Client showing up in maps but not the business pack

[Andrew RLM SEO]

We represent a laser tag facility that is not showing up in the business pack when you search "laser tag" and insert the business zip as your location in Google search. However, above the business pack Google has a link that says "laser tag near city,state, zip." When you click that link it takes you to maps and our location is number 1.


Does anyone know whats going on here? Why would our business show up in maps but not in the business pack? Thanks in advance guys!

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Andrew,

I do a lot of ranking troubleshooting for consultants. That's probably the most common consulting request I get.

I can't guess without seeing and there is a bunch of stuff I would normally have to check. But what you are describing sounds like a problem on the organic side of the house.

In VERY over simplified terms...

IF it's the blended algo you are seeing then IF someone has a high organic and a high maps ranking they will be in the 1st 3 or so spots in the pack. Then the lower spots are normally back-filled with pure maps results. But totally depends on the KWs and how competitive that market is.

Have you checked where they rank in PURE organic with no maps or places results at all?

If you care to share a link and the exact search term with city, I can move this down to the help section and take a look later today if I have time.

 

[Andrew RLM SEO]

Hey Linda, sorry for the delay in responding to this. Our client is The Web Extreme Entertainment, 7172 Cincinnati Dayton Road, West Chester, OH 45069. The search term is "laser tag" with the Google location set to 45069.

When you search this, the business does not appear in the pack but you will see a link above the pack that says "laser tag near West Chester, OH 45069." This takes you to maps where our Business is number 1. I also checked our organic results and they are up at the top as well.

Thanks a ton for your help on this Linda!

 

[Linda Buquet]

Sorry I didn't get to this sooner or reply to your PM asking again for help. I'm limited on time to do free support these days. Have major projects I'm behind on.

This is complicated and no time for a deep dive. But one thing I noticed right off the bat is...

The are IN West Chester, OH
You are searching FROM West Chester, OH

But the home page is optimized instead for:
Laser Tag, Go Karts, Putt Putt Mini Golf, Bowling - Cincinnati OH

But also when searching laser tag with no city, the page that ranks in organic is NOT the home page that's linked to the G+ page. The page that ranks is: funattheweb.com/laser-web-cincinnati/

But if you search for laser tag West Chester, OH (with city) they are A.

I see a few things that seem out of whack and could be contributing, but sorry my carpal is hurting and I'm sorry that research is all the time I can give right now. Hopefully others can jump in to help when they have time.