Not showing in Google map listing. Why?

[David-Kley]

We have a client who's law firm is the highest google reviewed, on page two or three of St. Louis personal injury lawyer, but does not show in the map listing. Any ideas why this would happen or how to ensure they are viewable in the map listing?

[Casey_Meraz]

Can you share the listing? I can provide some feedback with the NAP. Also, did it used to rank?

[AndrewUCAS]

Hi David,

In the past, I have done a lot of work with Hotels in this arena. Their market is super competitive and varies by country.

I found that various schema with geo coordinates/contact info and hasmap showing the Google Maps link, links to relevant local businesses/newspaper sites, uniform NAPU and localised content on the site saying, for example, what is available around the hotel with travel times and distances.

People search for hotels by location once they have refined their search to staying at a hotel over other accommodation options. This does vary in the UK however over the US. Google Map Listings in general are slightly different here in the UK.

I would have a read of some of the articles on DealerOn, there could be some gems in there for you:

http://www.dealeron.com/about-us/leadership-team/greg-gifford/

Also here is what Google says about prominence:

Prominence

Prominence refers to how well known a business is. Some places are more prominent in the offline world, and search results try to reflect this in local rankings. For example, famous museums, landmark hotels or well-known shop brands that are familiar to many people are also likely to be more prominent in local search results.

Prominence is also based on information that Google has about a business from across the web (such as links, articles and directories). Google review count and score are also factored into local search ranking – more reviews and positive ratings will improve a business's local ranking. Your position in web results is also a factor, so SEO best practices apply to local search optimisation.

There's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google. We do our best to keep the details of the search algorithm confidential to make the ranking system as fair as possible for everyone.

Is there anything in this specifically that could be improved, articles, reviews, basic overall SEO including schema mark up?

[David-Kley]

Looking for a more advanced answer.

We have Moz Local, Yext, and a TON of manual listings outside of those two. All match, all are accurate and have the same info displayed.

I am wanting to know what influences the Google map listings directly. It's strange because you will also see businesses that do not rank organically on page one in search but do show up in the maps pack. And sometimes the opposite. Sites that rank in the top 5 not showing in the maps pack.

[AndrewUCAS]

The basic premise is that Google needs to trust the information you supply in your Google My Business account. So here we are talking about the NAP(U) information - Name, Address, Phone Number and URL. So once you set up a GMB account Google goes to various sources online to check the validity of the information you have supplied (directories etc). So think uniformity of your NAP(U) information. Google needs to see that where ever your NAP(U) info is mentioned online that it is consistent, this therefore, builds trust in the information you supply.

Where issues can occur are with aggregator directories. Certain directories online spread your information to other directories, so if your information is inaccurate in one directory this could be spread to other places.

Have a read of Greg Difford's stuff online, he has a site called DealerOn. He is a guru on all things local, he speaks at events all over the world so there are some good videos out there.

Moz Local is good at getting all your NAP(U) details uniform online also BrightLocal are decent.

[GabeGibitz]

Signed up using Moz Local?

Is his address a st. Louis proper address or a suburb? That makes a difference.

Local SEO also pulls from various review sites. Not just google. May need more reviews there.

Local SEO is a fun one. Moz has some great resources, but I would sign him up for Moz Local pronto to see if that helps.

[Roveen]

Create a Google My Business account and have it verified (by postal mail)