How can I PREVENT my page from ranking for a keyword?
-
Hello,
I'm in a unique situation where I need to prevent a web page and business listing from ranking for a keyword in Google. The keyword is a phone number that is not associated with the business and is not listed anywhere on the page or in reviews on the business listing. It's causing confusion for people who perform a reverse phone number lookup and see our business and think we called them. I already submitted feedback on the search results, have contacted GMB support, have submitted the page for indexing in Search Console, and am now going to try displaying the correct phone number in the page title and meta description.
Aside from these steps, is there anything else I can do? Your help is appreciated!Thanks!
- Lindsey
-
Thanks, Miriam! I appreciate your time and expertise. We'll continue to proceed with the steps you recommended. I'll also provide an update if we do eventually resolve the issue!
-Lindsey
-
Hi Lindsey,
Wow - okay, yes, this is really a strange scenario, and after looking through the details of your reply, I can honestly say I've never seen anything quite like this before.
I was hoping that your replies to my questions would lead us both to discover that this phone number is actually listed somewhere on the website, but I can find no reference to it. I wasn't able to reproduce BrightLocal pulling this up at zip code level, but as local people have sent you screenshots of this, then clearly it's happening. It seems extremely odd that Google would pull all this together from comments including the business name on the pages of reverse phone number lookup sites, but I can't find any other website referencing the number, leading me to ask, "Can Google really be pulling this together this way?".
I have two suggestions.
-
Short term: I would suggest that the medical center change the automated phone number message so that is stating the proper number so that at least patients are being given some clue of what they should dial to reach the center. I called the number and it didn't give me the correct number to call for this particular service.
-
Long term: There could be something I am overlooking here, in the limited time I have to dig into this. The best local sleuth I know is Joy Hawkins of Sterling Sky. I would recommend that the medical center gather those BrightLocal screenshots and reach out to Joy to see if you can book some of her consulting time. I would ask her to see if she can provide a clear hypothesis of why this is happening and a plan of action. Joy is a also a Google forum Top Contributor, so there is a chance she might be able to escalate your issue for you.
I hope these suggestions at least provide a path forward for you, if not a resolution of this mystery.
-
-
Hi Miriam,
Thank you for your response. Below are the answers to your questions.
1) What is the origin of this unwanted phone number? Was it previously used by the business or do you have no idea at all where it's coming from? The business we're referring to is a health system, and the phone number is an outgoing phone number that is used by physicians to anonymously call their patients. If you call the phone number, you hear a pre-recorded message that it is an outgoing phone number and are unable to reach anyone via that line. I'm unaware whether this phone number was ever used as an actual phone number, but it's very unlikely.
**2) If you have no idea where it's coming from, have you looked up the number in Google's main search engine to see which website pages it is published on? **
The web pages this phone number is published on are all "reverse phone number" websites such as shouldianswer.com, npnr.org, okcaller.com, everycaller.com, callersmart.com, and so forth. These are all 3rd party sites that we have no control over.4) If a third party, is the name and/or address of your business also published on the page that is listing the unwanted phone number? The organization name appears in some of the user comments, but not this specific location's name or address. I've requested that the user comments be removed from the 3rd party sites, and they have been taken down. Most 3rd party sites just list the city. I've been unable to find the address or specific location name listed with the phone number.
6) Where, exactly, is Google displaying your name associated with this phone number? Is it in your Google Knowledge Panel? Is it in the organic results? The location is displaying in both Google organic results and the knowledge panel. The organic link always appears, but the knowledge panel only appears when performing a search in that geographic area. I've received screenshots from users searching in that area and have also been able to replicate it using BrightLocal's local search results checker.
Sadly, when looking in Search Console, this incorrect phone number is also the #1 keyword driving traffic to this page, so I'm eager to figure out a solution!
I'm attaching an image of the phone number and location as it appears in search results.
-
Hi Lindsey,
This sounds like a difficult situation. I have a few questions:
-
What is the origin of this unwanted phone number? Was it previously used by the business or do you have no idea at all where it's coming from?
-
If you have no idea where it's coming from, have you looked up the number in Google's main search engine to see which website pages it is published on?
-
If yes to #2, do you control any of the website pages listing this number, or are they controlled by a third party?
-
If a third party, is the name and/or address of your business also published on the page that is listing the unwanted phone number?
-
If yes to #4, have you contacted the third party to ask them to update the page so that your name is no longer associated with the number?
-
Where, exactly, is Google displaying your name associated with this phone number? Is it in your Google Knowledge Panel? Is it in the organic results?
It would likely be most helpful if you could share the identity of the business in question, and perhaps the last 4 digits of the bad phone number (I don't recommend putting your name and phone number in the post or it will just add to references to your name+this phone number). If you aren't able to share the identity of the business, your answers to the above questions may at least help the community to offer better advice. So sorry to hear you're having trouble with this!
-
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
Do any Local Rank Trackers Report This Way?
