Google places business name replaced with title tag from website

[WineCountryCarpetCleaning]

I brought this up in another thread, but I didn't want to high jack that thread (as it was useful to me and I am sure others will find it useful in the future) so I figured I would bring this question to a new thread.

I have a problem were google is replacing my business name with the title tag from the website it is linked to. The obvious answer I suppose is to change the title tag on the website to just be the business name, but I am hesitant as I hate to give up any boost I have for the website organically.

Here is a link to the serp I am seeing it in (hopefully the link works, if not I will edit it) but basically you can see that the websites with optimized page titles are not showing the business name but the search term they are after.

I should also mention that it seems to me both of these business are being punished for the error as they are on like page 3 or 4 of the places results.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

I wouldn't change the title tag for the sole purpose of hoping that Google will read and display it differently. There are no guarantees that any change to the title tag will be picked up and displayed.

Google is unpredictable lately when it comes to what it displays for the business title in the SERP's. I posted a link to a great thread in your other post.

 

[WineCountryCarpetCleaning]

I am in the middle of reading them, fascinating stuff, actually it is helping me with another issue I have been having as far as my meta description getting ignored. I think I may be able to fix that with the information in those links.

I guess I was just wondering if their was any known fix for the places title. It just looks so spammy the way it is, I just looked closer and it looks like the description displayed is actually the meta data from the website as well.

What are the long term consequences of linking a places page to an inner page on your site? I was thinking I could create a page without optimized page titles and just use some video's a little bit of pertinent copy and then a contact form.

I know the ranking of the linked page is a factor in the ranking of the places result but I wonder if it would be the lesser of two evils when compared to the spammy title that is there now?

The article from Linda back in May of this year makes me feel a bit better. I was afraid that I would be penalized for the spammy title but according to her research it didn't effect ranking at all.

Go figure! I guess my plan for now is to ride it out until the site is strong organically, I know from experience that once the site has a lot of momentum that switching the title tag around won't hurt the rankings ( i.e. going form "dog washing Seattle | doggy day spa" to "doggy day spa | dog washing Seattle"). And this will look less spammy ultimately.

 

[Linda Buquet]

No actually I think you are confused on a couple levels.

Google is SUPPOSED to display your title tag. At least she always has in the past.

In blended on page 1 she normally shows title tag for #1, "guesses" at business name from site on #2 - 4, then on 5 - 7 takes name from Place page.

But the link you showed was not from regular web results but Place search. In that mode she uses the title tag sometimes. You can't really control what she shows AND even if she shows the business name she's still RANKING based on whatever KWs are in the title tag.

SO if you changed title tag to just your name, you'd only rank for your name.

Plus she normally does not show description in the blended search any more at all. That's nothing you can control either.

"I should also mention that it seems to me both of these business are being punished for the error as they are on like page 3 or 4 of the places results."

SOOOOO here's the deal with your ranking. You are not being punished for any of that - period! The only reason you are not ranking yet is the listing is new and has not worked into the local database yet. It was only added Dec 19th and it takes 6 - 8 weeks to start ranking.

Your site ranks #2 in organic. Once your G+ Local listing works into the database in about a month, it will connect with your site and I predict you'll be ranking on page one blended right where you want to be. Don't change anything, just hang on and you should be good.

 

[WineCountryCarpetCleaning]

Gotta love good news! I will be very curious to see how this unfolds, its been a rocky road for me and places/plus with all of the errors etc that I have made so far since going out on my own. would be pretty sweet to have a places page doing well by the time the spring rush kicks in.

Appreciate all the responses Linda love this forum. I am spreading the word on all the other boards I participate on.

 

[David Deering]

It was only added Dec 19th and it takes 6 - 8 weeks to start ranking.

Is that the average time for a new listing to start ranking in local results, if everything else is in place?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Yes that's what we all say at the G forum, but since folks only complain when they don't rank and don't come back and always tell us yay and since I don't work on clients any more, I have not tracked carefully lately. But the cases I have seen were usually 4 - 5. But I think it depends on lots of factors including G updates and backend pipeline changes.

 

[David Fesler]

I agree with Linda that Google should be displaying the title tag.

The main point here is Relevancy. Google will display the portion or snippets from the title tag or description that is most RELEVANT to what is being searched.

A large majority of my work is SEO as well as Local, but my main goal when optimizing for either is RELEVANCY and I also love to type the word, if you couldn't tell.

 

[WineCountryCarpetCleaning]

LOL, thank you david, RELEVANCY is a great word in both organic and local. On some level it is what everything comes down to. I think Linda has assuaged any fears I may have had originally. I have no problem with the websites title tags getting pulled into the places listing, I was just afraid it would be considered spam, but I suppose that is foolish because G knows were it is coming from.