Would duplicate listings effect a client's ranking if they used same address?
-
Lots of duplication on directory listings using similar or same address, just different company names... like so-and-so carpet cleaning; and another listing with so-and-so janitorial services.
Now my client went from a rank around 3 - 4 to not even in the top 50 within a week.
-- -- -- Would duplication cause this sudden drop?
Not a lot of competition for a client using keyword (janitorial services nh);
-- -- -- would a competitor that recently optimized a site cause this sudden drop?
Client does need to optimize for this keyword, and they do need to clean up this duplication. (Unfortunately this drop happened first of March -- I provided the audit, recommendations/implementation and still awaiting the thumbs up to continue with implementation).
--- --- --- Did Google make a change and possibly find these discrepancies within listings and suddenly drop this client's ranking?
And they there's Google Places:
Client usually ranks #1 for Google Places with up to 12 excellent reviews, so they are still getting a good spot on the first page.The very odd thing though is that Google is still saying that need to re-verify their Google places.
I really would like to know for my how this knowledge how a Google Places account could still need verification and yet still rank so well within Google places on page results? because of great reviews? --- Any ideas here, too?
_Cindy
-
Glad to be of help, Cindy. Good luck!
Miriam
-
Miriam,
Thank you very much. I believe I am starting to see the whole picture of possibilities for this drop in rank. And excellent info about Google Places.
I do need to visit the Places help forum and add it to the list of resources!
Much appreciated.
_Cindy
-
Hi Cindy,
I would definitely suspect either a penalty or a bug of some sort in regards to the drop from #1 to not in top 50.
What happens when you do a direct business name or phone number search within maps.google.com for the business? Are you able to find their Place Page, or, possibly, getting a 'Do Not Support' message.
Check out this thread at the Google Places Help Forum to see if you recognize your problem in it:
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/business/technical-issue/9JszqkewMVU
Regardless of this, you have clearly identified problems with the business that need to be fixed ASAP. There is no question in my mind that the data confusion could be precisely what has caused the ranking drop. Data consistency is the number one requirement of a good Places record, but, a business can get by for months or years with high rankings and bad data. Then, one day, it all goes away. This is something I see being reported constantly in the Google Places Help Forum, and the major lesson is that if you find problems, make every effort to clean them up as swiftly as possible. Then, once you've cleaned up the record to the best of your ability, you need to wait for the effects of what you've done to settle in. So, it becomes about patience.
Hopefully, the client will give you the go-ahead to get cracking on this. Good luck!
-
Perfect, thanks Cody, helps a lot.
And thank you for advice on matching contact page and Google Places!
_Cindy
-
In the local search realm, you want to have every directory listing exactly the same as it appears on your contact page. This allows search engines to associate those listings with your business without a doubt. As a good practice, I'd go ahead and make sure they all match, especially Google Places vs. your client's Contact Us page on their website.
Also, Penguin hit directories pretty hard. There is no penalization going on from what I have read, but there has been some major devaluation in links. It's likely the case that your client is not getting nearly as much weight from the directory links as they once were. Check out the link profile and see how many of these there are. I would imagine more reputable links now need to be acquired.
About the places listing, I'm not sure why that would occur, but it really doesn't matter for the end result here. If the Big G says you need to re-verify I would do it. It's a quick thing to do and that can't be helping their rankings.
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
-
The importance of url's - are they that important?
Hi Guys I'm reading some very contrasting and confusing reviews regarding urls and the impact they have on a sites ability to rank. My client has a number of flooring products, 71 to be exact - categorised under three sub categories 1. Gallery Wood - 2. Prefinshed Wood - 3. Parquet & Reclaimed. All of the 71 products are branded products (names that are completely unrelated to specific keyword search terms. This is having a major impact regarding how we optimise the site. FOR EXAMPLE: A product of the floor called "White Grain" - the "Key Word" we would like to rank this page for is Brown Engineered Flooring. I'm interested to know, should the name of the branded product match the url? What would you change to help this page rank better for the keyword - Brown Engineered Flooring. Title page: White Grain Url: thecompanyname.com/gallery-wood/white-grain (white grain is the name of the product) Key Word: Brown Engineered Flooring **Seo Title: **White Grain, Brown Engineered Flooring by X Meta Description: BLAH BLAH Brown Engineered Flooring BLAH BLAH Any feedback to help get my head around this would be really appreciated. Thank you.
Technical SEO | | GaryVictory0 -
Rank a site that was 301'd
We had a customer that had 2 sites. They left us, and 301'd site A to site B. Things didn't go well. Now, a year later they want to use us again. Ideally, I would undo the 301. Has anyone done this? Would I be better off starting with a new domain? If you've done it, how long before it started to rank like you expected/hoped?
Technical SEO | | TimColeman0 -
My blog page isn't ranking in Google
Hi, I noticed that my blog page on my site isn't in Google when i search for full URL link http://www.asggutter.com/blog/ instead i see page that isn't even working asggutter.com/sitemap.xml screen shot http://screencast.com/t/6OVFLwL8nTL How i can i fix that. Thanks
Technical SEO | | tonyklu0 -
What's best practice for blog meta titles?
I have the option of placing meta titles on the actual blog, or on the blog category on my site. Should I have separate meta titles for each blog or bundle them under a category and try to drive traffic to the category? Can anyone help with best practice?
Technical SEO | | Lubeman0 -
Does the use of sliders for text-on-page, effects SEO in any way?
The concept of using text sliders in an e-commerce site as a solution to placing SEO text above or in between product and high on ages, seems too good to be true.... or is it? How would a text slider for FAQ or other on-page text done with sliding paragraphs (similar but not this specific code- http://demo.tutorialzine.com/2010/08/dynamic-faq-jquery-yql-google-docs/faq.html) might effect text-on-page SEO. Does Google consider it hidden text? Would there be any other concerns or best practices with this design concept? faq.html
Technical SEO | | RKanfi0 -
As a wholesale website can our independent retailer's website use (copy) our content?
As a wholesaler of villa rentals, we have descriptions, images, prices etc can our agents (independent retailers) use the content from our website for their site or will this penalize us or them in Google rankings?
Technical SEO | | ewanTHH0 -
Blank pages in Google's webcache
Hello all, Is anybody experiencing blanck page's in Google's 'Cached' view? I'm seeing just the page background and none of the content for a couple of my pages but when I click 'View Text Only' all of teh content is there. Strange! I'd love to hear if anyone else is experiencing the same. Perhaps this is something to do with the roll out of Google's updates last week?! Thanks,
Technical SEO | | A_Q
Elias0 -
Will changing our colocation affect our site's link juice?
If we change our site's server location to a new IP, will this affect anything involving SEO? The site name and links will not be changing.
Technical SEO | | 9Studios0