Local SEO Ranking Puzzle + Important Lesson!

[Linda Buquet]

Going to share a ranking puzzle that had me puzzled until I figured it out.
What I discovered is an important part of troubleshooting you need to be tuned into.

Your client not ranking? Maybe this is why....

So 1st I'm going to just lay out the problem and let you guys take a stab at figuring it out.
If no one catches it then I'll tell you and you'll realize this is kind of a big deal...

1st off this is not a client at all. I was just trying to reverse engineer the algo and this one had me stumped for awhile.

Google Irving Dentist
(change location to Irving Tx to be sure we see the same things.)

Advanced Dental Care of Las Colinas is #1 organic.

Dunn Jerry DDS ranks A (He's the Dentist there)

BUT there is a practice listing "Advanced Dental Care of Las Colinas" which is the one they likely WANT to rank and it's knocked out of the pack by the Dr listing.

WHY does the practice not rank A in the pack instead of the backwards name Dr listing?

Here are both listings in maps: http://goo.gl/maps/bJFxA

When you search via phone in maps the practice ranks on top.
The practice has 1 review, the Dr listing 0.

Is it citations?

"Advanced Dental Care of Las Colinas" "(972) 506-9688" 71,000

"Dunn Jerry DDS" "(972) 506-9688" only 13,000

"Jerry Dunn DDS" "(972) 506-9688" only 13,400

So nope, the practice has more reviews and tons of citations.

Both have exact same address and phone, so it's not a NAP integrity issue.

Hmmm let's search main KW + address and see what happens.

Dentist 1075 Kinwest Pkwy Irving, TX

Weird. Searching for their MAIN KW and their exact address, the Dr listing does not even show up.
ONLY the practice shows up.

So here is a practice that has optimized the practice listing and it SHOULD rank in the A spot since the site ranks #1 in organic.

Everything in maps favors the practice listing and that one has most reviews and citations.

SO RIDDLE ME THIS... The site ranks #1 organic. The practice listing ranks #1 in maps.
Why is the practice locked out of the pack and the backwards Dr listing ranks instead?

I already did all the research and legwork for you. Let's see who can figure it out and then I'll share a very important lesson that needs to be part of your eval process on every client.

Miss this and it could impact ranking!

 

[Dustybones]

Ummmmmmmm. Ummmmmmm. The URL (adclc.com) on the on Advanced Dental Care of Los Colinas G+ page is a redirect to the current site. The Dr. Page has the correct URL...?? The verified listing has the re-direct and the duplicate unverified has the correct URL. Wait, What was I saying?

 

[Deckard64]

Is the category problem?

"Dunn Jerry DDS"'s category has "cosmetic dentist" and "dental clinic" while the practice Google+'s category is "health and beauty

 

[Linda Buquet]

Badabing! Dusty got it! (Gold star for Dusty!)

The main issue is that advanceddentalcarelc.com is the site that ranks #1 in organic so has lots of authority. BUT the practice does not link directly to the site, the link on the practice listing goes to adclc.com which then has to do a redirect to advanceddentalcarelc.com

But Deckard kinda was heading toward another issue I stumbled on when researching.

Is the category problem?

"Dunn Jerry DDS"'s category has "cosmetic dentist" and "dental clinic" while the practice Google+'s category is "health and beauty

Not sure where you see that. I see "cosmetic dentist" and "dental clinic" on both listings.

Edit details is BORKED right now so I can't get in to see what all the cats are right now.
(I just reported it to Google.)

But there IS a category issue. When I was trying to figure this out the other day I could not figure out how the Dr listing could rank A for City Dentist BUT when I did a map search for Dentist + address the Dr listing did not show at all.

Well it turns out the Dr listing does not even have Dentist as a category. THEREFORE when searching that KW in maps it does not come up at all.

BUT when tied to the correct high ranking site it DOES rank, even though Dentist is not in cats.

So couple important lessons here.

1) Check to be sure the URL in the Place page goes to the right site with no re-direct. I just had someone come to me for consulting help a few days ago and had it not been for the case study I went through above, I would not have caught it, but I noticed the link on their Place page was just a SLIGHTLY different URL. I would not even have noticed the redirect or that it was a different URL so sometimes you need to check carefully.

2) Re the lack of custom cats in the new dash and in G+. This also kinda goes to show that even if a cat is not in your dashboard you can still rank for it based on the strength of the site.

3) I think this example also goes to show that in spite of what some people say, the organic algo is still in charge. (Of the top of the pack at least.)

Because here you have the listing with the least reviews, much lower citations and even missing that main KW in cats and it STILL ranks A - gotta be due to that #1 organic ranking site from what I can tell.

 

[Deckard64]

Linda,

I found the category listed as "health and beauty" by clicking on the Google+ button on the right hand corner of the website.

https://plus.google.com/113631106819824956930/about

 

[Vickyboli]

I think this have something to do with the location of the pin. The Dr. listing pin is place in the actual business but the Practice pin is in the parking lot.

There's the only explanation I could find, I'll keep thinking on this.

Great puzzle

 

[Linda Buquet]

I think this have something to do with the location of the pin. The Dr. listing pin is place in the actual business but the Practice pin is in the parking lot.

There's the only explanation I could find, I'll keep thinking on this.

Great puzzle

Thanks Vicky, but we already solved it. See my 2nd post above. It explains it.
And Dusty guessed it.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Linda,

I found the category listed as "health and beauty" by clicking on the Google+ button on the right hand corner of the website.

https://plus.google.com/113631106819824956930/about

Oh I see. That's not their Google+ LOCAL page that's just a Google+ Business page which does not rank at all in maps or search. (You can tell because there are is no write review option and it says story.)

I linked to their practice page above. You can see it here in maps:
http://goo.gl/maps/bJFxA

 

[Scott Rawlins]

Nice job Dusty!!!!!!