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I regularly hear things in the Local SEO world that many people believe, but which are completely false. I wanted to put some of these myths to rest by listing out the top 9 Local SEO myths that I run into most frequently.
1. Deleting your listing in Google My Business actually removes the listing from Google.
Business owners will often question how they can get rid of duplicate listings on Google. One of the more common things people try is claiming the duplicate and then deleting it from the Google My Business Dashboard. When you go to delete a listing, you receive a scary message asking if you're sure you want to do this:
The truth is, removing a listing from Google My Business (GMB) just makes the listing unverified. It still exists on Google Maps and will often still rank, provided you didn’t clear out all the categories/details before you deleted it. The only time you’d really want to delete a listing via GMB is if you no longer want to manage the listing.Google confirms this in their help center article:
When you delete a local page, the corresponding listing will be unverified and you will no longer be able to manage it. Google may still retain business information from the page and may continue to show information about the business on Maps, Search, and other Google properties, including marking the business as permanently closed, moved, or open, depending on the information that’s known about the business.
2. Failure to claim your page means your business won’t rank anywhere.
I’m sure most of you have received those annoying phone calls that say: “Your business is not currently verified and will vanish on Google unless you claim it now!”
First of all, consider the authority of the people who are calling you. I can say with certainty they are not experts in this industry, or they wouldn’t resort to robo-calling to make sales.
The Moz Local Search Ranking Factors does list verifying your listing as #13 for making an impact on ranking in the 3-pack, but this is often because business owners add more data to the listing when they verify it. If they left the listing exactly how it was before verifying, the verification “status” would not likely impact the ranking much at all. We often see unverified pages outranking verified ones in really competitive markets.
3. "Professional/Practitioner" listings on Google are considered duplicates and can be removed.
Google often creates listings for the actual public-facing professionals in an office (lawyers, doctors, dentists, realtors, etc), and the owner of the practice usually wants them to disappear. Google will get rid of the listing for the professional in two different cases:
a) The professional is not public-facing. Support staff, like hygienists or paralegals for example, don’t qualify for a listing and Google will remove them if they exist.
b) The business only has one public-facing individual. For example, if you have a law firm with only one lawyer, Google considers this to be a “Solo Practitioner” and will merge the listing for the professional with the listing for the office. Their guidelines state to “create a single page, named using the following format: [brand/company]: [practitioner name].”
In the case that the professional has left your office, you can have the listing marked as moved if the professional has retired or is no longer working in the industry. This will cause it to vanish from the search results, but it will still exist in Google’s back-end. If the professional has moved to a different company, you should have them claim the listing and update the address/phone number to list their new contact information.
4. Posting on G+ helps improve your ranking.
Phil Rozek explains this best: “It’s nearly impossible for people to see your Google+ posts unless they search for your business by name. Google doesn’t include a link to your 'Plus' page in the local pack. Google doesn’t even call it a 'Plus' page anymore. Do you still believe being active on Google+ is a local ranking factor?”
No, posting on G+ will not cause your ranking to skyrocket, despite what the Google My Business phone support team told you.
5. "Maps SEO" is something that can be effectively worked on separately from "Organic SEO."
I often get small business owners calling me saying something along the lines of this: "Hey, Joy. I have an SEO company and they’re doing an awesome job with my site organically, but I don’t show up anywhere in the local pack. Can I hire you to do Google Maps optimization and have them do Organic SEO?"
My answer is, generally, no. “Maps Optimization” is not a thing that can be separated from organic. At Local U in Williamsburg, Mike Ramsey shared that 75% of ranking local listings also rank organically on the first page. The two are directly connected — a change that you make to your site can have a huge influence on where you rank locally.
If you're a local business, it's in your better interests to have an SEO company that understands Google Maps and how the 3-pack works. At the company I work for, we've always made it a goal to get the business ranked both organically and locally, since it’s almost impossible to get in the 3-pack without a strong organic ranking and a website with strong local signals.
