Google map pack confusion
-
Hi there!
My name's Rob and I'm the owner of Nimble Nerds in Sydney, Australia. We provide on-site visits to customers at their locations to provide IT Support.I would love some insight on my confusion please, as I can't get my head around it after months.
I've made individual pages targetting individual suburbs, eg 'computer repairs putney'. I noticed that only suburbs without individual tailored pages were showing in google map pack. So to test it I deleted my Putney page so it would re-index to the home page. Not only did this not result in appearing in that suburb on Map pack I also lost my SERP ranking as well.
Is it still good to make individual pages for suburbs please?
Is this going to negatively affect my map pack rankings in suburbs where they're pointing to the homepage?
Does map pack only point to homepages?Confused! Ahah
-
Google Map Pack refers to the set of three local business listings that appear at the top of the Google search results when a user searches for local businesses or services in a specific location. This feature is especially important for businesses aiming to attract local customers.
The confusion around Google Map Pack typically revolves around:
-
Algorithm Changes: Google frequently updates its algorithms, which can affect which businesses appear in the Map Pack and their ranking.
-
Optimization Challenges: It can be challenging for businesses to optimize their listings to appear in the Map Pack due to competition and the complexity of Google's ranking factors.
-
Local SEO: Effective local SEO strategies are essential for improving Map sheet sets Pack rankings, including optimizing Google My Business profiles, local citations, reviews, and location-based content.
Understanding these factors and staying updated with local SEO best practices can help businesses navigate and potentially benefit from the Google Map Pack.
-
-
Hello Rob!
Thank you for bringing your question to the forum. If I'm correct in understanding that you have a Service Area Business (SAB) then here's what I can tell you:
-
You are not allowed to create multiple GMB listings for your service areas, in most cases. Most SABs are allowed a single listing ... not multiple listings covering all the cities/suburbs they serve. So, you could be having trouble because you've created ineligible listings. Definitely read Google's guidelines on this: https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en
-
It's fine to create whatever pages on your website you want to in order to represent your service area. However, only create such pages if they have a real purpose beyond targeting keywords. Recommend that you read: https://mza.seotoolninja.com/blog/rank-beyond-location
-
For your eligible GMB location, you can either choose to point the listing to your homepage or to a landing page on your website. The homepage will typically have higher authority, so some businesses with multiple physical locations do choose to point all of the GMB listings to the homepage URL. Others feel it's better UX to point mutli-location business listings to the location landing pages on the website. It's a choice each brand has to make. So, for a legitimate physical location of the business, if you had a listing pointing to the homepage and then changed the URL to point to a location landing page with lower authority, that could cause a drop in local pack rankings.
I hope this feedback is helpful. Main thing will be for you to determine the number of listings you are eligible for, based on your number of physical locations. Please, feel free to let me know if you have any further questions.
-
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
-
How to Remove Old Photos from Bing Maps (Yelp is Involved)
Hi All, We have a client with a Bing Maps listing with old photos on it that we can't seem to remove. The photos are being populated from other sites like Yelp. The kicker is, we didn't upload the photos to Yelp, a user did. We've messaged the user to please remove the photos and they haven't responded. Now Yelp won't let us contact the user again and we've already flagged the photos on Yelp weeks ago but they haven't been removed. We don't see a spot to flag them on Bing. Do you have any recommendations for how to remove these?
Local Listings | | ReunionMarketing1 -
How do you fix a Google My Business Location Issue if the road doesn't yet exist on Google Maps?
My core question is just: How do you fix a Google My Business Location Issue if the road doesn't yet exist on Google Maps? Do I have any other options other than to just wait on Google to catch up with reality? Here's the background: I work for a hospital. We just opened a clinic on a street that is real and has a U.S. Postal Address, but Google Maps doesn't recognize it, and redirects people to a house . This is our postal address: 8343 S 168th Ave Omaha NE 68136-1677 If a patient enters the following into google maps, 8343 S 168th Ave, the location the map autofills the wrong zip code, and sends them to a home that is on S 168th Ave. (where in theory a home would exist if it had that home number). The road does exist in that portion of town. If a patient enters 8343 S 168th Ave, Omaha NE 68136, google maps takes you to the correct location, but it automatically changes Ave to St. The verified Google My Business listing also lists it as Street, even though on the back end I've put in the word Avenue, and it shows up in the right place. If however someone just searches by name "Chalco Clinic" the right Google My Business comes up. This is the Google My Business page I'm referring to: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Nebraska+Medicine+-+Chalco/@41.1754796,-96.1787153,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0xf77aefb4e27f865!8m2!3d41.1754796!4d-96.1787153 And even though it says it's on a Street, on the back end of the claimed listing I've used "Avenue". In case it matters, this is the landing page for the location: https://www.nebraskamed.com/chalco
Local Listings | | Patrick_at_Nebraska_Medicine0 -
Can you use Google Posts to make updates about emergency closures?
