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Hi Paul,
Sometimes, you will get an automated response before action takes place. However, if a month has gone by, I would go the Google And Your Business Forum and report the entire issue, including your report to the troubleshooter. See if a TC will take interest in your plight and escalate for you.
Hi Paul,
I'm not sure what steps you've taken to report the issue. I would go about reporting this by using the form accessed via the red Contact Us button on this page:
https://support.google.com/places/
Go through the wizard and report that the hours are incorrect.
I, too, am curious about the source of the bad data. In cases like this, we have to assume it is coming from somewhere, because Google doesn't just make things up. Some possibilities to consider:
I see your company has more than one location. Could it be that one of these locations has the 8:30 - 1:00 hours and Google is confusing their data with yours?
Could you have a duplicate, old Google Place page with the wrong hours on it?
Could there be a third party citation you've missed out there with the wrong hours on it.
The numbers almost look like a split hour day (e.g. open 8:30 AM - 1 PM, closed for lunch 1 PM - 2 PM, open 2 PM - 6 PM). I wonder if there could be some reason that a split day was listed and Google is only showing the first half of the split day? Just a random guess.
At any rate, please explain exactly what you've done to report the issue so far. I'll be happy to come back to read your further details about this. It's an interesting case, and I can imagine a very frustrating one for your business that needs to be resolved.
Hi Taysir,
I agree with Takeshi that it's unlikely that adding rich snippets could cause a ranking drop. I'll add two provisos to this here, however. Is it possible that:
You are duplicating testimonials across all these microsites? In other words, using a testimonial on more than one website, thus creating a duplicate content issue?
You are re-publishing third party reviews (gained from places like your Google+ Local page) on the website as rich snippet-encoded testimonial? This isn't allowed.
Either of these practices could harm your rankings, but if you've correctly implemented rich snippets in a non-duplicating manner, then I can't imagine any way in which these would have caused your rankings to drop. I want to let you know that, right now, there are MAJOR changes going on in Google's Local results - a big shakeup of some kind, likely with more changes to come. It could be that your sites are getting bounced around in the process. If you feel all of the practices you are using are allowed, I'd hang on for a couple of weeks before I got really worried, and wait to see what happens.
Regarding the shakeup, you might want to read:
I recommend that you read the whole long thread as it contains many discoveries and conjectures that anyone in Local should be up on right now.
Hope this helps!
Hi Sukhbir,
Currently, the best way I know of reporting that a location has closed is to go to this page:
https://support.google.com/places/
Click the red 'Contact Us' button.
Go through the wizard, choosing the 'my listing has incorrect information' and then the 'this business no longer exists' options.
Link to the URL of the Google+ Local page for the closed location, and in the additional notes section, explained that this branch of the business has closed, though the others remain open.
My understanding is that this does not completely delete the location from Google's system - there is currently no way to do so - but will prevent it from appearing for your service related terms. It may still appear for people searching specifically for that location, but will have a label on it stating that the business is closed. Not a perfect solution, but the best I know of that Google currently offers.
Beyond this, I would recommend that you manually remove as many third party citations of the business on other directories such as YP.com, Yelp, CitySearch, etc., so that you are getting rid of as much data as possible that supports the existence of the business.
Your website should be edited to remove absolutely all references to the closed location. Not sure about redirecting pages. My main goal would simply be to get rid of any references to the closed location.
Hope this helps!
You're welcome, Dave. Good luck!
Hi SteveTG,
No one should feel obliged to use Yext - it's an option, not a necessity. I recommend that you go at this manually and correct your citations by hand. If one gets deleted, as in the case of Americantowns.com, create a new listing with the correct information. Bear in mind, too, that one of the issues that's been cited in the Local SEO community regarding Yext is the possibility that they only turn up a single listing per directory, despite the fact that multiple listings may exist - the upshot being that manual research and discovery may still be your best bet. Hope this helps!
Hi David,
While Ruben is correct that the use of P.O. Boxes is a violation of the Google Places Quality Guidelines, there is a chance that you can get help with this via the Google Troubleshooter located here:
https://support.google.com/places/
Click the contact button and go through the troubleshooter. You should see a blue 'Call Us' button appear in the form and if you can speak to a Google rep, they may be able to help you with the verification issue.
