Maps Listing Decrease End of Aug/Beginning of September
-
Hi there,
I was wondering if I could get some assistance for my Maps Listings. Our property management company, Bay Management Group (https://www.baymgmtgroup.com) started in Baltimore, then added an additional location in Maryland in 2015. We’ve had great success getting both locations to rank organically and in Maps listings for most related terms (property management in Baltimore, Baltimore property management, Maryland property managers, etc.).
We have recently expanded and have opened up a new office in Philadelphia. Organic rankings have been pretty good for this location, and Maps listings were gradually gaining in the rankings throughout the summer, however, around the last week in August/first week in September, we started noticing our Maps listings decreasing in the rankings (organic has remained about the same). At first, it was just the Philadelphia Maps listings that were affected, then that started to spread into the Baltimore and Maryland related rankings (again, just in Maps listings). While Baltimore and Maryland Map rankings have started to improve again, we’re struggling to get Philadelphia related rankings back on track.
We have tried the following items, but still aren’t seeing much of a rebound.
- All Maps listings have been claimed in Google (Baltimore and Maryland were claimed ~2010 and 2015 respectively; Philadelphia was claimed in June 2017)
- Yext and Facebook have been updated to exactly match the phone number and address to how Google Maps has it listed
- The phone number and address on our website (https://www.baymgmtgroup.com/philadelphia/) exactly matches Google and Yext listings (note that the site has Call Tracking Metrics in it to change the appearance of the number when coming from Adwords or organic search)
- Updated all business information in Google Maps (NAP, hours, photos) and have used the new “posts” section to publish company updates
Last week, we also updated our site speed to perform better in Google’s Pagespeed Insights. The site is responsive and has AMP on the blog posts as well. We've also been keeping an eye on Search Console and there aren't any manual actions against the site.
Any thoughts on what we could be overlooking here that’s hindering our listing from rebounding (and improving) on Philadelphia-related Maps listings? Has anyone else noticed significant changes in their Maps listings since the end of August?
Thanks in advance for your feedback!
-
Hi Joy,
Thanks so much for your response! I had seen that article, but wasn't entire sure if what I was seeing in the results were directly correlated to the Hawk update.
I've attached a screenshot of the Maps rankings changes I was seeing in my ranking checker. Unfortunately, I didn't take screenshots of the live Maps results before, so it's tough to pinpoint with certainty.
I am seeing two separate businesses, each with two locations, now showing up twice in the top 10, so that could definitely be related to the update. However, since I don't have screenshots of the live Maps SERPs, it's difficult to say for sure if that's what was causing our drop in the rankings, which is why I wanted to reach out and see if anyone else is noticing any other factor[s] that we may be overlooking.
Thank you again for your feedback! It could very well be related to the Hawk update!
-
Hi Don,
Thank you for your response! It could very well be that some of our competitors have recently upped their SEO game, but I'm a bit skeptical that they all upped it at the same time.
We try to be pretty proactive in implementing the latest SEO updates, posting regularly on social media, and publishing at least 3 blogs per week. We have recently also became even more aggressive in our off-page SEO as well, trying to gain the same backlinks as our competitors (and, of course, ones they don't). We haven't seen much of a change in the results yet, but I understand that a lot of these activities take time for results to start showing.
You mentioned that when your client moved to a more competitive market, their rankings also dropped, despite site and foot traffic staying about the same. I'm wondering if since we're so new to the market and our competitors are pretty well established up there, if brand name is currently more relevant to local searchers since it's more familiar. Our site traffic is relatively the same as before, but the majority of that seems to be coming from our existing markets/clients (in Maryland).
Thanks again for your feedback. Definitely something to look into a little deeper.
-
Great Article Joy,
Johnathan,
I have to think drops here on maps may be due to some of your competitors upping their game. I have a client who has recently moved locations. He was getting great traffic and local actions. Once the move occurred to a more competitive location the traffic remained but the client dropped in local actions (maps and calls)
My suggestion is to up your game with content marketing and backlink campaigns to stay in step with the competition.
Thanks,
Don
-
Do you have screenshots from before you started seeing the drop? It's possible you have an influx of competitors now that Google has loosened the filter. This happened on August 22 so it fits the timeline you're describing.
Here is my write-up about it: http://searchengineland.com/august-22-2017-hawk-google-local-algorithm-update-282269
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
-
Multiple SAB listings - Optimal Setup According to Proximity?
