.com/create-google-page-connected-google-business-page/ An update on that article: Update: 31st October 2017
Local Listings | | nhhernandez
Google My Business has confirmed that enabling a G+ business page will no longer be available. Users will need to now create a G+ Brand page for their business on G+. My question is: If we create a separate G+ Brand page, are we still able to tie it up with GMB or are they going to be completely different platforms? On the dashboard for our older clients we have a list that goes like: Your Business is Live on Google View on Search View on Maps View on Google+ In light of this new change. Do we still really have to bother creating G+ brand pages? It seems like the newly launched Google Posts is more user-friendly and easier to update. The posts could be created on GMB and it's going to appear on searches within the local knowledge graph. Thoughts?1 -
Google Knowledge Graph Carousel
Hi - I am trying to get on the Google Knowledge Graph Carousel. I've set up G+, YouTube, Consistent NAP, local business schema, etc. but still have not been featured. Can you please help me figure out why I cannot get a carousel feature. Please help me determine what I am missing.
Local Listings | | mmmeans0 -
Google My Business Login
Is there a way to turn off the Google Security feature that kicks someone out after logging into the account because it isn't a trusted computer or in a different location?
Local Listings | | BlairKuhnen0 -
Creating a Google My Business listing in a used location
Hi! We're expanding our business and opening a new office. The location of that office is a shared office with another company, Will it be possible to verify the listing in Google My Business even tough there's a verified business there?
Local Listings | | OrendaLtd0 -
Map-pack results for multiple locations in the same city
We just started working with a local business with several offices across Virginia. All of their locations have G+ local pages, and all rank pretty well in map-pack results for their respective cities....except for one location. Two of their offices happen to be in the same city. One ranks well in the local pack, and the other one is totally buried. This is the only location that doesn't rank in the map-pack for its target local queries. This company still has a TON of work to do to clean-up their citations and improve their G+ local pages across all the locations, but I'm wondering if there are any best practices for handling two locations within the same city...we obviously want both offices to rank in the map-pack, and don't want to do anything that might hurt the one that is currently ranking well. I'm confident that generally cleaning up their profile across the board, and adding new citations for all locations would be beneficial, but would appreciate any suggestions or best practices for getting both locations in this one city to perform well. Thanks!
Local Listings | | djreich0