However, before you can do this, it's important to understand that any Google+ Local page you create must be based on the physical location of the business in question and not any associated P.O. box. So, for a client in this town, you'd need to create the listing, have postcard verification fail and then go through the troubleshooter in hopes of getting direct help from Google staff in verifying the validity of the business. This will be extra work on your part, and you should prepare you clients for this hangup by explaining Google's limitations in regards to small towns like yours where everyone picks up mail at the local post office. Be sure not to guarantee that you can get the listing verified for them, but tell them that you will make a best effort to make it happen.
Hope this helps!
Hi Charles,
Do you mean that your client has more than one physical location, or that they have a single physical location and would like to rank for more than one city?
If the former, then standard practice is to have a landing page for each physical office, optimized for that city with the complete NAP and unique text. The Google+ Local page and citations can then be tied to this page.
If the latter, then you can't build a Google+ Local page or citations because these require a physical address within a given city. Instead, common practice is to build city landing pages that showcase your work in that city. You can back this up with linkbuilding to these pages, if possible. You can also work on other efforts such a Social Media outreach to audiences in these cities. Video marketing can be a big help, too.
Basically, your options depend on your business model. Does this answer your question? Please, let me know.
Gbkevin - one other thing I wanted to ask about. Where is the business located, and are you providing the real name of the law practice? When I searched for the business name you used, I found zero record of it in Google, so I'm kind of surmising that this may not be the actual business name. Please let me know if this is so, and also, the country in which the business is located.
Hi Dana,
Thanks for the list of ampersand brands! Fun.
The thing about this that is odd to me, from a local perspective, is that I know Google can surface a onebox/knowledge graph for law firms with both the ampersand and non-ampersand versions of their names. I've seen it. This may all boil down to authority or a lack thereof. Interesting.
Hi GBKevin,
Wow - I find your question extremely interesting. Common wisdom has it that Google understands that '&' and 'and' are equivalents in Local, but that it's a wise idea to stick to one version or the other in your citation building. Your client's scenario appears to indicate that Google is differentiating between the ampersand and the '&', and that is fascinating. So, basically, it appears that Google is only considering the business as being onebox/knowledge graph-worthy if you are searching for the exact name version that you've provided in your citations, website, etc. (Rosenberg & Dalgren). I must tell you that this is the first instance I have a ever encountered of this issue and don't have ready advice to give because of that.
It would be interesting to test whether editing all citations would reverse the situation - in other words, that the client would get a onebox/knowledge graph display for the 'and' version and lose it for the ampersand version. That could be the outcome, but I can't be sure. If Google is being that sensitive about an ampersand, some questions that come to my mind relate to whether the change to 'and' would require re-verification of the Google+ Local listing (name changes often do) and whether the client would temporarily lose rankings or reviews if you made these changes. Again, I'm not sure about this, because I've just not seen it come up before.
I've done some searching in the Google and Your Business Forum to see if I can find any reports of scenarios like yours and am coming up empty-handed. I'm going to ask around a bit in the Local SEO community to see if anyone I know has encountered a similar issue. Sorry not to have clear advice on this, but there's always something new to learn.
Finally, it's perfectly fine to use designations like LLC, PC, etc., if these are part of your legal business name. Google is cool with this. What they don't like is if a business name as too many capital letters in it (i.e. BEST PLUMBER).
If I do get a response from any of my colleagues, I'll return to this thread. If not, I'd recommend you consider posting about this in the Google and Your Business Forum to see if you get any nibbles.
Hi Wei,
If you created a Google+ Local page for each of your showrooms, then Google will sometimes choose one of them to display along with the branded search. Honestly, this often seems arbitrary to me - in other words, it's hard to say why they are choosing one location over another. Of course, if localization is happening and Google is detecting that the user is closer to a showroom than, say, corporate headquarters, this would make perfect sense that they'd show the showroom, but this doesn't always appear to be the case. One must assume that, for some reason, the showroom is outranking the headquarters as an authoritative source.
Here is a thread from the Google and Your Business Help Forum citing an issue similar to what you are describing, Wei:
http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!searchin/business/branch/business/WPptzqIgcj8/OKWaMlCtxQsJ
Totally agree that time off is necessary now and then to keep the mind fresh. Hope you enjoy your break!
Hi SEOSarah,
So glad I got it right. You are right that Google localizes tons of results for the user. Including geo terms in your optimization will help Google to understand that you are relevant to these results. And, then there is a whole different category of search in which the user isn't looking for results that are local to them - for example, a user in Chicago searching for a hotel in Dallas. He wants local results - just not results that are local to his own city, because he's making a trip. Bottom line, definitely keep utilizing geo terms! Glad you asked.