6. Google employees are the highest authority on which ranking signals you should pay attention to.
Google employees are great; I love reading what they come out with and the insight they provide. However, as David Mihm pointed out at Local U, those employees have absolutely no incentive to divulge any top-secret tips for getting your website to rank well. Here are some recent examples of advice given from Google employees that should be ignored:- Duplicate listings will fix themselves over time.
- Posting on Google+ will help your ranking (advice given from phone support reps).
- If you want to rank well in the 3-pack, just alter your business description.
Instead of trusting this advice, I always suggest that people make sure what they're doing matches up with what the pros are saying in big surveys and case studies.
7. Setting a huge service area means you’ll rank in all kinds of additional towns.
Google allows service-area businesses to set a radius around their business address to demonstrate how far they're willing to travel to the customer. People often set this radius really large because they believe it will help them rank in more towns. It doesn’t. You will still most likely only rank in the town you're using for your business address.
8. When your business relocates, you want to mark the listing for the old location as closed.
The Google My Business & Google MapMaker rules don’t agree on this one. Anyone on the Google MapMaker side would tell a business to mark a listing as "closed" when they move. This will cause a business listing to have a big, ugly, red "permanently closed" label when anyone searches your business name.
If your listing is verified through Google My Business, all you need to do is edit the address inside your dashboard when you move. If there's an unverified duplicate listing that exists at your old address, you want to make sure you get it marked as "Moved."
9. Google displays whatever is listed in your GMB dashboard.
Google gives business owners the ability to edit information on their listing by verifying it via Google My Business. However, whatever data the owner inputs is just one of many sources that Google will get information from. Google updates verified listings all the time by scraping data from the business website, inputs from edits made on Google Maps/MapMaker, and third-party data sources. A recent case I’ve seen is one where Google repeatedly updated an owner-verified listing with incorrect business hours due to not being able to properly read the business hours listed on their website.
Were you surprised by any of those Local SEO myths? Are there others that you come across regularly? I’d love to hear about it, so please leave a comment!
Haha Joy, those are really good ones we hear all the time!
Except posting on G+. Didn't realize so many thought that would help ranking.
Just thought of another one we hear a lot: Hiding your address (if you are a service area business) hurts your ranking. It doesn't. And unless you have a staffed walk in office, you must hide address or it's a violation.
Funny, I was talking to an agency today who seemed to think posting on G+ would help rankings...!
Many agencys say "they know about ranking" but most of them know nothing....
I follow you on G+ and value your opinion but honestly did believe it to help your ranking.
The worst thing about local SEO is that they give value to reviews and not going to check it that it was fake or real.
Some more myths are here:
Definitely Agree
I'm 100 percent agree with you @Shalu
I still can't believe the number 8!! Lol.
Hi Joy,
It's always funny to read this kind of posts cause you can catch yourself thinking: OMG that's a Myth? hahahaha. Honestly, I thought numers 4, 7 and 8 were true... What a fool.
Gotta congratulate you for the post, so entertaining and easy to read :-)
Yes I agree
Hi Joy
Of all these myths, the only thing that was certain is that G + does not help to better position a web ...
The rest, the truth is that in some cases not I had not thought, but it's good to know everything you indicate in this post
Congratulations for the post!!!
I was so surprised.
I'll dispute that "debunk".
Google+ posts can contain links... Links from Google DO effect your rankings... So tell me again how posting on G+ and linking back to relevant pages DOESN'T contribute to ranking?
Google could give a flying F about "social signals" -- However, links... links still matter -- especially from Google.
Hey Scott,
Thanks for the comment. Links on Google Plus are no-followed so I have never seen them as a valuable link source. I've never personally had any clients where posting on G+ impacted their ranking or traffic in any way. I haven't seen any big case studies on it either and most of the contributors to the Local Search Ranking Factors Survey agree that it's not a big ranking factor. That being said, if you know of examples that prove it does help in a big way I'd love to hear about it :) My opinions can always be swayed with evidence. Wouldn't be the first time I changed my opinion on a ranking factor ;)
Actually now it has been proved that nofollow link also produces some value but the only thing that matter is the purpose of link. Its not only in case of G+, in fact in every SM platform it is necessary to produce helpful and engaging content.
