Google intent confusion [ranking for completely wrong keywords!]

[cfazio]

I have a client whose GBP is refusing to rank for relevant keywords.

The categories are:

Student housing center (primary category)

Apartment complex
Townhouse complex
Apartment building
Apartment rental agency

The listing is only ranking for "cabin" or "cottage" related terms, it is a student housing community.

The name of the business has the word "cottages" in it - and google seems to be matching this with the wrong intent.

The only map pack rankings are for cottage/cabin-related terms, which is far from student housing. The terms it is ranking for match the intent of weekend vacation rentals.

Is it truly the name that is preventing this listing from ranking for the correct keywords?

I have even tried KW stuffing the name with something highly relevant to our target KWs (yes I know horrible) to overcome this intent issue, but did not help.

Has anyone come across this? Frustrating that this business seems to be negatively affected so much by the name!

 

[ElizabethRule]

What is the website for the business? Could be the website is not optimized for the target keywords, and thus Google is putting a lot of weight behind the "cottage" term in the name. Try optimizing for your target keywords more on the GBP landing page, as well as other pages on the site and link to those pages from the GBP landing page. If needed, deoptimize for cottage and cabin keywords.

If you do not want to rank for "cottage" you might want to advise the business to rebrand to remove that term form their business name. check out this checklist and see if it can be done for your client.

 

[Joey Abna]

This is an interesting one. I think Elizabeth is on track with her comments.

When I visited the website I feel like I am looking at a resort, time share or vacation destination. If I hadn't known when I landed the primary business is student housing I would have missed that.

Also, check out the backlink profile. What kinds of sites are linking to it.

 

[cfazio]

@Joey Abna @ElizabethRule

Thank you both for the input! I will look into these areas - and yes Elizabeth's comment does seem to be a strong reason for this intent confusion.