No Local Performance Even After 6 Months

[Matt Chauhan]

We have been working with a mold removal company based in Corona, CA, for six months now. Despite our best efforts, we have not been able to produce any results in local rankings for them. Their search grid report is dismal. Can someone help us with some analysis on that and guide us in the right direction? We don't seem to figure out what's wrong. The client's website is Water Damage Restoration Services, Mold Removal & Remediation in Corona, CA | Mold Fix
Their GBP is Mold Fix - Google Search
I would be happy to share any other details or any other required reports if required.

 

[JeffClevelandTN]

Hi Matt, you've got a few challenges with this business. The first major one is that you are competing against some huge brands such as ServPro. Just doing a search for "mold remediation corona ca", there are numerous strong competitors that have been around awhile. The second major challenge is that your client has a Service Area Business. As I believe you already know, when combined with strong competitors that have a physical location, it is going to be super difficult for your client to rank well on the local pack.

But one potential major factor for lack of visibility is that Mold Fix has a duplicate GBP (unclaimed). Just do a Google Search exactly like this: "mold fix" corona ca

We've seen with one of our clients in competitive markets, for whatever reason, that a duplicate auto-generated GBP will very often outrank the legitimate GBP for that same business and can prevent the legit GBP from showing up on the local pack or map. Once we are able to remove the second profile, the local pack rankings returned to normal. Your unclaimed GBP has an address showing, which probably means Google created the profile from info it grabbed from citations/directories.

I'd recommend clicking on "suggest an edit" on the duplicate profile, click on "closed or remove", then "duplicate of another place". Time varies on how long Google will take to take action and you may have to request more than once. Also, I'd suggest having more than one person do this.

 

[Matt Chauhan]

Hi Matt, you've got a few challenges with this business. The first major one is that you are competing against some huge brands such as ServPro. Just doing a search for "mold remediation corona ca", there are numerous strong competitors that have been around awhile. The second major challenge is that your client has a Service Area Business. As I believe you already know, when combined with strong competitors that have a physical location, it is going to be super difficult for your client to rank well on the local pack.

But one potential major factor for lack of visibility is that Mold Fix has a duplicate GBP (unclaimed). Just do a Google Search exactly like this: "mold fix" corona ca

We've seen with one of our clients in competitive markets, for whatever reason, that a duplicate auto-generated GBP will very often outrank the legitimate GBP for that same business and can prevent the legit GBP from showing up on the local pack or map. Once we are able to remove the second profile, the local pack rankings returned to normal. Your unclaimed GBP has an address showing, which probably means Google created the profile from info it grabbed from citations/directories.

I'd recommend clicking on "suggest an edit" on the duplicate profile, click on "closed or remove", then "duplicate of another place". Time varies on how long Google will take to take action and you may have to request more than once. Also, I'd suggest having more than one person do this.

Hi Jeff, the duplicate is now gone.

 

[JeffClevelandTN]

Hey @Matt Chauhan, thanks for the update. Have you seen any changes in your local pack ranking since the deletion using a local grid ranking tool? At least for me, the GBP is showing up for selected search terms on the Map.

Looking at your GBP Categories/Services, I personally think that your client's Services looks a bit spammy and keyword stuffed, but just my opinion. My recommendation would be to keep "Water damage restoration service" as your primary category but delete all the existing services underneath that category and then save. Then use the pre-defined list, as-is, for the pertinent services as shown in the attached image. Again, just my opinion.

The other issue you are facing, is because you have "online appointments" selected in the GBP you are missing out on a lot of "justifications" from searches containing "mold" related terms which is likely impacting your visibility significantly on the local and general map pack. Unfortunately when you have "on-site services" or "online appointments" enabled you most likely will not be getting any benefit of justifications (coming from your Category/Services) in the search results. The frustrating thing is that once you select "yes or no" for those options, you can't remove "online appointments" by changing from yes to no. Instead, the GBP will show "No Online Appointments" or something similar. As I understand, the only way to fix this is to submit a ticket to Google support to have them remove it completely.

