Can this make one's local listing vanish from Google local search?
-
Hi All,
Does anyone know if selecting "Yes, this business serves customers at their locations" under "service areas and location settings" in Google Places can cause a business's listing to disappear from Google local search?
My interior designer client has a bricks-and-mortar location, was ranking at about #20 for "interior designer" in Portland, and now has dropped from local search. I had "No, all customers come to the business location" selected previously.
In the past week, before the vanishing, I made these changes:
1. changed the service area to "Yes, this business serves customers at their locations",
2. removed "Portland" from the description in Google Places, and
3. submitted maybe two dozen directory listings to high DA sites (using Whitespark as the tool for determining where to post).
Thanks everyone!
Zack
-
It's my pleasure, Zack. Now, if your client does serve customers at his/her own location as well as on the road, my understanding of Google's guidelines is that you should show your address and use the Service Radius Tool. I believe this to be Google's preference in such cases. I really hope reporting your situation to the Google and Your Business Forum will yield an actionable answer. Miriam
-
Hi Miriam,
Wow - thank you so much for the generosity of time and expertise in your answer. Really inspiring contribution to the community (and to me)! Having read through the various possibilities, I suspect the issue is a bug. My client does serve customers at his location (which is a bona fide, bricks-and-mortar location), so that shouldn't be an issue. I've been really careful about NAP, and would be super shocked if the client's site were red flagged.
I was concerned about the directory listings just b/c I've read elsewhere that too many citations at once can raise red flags at Google. Still, it seemed unlikely given the relatively modest directory submissions I engaged in (and the fact that they were all on high DA sites.)
Navigating Google's guidelines for local search can feel pretty fogged-filled, so I really appreciate your guidance! I'll follow-up on the Google and Your Business Forum and see where that leads.
Thank you,
Zack
-
Hi Miriam,
Wow - thank you so much for the generosity of time and expertise in your answer. Really inspiring contribution to the community (and to me)! Having read through the various possibilities, I suspect the issue is a bug. My client does serve customers at his location (which is a bona fide, bricks-and-mortar location), so that shouldn't be an issue. I've been really careful about NAP, and would be super shocked if the client's site were red flagged.
I was concerned about the directory listings just b/c I've read elsewhere that too many citations at once can raise red flags at Google. Still, it seemed unlikely given the relatively modest directory submissions I engaged in (and the fact that they were all on high DA sites.)
Navigating Google's guidelines for local search can feel pretty fogged-filled, so I really appreciate your guidance! I'll follow-up on the Google and Your Business Forum and see where that leads.
Thank you,
Zack
-
Hi Zack,
Google's current guidelines (http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107528) on this read:
If you don't conduct face-to-face business at your location, you must select "Yes, this business serves customers at their locations" under the "Service Areas and Location Settings" section of your dashboard, and then select the "Do not show my business address on my Maps listing" option.
If you followed these steps correctly, it should not have caused your listing to disappear. However, there have been reports over the past several months from business owners who have had a similar experience. For example, Local SEO Andrew Shotland received a phone call from Google asking if he served customers at his location. This was in February, prior to the guideline update. When he answered no, his listing disappeared. See: http://www.localseoguide.com/hey-seos-if-google-maps-calls-dont-answer/
However, in cases like Andrew's, the vanishing of the listings happened because they did not choose to hide their address (generally, because Google hadn't yet clearly announced that they were supposed to do so).
Long before this, many people noticed that choosing the hide address function had the effect of instantly burying one's listing. Then, in November 2010, Mike Blumenthal reported that it appeared that this had changed and that hiding the address should not bury your blended listing, though it might still effect the Maps and 7-Packs of that time period. See: http://blumenthals.com/blog/2010/11/03/google-places-search-hiding-address-no-longer-buries-listing/
But, since the big guideline update in March 2012, (http://www.seomoz.org/blog/why-you-may-need-to-hide-your-google-places-address-asap) this issue was supposed to have been completely fixed and hiding the address was not ever supposed to bury your listing, though I have heard a couple of remarks to the effect that it may push your listing down a couple of places.
So, if you chose the 'serves customers at their locations' and 'do not show' options in your dashboard, according to my information, this should not be the culprit in what you're experiencing. Nor should removing a geographic modifier from your business description (using geo terms in descriptions has never really been considered a good idea and at one time, was forbidden by the guidelines). And, finally, gaining citations from directories should have the effect of improving your rankings - not destroying them.
So, at this point, there are several things to consider, as I see it:
-
Your client is experiencing the effects of a bug.
-
There is an external factor at play, such as a discrepancy of information between your current NAP (name, address, phone number) and 3rd party citations such as the ones you are building for the client via directories.
-
The client has been penalized for activity Google has red flagged (it doesn't happen often, but it does happen).
