Google My Business - Switching from Local to National Presence

[Andrew_In_Search_of_Answers]

Hi,

Before I started with my current employer (a national B2B company), someone set them up with a Google My Business page that has resulted in the home office appearing as a local search result.

As a result, our competitors have a much more professional national Knowledge Graph sidebar complete with logo, Wikipedia blurb, social links, etc. displayed while we have a local result with reviews, images, and Google Map location.

Since we are a B2B business with a national presence, I am trying to transition from the local to broader company Knowledge Graph result, but I'm struggling to find information on the best steps to remove the local result.

While the reviews are improving, this is a service-based business with a B2C element when it comes to end users, so historical reviews have been unkind -- to the point that I'd like to make the transition to a national presence not only to better reflect the entire region we serve, but also to remove as much review visibility as possible.

The only option in Google My Business I've seen so far is to report the business as being closed, which, of course, it is not. I know a big Step 1 is to get a new Wikipedia page for the business created. (The company is legitimately deserving of one. I'm still trying to find the most effective approach to tackling this without violating Wikipedia policies. )

Outside of that step, however, is there any sort of process someone can recommend for tackling this local-to-nation Google transition?

Thanks,

Andrew

[sarahwalsh]

you need to update your business citations (NAP) an the nap information on your website and your Google my business account. We are in the process of changing the address for our garden room company, from bristol to bath.

[MiriamEllis]

Good, Andrew. A rep named Mike told me they'd be on the lookout for your tweet to them. Hope you hear back, and you're very welcome.

[Andrew_In_Search_of_Answers]

Hi Miriam,

Thank you very much for doing that. I have reached out via Twitter. I haven't heard anything back, but I will keep you posted on any insight I gain.

Thanks,

Andrew

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Andrew,

Okay, so I rec'd this response back from a GMB rep on Twitter:

I'm happy to help. First, send a private message and include your listing and account details. https://goo.gl/lDYjYK  -Mike

<iframe id="xdm_default9191_provider" src="https://twitter.com/i/cards/tfw/v1/865177259983994880?cardname=2586390716%3Amessage_me&autoplay_disabled=true&forward=true&earned=true&lang=en&user_color=rgb(0%2C 132%2C 180)&card_height=35&scribe_context={"client"%3A"web"%2C"page"%3A"connect"%2C"section"%3A"connect"%2C"component"%3A"tweet"}#xdm_e=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com&xdm_c=default9191&xdm_p=1" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" width="100%" height="34"></iframe>I wrote back, let them know I was asking on behalf of a Moz Q&A forum member, that your name is Andrew and that I'd pass the message along to you. So, my advice here is to reach out on Twitter today and let them know you're the member on whose behalf Miriam Ellis reached out. I'm hoping you can at least have a near real-time conversation with them.Here's a link to the interaction I had: https://twitter.com/GoogleMyBiz/status/865177259983994880My gut feeling on this is that there may not be much they or you can do, but it's worth checking out. It would be great if you'd come back and let us know how it went, Andrew. Good luck!

[Andrew_In_Search_of_Answers]

Hi Miriam,

Thank you very much for reaching out on my behalf. I also appreciate the link, which confirms that Wikipedia and structured data are the best Hail Mary's I have right now.

A review acquisition campaign is probably my next stop, but I wanted to make sure I exhausted all options for obtaining a Knowledge Graph listing first.

Thanks again for the help and I welcome any insight anyone else in the Moz community might be able to offer.

Andrew

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Andrew,

Helpful details! I understand your situation well now, and I can see why this is problematic. I've just tweeted GMB support, because I'm honestly concerned you may be stuck here, unless they have a tip I've not encountered before. The problem is, were you to attempt to get rid of the GMB listing, it might well end up being marked "permanently closed" which is definitely not the signal you want to send to your B2B partners. We'll see what support says - they're typically pretty great, but I'm not sure there's a foolproof solution here. Your situation isn't unheard-of, for sure. See: https://www.en.advertisercommunity.com/t5/Enhance-Your-Presence/How-to-replace-Google-Local-listing-with-Knowledge-Graph/td-p/496345

In the meantime, as you've got the GMB listing currently representing your brand to the public, I'd say the most important thing you could do would be to ensure you've got a strong review acquisition campaign going so that you can encourage better sentiment to appear that better reflects the current status of your operations. In the local business world, a whopping 73% of consumers don't consider reviews older than 3 months to be relevant, according to BrightLocal (https://www.brightlocal.com/learn/local-consumer-review-survey/). So, I would expend a great deal of effort over the next year to push down those older negative reviews with newer positive ones.

I'll definitely return to this thread if I hear back from Google's Twitter support. And, if anyone in the community has dealt with this situation before, please chime in!

[Andrew_In_Search_of_Answers]

Thank you very much! I had structured data on my list as a best practice, but didn't have it in mind for helping with this particular problem. I'll definitely implement it with improving our Knowledge Graph result in mind.

[Andrew_In_Search_of_Answers]

Hi Miriam,

The only true office that we have is the headquarters, but we do business all across the nation and a lot of our employees work remotely. While we do rarely meet with clients here, we're usually visiting their HQs when conducting business. I bring that up just so you know it's going to be rare that someone wants/needs directions to our office, so the Google Maps listing isn't vital.

We do have a customer service location where calls come in that is located in another state (but is in the U.S.). That's again not an address a customer would need to know for visiting purposes, and we don't maintain a Google My Business page for that.

I'm located in the HQ, but I've changed my Google settings manually to mimic other locations. Even when I use https://www.google.co.uk/ in Incognito and ensure that at the bottom of the results page my location is listed as Unknown, I'm still seeing the local Knowledge Graph for the company. I also had a colleague a few states away from the HQ pull up Incognito, and she sees the local result in the SERP sidebar as well.

Regarding your question about bad reviews, I mentioned that our call center is based in the U.S. That's a change from the previous call center location and organization. The "foundation" of the negative reviews stem from service issues we've addressed with the call center relocation and operational changes.

With recent reviews, as I mentioned we are a service-related company, so we do still get negative reviews. But they're mixed in with positive reviews as well. The issue I feel is that because we're starting so far "in the hole" and receiving mixed reviews, the reviews are more reflective of past company performance and skew negative. We've essentially plateaued in terms of star ratings, but not where I'd accept that happening.

Overall, I want our Knowledge Graph to properly reflect the company as it is now and not as it was when someone set up the Google My Business originally.

I hope that helps. Thank you for looking at this and any thoughts you might have.

Andrew

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Andrew,

May I ask you some questions, please, to get a clearer picture of the business model?

You mention that your company is a national B2B business. Does this mean you have multiple physical locations to which your business associates come for transactions, or do you only have a single home office to which they come?

If you've got multiple locations, do the others have Google My Business listings, or only the home office?

When you are performing searches to see whether a local knowledge panel or general knowledge panel result is coming up for the business, are you physically located in the same town as the business headquarters?

Can you further clarify why you feel bad reviews are built into the situation? What has caused this to be so?

Thanks!

[jacquelinesg]

Try optimizing your website with structured data. Here's the info from Google,

- https://developers.google.com/search/docs/guides/enhance-site

There are specific pages for corporate contacts, social links, etc.

Good luck!