Top Local Organic Rankings, But Nowhere to be found on Google Snack Pack
-
I've been working with a local gym for a while now. We successfully got the gym to beat out all its competitor and now it consistently ranks in the 3rd or 4th result for all major local industry keywords. For example "gym in [city]". The only thing above us is Yelp and other directory sites.
The problem I am running into is we do well organically, but when it comes to Google Snack Pack we aren't in the top three or even 10. You have to go deep into the next pages of the map to find our business. I did find that we use to be categorized as health club in Google My Business, but I changed that three months ago.
Some more additional info, the site when I got the account moved to a different url. So many directories and sites that linked to us in the past link to the old url. The old url is 301 redirected to our current url.
I haven't found much info about this topic and am looking for any experience or insight?
-
Hey Miriam,
That is interesting...and complex! Considering the location of the user at the time the search take place makes so much sense...especially for Google to rank them that way.
Unfortunately, that also makes it harder to help clients who want to be in the top three all the time.
Thanks so much for your time and insight.
Kirk
-
Hi Kirk,
Good question. Answer is, this is not an exact science. It's something you get a 'feel for'. Do this experiment. Look up "car dealerships" in the city nearest you and see if you see them clustered around a certain street in town on the Google Map. Look at the rankings next to the map (called the local finder view) and see if most of the high ranking businesses are in or around that cluster and if car dealerships that happened to be on the other side of town, away from this auto-row kind of setup common in much of the US, are not ranking quite as well as those physically located on the auto row.
If so, then this could be the concept of the industry cluster at play. I still see this phenomenon, but important to mention that, with every passing year, we are seeing more and more emphasis on the user being the centroid rather than the industry being the centroid. In other words, if me and my cell phone are on auto row in a town, Google will predominantly show me businesses there. If we drive across town, Google will show me the car dealerships over there. So, I am the moving centroid!
But, if you are searching from your house in San Diego for a car dealership in Santa Fe, NM, you're not much of a centroid in that scenario because you're awfully far away. In that case, you might see these clusters being more obvious than you would if you were physically located in Santa Fe.
Complex ideas, huh? But interesting!
-
Hi Miriam,
This is a great response. I have one question; how can one tell what Google's industry cluster is for a city? What is the standard or resource for measuring an area where a client is located?
Thanks!
Kirk
-
Thanks Miriam
-
Hey There!
It's very important to remember that citations are just one of several hundred estimated factors that contribute to local pack rankings. In my earlier reply from March 3rd, I recommended some things any local business owner should consider when they aren't ranking in the local pack. I'd suggest you investigate all of these. Hope it helps!
-
I've had Moz Local for my site for over a year and I have a 98% score, but I'm not in the local pack at all. Moz shows 0 vs my three competitors that show 40-60. I don't get it. We're a new kid on the block but we've been up and running over 2 years now.
Thanks,
-
Hi Jason,
So glad if this helped get your troubleshooting started! Regarding redirecting URLs, while I can't accurately state exactly how much the redirecting URLs might be causing trouble, they are something I would absolutely recommend cleaning up, partly for consistency purposes, but also to be sure your branding is cohesive across the board. So, yes, definitely put citation cleanup on your to-do list.
-
Thanks Matt. Yeah I've had an inkling its all about the consistency of the citations. I'll have to go through and see if I can start cleaning them up.
-
Thanks Miriam! I'm glad you were able to provide all that info into one post. What I'm thinking is it might be a Citation consistency. But I'll have to investigate more and see what it might be from all the factors you listed.
Quick Question: Because we just changed URL's in the last year, many citations have our old URL listed. Though that old URL is 301 redirected to our new one, would that still count as inconsistency because the URL itself is listed differently?
Thank you for all the help!
-
Hey Jason!
The most common reason for what you are describing is geographic. The high-organic-ranking-but-low-pack-ranking business is either outside of:
-
The user's centroid (where the user is physically located at the time of search)
-
Google's industry cluster (business is far from the industry centroid Google has assigned)
-
The business isn't actually inside of the city of search
Joy Hawkin's actually wrote a very good article about the 3rd issue over at Search Engine Land recently: http://searchengineland.com/rank-high-organically-not-locally-case-study-240692 I highly recommend reading that and doing a thorough study of any geographic limitations that may be holding you back.
Now, if it turns out not to be any of the above 3 things, the next thing to look into is whether something is wrong with the way the business is using Google My Business. Namely, if you've violated any guidelines, that can tank your local pack rankings.
Finally, if neither geography nor guideline violations are at play here, then you have to go back to the basics, like:
-
Organic strength
-
Citation consistency, spread and age
-
Reviews
etc.