Google counts no follow links... They just aren't as effective as followed links. and +1's to G+ posts ARE followed links, according to Dr. Pete of Moz... or was it Mark Traphagen... I don't recall. That article came out nearly 2 years ago.
https://screencast.com/t/eIsZcD1rhLcd -- Google reporting on links from G+ -- note this is both posts & description (within which there ARE followed links...)
We agree, google + posts should not be underestimated. Scott, have you done any tests to estimate what exactly is their influence on ranking. We strongly believe that the links matter, but in any case Google makes the difference between website links and links from social networks (follow or no follow) as the latter are too easy to manipulate.
I completely disagree about Google caring about social signals. I published an article here not too long ago about a brand new website building an email list of over 1300 in a couple days. The post being studied in that article had zero links, the domain was brand new, yet after 2 days of rampant social sharing (thousands of shares), jumped right into the top 5 for a term that it had no business ranking for. I have seen this site do the same thing with several other keywords -- competing sites are showing the same results.
Sam, did the rankings stick? I've seen social activity boost rankings as well, but I've always seen the rankings disappear after the social activity died down. I assume it's just some kind of temporary "people are talking about this, so we should probably rank it" boost.
Google cares about LINKS... Social shares can create links for you... but Google doesn't care that you posted something on Twitter with a link (Twitter links are nofollow and have been for years). It's the link... followed or not, that makes the difference.
Interesting point Joy, I mean its important to listen to Google employees but considering that whatever comes from them is correct is not really a great idea.
Unfortunately, if you have a client who read through the forums and found an answer from a Google employee… explaining them is almost next to impossible.
That is not with local only but with normal organic SEO the problem is the same… I mean let’s stop doing guest blogging as Matt don’t want us to build links via Guest Blogging…. I mean seriously...
I think it’s a great idea to consider their comments and then discuss with experts within the industry to see what’s exactly you should be doing instead of following Google employee’s response blindly.
Note: Google employees response is not always Google response #justathought!
The thing that I found most shocking were all the comments from people that were shocked that Google+ doesn't affect rankings. Posts on Google+ have never contributed to rankings, and now, with the way Google has completely separated local from Google+, there is truly no reason for a business to waste any time on Google+. Well, except for the extremely rare cases where a business actually has a following and active engagement, but that's social media marketing, not SEO.
Again... Links. Aside from Google personalizing results because someone is connected to you on G+: following, in circles, left you a google review, etc.
https://screencast.com/t/7Hv6HNpK
I can get behind the personalization thing, to a degree. There just aren't that many non-technical people on Google+. The vast majority of the customers for small businesses won't be on Google+, so the business won't benefit from the personalization.
As for the links, yes, it has been shown that nofollow links can have some extremely minor impact, but are these links really going to move the needle? No. At least not enough to waste time on Google+ posting stuff for the very very minimal link value. There are just way better things to put your time into that actually WILL move the needle and improve your rankings.
It's like you read my mind Darren. This is a smart man here everyone! You have to be pretty knowledgeable to get featured on Moz's Whiteboard Friday!! :)
Great post. Thanks for all tips. Google+ posts definitely help for SEO, but you have to make them indexed somehow. Otherwise, it has no effect at all.
All myths which have been described by you is totally true. Some times we do the same mistake cause of not awareness. Thanks for this nice and informative topics.
Good evening,
And what happens with the reviews? Is this a myth? Actually, directly influence in the position of your website?
What Influences more? The quality or quantity of reviews and diversity of opinions?
Reviews definitely impact ranking. Both the quality, quantity, and the text of the actual review itself.
Thank you so much for your response!
Thanks Joy - always great reading articles about Local Search from someone who is an expert :-)
Agree
Hey Joy. Nice article and appreciate the insight from all the Local SEO pros. All of these comments go to show how difficult Local is and how much it changes. With the limited amount of space in the Local Pack and Local Paid Ads coming, it's only going to get harder.
Look forward to your next article!
