Top Local Organic Rankings, But Nowhere to be found on Google Snack Pack
-
I've been working with a local gym for a while now. We successfully got the gym to beat out all its competitor and now it consistently ranks in the 3rd or 4th result for all major local industry keywords. For example "gym in [city]". The only thing above us is Yelp and other directory sites.
The problem I am running into is we do well organically, but when it comes to Google Snack Pack we aren't in the top three or even 10. You have to go deep into the next pages of the map to find our business. I did find that we use to be categorized as health club in Google My Business, but I changed that three months ago.
Some more additional info, the site when I got the account moved to a different url. So many directories and sites that linked to us in the past link to the old url. The old url is 301 redirected to our current url.
I haven't found much info about this topic and am looking for any experience or insight?
-
Hey Miriam,
That is interesting...and complex! Considering the location of the user at the time the search take place makes so much sense...especially for Google to rank them that way.
Unfortunately, that also makes it harder to help clients who want to be in the top three all the time.
Thanks so much for your time and insight.
Kirk
-
Hi Kirk,
Good question. Answer is, this is not an exact science. It's something you get a 'feel for'. Do this experiment. Look up "car dealerships" in the city nearest you and see if you see them clustered around a certain street in town on the Google Map. Look at the rankings next to the map (called the local finder view) and see if most of the high ranking businesses are in or around that cluster and if car dealerships that happened to be on the other side of town, away from this auto-row kind of setup common in much of the US, are not ranking quite as well as those physically located on the auto row.
If so, then this could be the concept of the industry cluster at play. I still see this phenomenon, but important to mention that, with every passing year, we are seeing more and more emphasis on the user being the centroid rather than the industry being the centroid. In other words, if me and my cell phone are on auto row in a town, Google will predominantly show me businesses there. If we drive across town, Google will show me the car dealerships over there. So, I am the moving centroid!
But, if you are searching from your house in San Diego for a car dealership in Santa Fe, NM, you're not much of a centroid in that scenario because you're awfully far away. In that case, you might see these clusters being more obvious than you would if you were physically located in Santa Fe.
Complex ideas, huh? But interesting!
-
Hi Miriam,
This is a great response. I have one question; how can one tell what Google's industry cluster is for a city? What is the standard or resource for measuring an area where a client is located?
Thanks!
Kirk
-
Thanks Miriam
-
Hey There!
It's very important to remember that citations are just one of several hundred estimated factors that contribute to local pack rankings. In my earlier reply from March 3rd, I recommended some things any local business owner should consider when they aren't ranking in the local pack. I'd suggest you investigate all of these. Hope it helps!
-
I've had Moz Local for my site for over a year and I have a 98% score, but I'm not in the local pack at all. Moz shows 0 vs my three competitors that show 40-60. I don't get it. We're a new kid on the block but we've been up and running over 2 years now.
Thanks,
-
Hi Jason,
So glad if this helped get your troubleshooting started! Regarding redirecting URLs, while I can't accurately state exactly how much the redirecting URLs might be causing trouble, they are something I would absolutely recommend cleaning up, partly for consistency purposes, but also to be sure your branding is cohesive across the board. So, yes, definitely put citation cleanup on your to-do list.
-
Thanks Matt. Yeah I've had an inkling its all about the consistency of the citations. I'll have to go through and see if I can start cleaning them up.
-
Thanks Miriam! I'm glad you were able to provide all that info into one post. What I'm thinking is it might be a Citation consistency. But I'll have to investigate more and see what it might be from all the factors you listed.
Quick Question: Because we just changed URL's in the last year, many citations have our old URL listed. Though that old URL is 301 redirected to our new one, would that still count as inconsistency because the URL itself is listed differently?
Thank you for all the help!
-
Hey Jason!
The most common reason for what you are describing is geographic. The high-organic-ranking-but-low-pack-ranking business is either outside of:
-
The user's centroid (where the user is physically located at the time of search)
-
Google's industry cluster (business is far from the industry centroid Google has assigned)
-
The business isn't actually inside of the city of search
Joy Hawkin's actually wrote a very good article about the 3rd issue over at Search Engine Land recently: http://searchengineland.com/rank-high-organically-not-locally-case-study-240692 I highly recommend reading that and doing a thorough study of any geographic limitations that may be holding you back.
Now, if it turns out not to be any of the above 3 things, the next thing to look into is whether something is wrong with the way the business is using Google My Business. Namely, if you've violated any guidelines, that can tank your local pack rankings.
Finally, if neither geography nor guideline violations are at play here, then you have to go back to the basics, like:
-
Organic strength
-
Citation consistency, spread and age
-
Reviews
etc.
Pretty much every case I've ever seen like the one you're describing can be diagnosed by investigating all of the above, and will it will turn out that one of the above things, or a combination of them, is the answer.
Hope this helps!
-
-
Generally a huge difference in local vs organic rankings is one of citation authority. You need to build more citation strength with full NAPs (name, address, phone) - things like what Moz Local does.
Doing that type of citation-building should help move you up the local charts. Make sure your GMB page is optimized for the location, you've added photos to the listing, the keyword is prominent across the description and such ... consistent NAP on other sites that list the business, and then just build more. Should rank fine after that.
