Anyone else seeing huge maps hit for SABs? Is this the June/July update?

[wonderwall]

The Toronto service area business GMB I work on (with no address) was top 3 for the past year for almost all money keywords and geomodifier based keyword phrases and is the lifeblood of leads for the company.

Since June, however, I've seen a steady drop in map ranking from top 3 to now position 15 to 20 for the same keyword phrases. The only things changed were more local links pointing to the business (which have never hurt in the past) and more regular GMB posts than used to be done.

The only explanation I can think of is that the June/July core updates have hurt SABs more than address-based businesses. I do notice that the top 7 to 8 ranked businesses in the space of my GMB all have verified addresses.

Have Google made any sort of statement that SAB businesses may be affected in this way by the recent updates?

Is anyone else seeing big maps ranking drops in the last few weeks? Is there anything that can be done?

 

[Yan Gilbert]

I have not done an analysis of rankings changes from the updates yet but I don't think that Google would intentionally put SABs at a disadvantage that way.

You mention "geomodifier based keywords" decreasing. Is the geomodifier in the business name by any chance?

 

[wonderwall]

You're right the city name is in the GMB name but it is also this way for 99% of the companies we're competing with including those that are ranked in the top 7 right now. Why would my GMB be intentionally targeted with a penalty in that case?

 

[Yan Gilbert]

Was just trying to confirm information, that's all. I don't think it is a penalty from including the city name, but maybe the algorithm has demoted that particular ranking factor? Have other competitors that don't have the city name increased in rankings?

 

[wonderwall]

Hi Yan, I don't see any increase in other competitors for having the city name. However, I do see that in a list of 12 companies in Toronto only 2 are SABs (including my GMB) and neither of those are ranked well. This was not the case a few weeks ago and both GMBs were ranking much better.

To me it looks like SABs are being penalized however it could also be, as you were saying, that the SABs may be relying on some other factor that has now been demoted.

Would you be looking into the June/July updates in more detail and would you be sharing any of this info?

 

[Yan Gilbert]

Definitely will update if I have anything further to share.