I am totally agree with this point "Posting on Google+ will help your ranking "
Nice summary Joy! These are definitely some of the more common question/topics we're facing day to do (either clients or management), so this is a great write up. I think a big thing to remember is that we're working with a product we don't directly control (Google does), so it's important to follow the written guidelines and make sure the information is consistent. Give Google more signals for NAP info (consistent citations), put out a press release if you move locations so they have another reference point, and focus on the same SEO elements as you would for organic.
Like anything else, Local SEO takes time and work but does pay off when done correctly :)
Great post, I personally try to make sure I include rich snippet versions of all the local data on the customer website so that google et al should have no problem but reading and confirming information
Keyword stuffing in the business name field still works, unfortunately. I wish it didn't.
Let's not forget keyword stuffing, I still see it almost every day.
Excellent contribution. I think they're all. You always remember is to place the keywords in the business name. It doesn' t work. Only provides the relevance of the site, its content , NAP and others. Even more, google does not like it that way. You interested in the business name and dot appears. To do this the decryption of the business. Greetings.
Wow what a great article I am a SEO Analyst that is also A Level 4 Local Guide and I am always evaluating new ways and methods of improving online relevance and organic ranking. Although like others I have ben deceived to believe that Google+ is a contributing factor to this mainly becaus the amount of exposure my business have been receiving. Surprisingly enough I have stumbled upon many great articles From Moz and consider them to be the elite SEO resource. The only thing I am questionable about is having some of things will improve your SERP which will in my opinion help Your overall SEO. Feel free to correct me and advise thanks. #processeasywithleon.
I was surprised to know that publications in Google+ are not very important for the ranking, I thought that if
Nice post thank you!
Hi Joy,
Very Interesting post.. Such posts raise your eyebrows and you end up realizing.. Okk that's a myth.. !! I love Local SEO and fascinated with the results I have got from it. Can you cover how custom URLs are made for a Google newly built brand page?
Cheers,
Custom URLs aren't really custom at all. You can only take what Google pre-assigns you and if they don't offer you what you want, there isn't much you can do about it. You can read more about it here: https://support.google.com/plus/answer/2676340?hl=en
Totally agree with your post...local business listing help in local ranking of our site.
Thanks Joy, great article! I'm not 100% sold on #5 as of right now though.
I've just seen too many clients and prospects websites behave completely different between Organic and Maps rankings to say they line up completely with how good the Organic SEO work was done.
I'm sure you've worked with WAY more local clients than I have, so will keep evaluating this as we go!
It's definitely possible that you can rank in the 3-pack without a good organic presence but it makes it way more difficult. It will almost never work in a competitive industry. The one thing I have heard is that Penguin doesn't impact the 3-pack so if your site doesn't rank well organically because of a penalty you might still rank okay in the 3-pack. I haven't worked on enough clients who had Penguin penalties in the past to confirm that.
Great post with some easy to share things especially to people you work with. I´ve came across the permanently closed flag a lot and the business only moved. Its confusing because I knew the company was still open.
Shows again showing up once and right is better than twice and wrong.
How can a small business compete in seo with Yellowpages, Angieslist, and Whitepages in organic search? Using good seo practices, I have had a hair salon website move up from page 8 to page 1 on google for organic search (admittedly, it is a small market). Only these 3 directories come before the salon, even the Wal-Mart salon comes after it. Any thoughts??
Very informative article. I have reported one to the keywords stuffing listing to Google . In how many days we can expect a removal ? Also will Google send any kind of information about the same ?
Jeewan,
Google won't remove a listing for keyword stuffing, they'll just correct it. What you should do is submit an edit via MapMaker for the business listing and correct the business name (remove the keyword stuffing). If it is a duplicate listing and there is already one on Google with the proper name, it can be reported as a duplicate.
Thank you @Joy for your reply. That listing is not mine , Can i edit the same.
Also many people are getting good ranking just by manipulating his business name like ( SEO Expert in Delhi etc. ) because of that our listing are not shown .As we are using the real name. How to overcome that ?