I'm having trouble finding a local rank tracking service with useful reporting. I've tried several and for the money, have gravitated toward's Whitespark's service as for $25/month I can track unlimited locations. But their report is indicative of what I've seen time and time again in my 18-year experience as a Software Developer and Internet Marketer. Whomever is making the design decisions isn't a Seasoned (Local) SEO, and/or probably hasn't done their homework well enough by talking to seasoned SEOs. Their Summary Report looks like this (see attachement). When I'm doing Local SEO I'm looking at a lot of reporting data but among that, probably the most important is: How many of the listings moved up into position #1-3 on Local Finder which is also usually the Local 3-Pack (sometimes a 2-pack explaining the discrepancy in the first two rows between the number in the #1-3 column.) I also want to know how many listing moved UP into the #4-10. And vice versa, what fell out of #1-3 and #4-10. The problem with the format of this report, if a listing falls from #2 to #5, it will be a decrease in #1-3 and an INCREASE for #4-10. This would give me the false impression that a listing that was below #10 came into the #4-10 when in actuality the increase in #4-10 was because of a decrease in #1-3!! One situation is positive the other is negative. What I want to know is how many listings (totals without getting out the calculator): moved up into #1-3 (White Spark does this via the Increase column in the Local 3-Pack row) moved up into #4-10 moved down out of #1-3 to #4-10 moved down out of #1-3 to below #10 moved down out of #4-10 to below #10. Does anyone know of local tracking services that give you this kind of data in this way? XQppQKs.jpg
Local Listings | | Consult19010 -
How to Rank in Yelp
Hello everyone! I manage SEO for a pretty large brand that has close to 100 office locations nationwide. In the last year we have completely revamped our Yelp pages. This has been a great secondary source of traffic and conversions for us because of the type of industry we are in. The problem is, it can be exponentially better if we were more visible. We have done almost everything we can to make our pages as good if not better than almost any competitor regardless of geographic location. We even have the enhanced profiles (extortion) that remove competitors ads from appearing on our listings. Here is what we have done in the last year to each listing: Uploaded tons of photos Increased reviews Added proper categories Fine-tuned all of our CTAs Added in a unique and optimized business description ( Available with enhanced profiles) Set the proper service area range on their map Increased our review response rate ( both negative and positive) to 100% Still, even after months and months have gone by we struggle to rank on the first page for our service category. Doing manual searches often turn up competitors, who do not even have their listing claimed, have no photos, little reviews will rank higher than us. Even though we have an account rep because of our business size, bringing this issue up to them is about as useful as talking to a blanket. They push CPC so hard that its the last thing they are willing to help with. It has gotten to the point where I am honestly starting to believe in a self-curated conspiracy theory that they purposely hold larger brands back in organic to sell CPC harder. Obviously certain brands that hold the branding clout like a "Best Buy" would be hard to get away with. But still, we do all the right things and we are getting very minimal results compared to where we should be. Has anyone else had issues with Yelp or have any ideas on some steps we could take to appease their particular algorithm? Thanks! -Ben
Local Listings | | Davey_Tree1 -
Google My Business Pages - Still Relevant or Phasing Out?
Google My Business plays a big part of getting your company to rank in the local pack for local search queries. Apart from making sure this is correct and up to date, where do you think the future of GMB pages is headed? Will Google eventually start phasing these out and come up with a different way to populate the local pack?
Local Listings | | BlueCorona1 -
Can I use the same interior photos for multiple stores in Google My Business?
Hi, The company I work for has many store locations across the country. Getting good/quality interior pictures has become very difficult for us. We recently good a Virtual Tour from Google for one of the locations, and they took some really pictures. According to Google, the "Photos should represent the actual business" and "Represent the real-world business location". My question is: since our stores are VERY similar in the interior, can we use the same pictures for them while we get more pictures? Would Google penalize this? Thanks!
Local Listings | | StantonOptical0 -
Which Rank Trackers Include Local 3-pack Rankings?
Granted the Local 3-pack is heavily influenced by the distance between the user and the business, when you actually include the city name in the search, the local 3 pack result doesn't center the map at the city in the search and not the user's location so it is much more consistent despite the searcher's location. So my personal opinion is that it is worth tracking local 3-pack when you use a keyword such as "Home Inspection Seattle Wa" With that said, which rank tracking services includes the local 3-pack in their tracking results, other than of course Bright Local?
Local Listings | | JCCMoz0 -
Rank English Terms in Swiss Google Google.ch
Happy New Year! I have a .com site that does well on Google.co.uk. But we would like to rank on Google.ch (switzerland) for English terms. There is a large expat community, living in Switzerland that would benefit from our services. Any ideas how I can improve organic SEO on the Google.ch SE? Many thanks! PM me for website. Otherwise I'll get lots of spam to my client 🙂
Local Listings | | SolveWebMedia0 -
How can I submit Baidu business listings if I live outside of China?
A client of our wants to manage business listings for three locations in China. We wanted to submit to Baidu but from what I've learned this is highly regulated (you live in China, pay a fee and call them to confirm). This is the only article I could find about submitting to Baidu: http://www.nanjingmarketinggroup.com/blog/baidu/how-can-baidu-maps-help-my-business Are there any conduit or 3rd party services available that can handle this? Thanks
Local Listings | | RosemaryB0 -
Rankings stuck on page 2 - what am I missing?
My business website ranked on the first page for 48 of 51 keywords for years. Then 10 months ago I had a duplicate content problem from a bad plugin and every keyword ranking dropped off the first page. I got the duplicate content problem fixed, but I've been stuck with only 3 keywords of 51 on the first page ever since. This is a local site and without much competition at all. http://www.pmaaustin.com The Yoast SEO Plugin shows the on page optimization of nearly every page/post on this website as solid Green, but MOZ rates nearly all of my pages' On Page Optimization as an F. It rates nearly all these keywords as an F as showing they should all be optimized on the Home page. I don't understand that. Also according to MOZ ,versus my competitor's websites, I have mostly the highest Domain and Page Authority. I also has the largest # and most relevant Root Domains. It also has the best written content, and the almost only active blog. Still, nearly every keyword is sitting on page 2. It seems like it wants to "Spring" onto page 1! What am I missing?
Local Listings | | OhYeahSteve0