Closed Location Listing Appears for Branded Queries

[Andre Willis]

Happy Friday. I hope this is the right forum.

My client's listing for an old, closed location appears for branded queries: 1) outside of their metro area (St Louis) 2) without geomodifiers.

https://goo.gl/0THO2l


Is there anything I can about this?

Their current/main office: https://plus.google.com/+Stllawhelp/about
Closed listing: https://plus.google.com/111524441881837815908/about

Any advice is appreciated, please and thank-you.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Andre it's a big problem AND a growing problem. Search the Google forum for closed and you'll see numerous complaints every day.

See this post too: <a href="http://www.localsearchforum.com/moving-name-changes/33632-relocated-label-still-exist.html">Relocated label still exist?</a>

So there are 2 big problems.

1) There used to be a label that said "Relocated or Closed" instead of "Permanently Closed" if you just moved. Now we are back to only having the "Permanently Closed" label which can be really detrimental to businesses that are OPEN and simply moved.

2) In the past once a listing was Closed it was not very discoverable. Now these listings are showing up more and often for a brand search show up INSTEAD OF the new valid location.

It's a huge problem! Google is aware. Not sure they are planning to do anything. We have tried many times. They say things are working as intended.

So unfortunately I don't know what you can do. It's up to Google to change this.

 

[Andre Willis]

Thank you, Linda! In this case, the client didn't even move. They just closed their second office! Shouldn't the primary office rank over a secondary office anyway?

I'm doing a citation audit now, and will try to remove any listings for the closed location.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Andre, sorry I missed the part about it being closed and went off on my moved rant.

But part of it still applies. Because the reason closed listings are showing up, often instead of the open listing, is due to the algo. And my contacts in local won't/can't do anything that pertains to the algo and how it selects which listings rank.

For some reason the algo thinks that other office is the best match to the query. Who knows what signals or if they are even valid. But could be citations or age of location, age of the Place page, or other factors.

I would just do everything you can to minimize the importance of that location.
And be certain that address and/or phone if different is not anywhere on the site.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Sorry, had not looked at the listings before. It's hard to do much research with my RSI. But since you provided links just took a quick peak.

It looks like the closed location is still claimed in a dashboard and that gives it more importance. It still has images and description and categories.

You need to DELETE that one from dash which will get rid of images and description and categories. That will help minimize it a little.

FYI the site is telling the algo loud and clear they still have a Clayton office. Several pages still mention the old City. Do a Google site search.

Hope this helps and best of luck!

 

[Andre Willis]

Thanks so much for diving into this.

You need to DELETE that one from dash which will get rid of images and description and categories. That will help minimize it a little.

Okay, great. I was never clear on the proper procedure.

FYI the site is telling the algo loud and clear they still have a Clayton office. Several pages still mention the old City. Do a Google site search.

Good observation. I know he recently deleted the Clayton address from his site.

Thanks again.