Hi Home James,
I'm sorry the tool doesn't do that. Hope you'll get a better response from the community.
Hi Ruben,
My pleasure, and I'll be interested in your follow-up, for sure!
Hi BBuck,
Uh-oh, yes, call tracking is a major issue. Recommend you read this recent Local U post by Mary Bowling which specifically mentions Reach Local:
Hi Home James,
This is a tool some of our editing staff use:
http://smallseotools.com/plagiarism-checker/
It gives a percentage of uniqueness for any content you enter. Does this do what you need?
Hi Waqid,
For search terms with a local intent, Google is definitely biased towards true local businesses with physical locations in the city of search. National companies often do employ the tactic you mentioned of building landing pages for various cities they would like to rank organically (not in the local pack of results) for. Unfortunately, this is often not handled well and results in national websites with hundreds or thousands of thin or duplicate content pages. Coincidentally, I brought this very issue up here in Q&A, asking for feedback from the community. Here is the thread, which I believe you will find to be highly relevant to your question:
http://moz.com/community/q/a-page-for-every-conceivable-city-in-the-us-seeking-community-feedback
Hope this helps!
Hi Ruben,
I run into things like this from time to time, in which I'm expecting to see local results, but at the time of search, Google doesn't show any. Google is always testing things and it appears to me that, sometimes, keywords that are typically local fail to trigger local results. It's likely you'll see the local pack return at some point for this search, but as to when this will happen, I can't say.
Sometimes, when there is a low volume of search for a specific keyword, Google will not show a local pack of results, of course, but 'attorney' isn't typically going to fall into this category. Unless you're in some geographic location where no one is searching for an attorney (unlikely!) then this is probably not the case. There is also a situation going on right now in which Google is showing a one box instead of 3-7 results for broad search terms, and this appears to be tied into the hummingbird update. In such a case, you'd be getting one local attorney results instead of 3-7 of them. But, it sounds like you're not seeing any local results at all.
There might also be a case in which a category of industry has been so spammed that Google decides not to show local results for it. When Google stopped showing web design and SEO firms in the local results, some people speculated that this was due to heavy spamming of that category, but it's my opinion that Google simply considers those types of businesses to be largely virtual.
In general, though, I would recommend that you keep checking on the keyword over the next few weeks to see if the local pack returns. If not, it might be worthwhile to report what you're seeing to the Google and Your Business Forum (http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!forum/business), titling your post something like 'Local Pack No Longer Triggered By Attorney Searches In My City'. It's likely that you will receive responses to the tune of there being dramatic shifts in Google's display all the time in local and that Google personalizes the results for each user, but if the issue continues for some weeks and you report it, you might get some interesting replies.
I don't see any mass reporting of the issue you're describing right now, and 'attorney' is still triggering local results in my town, so this is likely a hang-tight kind of thing that may change tomorrow or two weeks from now. I'd be interested if you'd follow up on this thread in a few weeks to see if you're still seeing the same thing.
Hi SEOSarah,
I want to be sure I'm correctly understanding your question. Google has been localizing results for some years now, so I'm not clear if this is what you are referring to, or if you are referring to something new. Also, it might help if you could be a little more specific about what you mean by including geo-specific keywords. Where? On the website? Elsewhere?
In general, if you are marketing a local business, then it remains quite important to utilize geo terms in your website optimization. Nothing about this has changed, and the recent Local Search Ranking Factors 2013 still cites this practice as being highly relevant.
If this isn't what you're asking about, I'll be happy to pop back in to read your further details!
Hi Steven,
Can you please provide some more detail? What, specifically, in the dashboard is pointing at the Google+ page? Do you mean the website URL field in the dashboard now lists the URL of your client's Google+ page instead of the URL of their website homepage? Please, provide as clear a description as you can.
Nice answer from Keith! I'll add to this that, from a purely organic perspective, most structured citations (i.e. citations built on local business directories) do contain a link to your website or a landing page on your website. Given the role links play in organic, I'm sure these help a little, though I can't quantify how much. It may not be a whole lot, given the predictability of these types of links for local businesses. Your website is your strongest organic ranking factor if you are a local business, so it needs to be great!
