Business name, address and location issue

[StefanEarly]

Hi all,

We have a client on the Gold Coast in Australia that we are having name and location ranking issues within Google maps and local SEO.

Their business is called Broadbeach Blinds, which is also the name of the previous suburb where they lived. When we started working with them, I recommended updating their address which is in hope island, also on the Gold Coast about 30 minutes’ drive north.

When we updated the address in GBP their rankings completely dropped off, which I suspected would happen, but I still thought it best to follow Google guidelines and they would soon recover with a good local SEO strategy.

However, with the business name matching a suburb and a search term, which they are not located in, Google seems to be confused. If you search Broadbeach Blinds, it does not trigger a branded search, the map pack shows up from Broadbeach, which they are number 1 in, but they are nowhere if I change my geo-location to hope island. As you can see in the screenshot from insights, they are not ranking at all in Google maps and their website is not listed which we built and indexed a month ago.

Unfortunately, they have rebranded and registered their new website named broadbeachblinds.

Does anyone have any suggestions about how to best handle this situation? I thought of renaming their GBP to BB Blinds, so it no longer confuses Google, or will they be best to rename their business? Which is difficult because they like the business name, it has lots of brand recognition through word of mouth and they would like to avoid it if possible.
Thanks in advance

 

[dgrunited]

Hi all,

We have a client on the Gold Coast in Australia that we are having name and location ranking issues within Google maps and local SEO.

Their business is called Broadbeach Blinds, which is also the name of the previous suburb where they lived. When we started working with them, I recommended updating their address which is in hope island, also on the Gold Coast about 30 minutes’ drive north.

When we updated the address in GBP their rankings completely dropped off, which I suspected would happen, but I still thought it best to follow Google guidelines and they would soon recover with a good local SEO strategy.

However, with the business name matching a suburb and a search term, which they are not located in, Google seems to be confused. If you search Broadbeach Blinds, it does not trigger a branded search, the map pack shows up from Broadbeach, which they are number 1 in, but they are nowhere if I change my geo-location to hope island. As you can see in the screenshot from insights, they are not ranking at all in Google maps and their website is not listed which we built and indexed a month ago.

Unfortunately, they have rebranded and registered their new website named broadbeachblinds.

Does anyone have any suggestions about how to best handle this situation? I thought of renaming their GBP to BB Blinds, so it no longer confuses Google, or will they be best to rename their business? Which is difficult because they like the business name, it has lots of brand recognition through word of mouth and they would like to avoid it if possible.
Thanks in advance

Your business is showing up as the 1st result in both the SERPs & Map Pack. I searched Broadbeach Blinds from Malaysia.

However, I think the bigger problem you are facing is the stiff competition from your competitors who are running Google Ads (most probably) using your brand name. Therefore, you too have to join the fray & start advertising.

All the best.

 

[StefanEarly]

Hi

Your business is showing up as the 1st result in both the SERPs & Map Pack. I searched Broadbeach Blinds from Malaysia.

However, I think the bigger problem you are facing is the stiff competition from your competitors who are running Google Ads (most probably) using your brand name. Therefore, you too have to join the fray & start advertising.

All the best.

Thanks for your reply, yes they show up when you search for their business name at the top in the map pack, but that's all, and it doesn't trigger a branded search. They also don't show up when you search for a "Blinds shop" from the same location that matches their address in GBP.

 

[dgrunited]

Hi


Thanks for your reply, yes they show up when you search for their business name at the top in the map pack, but that's all, and it doesn't trigger a branded search. They also don't show up when you search for a "Blinds shop" from the same location that matches their address in GBP.

Oh, that's most likely because you've not done on-page SEO for your website. Your website doesn't have a page title, meta description, schema markup & probably a whole lot of other issues too. Your PA & DA is also very weak.

All these factors could have been "ignorable" before but now you are up against some big boys in your neighbourhood. Therefore, you need to up the ante.

 

[keyserholiday]

This is a known issue with Google. For some strange reason when you update the address for a SAB, Google doesn't update the address and rankings. Google has been unable to correct this issue. I do need to point out that the business name violates the TOS as you are not allowed to have the entire name in caps. This can prevent you from getting help from Google support or trigger a suspension.

 

[StefanEarly]

Hi Jason,
Thanks so much for your reply, my apologies for not responding sooner, I only just saw this. That's super helpful, so you don't think it has anything to do with their business name matching the suburb of their previous address? and would you recommend changing their business name to lower case and then contacting Google support to explain how they are not showing up in the local finder close to their address?

 

[StefanEarly]

This is a known issue with Google. For some strange reason when you update the address for a SAB, Google doesn't update the address and rankings. Google has been unable to correct this issue. I do need to point out that the business name violates the TOS as you are not allowed to have the entire name in caps. This can prevent you from getting help from Google support or trigger a suspension.

Hi Jason,
We have received a standard response about this problem from Google saying its "dynamic and Algorithmic" and it has nothing to do with the new address not updating. Do you have any other suggestions? I did see a similar post with the same problem where it was suggested to show the address again so Google can recognize it, then hiding it again in a couple of months, would you recommend giving that a go or not because we could risk a suspension?