Category Ranking

[Alana Balbes]

I had a customer of mine ranking under "Handyman" first in his local area and now we can't find him under that category anywhere under the maps. Is there any kind of explanation anyone could help me with to explain to him why he may not be showing? We have done no changes to his Google+ Local account at all. Could it have to do with the new search results? The new google maps? Even in the old maps he's not ranking under handyman on the first at least 10 pages. It's a very tricky question with all of the changes coming through. He has 11 positive reviews attached to it as well, so his reviews should be helping him with ranking. Please advise!

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Alana,

There are tons of possibilities. Can't really say without taking a look. If you care to share his G+ L link I can try to take a look tonight after I get caught up on consulting research I need to do for other consultants who have hired me to help them figure out problems with their clients.

After you share the link, FYI I'll be moving this down to the help and support section.

 

[Alana Balbes]

Thank you, Linda! Here is the link:

https://plus.google.com/101593486692149428294

Thank you so much! Appreciate it.

 

[Phil Rozek]

@Alana

You'll want to make sure all your listings on other sites (AKA citations) use the categories most relevant to "handyman," "home improvement," etc. Maybe you've done so already. Categories on those third-party sites matter, in my experience. I expect they'll matter even more in the near future, given that Google's "custom" categories are going bye-bye.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Is the business name on the G+ Local page the real-world, legal business name?

"Mr. Handyman of Anne Arundel and NE PG"

On your previous G+ Local page (that's marked closed) it's listed simply as "Mr. Handyman" I'm assuming that's a previous location because it's connected to your current page.

https://plus.google.com/116659574660035678738





---------- Post Merged at 08:19 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 08:17 PM ----------

You should also be hiding your address since you are a Service Area Business.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Good points Phil and Colan.

I looked earlier but didn't have time to post.

I was going to mention the name which looks KW stuffed. Based on citations it looks like it possibly 'could' be the real name BUT other franchisees often just use Mr Handyman, which I'm guessing is more correct and makes this one look spammy.

Plus like Colan, I was going to mention hiding the address too to avoid problems, but I'm not sure either of these are the ranking problem because they do rank on maps - although not super high.

But here I believe could be the crux of the problem.

I Googled Millersville Handyman Services since it's it their title tag, assumed they would rank.

#1 organic is a REDIRECT URL that redirects to the page you have linked to on the G+ L page.

#1 is mrhandymanaapg.com which redirects to: mrhandyman.com/local-handyman-service/md/anne-arundel-ne-pg.aspx

And the G+ page links to that same page. So in essence mrhandyman.com/local-handyman-service/md/anne-arundel-ne-pg.aspx which is attached to the G+ L page can't rank because mrhandymanaapg.com took the top spot.

Is that the client's forwarding domain or something corp did? Do you know?

Plus another internal page of the main site ranks at #2. So I don't think Google would give them a 3rd spot plus I'm thinking the algo may think something's a little off with this too.

Not sure exactly what's up or what the solution is, just made the observation.

Did that other site that's #1 just pop up? Has it always ranked #1? If it just popped up then that could be what caused the ranking to drop.