Google is misrepresenting an entire region in search and maps

[Lauren Robertello]

Hey everyone, I'm experiencing an issue where Google is completely misrepresenting a region that one of my clients operates in.

The scenario:
- Client operates a resort that is within the Catskills region
- The Catskills region (also referred to as The Catskills, Catskill Mountains, Catskills Mountains) is in New York State south of Albany - it's comprised of The Catskill
- Searches for "catskills resorts" return a very zoomed in region on the map and only two listing results (see "catskills-resorts-desktop" and "catskills-resorts-desktop-maps" screenshots attached
- this same zoomed-in map is returned for many Catskills-related queries
- There is a town in the region called Catskill, NY - confusion with this town does NOT seem to be the issue
- This seems like a mapping issue - a search for "catskill park" returns the same zoomed in map view, when in reality, the park is much bigger and the map should be zoomed out more

Have you ever experienced this in your region(s)? Does anyone have any insight as to how to begin correcting this?

I'm certain that my client is missing out on bookings due to this issue.

 

[Margaret Ornsby]

Hi @Lauren Robertello
Searching maps for "the catskills" you can see G has a pin on the mountains, rather than a region (like what you'd see if you searched for "ulster county".
Since I don't know which listing I'm troubleshooting, I could be off base here.

Check your categories - particularly for the accommodation industry, categories can be killers.

It also looks as though the search results actually brings back "slide mountain wilderness hotels", not catskill mountains resorts.

If doing a search by "catskill mountains resorts" I get a bigger set of listings.

Look at what those two listings in particular are doing in terms of online footprint and website content, etc. and compare to your client's footprint.

 

[Lauren Robertello]

Hi @Margaret Ornsby

Thanks so much for your well thought out reply. My team is truly baffled by this - we've turned here, to twitter, and to industry connections, though the issue persists. Does the below information spark any other ideas or insights on your end?

Categories have historically been Resort, Hotel, Golf Course (in that order), although I just removed the Golf Course category as a test.

The issue has morphed a bit over the last month - Google is now properly representing the catskills region on the map within the hotel pack for "catskills resorts" (the keyword that has historically been most lucrative for this client), but once you click "More hotels", the map view zooms in slightly (though less zoomed in than when this issue began), and the results reduce down to two (as you'll see in the images below).

Compared to the two entities that are ranking, our client has comparable linking domains and inbound links, and a similar profile of mentions of the Catskills/Catskill Mountains on their websites.

 

[MattTutt]

Maybe you could try reaching out to Google here about this? It seems weird that they'd only display 2 hotels there when there's clearly a lot more accommodation in that area, and it does seem a bit glitchy with this location...

 

[Lauren Robertello]

@MattTutt I've reported it to Google, but unfortunately with no luck yet. Going to keep trying!

 

[Cherie Dickey]

I took a look, and it seems that when I search Catskills resorts using quotes, the search return is as it should be, but when I search without quotes (as you are) I have the same issue with Slide Mountain Wilderness being the default location used to locate the lodgings.

I took a closer look, and there are three GBL listings very close to each other that are immediately visible: 2019-01-16_1101 (when you hover over the names, it shows the GMB for each). The listing for Slide Mountain has a LOT more reviews, and presumably is a much stronger listing than the other two.

Looking at them more closely, the Sundown Wild Forest is just a location, and is a nonissue. The other two listings have "Park" or "State Park" for the category, which is interesting. I could be wrong, but my theory is that the finder is defaulting to the stronger "park" listing to use as the location.

I'm also seeing a duplicate listing for Catskill Mountains that has a LOT more reviews, but the category is "Mountain Range." I'm not certain how to go about fixing it since you can't seem to suggest an edit on this one... but I would guess this is part of the issue. All reviews, etc are going to this mountain range listing and not to the Park listing that Google seems to be using to decide what location should be used for your search.

At least...that's my hunch, haha. So frustrating though.