Pretty much every case I've ever seen like the one you're describing can be diagnosed by investigating all of the above, and will it will turn out that one of the above things, or a combination of them, is the answer.
Hope this helps!
-
-
Generally a huge difference in local vs organic rankings is one of citation authority. You need to build more citation strength with full NAPs (name, address, phone) - things like what Moz Local does.
Doing that type of citation-building should help move you up the local charts. Make sure your GMB page is optimized for the location, you've added photos to the listing, the keyword is prominent across the description and such ... consistent NAP on other sites that list the business, and then just build more. Should rank fine after that.
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
-
Google My Business Question
I work for a large organization with a number of locations. There is a Google My Business listing for us, under our umbrella name, that lists an old address (building we no longer occupy) and says that we are "permanently closed". I believe this is an unverified listing because there is an "own this listing?" link in it. In order to take control of the listing, Google gives us three options: call, text or snail mail. The number is an automated line so calling and texting aren't going to work and snail mail wouldn't work b/c we're no longer in the building. Anyone know how we can take control of this listing so that it doesn't look like we're "permanently closed?"
Local Listings | | yaelslater0 -
Should I claim a non-local Google business listing?
If I have a business which is non-local, but has one location and is showing up with the address and directions already in the knowledge panel, should I claim the business? Eg: the company manufactures a single product and ships directly to customers all over the world. On the one hand, of course it seems I should claim it and get more control. On the other hand, part of that process is setting a service area and I worry that by doing so I may be making the company seem less relevant outside the service area in Google's eyes.
Local Listings | | PlusROI0 -
Best Tips to Get In the Local Pack
Apart from making sure your business information is 100% accurate, etc., what are your best tips to get a company ranking in the local pack? Do they need to rank well organically to be considered for the local pack or is it solely based on the consistency of their GMB page?
Local Listings | | BlueCorona1 -
Yahoo Local
Hello, I'm wondering how to add a business to Yahoo Local. I've tried searching for the URL to add it, but keep getting redirected to https://www.aabacosmallbusiness.com/advisor . Has Yahoo outsourced their business listings, or am I just not finding the page I'm looking for? Shauna
Local Listings | | shauna70840 -
Multiple Google Business Pages/ Backlinks for Google Maps
Hello, I represent several attorneys in the metro Atlanta area. In doing my research with open site explorer and other tools I am finding that many of the competitors have more that one, if not several personal and branded Google business pages.
Local Listings | | underdogmike
So this raises several questions while I go through my Local SEO strategy. How Many Google+/My Business Pages Can A Business Owner Have? Should I be creating backlinks for the Google Business Pages as I do for my clients website? I noticed that some of the competitors are creating backlinks with their Google Map Location URL, is this a best practice? In addition to those questions, I am curious about the various different Google+ pages that are available to business owners.
As of now, I create and cultivate the following Google Pages for my clients: Claim a GMB Page and optimize it with photos and accurate information Attached to the GMB Page there is a Google + Page(this is where I share blogs and updates for the business). Upon further review I feel like there are a few steps that I am missing in regards to the Google + pages. Listed below are the links to Local Market leader for Criminal Defense in Woodstock GA. From what I can tell he has 4 separately branded Google+ pages that are all verified. https://plus.google.com/104434819427186216811/about https://plus.google.com/113476381600385352368/about https://plus.google.com/104300020905072698361/about https://plus.google.com/103523192982501886740/about Should I be taking the same approach?0 -
How to appear on Google Maps
We have a Google+ Local page, however, we are not appearing at all in Google Maps when searched for relevant keywords, such as Tax Accountant Dandenong (for google.com.au). What can we do to make sure that our business appears on Google Maps when relevant keyword phrases are searched?
Local Listings | | Gavo0 -
Do Citations help will all local rankings/Pages on my website or just the page it's linked to
Hi All, My ecommerce site has different category/landing pages for each of my branches . I'm currently getting some more citations done as wondered the following Is it a general rule to say, that the more citations you have the better as long as they are consistent and free? Given that I have different categories /landing pages showing the NAP of my individual branches along with unique content, should all these extra citations help with local rankings across my whole site or is it usually just helping the specific localized webpage it's pointing to ? I can get a company to help me do my citations but to do all the branches, it is going to be quite expensive. Is citations quite a big individual SEO factor in local search as opposed to on page seo factors etc etc. Any advice greatly appreciated. thanks Peter
Local Listings | | PeteC120 -
Local SEO citations
Hello all 🙂 I've just started doing some local SEO citation stuff, using Whitespark. I'm wondering if it's a good idea to run different searches/listings for different keywords for the same business? For example, 'digital marketing manchester' and 'website design manchester' - or would you simply just do one keyphrase? All help appreciated!
Local Listings | | Seabrook
William0