Ranking Differences for Google+ Local vs. Places Listings
-
I'm seeing some odd behavior with Google+ Local and Google Places listings for clients. I'm wondering if anyone else is seeing it...
Here's the situation:
We've recently bought on 4 new clients that all have duplicate listing issues, and, weirdly, all have both places and a Google+ local created listings.
For three of those four, the Google+ local listing is outranking the Places account for a brand name search (e.g. Dr. John Doe). Weirdly, in one instance, the Google+ local account that is outranking the Places page is named in a less accurate fashion. e.g searching for "Dr. John Doe" the rankings look like this...
A) John Doe Plastic Surgery, P.C. - Dr. John Doe
B) Dr. John Doe, MD
Anyone else seeing this sort of behavior?
How are you creating local listings for clients these days - via the places dashboard, or Google+ Local?
-
Hi Bede,
Got it. No, I have not run into this or seen it reported. Very interesting. I think that might be worth reporting to Google via their data issues phone number, though I suspect they might tell you to merge the listings...in which case, I personally wouldn't follow that advice. You could try to call them about it, though:
http://support.google.com/places/bin/static.py?hl=en&ts=1386120&page=ts.cs
Wish I had more insight on this, but I've not seen it before.
-
Hi Miriam,
I think the confusion comes from my incorrect use of terminology more than anything.
What I had noticed in the examples I mentioned was that Google+ Local pages that were being managed via the old places dashboard (what I was referring to as a "Places Page") were being outranked by those that had been created (By clients) in the Google+ Local dashboard. This is for brand-name searches.
So, we ended up with 2-pack listings:
Rank 1 - Newer listing, created via Google+ dashboard (New Page > Local Business or Place > Search and find via Phone Number etc.).
Rank 2 - Older listing, created back when Google+ didn't exist, and places was the only option.
Does that make sense?
I had read about the new dashboard and merge feature on Mike Blumenthal's blog. No sign of for me yet, but I'm definitely excited about it!
Thanks for responding!
Bede
-
Hey Bede,
I'm so sorry I didn't see this thread earlier. It just showed up in my inbox today. I am a bit puzzled by what you are describing, and this is doubtless due to the confusion surrounding agreed-upon terminology for Google's products. To me:
-
There are no Google Place Pages anymore
-
They all became Google+ Local pages (with the new interface), though many are still being controlled via the Google Places Dashboard.
-
They are shortly about to all become Google+ Local pages being controlled via the new Google Places for Business Dashboard that Google is rolling out (and which, apparently is supposed to make the merging of local and social features easier via a simple verification action).
-
But if you don't have the Google Places for Business Dashboard yet, merging is hazardous. Who knows? It may still prove to be hazardous in the new environment as well. Too new to tell.
Do my definitions match yours? Am I missing something? Please, let me know as I am very interested in your question, Bede.
-
-
Hi Bryan,
Thanks for the response.
My post wasn't so much about "How do I fix this" as it was my observation of Google+ Local pages ranking higher in the local SERPs than a page that was created with the older Places dashboard. I was hoping other people might have experienced similar situations.
In the situation that I'm talking about, the pages are actually Google+ Local pages and Places Pages (rather than a standard Google+ Business page). The merge process that's currently available is for combining Google+ Business pages and Places Pages, rather than a Google+ Local page and a Places page. As far as I'm aware, you can't merge a Google+ Local page with a Places Page at this point.
That aside, unfortunately we've found the merge process to be very unreliable - we're generally not doing it at all right now, due to all the issues people are experiencing.
I was also asking out of curiosity whether more people were using the Google+ Local interface to create a new local listing, or if they were using the Google Places dashboard.
Again, thanks for taking the time to respond. I appreciate it.
Bede
-
Hi Bede,
You can merge them http://www.seroundtable.com/google-page-local-verification-15526.html
Also, when it comes to a doctors/dentists you can have a listing for the name of the place and each dr. that practices there.
Hope this helps.
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 Places Bulk Uploader
Hi we have 15 stores we want to transfer over to our main google places account. We can only claim them with google places bulk uploader. So from what i have read, i have to add each store to the spreadsheet then request bulk upload. Since these google places listings already exist, will the listings i create (via the spreadsheet) simply merge with the old ones? Or could there be a chance of the creation of duplicate listings (how can you avoid this). And is it necessary to add latitude and longitude points (because you don't have to add them)? The goal is to add the old listings into a our Google Places account, and can only use the bulk uploader. Thanks,
Image & Video Optimization | | Mattcarter08
George0 -
Business listings - scope and time commitment
Hi guys It is my understanding that for a successful local search campaign, you need accurate listings in, Axiom, Localeze and Infogroup (as well as Google, Bing and Yahoo of course). My company has 70 locations. Does anyone have any idea what the time commitment would be of this? And is it free to add these listings to these three places (went to their sites but still confused). Trying to determine if this is within my team's bandwidth and/or whether it's better to go through a reasonably-priced, trusted local listings service. Thanks!
Image & Video Optimization | | SSFCU0 -
How to delete Google Places Negative Reviews?
Hi Friend, I have a question and hope you can help me answer. What is the best way to get rid of negative reviews or get the rating higher. Is it possible to get bad reviews removed from Google places? Quality Excellent: 3 Quality Good: 1 Quality Poor to fair: 4 Score Overall 10 out of 30: Poor to fair. Thanks in advance. KLLC
Image & Video Optimization | | KLLC0 -
How do I get my site to rank in Google Videos?
I have a site that has quite a few videos. When I do a search from Google video's using keywords for our site, the site is not listed with the video site although it is listed with the html site. So how do I get Google to recognize that the site has all the videos. eg google video search with keywords: social media "damon adachi" website: biztvcanada.com Thanks Janice
Image & Video Optimization | | jwdavis0 -
How do you get links from a photo pointing to a third party site in Google Places?
How do you get links from a photo pointing to a third party site. I’ve seen a number on other Places accounts but I can't figure out how to do it. They had a picture/logo and the url underneath it (instead of it saying 'from the owner' underneath it), when you clicked the photo it took you to the website instead of just a page with only that photo on it. Please see image as an example. I've highlighted the image links below. Thanks in advance for your help 🙂 i0HxK.jpg
Image & Video Optimization | | HICRM0 -
Google Places for Mobile Businesses in many cities
How do you set up Google Places account for mobile businesses where the drivers get calls from their homes and service customers in their respective cities? The problem is, the drivers don't want to list their home address as their business address, yet they still represent a service for a particular city. Any ideas?
Image & Video Optimization | | ocsearch0 -
UBL or LocalEZE? Local listing submission vendor.
We are between UBL and LocalEZE for our preferred local listing submission vendor. DIfferences:
Image & Video Optimization | | qlkasdjfw
*UBL does not have a relationship with local data vendors, but submits to axicom and infousa (as examples) which LocalEZE does not.
*LocalEZE has active feeds set up with many local vendors. What are your preferences? We are leaning twoard LocalEZE, Razorfish (the agency) is among their notable clients. What about submitting to both? I would be fearful that the data will overlap.0 -
Is it a bad idea to include a single keyword phrase at the end of the business name in Google Places?
I'm concerned about this for local SEO and citation purposes. It's not spammy and it flows well, and it sounds like a logical extension of our name, but I'm concerned that it will make it harder for Google to pick up our citations. Any thoughts?
Image & Video Optimization | | greghard0