Hi Ernieb,
Does your keyword research indicate that 'CKD center' is a term or equal value to 'Dialysis center'. Taking just a quick look at Google's keyword planner, it doesn't seem to be, but I'm sure you've done in-depth research on this and have better data than I do from a quick glance. 'CKD center' does not exist as a category in the Google Places for Business category taxonomy, so you can't optimize your listing for this, at least as a category, though you could mention in in your business description. You'd have to see if it exists as a category in any of the other citation sources, but it might not.
Right now, you are ranking highly for what may be your core phrase 'dialysis center city'. If you decide to re-optimize core pages of the website to reflect not one but two terms, then there is a chance that this will split your authority and result in a loss of rankings for the initial phrase, because you are now telling Google that you want all of your authority to go towards ranking two phrases instead of one. I'm not saying that this will definitely happen, because I can't judge this without knowing how authoritative the website is. It may be that the site's Domain Authority is so high, it could stand this without any drop in rankings for the initial phrase. It's just hard to judge something like that from a generic standpoint.
You may need to create new content to reflect this second phrase, add the new keyword to some of the existent pages, earn links that reflect the new keyword and edit the description area of your citations to include this new keyword. Other efforts like Social Media activity or Video Marketing could also help you to start gaining some quicker visibility for this phrase. And, of course, there is PPC. If you need to rank for this new term quickly, you can pay to do so while you are working to build up organic visibility for the new phrase.
Does this help?
Hi Jesse,
You've received some thoughtful advice so far here from the community. I think it would help if you could clarify your business model, as this is quite important in terms of Local SEO.
Does your client have a single physical address or multiple physical addresses throughout California? I'm having a hard time picturing how a single location business could repair appliances throughout the whole length of California, so maybe I'm not understand your business model correctly. And, if the situation is that the business only has a single physical location in the city of Los Angeles, why would you need to rank in cities statewide? In other words, how would it help for the business to rank for 'appliance repair Eureka' unless services can be rendered up there in the north?
I think the more specific you can be about your business model, the more targeted advice you'll receive here. Hope this helps!
Hi Gidon,
What you are seeing is likely part of the recently documented phenomenon of the Hummingbird update. Since that time, a ton of broad searches like this are, for some reason, returning a single one box result instead of the more typical 3 or 7-pack type of local result. You'll actually see this locksmith coming up as the only result in Google's main search engine as well as the Maps display you did the screenshot of. There isn't anything you can do about this, so far as I know, because it appears that Google's algo is currently turning up these odd results for numerous terms, but you can read more about the issue here:
http://blumenthals.com/blog/2013/09/28/hummingbird-local-knowledge-graph-shitty-search-results/
and
I recommend you read both posts and all their attendant comments. I'm afraid businesses finding themselves affected by results like this can't do much beyond hanging in there until Google does another tweak to remedy this problematic lack of diversity in the SERPs, but at least you will see from reading the above posts that you are not alone. I hope Google pays attention to this promptly. It's not a good user experience.
Thanks, Peter! Nice of you to say.
Hi Daniel,
You can attempt to transfer reviews with this form (https://support.google.com/business/#topic=2794267&ts=3054546,3141976&contact=1) but given the fact that your old page is gone, I'm not sure what will happen. I've not seen any form for transferring posts, but suggest you research that to see if you can turn something up.
Are you able to get into the dashboard for the new page? Have you verified ownership of it?
Hi Daniel,
So sorry to hear of the trouble you are having! My guess is that your issue may be complex enough to require a professional audit, but I will take a stab here and pointing out a few things and asking a few questions. Let me number these points, as they are sort of all over the map.
1. Normally, when you change the business name in the Google Places for Business dashboard, you will be required to re-verify the listing. Were you prompted to do so? Did you receive a postcard and re-verify? Where are you at in this process?
2. If you had a spammy business name on your Google+ Local page, did you also build citations this way? A ranking drop could certainly result from the new, correct business name not matching other third party listings of your business with the old spammy name. This is important and worth checking! If you find your street address and phone number listed anywhere in conjunction with the spammy name, or with any variant of the business name other than what you've provided in your Google Places for Business dashboard, then you may be dealing with the fallout of citation inconsistency and would need to do a citation cleanup campaign.
3. Second issue - I have seen a number of reports of 404 error pages like the one you are seeing coming into the Google And Your Business Help Forum. Check this search out and see if you see your experience/issue reflected there:
http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!searchin/business/404|sort:date
4. Next - is this also your business?
http://www.bringyourownlaptop.co.nz/
Could you be having an issue with duplicate content between the two websites? Always important to check on that.