Jeewan,
When you see listings like that on Google, I would go to Google Maps or Google MapMaker and submit an edit to fix the business title. Always leave a comment explaining that the current title violates Google's guidelines.
Thank you very much for guiding properly. You are really great
These are extremely useful tips that I don't think a lot of small companies realize. A lot of the times SEO tactics like the ones listed here can be bundled up as a way to increase billable hours and try to directly correlate it to SERP results. I've been running a web development and SEO Company for a while and you'd be surprised what some less-than-scrupulous companies are promising their clients, so visibility on an article like this is important.
As always, Moz is a great source of information on all things SEO; more regular people need to see this!
Yes i agree
Great information and thanks for putting alot of these myths to rest. I have been victim to some of these misleading local SEO ranking myths.
Yes me ax well
As an extremely active G+ user, I think G+ CAN help with ranking, but only indirectly. Here's the thing. Some business owners do not understand that it doesn't directly help rankings. So they use G+, and establish relationships there. A small very active group from my industry believe this, on G+. They then form relationships. Those relationships absolutely CAN lead to links and other benefits. If you seek links directly (and I'm not talking about the no-follow links from G+ -- I'm talking about friends who are receptive to a link request when asked) -- then G+ can help. These links are easier to get for influencers. This all comes back to the fact that G+ is valuable basically because some people believe that it is. This isn't a direct benefit, but it is very real. I had to step away for the last year or so. But leaving G+ altogether, and forever, I believe is foolhardy. Of course, the same thing could be said on other SM platforms. But G+ seems unique in its ability to form closer friendships with complete strangers in your industry.
Trish,
I agree that G+ can be helpful in certain circumstances. I would say the majority of SMBs I work with wouldn't benefit as much because their customers + other professionals in their industry are not using G+. Unless you have an audience there to talk to, you can't accomplish much. I see insurance companies, for example, who will post the same thing on G+ and Facebook and while they get tons of likes and comments on Facebook, their G+ post is stale because their customers just aren't on there. I've seen niche cases where G+ can really work well for a business, just not most cases. The myth I was attempting to dispel wasn't saying posting on G+ doesn't have value but that simply adding posts on G+ isn't going to cause your ranking to leap up in the 3-pack. I see businesses do this all the time where they post dozens of things with keywords shoved in them thinking it's going to help make them more relevant. They have no followers and no activity so, in my opinion, it is just a giant waste of time.
I agree. I can definitely see that. (Btw I'm anonymous on Moz. :)
But with my industry I can tell you -- insurance could get somewhere. Or at least they could have a couple of years ago. The problem is that you have to invest a LOT of time to be enough of a visible influencer within any non-tech area to gain any traction, then you do need at least a minimum of professionals in your industry, or related industries.
One thing you might not realize is that you can gain traction among a small group in a wide variety of industries that might surprise you. I would check communities, and just try some regular but small amount of activity. Comment and reach out. Before you know it, you *might* gain some benefits that lead to links, which can help organic, which can help local. On the flipside, I'm still not sure the time invested is worth the payoff. I hadn't figured this out until late in the game.
Now I'm way too busy to spend the kind of time that I used to spend. But still think some time on G+, at least exploring your industry, particularly via communities, is time worth spending. I do believe SEOs (and I read regularly SEO & local) might be assuming there is a dead zone in certain industries that do have some meaningful activity from the actual professionals in the field. (This might not be true for plumbers or guys that aren't near their computer, but was true in my industry.) Again, this might be different bc my experience was about 1.5 years over a year ago. I still have connections on G+ that are very real--and some transferred to FB communities.
The only way to get followers is to go to communities and make friends. That's what I did. Everyone starts with none. Posting to their wall, with no followers, I agree leads to nothing and would be fruitless.
I haven't actually benefited all that much from my time on G+ (or really I have no way of knowing --but I assume that I haven't based on what you experts are saying --and the number of related good links that I developed as a result of G+ were small). But I have reached out since leaving to numerous people about link / guest posting opportunities. I had have a 99% success rate when reaching out to numerous well positioned blogs in my industry. I am certain my success rate was caused by G+--that's how these guys knew me. Problem right now is -- no time to write those posts! But certainly those links could help.
