New Local Ranking Puzzle - Come Play: Why Ranks High!

[Linda Buquet]

<img src="http://marketing-blog.catalystemarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/LocalSearchPuzzle2.gif" alt="LocalSearchPuzzle2" width="45%" />​

I have not started a "Why Ranks High" game for awhile, so thought it was high time!

So join me boys and girls - let's solve this puzzle!

It could offer a clue to an algo change or shine a light on what Google favors these days.

QUERY: Seattle Chiropractor

This is the main pack I watch and I've been watching it for 4+ years now.

A new chiro came out of nowhere. Friday it was F in the pack and as of this writing it's up to D. It's displaced some long standing very strong listings, so I wanted to dig in.

But with this damn RSI I just can't do much research, so I thought we'd make it a ranking game and figure it out as a group project.

The newcomer to the pack is Northwest Pain Relief Center at glacierchiro DOT com

And here are the things I've discovered so far that are puzzling and make me wonder how the heck this one is ranking at all.

1) Farthest from centroid. If you click to view this SERP, you'll see they are way far north. Yes in Seattle the centroid is north of town instead of downtown, but still, no one north of that A spot has been in the pack for a long time.

2) The site is more optimized Ballard the neighborhood than for Seattle.

3) Scrambled NAP? Possible sale or rebranding (Maybe even twice.) Okay, so we know that scrambled NAP usually hurts ranking. We know that rebranding or new ownership usually hurts ranking. Well, I didn't have time to get to the bottom of it, but this practice has some kind of major NAP issues. Check this:

Domain: glacierchiro
Name on site: Glacier Chiropractic
Name on G+ L: Northwest Pain Relief Center
(Nap ideally should match on site and G+ L, right?)

Custom G+ URL is /Alignseattle, so yet a 3rd name
Logo and several images on G+L are for Align Integrative Health
But there are also images for Glacier Chiropractic
Yet name on listing is Northwest Pain Relief Center

Can you spell S C R A M B L E D NAP? You know they have a mess.

Ahhh, just discovered on their about us page on the site, Glacier grand opening May 2015. So this is a new practice, must have bought out Align but not sure why the Northwest name is on there. But still rebranding or new ownership would normally hurt ranking temporarily, not help.

OK, so now knowing that's the correct new name out of the 3, did a quick partial citation check Googling: "glacier chiropractic" "(206) 745-7899". ONLY 0 matches, so citations are not the reason they are ranking.

I checked Yelp because ranking high there can make a difference, as you see from the last ranking puzzle I did back in Feb. But Yelp does not seem to be a factor in this case.

Oddly review summary shows 20 reviews, but none show on the page?

I checked backlinks on Know 'Em and no bls for Seattle Chiro. But deeper bl check is needed.

I've seen indications that Google is looking at a wider range of factors that are not even necessarily online factors. I wonder if Glacier just got a lot of grand opening press or something?

So brilliant forum members, what say ye?

Why does this one rank in the pack?

PS: See previous Why Ranks High games here in the <a href="http://www.localsearchforum.com/ranking-puzzles/">Ranking Puzzles</a> section of the forum.
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[JoshuaMackens]

Doesn't rank organically in the top 100 for the keyword.

Must have done a rebrand like you said and changed the name.

Is it possible that the old name is a practice that use to rank in the pack? Is there a practice missing from the usual suspects?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks Joshua.

I was over in the corner pouting because no one would come and play with me.

Glad you checked organic, I didn't have a chance to.

Nope none of the other names were ever in the pack. However we did have another case recently - think it was discussed on G+ where the new brand had nothing going for it but I discovered the old brand had crazy strong authority and popularity and it seemed to carry over even tho was a new listing and new name. But that was not a buyout per se. The son took over the business and just rebranded it, so was largely the same company.

Had not checked MM yet either. Just did. Looks like back in 2013 this listing was at 910 Lenora St, Downtown, Seattle and this Dr edited it. BUT the site says Glacier just opened this month. So not sure what's up.

Ahhh found what I think is the old practice on MM. Same Dr.

Align Integrative Health - Dr. Todd Luther, DC (Primary, Local)
Dr. Todd Luther (Local)
Luther Chiropractic (Local)
910 Lenora St. Seattle

So then I checked citations for that practice at that phone#
"Align Integrative Health" "(206) 397-3457" 37,000 matches, so pretty strong.

I almost wondered if this was a merged listing, due to the weird combo of different names and logos. But I have not seen one of those for so long, not sure those still happen. But if Google merged these 3 practices from the same owner at 2 different locations, and it carried juice from all of the different brands, that would give this new brand a lot of clout. (But I don't know if that's what's up.)

Any other ideas anyone?

 

[Andy]

Hello Linda/Joshua

1) Farthest from centroid. If you click to view this SERP, you'll see they are way far north. Yes in Seattle the centroid is north of town instead of downtown, but still, no one north of that A spot has been in the pack for a long time

Just curious - given that the user is the new centroid, you still mention "farthest from centroid" as being a potential factor because you did your search in incognito (with city set to Seattle) right?

Doesn't rank organically in the top 100 for the keyword.

I was thinking that user behaviour may explain the unexplainable ranking in the local pack, but given that it does not rank organically then that can't be it, right (?)

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hello Linda/Joshua

Just curious - given that the user is the new centroid, you still mention "farthest from centroid" as being a potential factor because you did your search in incognito (with city set to Seattle) right?

I was thinking that user behaviour may explain the unexplainable ranking in the local pack, but given that it does not rank organically then that can't be it, right (?)

Actually I was not incognito and did not even have location set to Seattle, it was set to Escondido Ca. But even when I changed to Seattle they are still ranked D.

User behavior - that's a good thought! Especially since I noticed they had an ad on Living Social and someone, maybe I saw it in a Yelp review, even mentioned they loved their LS deal. So they could be getting a lot of clicks due to that. But you are right, you would think if anything that would impact organic.