5. Is your physical location at Level 2, 80 Mount Street, Sydney, NSW, 2026 a real physical office wherein you make face-to-face contact with your clients? Is the office shared by any other business? How long have you occupied this address? That's 3 questions to consider, I know, but important ones.
6. Since I can't look at the +Local page, unfortunately, I cannot diagnose if there could have been problems with it. You've been admirably honest about saying it was spammy, so that leaves me wondering if there could have been multiple violations of the Google Places Quality Guidelines that could have led to your being de-listed. I'm not saying this is what happened, but it is something to consider. I'd read through them and make a list of points besides the spammy business name that you may have violated. You should also try hard to remember what you edited on the listing.
7. Because the Google+ Local page is 404d, you can't click the 'Report A Problem' link on it, so that's problematic, but you could try this troubleshooter: https://support.google.com/places/#contact=1 You can select the 'my listing no longer appears on Google Maps option' and see if you can get somewhere with that.
8. Likewise, you could report the problem in the Google And Your Business Forum http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!forum/business in hopes of getting feedback from a Top Contributor there. TCs have the ability to escalate an issue like yours to Google staff.
Lots of suggestions. I hope at least some of them give you some ideas of what to begin investigating. Good luck with this!
Hi Jonathan,
I think this article by Mike Blumenthal will really hit the spot for you:
Hope this helps!
Hi Jess,
Website design and SEO companies are not considered to be truly local by Google, and it has been a handful of years now since Google showed them in the local pack of results. It is Google's opinion that these types of businesses conduct most transactions virtually. Google's local index is meant to be used only by businesses that make face-to-face contact with clients at the company's physical location (like a dentist) or at the clients' locales (like a plumber). While it's certainly true that some design firms do have face-to-face transactions with some or all of their clients, Google feels that, in general, this is a predominantly virtual category of businesses.
Because of this, your firm will not be able to take the local search marketing steps that a dentist or plumber would, and will need to rely on organic SEO to compete with other design firms which are also striving to rank for a variety of city terms. Your best shot at this will likely involve creating unique content about your existing clients in these target cities and pairing that with other work, such as the earning of links and social media involvement.
Hope this helps!
Hi Nwext,
I want to be sure I understand what you are describing. I believe what you are describing is that only one local business is being shown as a local result for the term you are typing. There is an ongoing issue with this right now. Typically, Google shows 3-7 local results for local-type searches, within the organic results, but right now, there are a bunch of terms for which Google is oddly only showing a single organic result (termed a one box).
I recommend you read the following on this topic to see if it matches what you are experiencing:
http://blumenthals.com/blog/2013/09/28/hummingbird-local-knowledge-graph-shitty-search-results/
This rather lame phenomenon appears to have something to do with the Hummingbird update, and it is definitely not creating a good user experience. Just the other day, I was looking for a hotel in a major city, and Google would only show me a one box. Clearly, this does not represent the diversity of hotels that exist in the city. Not super on Google's part!
If this is not what you are describing and you are simply asking how businesses appear in the local pack of results, then the topic you want to study is Local SEO. It's quite a big subject! If you're just getting started, let me share an article I wrote for beginners: The Rudiments of Local SEO.
Happy reading!
Hi Wayne,
Thanks so much for the clarification! I would put it this way - the primary category chosen will be the one your client has the best chances of ranking for, and this will typically also be the main, or one of the main, terms the website is optimized for. Carefully choosing your secondary categories is also very important, and building out content on the website that matches these terms is a very good, strong step. However, whether this alone will enable the client to rank will be completely dependent on how competitive the client's unique market is. If he has few competitors for these other terms, this could be enough, but if the competition is tougher, you may have to go the extra mile to start seeing results. The extra mile might include earning links to these pages, social efforts, video marketing, etc.
I do want to clarify that none of Google's pre-set categories reflect services, however. All of them reflect what a business is (dentist), not what it does (root canals), so it's important to keep that in mind.
So, I think you have a very good initial plan: carefully choose the 9 other, non-primary categories and build out content for them. See where this gets the client. You might find he's now ranking for a few of the categories, but that for others, additional efforts will need to be made. Hope this helps!
Hi Jonathan,
This thread has moved beyond its original topic and I'd recommend that you start a new thread for additional, new questions like this, so that you can receive maximum feedback from the community. Hope this helps you to receive good answers to all of your different questions!
