Google MY Business and Google Maps Keeps doing the opposite of what I ask!

[Diane Kramer]

My husband and I run a business called Long Island Center for Divorce Mediation. It has two locations. The Yaphank location is the problem. Somehow with Citation building, my husband's name, Fred Klarer, got listed on the local map. He is an attorney. When he got listed on the local map, our Long Island Center, at the same location, with three five star reviews no longer shows up on the map.

I have spoken to about Four Google My Business people. Each says the problem is being investigated and they will get back to me. Today, I got an email from LOCAL MAP saying SUCCESS - problem was solved. When I looked I saw that more information had been filled in for Fred Klarer, Attorney, still on the Map, and the Long Island Center for Divorce Mediation in Yaphank with its three five-star reviews was still not showing up. PHone calls and emails are down. I have spent hours on the phone and on the chat with these people, to no avail. The last Google My Business person I spoke to said an investigative team was now investigating the investigative team

Any suggestions? I was getting pretty distressed and now I am resigned that this problem may not clear up.

Thanks, Diane
Diane Kramer
Partner, Long Island Center for Divorce Mediation at Yaphank
diane AT lidivorcemediation DOT com

 

[Michael S. Doran]

I just searched:
Divorce service in Yaphank, NY

Long Island Center for Divorce Mediation is coming up #1 for me.

 

[Diane Kramer]

Michael, Thanks for responding. THis morning our Center was back on the map for the search words, Divorce Mediation Long Island. Unfortunately Yaphank itself is such a small village that there is not much traffic. We instead market to the larger Suffolk County and Long Island geo-locations. There is data for them in the search engines.

Thanks, Diane
Dr. Diane Kramer
Partner, Long Island Center for Divorce Mediation

 

[Michael S. Doran]

Michael, Thanks for responding. THis morning our Center was back on the map for the search words, Divorce Mediation Long Island. Unfortunately Yaphank itself is such a small village that there is not much traffic. We instead market to the larger Suffolk County and Long Island geo-locations. There is data for them in the search engines.

Thanks, Diane
Dr. Diane Kramer
Partner, Long Island Center for Divorce Mediation

At this point since the listing is live and showing up, driving rankings is really the issue. You mentioned that you did citation building, so that is hopefully good. As you build your relevance, your reach should grow as well. Was your website built by someone that understand local seo?

 

[Michael S. Doran]

Looks like you set Divorce Service as your primary category. Did you also add Mediation Service as a category?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks so much for jumping in Michael!

The other thing you can do is try to "minimize" Fred's listing to make it seem less important to Google and also less competitive to the main listing.

You can do this by making 2 edits on Fred's listing.

1) Change his category to just attorney. (Not divorce or mediation.)

2) Change link on his listing from home page to his bio page or an about us page.

If you have not claimed it, don't. You can edit just by going to the listing on Google Maps and use "Suggest an edit".