Hi everyone and thank you in advance!I am a new startup carpet cleaning business and looking to adopt the franchise SAB model since we are 5 cleaners, first being the owner (myself) located at the first SAB location. The aim is to have the other 4 cleaners create their own SAB listings managed by themselves, each pointing to its own dedicated landing page under the same domain for brand consistency. We collectively aim to cover Hertfordshire county in he UK and rank high in a few hot spots.A few questions:1. Setup - is this the right model for multiple SABs?2. SAB proximity - two of the addresses are 10 miles away from each which I get, not a lot of distance, but I understand even if this close, one SAB can only hope to rank high in a different town 10 miles away despite mentioning the town in its service area. I've been told being so close not only it looks silly on the map but we risk massively reduced visibility in GMB. Is this the case?3. If Question 2 is a no go - is it worth considering a different setup such as perhaps each GMB with its own dedicated web domain and therefore each listing becomes a different entity to avoid clashing?4. NAP consistency - being SABs and therefore not displaying the address in GMB, should we display NAP on the landing page for optimum SEO?Many thanks
Local Listings | | valrucar0 -
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 to Have Multiple Listings appear on Google maps
Hi my client has two locations for his restaurants: Me Gusta Tacos He wants to have both his locations show up in the map pack, which they currently do when you type in Restaurants, Dinner, food near me etc... However, when you google Me Gusta Tacos the Google listing shows up on the right for one of his locations, but there isn't a Map Pack for his two locations. I wasn't sure if a map pack only shows up when there are 3 or more locations, for instance, a chipotle which I added an image below to compare too. HGOgln5 Jgdoi4Y
Local Listings | | Sociable_Bistro0 -
Why would a website link disappear from a Google Place listing?
Hi, a local non-profit recently re-branded their name from MacDonald Center to Maybelle Center. When they updated their business information their website link disappeared. They've updated from within and dashboard to no avail. We've requested edits/updates via Google Map maker but it says Denied. Here's a URL for the SERP result. Note the button for "website" would normally appear by the button for "directions" https://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome-psyapi2&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8&q=maybelle center portland&oq=maybelle center portland&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i59j69i61.4316j0j7 Can someone please explain why this is happening and how we can fix it? They are a great community organization who's about to receive some media coverage and we'd really appreciate it if users hearing about the group be able to easily access their new website. They are aware of their duplicate listings but, typical of non-profits, have limited time and funds so are prioritizing to address more urgent issues first. However, I don't believe duplicate listings would cause such an issue but please let me know if I'm wrong here
Local Listings | | Flock.Media0 -
Getting your business name on a Google Map?
How do you get your business name to appear on Google Maps? See attachment. What's the process to get this to happen? I have a Google Local listing, but that doesn't seem to be enough. ZzFnwBj
Local Listings | | Gavin.Atkinson0 -
Why I'm I ranking so low on Google Maps
About 3 months I started a website (www.guyetteroofing.com) for my roofing business in Montgomery, Alabama. The site is still a work in progress, however, because the competition doesn't really market via internet it was fairly easy to rank on Google Maps. Within 1 month the business was letter "A" in Google Maps. About 3 three weeks ago my ranking was dropped considerably, not showing up at all in letters A through G. The business is still indexed in Google Maps, but only represented by a small red dot. My website is still ranking pretty high for "roofers in Montgomery", but my position on Google Maps has all but disappeared. I have no idea what I've done to be rank so low on Google Maps but still have a solid position on regular Google Search. I've checked my citations and my NAPs, there are a few inconsistencies but nothing major. How can I rank so far below my competition if I have twice as many citations, an actual website, and a Google Plus page?
Local Listings | | billyguyette0 -
Is there something that I can do to get my listing back in Places?
My Google Places listing is not showing as of Friday. The business name is Emerald Coast Carpet Cleaning in Shalimar, Florida. The area that I'am trying to show for is the Fort Walton/ Destin area. All my competitors are still showing in Places but mine is not. I am still seeing it on the map though. I didn't change anything in the profile in the past 14 days. Is there something that I can do to get my listing back in Places?
Local Listings | | ReviveMedia0 -
Bing Listing Category For Law Firm?
What do people use for Bing Place's listing for a law firm? The only category I can find is a sub-category "legal services?" If that's all there is, then okay, easy question, but it seems odd they have no attorney specific categories like Google does. Am I missing something here? Thanks, Ruben
Local Listings | | KempRugeLawGroup0