I would suggest that you report the whole incident via the Google and Your Business Forum: http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!forum/business
If you do not receive a response from the Google Top Contributors or employees in the 'Technical Advice?' forum, your next step would be to try to use the troubleshooter at http://support.google.com/places/bin/static.py?hl=en&ts=1386120&page=ts.cs to report that the client's listing has disappeared.
I hope my response hasn't been overwhelming but the history of this issue is fairly deep. I sincerely wish you good luck in finding resolution!
Miriam
-
-
Yes, I have had this happen to our listing when I accidentally switched to "this business serves customers at their locations", our listing disappeared from google maps. When I switched it back, it reappeared in a few days.
-
If you make changes to the address or phone, Google says it will require a verification. I would check and make sure removing Portland didn't change the site from live, to waiting to be verified.
-
I've heard of #1 before. Never tried it myself, I suspect #2 is the culprit.
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
-
I have a question regarding the "interesting finds" on mobile search
Our blogs were showing up on "interesting finds" section of mobile search results until about a month ago. What caused this, and how to revise so that they show.
Image & Video Optimization | | bonniee1 -
Google.com country redirection
As we all know, Google redirected the user based on location automatically.
Image & Video Optimization | | Moojin
e.g., connect to www.google.com from Korea, google automatically redirected to www.google.co.kr
However, for sometimes I noticed that if I connect to www.google.com, it doesn't redirect to local google anymore. I tested by using VPN, and seems like Google no longer do location redirection. Does anyone have any idea about this?0 -
Google Places Creation
Hello, I am currently managing 200 clients for which I have to create Google Places. Can I create 200 different places for each client, and manage all them from one Gmail account? If one client doesn't want to continue the contract, can I transfer the managing of the place to another account?
Image & Video Optimization | | cvissi0 -
Does Bing Business Portal still not accept Canadian listings?
I've read a lot of blog posts from a few years ago that Bing Business portal(maps) doesn't accept Canadian Business listings. I figured by now they would be accepting listings however when I try and submit one you cannot pick Canada. It's defaulted to USA. Are they seriously still not accepting Canadian listings?
Image & Video Optimization | | DCochrane0 -
How likely it is to rank both locally and organically
I think the question summarizes it pretty well. Did anybody experienced this, to rank for one or multiple keywords in both local and organic search results?
Image & Video Optimization | | echo10 -
Places listings vs other ORGANIC listings
Not sure how to search for exactly the answer I'm looking for, because frankly my question (at least to me) is hard to describe. I will try my best, though! So I have a client who has an audiology business. They are located in Denver, CO. For search, we have them listed in the PLACES portion of the local search results (with the map, phone, address, etc). We saw this as a pretty big win, because its a fairly competitive market. HOWEVER, the client feels like those listings aren't as clicked on, or aren't as prominent as say, a regular organic listing that would have a page title, and description. I am assuming that isn't correct, that if I could only have 1 listing I'd want the PLACES one, but it occurred to me that this assumption isn't really based on any data I have personally read. So my question is two-fold. 1a. Is my assumption about being in PLACES accurate, that that listing is more desirable (even if I could pick which one to get, which i don't think is realistic) and 1b. Has anyone seen or have data that backs up my assertion one way or another. Would love your thoughts! William Smith @williamsmith
Image & Video Optimization | | AudigyGroupDigital0 -
Which domain to use for SE business listings?
For a first time, new website. I have a Barber shop in Hartford named "Dixie Cutters" with two domains, dixiecutters.com and barberhartford.com. Obviously the latter domain has two main keywords, barber and location...Hartford. So it would be better to use that and use a 301 redirect for dixiecutters.com to redirect to barberhartford.com. Many online directories including SE listings on Google Places, BIng and Yahoo have already been set up withe domain "dixiecutters.com" and the email address [email protected]. If I choose to make barberhartford.com the primary domain with dixiecutters.com 301 redirecting to it....does this mean that I should then change the directory listings and more specifically, the SE business listings so that they have the primary domain listed (barbarhartford.com) with an email address [email protected]? Or can I leave all of this alone and keep as stated above without any SEO local consequences. I know consistency is a big issue with NAP. I also know it's recommended to use an email address with your domain name in the SE business listings. If a 301 is in place, can I use dixiecutters.com in my listings?
Image & Video Optimization | | MozMan20 -
UBL (Universal Business Listing) Alternatives?
I use both UBL (universal business listing) and LocalEZE to submit local listing information. UBL submits to the big database companies but LocalEZE has direct relationships with many of the local listing sites. UBL says they submit to LocalEZE but my LocalEZE agent just told me that they don't publish data from UBL so I basically have been lied to by UBL for a year saying they use LocalEZE to publish as well. I feel companies have a responsibility to make ethical business decisions and I don't know how comfortable I am using UBL. Does anyone have any recommendaitons for providers other than UBL for mass local listing data submission?
Image & Video Optimization | | qlkasdjfw0