Help needed - Maps rankings drop

[Nick Rink]

Had an issue arise with a dentist here in London and I've not been able to really find out what's going on. Last weekend they fell out of the main local pack for some of their basic hyper-local search terms.

They've ranked well over the past couple of years, always in the top 3 for the keywords they've wanted to target (dentist ec4, dentist Cannon St, etc). Google My Business is claimed & verified with plenty of reviews and StreetView was done last year. The website is a little slow and I don't think it converts particularly well but they don't want to / won't change it.

The issue in ranking all seems to come from a Maps issue as they still rank well organically for some longer tail terms. One thing that I did notice was a couple of additional listings that went live on 30th Aug. They are both for a dentist who is "renting a treatment room" from them about 2 days a week. Could that be the issue or does someone see something more obvious that I've missed?

Website is here: Dentist City of London | Dentist EC4 | CAP City Dental
Maps listing is here - https://goo.gl/maps/kAB9vtfEVZo
G+ Page is here - https://plus.google.com/+CapCityDentalCoUkEC4
The two new dentist listings are here - https://goo.gl/maps/Zk41Njegp8U2 - and here - https://goo.gl/maps/pHRd6vWnBQP2

 

[BenFisher]

Hey Nick,
The whole industry is trying to nail down what the issue is. We know an update occurred. There are theories that are being evaluated at the moment, but no one really knows yet.

Thank you for posting this though as it will help the process of figuring it out.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks Ben!

Hey Nick. Thanks for the detailed info. I'm unable to look at listings or research them specifically right now. BUT since this latest update, we've had lots of folks with the issue of the listing disappearing from the pack and maps.

<a href="http://www.localsearchforum.com/google-local/42925-google-listing-disapeared-recent-update-try.html">Google Listing Disapeared With Recent Update? - Try This</a>

See the links inside to other cases to see if any sound similar to what you have going OR if any of the suggestions in the other threads might make sense for you.

 

[Ray Litvak]

I also recently noticed that a long standing client of mine - GreenStream Environmental Inc - who had been at the top of the 7 and then 3 pack for years for his prime k/w search (Asbestos Removal Toronto - https://www.google.ca/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=asbestos+removal+toronto+ ) has dropped from #1 in Maps to #11...essentially, being orphaned. Even more disturbing is the fact that at least 2 of the 3 companies that now occupy the top 3 spots for Asbestos Removal Toronto - and possibly the fourth - are the same company (AMC Toronto - Asbestos Removal, Containment & Disposal and ACM Asbestos Removal LTD and possibly Asbestos Testing Service). I also believe the 4th spot (Remove Asbestos Canada) also belongs to the same person/company. A few of these results are missing addresses, are below 5 star reviews and missing other what would seem to be essential criteria to make the top 3. Hopefully, this is just Google mucking about with the Local Algorithm and things will return to normal...in the meantime, it seems that my client's direct competitor has found a way to game the system...for now. Any thoughts/ideas as to how this could/is happening would be appreciated.
Thanks!
-Ray

 

[chriscc]

Hi Nick. I know it's no help to you but I've seen the same thing (also London) with a site that continues to rank well organically but has dropped a long way locally right after last weekend's algo update.

One thing I have seen is fewer local search results under More Places. For example your 'dentist cannon street' only produces (for me anyway) 4 results under More Places - surprisingly few. 2 of those are the same co and one is permanently closed. Any idea how that compares to previously?

I wonder if the big update at the weekend put some kind of outside limit/perimeter on the search area

Weirdly, a search for 'dentist monument station' your client is outside the 3-pack but when I hit More Places then it's in the top slot

Sorry - a mix of conjecture and stuff you probably knew already. Maybe we should just assume that Google is still testing/tweaking

 

[JoyHawkins]

Hey Ray,

I responded to you in detail on the LocalU forum but I'm going to post some of it in here as well:

Your client isn?t in Toronto, they?re in Concord. I honestly wouldn?t expect it would be very easy to rank in Toronto without them actually having an address there.

I did a consultation a few weeks ago for a limo company in Scottsdale, AZ who ranked in the 3-pack for ?limo services phoenix? and I was honestly shocked. Same scenario as your client, they were in a suburb of a big city. They are now completely gone as well.

I always tell people if you manage to get ranked in the 3-pack for a city outside your own, don?t expect it to last. Every time I find an example of this, it seems short-lived.

That being said, you might have a chance if everyone above you is spam. I always get happy when I see spam outrank my clients because it means I have a chance of getting them ranked faster (by just pulling the spam down). You can read about how to properly report them here: The Ultimate Guide to Fighting Spam on Google Maps

 

[Nick Rink]

Thanks for all the helpful comments both here and in the main monster thread over here.

It would seem that the two additional listings for the dentist who they are renting a room to may well be part of the problem. I just found it very coincidental that their rankings dropped happened at the very same time as the two new listings went live (according to MapMaker) and the most recent Google carnage!

I tried the "zoom" method last week just to check that their listing hadn't disappeared and it's still there. Interesting to note what you said @chriscc and I see something very similar.

For example, if I search for dentist ec4, where they used to rank at #2, they don't show in the initial results. Click on "More Places" and they still don't show. Zoom into that map just once and boom, they're up in the #3 spot (screenshot here) even though the radius appears very wide.

Same thing for dentist cannon street ... not in the local pack, but click on the map and then zoom in once and everything looks very different (screenshot here).