A client of mine asked about the new Google Posts feature that can be used via GMB. The question is can you use Google posts to give updates to visitors about emergency closures?
Local Listings | | BigChad20 -
For Google's Structured Data, should I change my listings from Product schema to Local Business schema?
I was reading Google's Structured Data spec, and I'm considering changing the schema of our listing pages from the Product schema to the Local Business schema. Is this a good idea? To give you a little more info, the pages that I'm classifying are listings for physical spaces that our website rents out for activities, such as meetings. Here's an example of a listing: https://www.peerspace.com/pages/listings/550ddcde2f352d0800fc186b Our goal is to add the proper schema.org tags to the page so that our spaces show up in local searches, such as "meeting space in San Francisco." The problem is that when we add location microdata (addressLocality, addressRegion, etc.) to our current "Product" schema, Google tells us that "Products" can't have a location. However, we aren't quite a "Local Business" either, since we don't publicly share our space's street addresses—only the space's neighborhood/city/state for privacy reasons. As a result, we get an error from Google's Structured Data Tool as a "Local Business" page because "streetAddress" is required for Local Businesses. Should we switch to the Local Business schema anyway, even though we get structured data errors for streetAddress? Or is it better not to include the location information in the microdata so that we don't have errors? Does Google penalize you for incomplete tags? Any input is appreciated!
Local Listings | | stuartstein0 -
How do I get a photos to display next to my Google Maps results in the SERP?
Why do photos show up next to the map in the Google Maps display on the SERP, while sometimes it doesn't. Am I missing something as far as a setting or place to upload the image or is it something that Google auto-populates?
Local Listings | | Gauge1230 -
Default Local SEO question: Does Google really do improptu check ins?
I have a client who has multiple locations within his state, many of which are satellite offices. Although they don't have anyone working at these satellite offices full time, they have office space available to them their, someone who can take calls/mail and do use the space frequently in person. We've been in the process of cleaning up duplicate and incorrect listings in directories to get on the map in the SERPs in these markets, but the local SEO outfit we've hired has come back with a problem I found surprising. In order to clean up the duplicate & incorrect Google+ profiles that we've got out there for these offices, we evidently need to work with an actual Google moderator. This moderator has said that the satellite offices in question are actually not real business locations and are in violation of G+ guidlines. The local SEO I'm using says that it's not uncommon for Google to actually send someone out to do an in person improptu visit when they are suspicious that a listing might not belong in their listings, and I find this really surprising. Do any of you have any experience with whether this is the case? FWIW, this is a real business that could have someone working remotely in these offices remotely if that's what it took to make Google happy, but they'd rather not and certainly don't need to in order to offer their services in these markets.
Local Listings | | LeeAbrahamson0 -
Structured Data in Google Webmaster Tools
Have noticed a significant drop in structured data items and pages on GWT in the last one week. We have not made any changes and can still see that we have the rich snippet implementation in place across our site. Has anyone else noticed this drop? What could be possible reasons for the same? On 8th July we had 646,801 items showing up on Structured Data, which dropped to 227,529 on 11th July and 66,161 on 14th July 2014!! TIA Asif
Local Listings | | prsntsnh0 -
Google Business Categories: Criminal Justice Attorney
Google has updated their business listings dashboard and are cleaning up categories. Let's come to a consensus on what should be obvious: Who else agrees with me that a lawyer who practices criminal defense law should be categorized as a Criminal Justice Attorney using Google's new business categorization? BoulderCriminalDefenseAttorney.jpg
Local Listings | | Rich_Coffman0