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 search traffictwo locations
Hello, Can I ask for some advice? A client of mine is located in two cities. The first one was his original city and he has lots of traffic for various search terms and is very happy. He then expanded and has a branch in a second city. We created a unique landing page for it and a Google My Business page, built citations and it is ranking quite well (on first page for the two keywords that we targeted). But traffic is not great as city 1. His main navigation has a list of services and also a locations tab which has the two locations. The services pages are all unique and target specific keywords and I added location to the end of them - : e.g. **SERVICE KEYWORD CITY 1, CITY 2. ** A search for SERVICE KEYWORD + CITY 1 is on first page and lots of traffic. For SERVICE KEYWORD + CITY 2 it is on page 2. How would we increase the traffic to the second city? Should we create sub pages of the services he provides with the location set as city2 only (and keep the original ones only as city 1)? These would kind of duplicate the services pages we already have so we would have the problem that we might be duplicating stuff. Since SERVICE KEYWORD CITY 1 are doing really well (he's either first or second) I am loathe to change it too much but not sure how to get more keywords for city 2 without duplication the services pages. Any advice?
Local Listings | | AL123al0 -
Google Places - Remove Completely vs. Permanently Closed?
This is a bit confusing to explain so bear with me please. We have a client that used to have an old law practice with a partner. The site and backlinks were very large and it had a lot of domain authority. It also had a very large citation profile and history. The two lawyers have since split, but there remains multiple Google Places listings out there for the old partnership. We have fixed the one showing the old business practice name, but not the one that he setup for his personal name. One of the biggest hassles is that the old location he setup has his attorney name in the actual listing. The issue is that we cannot close the old listing (we tried this), as it comes up permanently closed when you Google his name. If you search for his new Law Firm, the correct business listing that we have set up will show. The new listing also includes his name and has over 50 five star reviews. We hoped that the large amount of legitimate reviews would get rid of or at least suppress the old listing, but it is not happening. So I am a bit confused as to what to do. If we close the old listing Google shows the red "permanently closed" listing when you Google his name. We cannot update the old listing information to show his new address as then it will compete with the new listing that we setup that shows all the positive reviews. The old listing was not created by us, and the new one was. The new one shows when you search for his Law Firm name in Google, but not for his personal name i.e "NAME HERE ATTORNEY" or "HIS NAME and LOCATION" Interested to hear your thoughts. The only way I can think to fix this is to contact Google directly and see if there is a way to permanently delete the listing from Google maps, but I am not aware that this is possible.
Local Listings | | David-Kley0 -
Has Google Local search algorithm changed in the last 6 months?
My organic search results have increased, but I noticed that my Google local search results have dropped drastically. I haven't changed anything on the local side. I consistently get reviews. In my industry, I have more reviews (all 5 star) than anyone else. It actually shows weird results, like competitors that have no reviews and don't even have all of their information filled out. It is even showing competitors that are out of business. I have a lot of citations with the same NAP. I use Moz local for this purpose as well. So, I am wondering if the algorithm has changed and if I need to update my profile to match it. Thank you in advance!
Local Listings | | CalicoKitty20000 -
Getting Google Local Pack Results
Does anyone know of a good article that lists all the things needed to get good Google local pack results? That would be extremely helpful. Thanks in advance!
Local Listings | | Gavo0 -
My Google business show up on map but does not show up on list and local search on Google.com
Hello all, how are you doing ? My Google business show up on map but does not show up on list and local search on Google.com main keyword: nail salon in Sevierville tn nail salon in Sevierville pedicure in Sevierville nail salon in pigeo forge my website : www.sassy-nails.com http://plus.google.com/+Sassy-nails please help me that
Local Listings | | sassynailservice0 -
Combining Law websites to boost local results?
So we currently have 2 separate websites for the 2 areas of law we practice, Criminal Defense and Family. Currently our Criminal Defense website is the one affiliated with our google+ page and so it ranks well in local results, where as our Family website does not rank at all locally. Would it be best for our Family practice if we merged it with our Criminal site? We all work out of the same office and share address and phone number, so I don't believe we can associate the Family website with a google+ page, but I am wondering if each site would show up in Local results for their individual keywords if the criminal site and law site were both subdomains of a main Firm website.
Local Listings | | MyOwnSEO1 -
'People Also Searched for' appears on some but not all local businesses, why? (Google Local Knowledge Panel)
I have a client who does not want the 'People Also Searched for' section on the Google Local Knowledge Panel to appear. I informed her that this is a standard part of the search presentation and that we cannot change. She then pointed out that the 'People also searched for' does not appear on her competitors' Google Local Knowledge Panels. (See the attachment for comparison) This raises a couple of questions: Why are the local businesses different? Can I change the content of her panel? I would appreciate any feedback. google-local.jpg
Local Listings | | sirgeorge0 -
Local seo yoast plug in
https://yoast.com/wordpress/local-seo/ Anyone used? Any good? I have purchased as Yoast seems to be a good all rounder. I am targetting geographical and my question is: Is there any seo benefit ?It isnt a requirement of the plug in to add a physical addess ( you can add that it isnt and put a town) I did a quick test http://www.themorrisagency.co.uk/locations/kent-band-hire/ In conjunction with an area page would Mr Google smile with glee or get his big red marker out ? Cheers as always!
Local Listings | | Agentmorris0