Going After The Little Green Map Marker - Local Falcon

[AndySimpson]

Hi, okay, no video this time as I ran this test while distracted by the Google Chrome mobile view and exact location I posted this week and last week. But I thought it was worth a share, especially now Local Falcon (LF) is getting some well deserved attention.

The scenario, I ran LF for an attorney I have in Phoenix on a popular search term and got the following results.

Before

5x5 grid set at 1km (0.621 miles)

Dam it, I thought, who the hell is knocking me down to 4th place in a location that's just a few blocks away.

So I clicked on the yellow 4 marker (which expands in case you didn't know) to display who was ranking in positions 1, 2 and 3 followed by my client at 4.

The position 1 and 2 firms were the usual suspects, however the position 3 listing was an unclaimed practitioner listing (let's call her Jane), Jane's category was set to Attorney, no reviews, the web address linked to Jane's profile on the main company website, it was her profile page that mentioned the practice area I was checking my ranking against. So what to do? After looking closer at the practitioner listing, Google maps had Jane at completely the wrong location, the address was correct BUT her location pin marker was way off, by about 3 miles (4.8 km)!

Which meant Jane was showing up in MY results even though her actual firm was way across town, certainly more than the 1km grid I was testing.

So what to do?

As a Local Google Guide I like to fix listings, edit spam, etc (#stopcraponthemap) , so as a local guide I fixed the marker to the correct location on Google maps, that's all. Within a few minutes the update had gone live, however it did take about 48hrs for Google maps to stop showing Jane's practitioner listing in the wrong location, as soon as it did, I ran the test again to get the following result.

After

5x5 grid set at 1km (0.621 miles)

Voilà! Jane had disappeared and a position 3 was claimed.

Now all I have to do is work on the new position 4 that has popped up!

So thank you Local Falcon! I hope this might help others get into the 3 pack by just a few simple steps and a little investigation work.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Solid tip Andy. We have used it similarly for spam fighting to locate listings that are outranking clients that shouldn't even be on maps!

 

[AndySimpson]

Thanks Joy, yeah that's exactly where we're heading with this. It's been good to play with this new tool over the past couple of weeks but I'm now looking at how we can actually use it to be more strategic....and if it means getting rid of spam in the process then all well and good.

I did mention to Yan that having a wider spread/ grid would give us almost a heat map visual of how our clients are showing across the town / city...but he did hint that there was an update on it's way soon....so fingers crossed.

 

[Tim Colling]

...I did mention to Yan that having a wider spread/ grid would give us almost a heat map visual of how our clients are showing across the town / city...but he did hint that there was an update on it's way soon....so fingers crossed.

Yippee!

 

[shondarogers]

So any thoughts/tips on expanding your pin reach? geo-tagging images with street names? sometimes the area you're not showing up in isn't far enough away to warrant and new location keyword.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Shonda,

Brian Barwig did a post on this recently. It generally comes down to links & reviews. https://www.attorneysync.com/blog/how-to-rank-local-pack-outside-your-immediate-area/