You should be able to see what I'm referring to by doing a search for "mold removal near me" and you'll see how the other listings appear. I also attached a screen shot, but I did "mold fix near me" so you could see your client and how it compares to the others.

 

[Matt Chauhan]

Hey @Matt Chauhan, thanks for the update. Have you seen any changes in your local pack ranking since the deletion using a local grid ranking tool? At least for me, the GBP is showing up for selected search terms on the Map.

Looking at your GBP Categories/Services, I personally think that your client's Services looks a bit spammy and keyword stuffed, but just my opinion. My recommendation would be to keep "Water damage restoration service" as your primary category but delete all the existing services underneath that category and then save. Then use the pre-defined list, as-is, for the pertinent services as shown in the attached image. Again, just my opinion.

The other issue you are facing, is because you have "online appointments" selected in the GBP you are missing out on a lot of "justifications" from searches containing "mold" related terms which is likely impacting your visibility significantly on the local and general map pack. Unfortunately when you have "on-site services" or "online appointments" enabled you most likely will not be getting any benefit of justifications (coming from your Category/Services) in the search results. The frustrating thing is that once you select "yes or no" for those options, you can't remove "online appointments" by changing from yes to no. Instead, the GBP will show "No Online Appointments" or something similar. As I understand, the only way to fix this is to submit a ticket to Google support to have them remove it completely.

You should be able to see what I'm referring to by doing a search for "mold removal near me" and you'll see how the other listings appear. I also attached a screen shot, but I did "mold fix near me" so you could see your client and how it compares to the others.

Hi Jeff! No improvements at all in the search grid rankings.

Thank you for all the valuable suggestions. We are making those changes rightaway.

 

[bdlowery]

The other issue you are facing, is because you have "online appointments" selected in the GBP you are missing out on a lot of "justifications" from searches containing "mold" related terms which is likely impacting your visibility significantly on the local and general map pack. Unfortunately when you have "on-site services" or "online appointments" enabled you most likely will not be getting any benefit of justifications (coming from your Category/Services) in the search results. The frustrating thing is that once you select "yes or no" for those options, you can't remove "online appointments" by changing from yes to no. Instead, the GBP will show "No Online Appointments" or something similar. As I understand, the only way to fix this is to submit a ticket to Google support to have them remove it completely.

Have you had any luck with that? I've talked to google support multiple times and they wont remove it. One of our clients clicked it, and even when I set it to no they won't just remove the option. Any particular way I can word it?

 

[JeffClevelandTN]

Have you had any luck with that? I've talked to google support multiple times and they wont remove it. One of our clients clicked it, and even when I set it to no they won't just remove the option. Any particular way I can word it?

I'm tagging @Colan Nielsen as he is aware of this particular problem with GBP regarding the catch-22 in selecting yes/no for onsite/online appointments. Being a Google product expert, he will have much better advice on how to best word the request. Hopefully he'll chime in .

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Sometimes you actually need to put screenshots together to show Google what you are referring to. I would take some screenshots showing them the problem and then upload the screenshots to a Google drive folder and share that link with them the reply to that email.

 

[bdlowery]

Sometimes you actually need to put screenshots together to show Google what you are referring to. I would take some screenshots showing them the problem and then upload the screenshots to a Google drive folder and share that link with them the reply to that email.

This is what they ended up replying back. I also attached the images I had in the google drive. Do I just.... try again?

 

[JS Girard]

If the GBP is missing entirely (as opposed to just having bad rankings), that's a big ol redflag that what is going on is structural in nature. Have you double-checked that the original verification address (if known) is within physical city limit? (in the US, the address saying "Corona" does not necessarily mean the address is physically IN Corona!) Could the SAB move bug be involved due to a change of address in the past? (which can also compound with a physical location issue) Even with those cleared up, the possibility of the generic address-hiding bug being involved cannot be discounted either...

 

[Colan Nielsen]

This is what they ended up replying back. I also attached the images I had in the google drive. Do I just.... try again?

A would try creating a post asking for help over at the Google business profile forum at this point.