I also received a small handful of links naturally, from G+ connections.
I'm also trying to encourage G+ with what I believe are truthful observations bc we all gain if G+ sticks around. Collections also seem poised at least as a promising possibility.
I agree
Nice post Joy! Yes G+ is not a ranking factor bit it drives traffic to the website. If we create an eye-catching post and Increase our engagement on Google Plus, then we can drive more traffic on our web page through "G+".
I Joy!!
Haha truth is that the only guy who knew for sure it was not true was that post on G + helped them rank ... Big Lie
The rest ... in check I tell
I was under the assumption that posting on Google+ was good for my ranking. Good to know that is isn't , so i can spend my energy on more useful tasks.
Easy to read and useful Post!
I was under this same impression.
Joling, You need to Tweak/update the Description of your local listing page for better ranking too. :-)
Mike. That's another myth that could have been included in this post. Google completely ignores the description for ranking purposes. They do look at it for penalty/filtering purposes, though. So, if you stuff it full of keywords it could HURT your rankings, but no amount of tweaking will help rankings. Just write your description for conversions, like an Adwords ad. Don't write it for SEO.
Thanks Darren Shaw !
Great post, Joy! There are lots of them that shocked me and one thing is Google+. I’ve been hearing about how posting your newly created article in Google+ can help increase traffic. As for #1, I just realized now that even if we delete the business listing it will just make it unverified and is not actually deleted on Google? There is no sense deleting them. People in the digital marketing should read this.
The worst thing about Google+ is, I have never seen significant traffic from that social networking site. G+ was good until Google used to display profile picture on search result page but now I think Facebook and Twitter has more potential than Google+.
Completely agree with your views, I love that you share about Search Engine optimization.
Thank you!
This was good, except I am unsure about #5, I have seen way too many Local businesses do well on the Snack Pack, even with bad SEO on their overall domain. But then, a local newspaper cites them, and boom they are on the snack pack.
Superb article Joy, cleared my misconception about moving business from one location to the other. Failure to claim listing does not mean you are not going to rank anywhere BUT a verified listing can always rank well amongst the other listings.
Nice article Joy. I found this statistic to be very enlightening,
At Local U in Williamsburg, Mike Ramsey shared that 75% of ranking local listings also rank organically on the first page. The two are directly connected — a change that you make to your site can have a huge influence on where you rank locally.
Greetings from Houston! I've worked on many local SEO campaigns, and that map at the end of the post looks very familiar (along with some variations on that strategy). Organic and local SEO definitely go hand in hand.
Someone claimed to me that a local listing ranked higher because it was closer to the epicenter of the city, but I've never seen hard data to back that up so I'm skeptical. Thoughts?
Hey Cynthia,
Being close to the city centroid is a ranking factor still (it's #16 on https://moz.com/local-search-ranking-factors for the 3-pack). It's not as big of a deal as it used to be but I find Google clusters the 3-pack around whatever business has the strongest signals. I've seen them shift the entire 3-pack before based on a new bunch of listings having stronger signals.
Great post Joy. Thanks for sharing with us. :)
I have a question about local SEO I encountered few months ago. A client, bank A, acquired another bank, bank B. Both of them have several branches. Instead of updating the information of bank B's local listings, bank A created a new one at the same locations. So there are both bank A and bank B listed at an address where only bank B was listed, and they have identical information besides the name.
I can understand that they want to be found when people, who didn't aware of the acquisition, are searching for bank B. Because if they update the listing of the name, people may not be able to see the results when they search for bank B in Google Map. But is this the best practice for acquisition?
Hope I make myself clear, thank you!
For rebrands you can definitely ask for the old listing (for Brand B) to be marked as moved to the new listing (Brand A). You can also ASK for reviews to be transferred but Google might decide not to move them. This is assuming the branch is at the same location and has the same phone # and same customers.
Thank you for answering my question. I wonder if I move the old listing to the new one, while keeping location and phone # the same, will the branch still get found when people search for the old name?
