Google Local Listing Visibility for Regional Queries
-
I manage a variety of small local programs that are located in areas that are more known by the region than they are by the town (the Adirondacks and the Catskills to be specific). In the past, the local algorithm understood that when the query was related to the region, it would show a variety of results from that region. It seems that for the Catskills they have changed the algorithm to pinpoint the center of the region and only show results that are in the near vacinity of that pinpoint, rather than a variety of results from the region. The Adirondacks however is still showing a variety of results. For those of you not familiar, the Adirondack are 9,375 square miles and the Catskills are 5,892 square miles and are both very rural mountain regions and popular travel destinations.
Google clearly understands that these regions are geographically oriented and shows a local pack for relevant results such as "Catskills Resorts" or "Catskills Restaurants", but over the past few weeks, they have started only showing 2 results for the query Catskills resorts, both located near Shandaken, NY becasue that is where Google has deemed the marker for the Catskills is (https://www.google.com/maps/place/Catskill+Mountains/@42.009289,-74.3996212,14z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x89dc665668f82f31:0x3b012376423b8efa!8m2!3d42.0092908!4d-74.3821116) In reality, there are hundreds of resorts within the Catskills. (Note there is a Catskill, NY within the Catskills, however Google is not even confusing this town with the region).
Does anyone have ideas on how to get Google to understand that the Catskills are more than Shandaken, NY? I feel like we suddenly have no hope of ranking locally and most of the businesses I manage are located in very small towns that people are not specifically searching for.
-
You're welcome!
-
Miriam,
Thanks for your response. I was afraid this was going to be the situation but figured it wouldn't hurt to put the question out there. I can't say I like it, but then again, I have a love-hate with Google at this point in my career! I will continue to monitor and hope for the best.
-
Hi There!
Good topic, and I'm sorry to have to say that, no, you can't directly tell Google that their radius is too small. You've done a good job of documenting what sounds like an interesting and recent shrinking of the radius, but when Google decides to do something like that, it's because they've determined it's "best", or are doing some kind of test.
Important to mention here that local search is traditionally city-specific. I can imagine it's frustrating if your clients were formerly enjoying local rankings for a regional search and, as a result of this change, they no longer are. Basically, they are now in the same boat as most local businesses ... having to compete locally for searches related to their physical location in a specific town/city.
My advice would be to go hard after the organic rankings for these terms, and continue to monitor Google. The radius could change again at some point.
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 penalty?
Hi Moz Community We are in a unique position. We just launched a new site for a client. The site was doing fine before but it wasn't very user friendly. We created a site with almost identical architecture and content as the last one, just new design and layout. Within 5 days, the site dropped off of LOCAL search almost completely, it now ranks on the 9th page in Austin Texas. (reliantplumbingdotcom). Every other location (Dallas, LA, Philadelphia, Houston) all show the site on the first page for relevant keywords (Austin Plumbers, Austin Plumber) I have no idea what to think about this and don't know if we're being penalized somehow (checked GSC and no manual penalty) I have never experienced a site being blacklisted locally but well ranked everywhere else. Thoughts?
Local Listings | | GrueBleenAgency1 -
How best to delete a duplicate Google My Business listing
Hi Mozzers, I am in need of help please. What is the best way to remove a duplicate GMB listing? Is best practice to a) Mark as permanently closed and wait for Google to update b) Call GMB in India and ask them to delete the redundant listing (do they even do this for you?) c) Delete the page from within my dashboard settings I am worried my NAP data is being diluted by inaccurate historical listings (most of which I have been able to claim ownership of) Any help appreciated. Ben
Local Listings | | Bendall0 -
Local Business Registered at not a real Address
Hi, I am working on local SEO for a client of mine and was interested to hear what will be recommended in this case: My client registered his business in a NYC address, for his own business needs. Can I use this address as a second location for the business? There is a secretary taking care of ALL the businesses listed there, but is not a location that services customers. We don't service customers on site at any location because it's a pickup business to begin with, but we do have a fully functional office in NJ Please don't dismiss this right away, it was registered in NYC and not in NJ and all our information on the web cites this address over our NJ one (obviously i'm working on promoting our NJ one, but that's nowhere to be found on the web).
Local Listings | | Rachel_J0 -
Does Google Penalize for Hiding Address?
I have a situation where a client is working out of their home. I know that Google does not like when you list a business with a home address so we have hidden the address on Google, but are wondering if Google penalizes businesses for hiding it? When listing them to other directories we do our best to find ones that we can hide the first line of the address. But does that matter? Should we just be listing to our normal directories with the address visible? Does a mix of hidden addresses and visible ones hurt your rankings? Thanks in advance for your help!
Local Listings | | JohnWeb120 -
What would Cause listing to fall off local search map spot?
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?
Local Listings | | scott3150 -
How to do Local SEO for few cities in US while client is in Canada
Hi, How i can do the local SEO for few cities of US however client is Canada based. Client want to promote his business in US ( specific cities). Kindly suggest how it will be posible as client do not have address in US. Cheers!!
Local Listings | | 1akal0 -
Google Places for Business Image URL Suggestions
Hi All, Currently am grandfathered on the old Bulk Upload version of Google Places for Business. I am being told that the ability to upload images using their upload tool will not be available any longer. Therefore, I am being forced to house the images for each of my 900+ locations on an outside server and then reference the web url location for each image for each location. I can handle creating the spreadsheet for this, but my question is, does anyone know of a good place to store images in folders that will create clean urls? Example, I have location 1. I have a folder on my hard drive called location 1 that has 10 unique image .jpg files in that folder. I want to be able to upload that folder to an image host/server and have the url come out something like, www.example.com/pics/location1/image1.jpg I have tried multiple online storage options so far, such as dropbox, shutterfly, and some one offs, but have not found anything that can do what I need. I don't have the ability to buy a new hosting account with FTP to create my own image storage library, so must be a free solution. Greatly appreciate any help anyone can offer
Local Listings | | dsinger0 -
Google+ Pages and the old places listing dashboard
I'm wondering if anyone can help me... I'm trying to set up Google+ and Google Local pages for some of our clients. For the newer clients this is easy as all their accounts are using the new Google Places dashboard which allows you to create the Local Listing and then the partnering Google+ page. Simples. Example: https://plus.google.com/+twistfix/ (A verified Google Local listing, with a verified Google+ page for the company) The problem I'm having is some of our older clients already had a Google Places listing from years ago, but this is on the old Google Dashboard (doesn't allow me to create a partnering Google+ page for the business). What is the best way around this? Do I delete these old listings and start fresh using the new Google dashboard (creating the local listing and Google+ page together?) or is there another fix?
Local Listings | | bricktech0