Multi-Location Businesses not showing Local results in SERPs

[IanJohnson]

A few clients that I work with have multiple locations (10+) and when performing a "generic" search, using just the name of the business, no local (GMB listings or map pack) results are shown.

I'm guessing that this may be due to the number of locations for these businesses and the fact that there wasn't any local info/intent in the query, resulting in Google not quite knowing which location to serve up. But that is just a guess.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this or happen to know what may be causing this?

 

[Michael Ferrari]

I've noticed something like this in the past with clients that have different locations with only a slight difference in the name due to location (ex: Business Name of New York, Business Name of Chicago, etc.) In most cases, Google was good about serving up the right location in the packs when the proper geo modifier was used, same with "near me" and similar searches. But if you weren't directly near the a specific location and searched for just the name of the business without the city attached to it, Google would usually serve up the same location each time (which happened to house the main office). Again, I only noticed this when there was no specific location modifiers. Not only was the listing it served the main office, but it was the location with the most reviews as well--so that may have played a part.

Out of curiosity, are you noticing this with multiple clients in different industries, or is it just effecting a specific type of client?