Hi Stewart,
So, in your hypothetical example, the only difference is W vs. West. This is the type of thing that I don't believe matters at all to Google. It is my opinion that they know that W = West, so I would not be concerned about citation consistency in this regard. To be on the safe side in building new citations, you can choose to build them with the 'W', as Google typically uses this abbreviation, but if you have old citations that use 'West', I wouldn't be worried about this. What would be a problem is if you were missing a suite number or something like that. But small differences like this one do not appear to make any difference. Hope this helps!
Hi Stewart,
Are you able to be more specific? I want to be sure I'm understanding exactly what you mean by Google abbreviating your address. It could be nothing to worry about or something concerning, depending on what you are describing. Thanks!
Hi Adnan,
True local results revolve around cities, not counties, and inclusion in the local pack of results typically requires having a physical location in the city of search. Beyond this, you can develop content for additional cities where you're not physically located, and that could include content you develop for counties, too, if research indicates county terms are important in your niche, but the goal of this work would typically be organic visibility rather than visibility in Google's local pack of results. Hope this helps!
Good point, Linda! It's listed as the seventh most-influential factor in the Local Search Ranking Factors 2013, but that doesn't explain what you have, regarding organic factors and the cream at the top:)
Hi Jonathan,
I recommend you pick one landing page for Denver and one landing page for Austin and have all citations point to these chosen, respective pages.
I also recommend that you not necessarily rely only on Yext to help you find problematic listings. Read:
http://www.ngsmarketing.com/why-yext-might-not-be-the-best-fit-for-your-business/
Yext is good for some things and many people like it, but the article I've linked to will explain some of the apparent weaknesses in the system that could cause problematic listings to be overlooked.
Thank you, gentlemen! I've just thumbed up each of your thoughtful replies and really appreciate them. In sum, it seems that most of you don't like this practice, but that there may be some instances in which you could see a company doing it. Good to know!
Egol - thanks for the link. I recently had to look at a TON of newspaper websites all over the US and so many of them have pages exactly like that. A few are doing a better job and actually have reviews and other content on the pages, but so many were just empty pages with the name and address of the business and then a ton of advertising. Not a lot of value, for sure!
Thanks again, everybody, for the well-considered feedback.
Also a good question!
Here's the thing - as you know, Google has recently cracked down on EMDs (exact match domains) pretty heavily in their organic SERPs. Most problems surrounding this related to thin content sites that were getting by largely on the fact that they had keywords in their domain names. In other words, a poor quality site might have ranked well for 'frozen fruit juice', just because the domain name was frozenfruitjuice.com. This was a rather lame situation and the EMD action on Google's part was aimed at cleaning some of this stuff out of the SERPs.
However, it has been noted by several Local SEOs that the EMD penalty didn't seem to strike as hard in the local arena. There is still some thought that having the domain name berkeleychiropactor.com might be helping a site to rank for the search 'berkeley chiropractor'. Because of this, some Local SEOs are still recommending that EMDs be considered, provided that the site being built on the domain is strong - not weak.
My personal opinion is that this isn't a great idea. The writing is on the wall that Google isn't thrilled with EMDs. For local businesses, I like to look at this from a branding perspective and a human perspective. If you are Green Tree Dental, I'd rather see you have greentreedental.com as your domain name. It is true to your brand and instantly recognizable by human visitors. Further, you will have the confidence that it should stand the test of time, in terms of any further penalties Google might choose to roll out. Because of this, I really do prefer going with a domain name that is as close to the business name as possible. I just think it's more natural, and I believe that Google is very into natural these days.
Hi OnlineChester,
Ocelot has smartly pointed out the role of citations in the results. This is quite true, but there are several hundred other factors in Google's Local algo, so if you want to be able to diagnose the competition, you need to take many, many things into account. I recommend that you study the recent Local Search Ranking Factors 2013.
For example, the top ten factors deemed most influential are:
1. Proper category associations
2. Physical address in city of search
3. Consistency of structured citations
4. Quality/authority of structured citations
5. HTML NAP matching place page NAP
6. Quantity of structured citations
7. Domain authority of website
8. Individually owner-verified Local+ page
9. City/state in Places landing page title
10. Proximity of address to centroid
So, these are just a few to get started on. Hopefully by studying the whole report I've linked to, you will be able to begin assessing your competition. There are, of course, some instances in which spam gets into Google's local pack of results, meaning that legit businesses are being outranked by spam, but typically, what you see in the pack is based on a large number of factors, and the best thing you can do is to excel in as many of these areas as possible yourself. Hope this helps!