Major Map Pack Movement in both FL and WA for HVAC and Home Imprv. Keywords 9/20/16

[Oceanmedianow]

Anyone else notice some severe movement in the map pack?

I noticed it this morning.

I have one new HVAC in WA client who I am still auditing the disavow list and cleaning citations for, that dropped to the bottom on map pack pretty much across the board. Might I also mention this client had 14 backlinks drop this morning due to server errors.

My transitioning client in FL with Home Improvement saw complete drops in some keywords and 20% drops in most others. I had already discussed the backlink audit last week and identified some shady backlinks his existing company was creating. They were using the .xyz with alot of crappy content and authority linking.

Top competitors in the map pack are also gone and replaced with the natural ones left. This feels alot like an update! Still a newbie in some aspects of this business still, but constantly learning and will not stop learning.

I am white-hat only. I dont mind the shake up. But I now have more work to do.

Any thoughts as to what you guys/gals feel about this? Are you seeing this as well?

 

[JoyHawkins]

Did you already submit the disavow file before you saw the drop? I generally see a drop in rankings if I disavow things as the bad links were probably helping them (it does work, that's why people still do it).

I haven't seen any major fluctuations in the last couple days. Most of my clients had a shift in ranking when the algorithm update happened Sept 1.

 

[Oceanmedianow]

I did a partial disavowal of some known bad back links. Submitted those September 2nd. Dropping results occurred today September 20th. I just did a check again on rankings and it seems as if the Washington client is moving back up in results slowly. Florida client I am attributing to a local SEO company using the XYZ ranking tactic and is dominating categories with multiple clients in the same category

 

[Oceanmedianow]

Funny thing after the disavow, the rankings vastly improved six days ago until today.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Sorry what is the XYZ ranking tactic?

 

[Oceanmedianow]

From what I have seen with most of my clients, is competitor seo companies using .xyz domains using Genisis Sandbox on Genesis Framework with Wordpress.

ie.

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]airconditionerrepaircompanysgjmpj .xyz[/FONT]

The site has spun content, keyword stuffed, uses expansion menus for the backlinks they are promoting. Geo tagged deeply as well. I do believe they then are promoting these sites with other higher DA links. Really haven't gone further into researching it. Not my kinda style of doing marketing.

I know this blackhat tactic is working because I see it in two different states clear across the country. Why are they not getting penalized?

 

[JoyHawkins]

Are they showing organically or in the 3-pack? If they are in the 3-pack there is definitely a way to get rid of them. See http://www.joyannehawkins.com/ultimate-guide-fighting-spam-google-maps/

 

[Oceanmedianow]

Compeitor A ranks great organically and maps.

That site is a backlink of my clients Competitor A. They have over 9 of them largely assisting their rankings. Competitor A has dominated the pack since we started 6 months ago. So it's me with my client vs. the other SEO company and his 5. all of us in the same city and category. He has an elaborate link network with the .xyz domain thing.

 

[Oceanmedianow]

ie. #2

competitor B has Trust Flow and Citation Flow under 10's with all .xyz backlinks and is ranking great in map pack. Stumped here.

 

[JoyHawkins]

If you want to post what the keyword is and who the fake listing is, I can investigate and remove it.