Business Name Display Variations in SERPs

[Ross Barefoot]

One of the advantages that pure organic seems to have over local results is that in local results Google usually displays the business name, but in organic they usually display the title tag. The title tag can be optimized for conversion, but the business is stuck with their name, one way or the other.

So with that having been said, doing some research for a client I stumbled across an interesting phenomenon. Take a look at this search result:





However, when I slightly alter the search to "moving companies san diego," not only does Google put their listing at the top of the page, but it uses the title tag of the home page as the display name, see this shot:






So I have two questions: is what I'm looking at something you local gurus run into a lot?

Is there any way that I can encourage Google to display the title; I'd much rather have that than the biz name?

Also, what about this split 7-pack format? If I'm number 1 in the 7 pack I'd love it, otherwise...not so sure. Any comments on this?

 

[Marie Ysais]

Hi Ross,
I am trying to view your attachments but I keep getting an attachment error screen. Can anyone else view the attachments?

 

[Ross Barefoot]

Hi Marie,

I had some struggles with the attachment mechanism. Let's try this way:

discount movers displayed with business name - rossbarefoot's library

discount_movers_displayed_with_page_title - rossbarefoot's library

 

[Marie Ysais]

It looks like you have the typical 7 pack display for the term moving companies near San Diego.
The results where you say the 7 pack is split up is a blended page results. For Blended page results
Google typically shows title tag for page 1 #1 spot. For #2-4 Google scrapes the site for the name then uses G+ page name for #5-7.

I am in a hurry right now and just glanced quickly. Depending on the type of search results Google decides to show will dictate if it shows the name of your business or your title tag. Either way Google tries to show what is relevant so sometimes you will see differences that don't make sense to what we are used to seeing.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Yes Marie is right.

But it varies depending on competition. Sometimes the 1st 2 will be organic and the A will have title tag, the next 2 will have name scraped from site, then the rest are pulled directly from the title on the G+ L page.

So if he's C for one search term his name may show but if he's A for another title tag may show. Then too if one KW pulls blended and another pulls a pack, the name could display differently as well.

 

[Ross Barefoot]

Thanks for the responses Linda and Marie. This helps clarify things, although it leaves me with something of a dilemma for my client (the example here is not my client, btw).

My client is in a different large metro market and is ranking in the top 3 for organic but hasn't had a presence in local. Now that we've claimed him in places, my concern is that Google will display him in the 7-pack but bump him from his traditional organic listing.

In this case I'd rather have organic above the 7-pack than 2-7 in the 7-pack, since I think there's a lot of value in having the title tag and meta description showing, from a CTR standpoint. However it's so unpredictable. In some metro markets for this search Google will display 3 organic then the 7, in others they will display 1st local, then 2 pure organic then 2-7 local. In yet others they will display the 7-pack above the pure organic.

This is all using the term "moving companies [metro name]". I know that this is just Google doing their "thang," but it makes it very unpredictable and my client is not very comprehending of Google's capriciousness.

Again, I'm very appreciative of the feedback.

 

[Linda Buquet]

My client is in a different large metro market and is ranking in the top 3 for organic but hasn't had a presence in local. Now that we've claimed him in places, my concern is that Google will display him in the 7-pack but bump him from his traditional organic listing.

In this case I'd rather have organic above the 7-pack than 2-7 in the 7-pack, since I think there's a lot of value in having the title tag and meta description showing, from a CTR standpoint.

Yes, that's what will happen. For a search like "moving companies [metro name] he'll lose organic and be in blended. You just need to get him in the A spot so he has title tag and then best o both worlds.

There is a way around it possibly and I teach some tricks to do it in my local SEO course and even tell people that these days the pinned listings are so stripped down and diminished that it's almost better to be in the pure organic. BUT local has advantages too with the pin marker and reviews. So IDEALLY you want to get a double. Let him keep his organic AND rank in local too. Which takes some skill and is WAYYY to complicated for me to explain now. In fact I should not even be posting. Need to wrap stuff up to make travel arrangements to go see Dad.

 

[Ross Barefoot]

Ok, fair enough. I'm interested in your training and I just messaged you about it. Let me know.