Google's list of sins

[barbmcgrath]

We're helping a local business who sells products on Google's list of sins try to get found more consistently.

Generally they are an outdoor store that sells everything from camping gear to outer wear. They also sell guns, ammunition and knives.

Because of these sins, we can only use competitor websites to do keyword research with Google's tool. We see their listing be penalized (they have more reviews, are in closer proximity to us, etc but rank lower all the time). Anyone worked with a similar business? Did you move the sin products to a subdomain?

How did you help the business?

Their biggest competitor has 3 listings - 2 of which are duplicate but have not been deleted or flagged.

 

[keyserholiday]

First, report and remove the duplicate business profiles. Next look at the citations for your client and see if any need to be created or updated. Check how well the URL that's being pointed from GBP is optimized. You overcomplicated this by thinking about subdomains. You don;t need subdomains, you need on and offpage optimization.

 

[barbmcgrath]

Thanks @keyserholiday as the website is, we can't run a Google Ad on his other products. His site is built on Lightspeed so we've optimized as much as we can and are still working within the confines of their systems.

When I look at his local competitors he is wayyy ahead of their optimization but still ranking far behind.

 

[keyserholiday]

Thanks @keyserholiday as the website is, we can't run a Google Ad on his other products. His site is built on Lightspeed so we've optimized as much as we can and are still working within the confines of their systems.

When I look at his local competitors he is wayyy ahead of their optimization but still ranking far behind.

Too hard to say without knowing the business.