If you have it marked moved you won't be able to find the old location in the search results at all. This article explains it all: https://searchengineland.com/google-fixing-permanently-closed-problem-242364
What about including location in a domain name? Is that a seo myth? Does a domain name affect SEO in anyway?
I wish it was a myth but I still believe keywords in domain names work.
Interesting! I read such conflicting articles on this.
Great post - succinct - relevant, easy to read. Shared it all around and enjoyed it. Learned from it too - I was sure 4 was true to some degree.
Its a very informative article. I have an SEO company (https://www.aplus.net.nz/) and as such, I know how much help this can be to someone with little or no knowledge about search engine optimization. Any person tring to carry out SEO on his own will certainly find this to be useful. Thumbs up to you!
Thanks Joy Hawkins,
I would agree to majority of your points but I would say that point number 4 and 5 is somewhat still debatable.
I have seen big marketers giving importance to Google+ and I just had words with few marketing guys regarding maps after reading this and they told me out of their experience that Google maps help in Local SEO which was my belief and experience as well.
@all
Anyone here feels same way ?
I would keep close eye on these two aspects from now On, I have two websites coming up in next month hopefully will do litmus test of these two pointers.
Regards
Pulkit Thakur
Just to clarify - I also agree that Google Maps helps in Local SEO. It's huge and ranking in the 3-pack is very important. What I was trying to point out is you can't really separate it from "traditional SEO". For example, including the city & state in the title tag has a direct impact on ranking in the 3-pack. I saw a client once completely vanish from the 3-pack because the title tag on his homepage was changed to include "Long Island" (name of an area in NY) instead of the actual name of the city he was in.
Hi Joy! Thanks for sharing these. As for the case when a business re-brands itself and no longer wants to be associated with its old business name, do you still recommend clearing out the business info/categories, etc. from the old GMB listing and "deleting" it from GMB?
https://searchengineland.com/5-major-differences-go...
"If you don’t want any association with the old business name whatsoever, it would be better to delete the page from your Google My Business dashboard, mark the business closed on Map Maker and create a new page."
Hey There! Thanks for the question. So just to clarify, I don't ever suggest clearing out the business info before deleting the listing. I have just seen SEO companies do this to clients when they cancel (maliciously) and it does have a negative impact on ranking if you do it. If a business rebrands and wants to be completely separate, they should create a new listing and close the old one. It's going to most likely have a negative impact on ranking since they will lose all the reviews and ranking power associated with the old listing. Rebrands kind of suck in the Local SEO world :)
Hi Joy. Thanks for the clarification. One more q:
"If a business rebrands and wants to be completely separate, they should create a new listing and close the old one."
The word close here, you're referring to mark it as closed in MapMaker, correct? What becomes of the old brand name listing in GMB?
If you have access to the GMB account you can report it closed in there (there is a box in list view) - https://www.google.com/local/manage/#/list . Click on the business name and to the right you'll see an option for "Mark Permanently Closed".
If you don't have access to GMB for this listing, do it in MapMaker.
I appreciate addressing #1. I think once you get into multiple local locations it gets a little confusing with regards to updating Map Maker and the Google My Business dashboard, but it was interesting that GMB was only ONE of the many places information is pulled.
I read the Google Guidelines referenced in this post and, though it does say to create a single page if the business only has one public-facing individual, I don't see any mention of the naming format convention suggested.
Where does the "Company: Practitioner Name" format (with the colon) suggestion come from? I have seen InfoGroup use that in their database, however.
Sincerely,
Russ
Russ,
It's near the bottom under "Chains, Departments, and Individual Practitioners". Click the learn more" under Individual practicioners and you'll see it.
Ah, found it in the 'Individual practitioners (e.g. doctors, lawyers, real estate agents)' section (expanded)... just above the 'Other items of note' section:
Solo practitioners that belong to branded organizations
If a practitioner is the only public-facing practitioner at a location and represents a branded organization, it's best for the practitioner to share a page with the organization. Create a single page, named using the following format: [brand/company]: [practitioner name].
