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Can "Closed" Google Local Listings Kill Ranking? Important New Troubleshooting Tip
Joy Hawkins, another Google Top Contributor and I have noticed a relatively unknown problem numerous times when we've done ranking troubleshooting various cases.
What we've discovered is if there is listing marked permanently closed at your address and phone, it often (not always) seems to suppress ranking for the main listing you are trying to rank. This should not happen, but it seems to in numerous cases we've investigated.
The old listing may be closed due to either rebranding or practitioners that are no longer at that location. So a standard part of our troubleshooting checklist for awhile now is deep dupe research to try to uncover any closed listings that may be out there.
We've discussed this a few times on various G+ Communities starting back in May, but we've never come out and dedicated a post to it. I think Joy and I were seeing it so much we just assumed everyone had noticed the problem.
The topic came up on the following thread yesterday and it seems many local search experts are not aware of the problem and one even doubts it's an issue. Here is the discussion starting with post #4. However in that post 2 members said they'd run into the problem and suspected it as well.
Joy has worked on several cases that she has permission to share, so I asked her to do a detailed post explaining the issue. It always helps to see examples.
So head over to read Joy's post and see her examples, then read on.
<a href="http://imprezziomarketing.com/seo-blog/google-maps/is-permanently-closed-killing-your-ranking-4-case-studies/">Is “Permanently Closed” Killing your Ranking? (4 Case Studies)</a>
It's a long post with some screenshots and definitely worth a read!
This is largely our educated guess based on seeing the phenom enough to call it a problem.
(See correlation/causation link below.)
OH AND SOME PROOF - kinda, sorta - as much proof as you can get in local.
Joy a couple times has re-opened the closed listings to make an edit, because you can't edit a closed listing. The listing would then pop right back into the pack!
"As an experiment I convinced one of the MapMaker RERs to open the old practitioner listing to see what would happen. The listing instantly spiked to the first position for almost every keyword. The practice listing was still nowhere to be found (note: they use the same phone number on both listings). We kept it open for a few days to make sure the ranking would stay the same (it did) and then closed it again. Once it was closed the situation went back to what it was before -with nothing ranking well."
Now there are no absolutes in local and things are often not consistent. We are not saying every time there is a closed listing the main one will be suppressed. Just like you can't say description spam always causes a ranking penalty or you won't rank if NAP is off or you have practitioner listings (dupes). Many listings rank in spite of those problems. BUT often if you don't rank it's due to an underlying problem.
We also realize that correlation is not always causation, but as stated in that last link, sometimes correlation after reviewing enough cases is key. So all we are saying, is that looking for closed listings is one more thing to double check if you are experiencing ranking problems.
IMPORTANT P. S. Here's a new post I just did on a better/different way to do duplicate discovery that will help you find those pesky old closed listings and other problems.
<a href="http://www.localsearchforum.com/google-local-important/27104-advanced-tip-google-local-troubleshooting-duplicate-discovery.html">Advanced Tip for Google Local Troubleshooting & Duplicate Discovery</a>
So check your ranking problem children, using the new search method in the link directly above and see if you find any closed listings that could be a factor.
So what do you think???
Have you suspected closed listings are hurting your client's rankings?
<meta property="og:type" content="article"><meta property="og:title" content=""><meta property="og:description" content="">
<meta property="og:image" content="">
<img src="http://marketing-blog.catalystemarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/ClosedListing.jpg" alt="ClosedListing" width="65%" />
Joy Hawkins, another Google Top Contributor and I have noticed a relatively unknown problem numerous times when we've done ranking troubleshooting various cases.
What we've discovered is if there is listing marked permanently closed at your address and phone, it often (not always) seems to suppress ranking for the main listing you are trying to rank. This should not happen, but it seems to in numerous cases we've investigated.
The old listing may be closed due to either rebranding or practitioners that are no longer at that location. So a standard part of our troubleshooting checklist for awhile now is deep dupe research to try to uncover any closed listings that may be out there.
We've discussed this a few times on various G+ Communities starting back in May, but we've never come out and dedicated a post to it. I think Joy and I were seeing it so much we just assumed everyone had noticed the problem.
The topic came up on the following thread yesterday and it seems many local search experts are not aware of the problem and one even doubts it's an issue. Here is the discussion starting with post #4. However in that post 2 members said they'd run into the problem and suspected it as well.
Joy has worked on several cases that she has permission to share, so I asked her to do a detailed post explaining the issue. It always helps to see examples.
So head over to read Joy's post and see her examples, then read on.
<a href="http://imprezziomarketing.com/seo-blog/google-maps/is-permanently-closed-killing-your-ranking-4-case-studies/">Is “Permanently Closed” Killing your Ranking? (4 Case Studies)</a>
It's a long post with some screenshots and definitely worth a read!
This is largely our educated guess based on seeing the phenom enough to call it a problem.
(See correlation/causation link below.)
OH AND SOME PROOF - kinda, sorta - as much proof as you can get in local.
Joy a couple times has re-opened the closed listings to make an edit, because you can't edit a closed listing. The listing would then pop right back into the pack!
"As an experiment I convinced one of the MapMaker RERs to open the old practitioner listing to see what would happen. The listing instantly spiked to the first position for almost every keyword. The practice listing was still nowhere to be found (note: they use the same phone number on both listings). We kept it open for a few days to make sure the ranking would stay the same (it did) and then closed it again. Once it was closed the situation went back to what it was before -with nothing ranking well."
Now there are no absolutes in local and things are often not consistent. We are not saying every time there is a closed listing the main one will be suppressed. Just like you can't say description spam always causes a ranking penalty or you won't rank if NAP is off or you have practitioner listings (dupes). Many listings rank in spite of those problems. BUT often if you don't rank it's due to an underlying problem.
We also realize that correlation is not always causation, but as stated in that last link, sometimes correlation after reviewing enough cases is key. So all we are saying, is that looking for closed listings is one more thing to double check if you are experiencing ranking problems.
IMPORTANT P. S. Here's a new post I just did on a better/different way to do duplicate discovery that will help you find those pesky old closed listings and other problems.
<a href="http://www.localsearchforum.com/google-local-important/27104-advanced-tip-google-local-troubleshooting-duplicate-discovery.html">Advanced Tip for Google Local Troubleshooting & Duplicate Discovery</a>
So check your ranking problem children, using the new search method in the link directly above and see if you find any closed listings that could be a factor.
So what do you think???
Have you suspected closed listings are hurting your client's rankings?
<meta property="og:type" content="article"><meta property="og:title" content=""><meta property="og:description" content="">
<meta property="og:image" content="">
Glad we collaborated on this!
