Linda, or anyone else, thoughts on this issue?

[Nathan Thomas]

Hey Linda and other Local SEO people!

On my blog I started a 7 pack analysis topic that I'm doing every week and this is something I came across last week but haven't gotten around to asking you brilliant minds here!

The listing in question is "Atlantis Plumbing", analyzed here: Issue 1: Why It's Ranking, 7 Pack Analysis - Income Bully

Now, I think we all already know that Google favors keywords in the business name, and I've been tweeting back and forth with Darren Shaw about this as well. I also understand Google is very good at identifying synonyms.

Looking at everything, I feel pretty confident that the only reason they are ranking so well for the term, "Plumber in Atlanta" is because of the name, how it is nearly an exact match for "Atlanta Plumbing" except it isn't even a synonym, but just a close spelling.

Atlanta
Atlantis

Judging by all the other details.. and assuming this partial match of the city name is really making that much of a difference, then this isn't Google just placing importance on the business name... this is giving it a HUUUGE amount of weight.

Is Google treating this business as if it were an exact match business name?

Anyway, sorry if this has already been brought up, I just find it very strange in this example how much weight is given, if I'm right and you guys don't point out something I missed.

Thanks in advance for the added insight you guys may have.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hey Nathan,

Thanks for sharing a ranking puzzle and your analysis.

Too tired for a deep dive, but looked a little at the B spot.

You said: "They?re not displaying their address in GMB because it?s a UPS store or some virtual office place."

No it's a home address so they have address properly hidden per the guidelines.

That A spot should be knocked down from their KW stuffed perch. Funny they blatantly show the real name in the G+ L logo and description.

If we reported and got the name changed to the correct name, wonder if they'd drop?

I'll try to look more this weekend.

Anyone else have thoughts to share???

 

[Nathan Thomas]

Hey Nathan,

Thanks for sharing a ranking puzzle and your analysis.

You said: "They?re not displaying their address in GMB because it?s a UPS store or some virtual office place."

No it's a home address so they have address properly hidden per the guidelines.

Hey Linda, thank you for the response.

Yeah I see that now, after seeing all the conflicting data in about 5 other cities and one atlanta address that was using a UPS store, I thought they very well could be using it.

Seems like there are a lot of other issues going on though far beyond that.

What are your thoughts on the business name being so similar that it could possibly be carrying a lot of weight?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Not sure, I had to go to bed and now am buried today. Will try to check into it more this weekend. It's possible. Anything is possible with big G.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Didn't look at the situation but right now, with the way Pigeon is working, people are ranking solely on their business name if it's an exact match. They could literally be a month old and rank if their keyword and city is in their business name.

Even a partial match might work depending on competition.

 

[Broland]

Yea this kind of stuff is everywhere. You can see more of it here: http://www.localsearchforum.com/google-local-important/10000-attack-bad-google-local-one-boxes.html
It has to do with branding factors and determining a business entity and I would say Google has algorithms in play just for focusing on that. Not the best idea to detail all the factors on public forums but if you play on the right factors you can rank a business as a branded or partial branded search for a search term. I believe it's the local prominence algo by Google that provides a lot of insight on this if anyone wants to do more research. But like I said, I don't think detailing the factors here is a good idea as it can just help spammers with algo loopholes.

Also a side note: There are quite a lot of local ranking factors (and organic) that most people leave out from these types of analysis, which is often why they can be quite puzzling.