Acceptable: "Allstate: Joe Miller" (if Joe is the sole public-facing practitioner at this Allstate-branded location)
Thanks!
Thanks for the great post Joy, especially the tips on ignoring GMB phone support. In the past I had some luck resolving issues through them, but nowadays calling is just a bizarre experience. Wrong info delivered with confidence is not a good thing.
Troy,
Have you tried Twitter support? You'll never turn back :)
OMG, #8! I recently got into an argument with a Map Maker mod about this - he was really nasty and confrontational about it, too. I can't believe GMB and GMM have different rules/stances about this, it's ridiculous.
LoL yes you will definitely argue with them about it which is why you absolutely have to do it from the GMB side. You will never get anywhere trying to accomplish a moved listing with MapMaker.
people really think they need to mark the old location as closed? I've never heard that one before. most of these are great advice though.
I guess Moz should probably go delete older articles like this then ... https://moz.com/blog/google-plus-tips-seo
Sherry,
It looks like that article is how to gain traffic from G+ (still relevant), not about how posting on G+ directly impacts ranking in the 3-pack (what I was talking about).
Thanks for being so concrete and to the point with the different points (myths)raised. Very helpful
Good one! But i have two questions,
1. How G+ posting helps in SERP? Is it true?
2. How do google differentiate my business is local & international ?
If i want to rank my page only in United states & Europe. How should i do it?
Thanks in advance!
Ganesh,
I have never personally experienced or seen any concrete data that leads me to believe posting on G+ helps rankings long-term whatsoever. This article was specific to Local SEO (ranking in the 3-pack for a particular town/city). Because my clients are all small businesses in the US and Canada I honestly don't know much about how to rank in multiple countries or what approach to take. I'm sure there are other articles on Moz that probbably cover this though.
Very interesting. I had already read in other post that publications on google + not serve to position directly and agree on that, but indirectly I think it has its influence on seo using google + to upload videos to youtube channel, and then put the link video on the web and social networks.
Thank you very much Joy.
Great article clarifying myths concerning local SEO!!! Can you point me to the most accurate, up-to-date info on the best local seo practices?
As far as 1 document I'd have to go with the Local Search Ranking Factors: https://moz.com/local-search-ranking-factors. For regular changes/information, I'd subscribe to Whitespark's Daily Pulse: https://www.whitespark.ca/local-pulse
Thanks Joy! You're our #1 Whitespark Local Pulse promoter! :)
I should ask for an affiliate link ;)
Haha. I'll give you a 50% affiliate cut for the $0 in revenue it generates.
Lol sounds good. Deal!
This is interesting, I really tried my best to rank up my business in local area but is too hard. I will try and try again until I will rank up better and better. By the way this article have some good answers to my questions about local seo.
Nice and informative post even for SEO experts... Moz is #1.
This was a fantastic article as it shows and dispels common myths that people like to be so stuck on. I also found that it was a breath of fresh air to have another source that helps me show clients and fellow SEO's not to believe everything a listing following call recommends. The G+ posting for better rankings is something that people should know and that simply posting on there is not going to help, but I would like to see some data to see if linking to articles on your site from there could help a bit with link structure.
Great article and thank you for the contribution to the community.
Thanks for being so concrete and to the point with the different points (myths)raised. Very helpful
Nice Article!
i have one Question:
We have two website with similar name in different language or we can says that Country Specific Domains. Now time we have discuses to merge into one website. both language in one website. we want to know it affect SEO Ranking or SEO strategy or not.if we merge into one then it bad or good for SEO?
Hey Tarachand,
I would probably point you to another article for the answer to that question. One that covers multi-language sites like this one: https://searchengineland.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-multilingual-and-multiregional-seo-157838
Great post. i am realized after seeing 4th point. most people told me G+ increases your ranking.
I am so shocked about the fourth, concerning Google+.
Still cannot get over myself.
Great post, though.
I agree
Nice list Joy - thanks for sharing :-)
Wow, nice post!
Nice. Thank.