Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Google listing only appears when I move / zoom in or out of the map
-
Hi everyone,
We are having an issue with this local business. The Google listing isn't immediately appearing on the map. You have to move the map or zoom in and out for the listing to appear. I find this really odd as our competitors - with no reviews and way further in proximity - are appearing with no issues.
The listing is only about 4km where I'm doing the search, while competitors with no reviews are about 20km away. We are ranking in the top 5 organically for the search term I used (pool renovations brisbane), but nowhere in local unless the map is moved. When the listing appears, sometimes the pin also looks grey instead of red, while others are red (if that makes sense).
On top of this, their organic rankings have also been on a downward trend since June. I'm currently doing a backlink audit to see if it's contributing to the issue. If anyone also has other ideas, could you please let me know? Thanks.
-
Hi Miriam,
Yes, these are very helpful! Thanks for the advice on doing a competitive audit. I will certainly do this for both clients!
-
Hi Nikki,
Searching for "pool renovations brisbane" from the US, I am seeing your business come up 12th in the local finder view. I see that Google is marking the city center of Brisbane roughly at the corner of Albert and Queen Streets and that the majority of the businesses in the local finder are clustered right around that nexus. However, I do also see some other businesses (including yours) are on the other side of the Brisbane River from this, including one that is farther away than yours (MPR) and is outranking you. From my location, I'm unable to reproduce the filtering activity you are experiencing, but clearly, you're seeing it happen.
Scenarios like this generally require doing a full competitive audit. I would actually recommend that you do two of them, in this case. I would look at the top ranking business, and I would also pay special attention to Wahoo Pool, which is also far from the other businesses, but has earned many more reviews and is managing to rank #3, at least in my results. This article contains a spreadsheet for doing this type of audit, though you may want to look at even more signals than it covers: https://moz.com/blog/basic-local-competitive-audit
I'd stack up my client's numbers against both the top ranked business and this other competitor to see if you can find where they are pulling superior numbers. Like your client in the legal business, it may well just be a case where you'll have to out-do competitors to convince Google that this business is the one that deserves to rank. And, of course, you'll be wanting to resolve any issues the audit turns up for the business.Typically, audits yield insight, but if your audit turns up no clear narrative that could explain why the client isn't showing up at the automatic zoom level, you are left with:
-
Something you are overlooking
-
A bug or weird behavior on Google's part that could resolve
Hope these thoughts are helpful.
-
-
Hi Miriam,
Thank you for your response and sorry for the delay in responding!
1 - No, there are no other businesses in the same category located at this address. I have seen instances where Google filtered out same category businesses in the same building - one of our clients is actually experiencing this! They are lawyers that share the same office as 3 other lawyers and our advice was to try and have the best ranking power out of the listings they're competing against.
2 - Camp Hill is a suburb in the city of Brisbane. Customers usually use the term "pool builders brisbane" or "pool renovations brisbane" when looking for local pool service providers. We want to rank highly for these terms and also appear in the local maps for these terms, but we are getting filtered out for some reason. I understand that results vary also on proximity of the searcher, however, where I'm searching from (Brisbane's central business district), the business doesn't appear readily on maps. The business is only about 4km away from where I'm searching from, but competitors that are as far as 19km away appear on maps with no issues.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks Miriam!
-
Hi Nikki!
I'm so sorry you haven't received a response yet to your good question. Often, that zooming behavior you're reporting is a sign that Google is filtering out the listing. First question from me. Are there any other businesses in the same category of business located in your building or within the surrounding couple of streets? Please, let me know the answer to that.
Also, is the search term you're asking about specifically "pool renovations brisbane"? I see your business as being listed in Camp Hill Queensland. What is the relationship of Camp Hill to Brisbane, please?
Thanks!
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
-
Google My Business: Company listing is showing in search instead of division address - similar names/same city
Hi! I have a client whose company name is very similar to one if their company divisions. This division has multiple locations but its main location is in the same city as the parent company. The problem is that when you search for the division, the parent company shows up. The parent company has a physical address, but most users searching need to be going to the division address which takes customers. They are having problems with customers coming to the parent company address instead. I have made the Google My Business parent company page to show service areas instead of their business address. Yet, their listing still comes up first when searching for the division location. This is because of part of the parent company name is in the division name. My client wants users to be able to find the division more so than the parent company. Anyone had this issue before? Any tips would be great!
Local Listings | | agrier0 -
Google My Business answers not appearing
We've been trying to use the GMB Q&A feature as a lot of customers seem to be engaging with the listing/asking relevant questions. However, sometimes we answer a question directly from the business listing account but it does not appear (no error message is shown when posting either). When we go to re-post the answer, the text is sometimes still visible in the answer box field. Any ideas what might be causing the issue?
Local Listings | | Wagada1 -
How Do I Remove Address from Google Business Page?
Not very up to date in handling local listings, so here's my situation. I have an office that is not going out of business, but instead going virtual. So that physical address will no longer exist but the team is intact. So I am dealing with the Google Business Listing page for this office at https://business.google.com/ In the "Published on" section, it has Google Search, Google Maps, and Google+. I want to remove it from Maps and the address from this account. There's an address for this store, but editing it only seems to allow changing, but not removal. There is also the option of "Mark as Permanently Closed", but surely that isn't the best option since that will leave a nasty red "PERMANENTLY CLOSED" in the results when searching. What's the best course of action here?
Local Listings | | nbyloff0 -
Different Phone Numbers in GMB/onsite
Hello All! I have an issue. I have a local business with multiple addresses, In order to start doing some conversion optimization I need to know where are the leads coming from, my assumption is that part of the leads come from phone calls directly from the google my business listing that appears in the local pack and some come from the website itself. Here's where the problem lays, I cannot understand how many calls come from each platform, Google My Business analytics provides a very high number that doesn't fit with my reports (i have a CRM that can track calls), the numbers are inflated in hundreds of %. The solution i thought of was implementing a different phone number in my website to track the leads, the problem is the NAP, which will be different. Another solution I thought of was implementing an additional phone number in Google My Business, and adding that additional phone number to the local landing page, displaying the new phone number as the main number on the page and leaving the old number in the schema markup. Does this solution seems fit? do you have another suggestion?
Local Listings | | OrendaLtd0 -
Bing Places Listings for Real Estate Agents in the same office?
We've got a client that has a number of real estate agents that operate out of the same location. There are clear guidelines for how to approach this with Google My Business (https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en) but I'm having no luck finding resources as it relates to Bing Places and individual practitioners. Does anyone have experience with this within Bing? Essentially the client wants to maintain the office itself as a location, and there are agents that want to create/claim pages that would utilize the same address. Thanks
Local Listings | | TopFloor0 -
How do you go about updating / correcting bad business listings when you cannot contact the website directly?
There is a business listing I wish to correct / update on 411dir.biz There is no way to contact the website online, and in cases like this, I try to do a whois lookup, and reach out via the email / phone number there. This site seems impossible to connect with, has anybody else come up against situations like this in the past, if so what do you tell your client / what other approaches do people have? Thanks!
Local Listings | | ParadigmPCB0 -
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 -
Craigslist key word spamming/flagging?
I really trust the MOZ communities opinions on this and would appreciate any help. Our company has a competitor that puts our brand name in the majority of their craigslist ads. If you search craigslist for our product name, 80-90% of the results are this one company. Can anyone recommend a REPUTABLE flagging service that can flag their ads that break the craigslist TOS by using keyword spam? I'm open to any and all suggestions.
Local Listings | | seo-hunter0