Not showing up for Google suggested category

[saromckenna]

Hi everyone

I have really appreciated reading this forum as I set up a small yoga studio in London and learned how to optimise my Local page. Thank you very much!

I seem to be ensnared in a G+ local bug which is costing me hugely:

The Google suggested category for yoga places is "Yoga Studio". In my Google Places for Business page I have filled out the categories with custom categories so that all 5 categories are: Yoga studio, Yoga Class, Yoga classes, Yoga, Yoga studios. In my G+ page (they are merged) I cannot fill out custom categories so the only category is Yoga studio.

In Google maps, when you start to search for yoga, the anticipated suggestion is "yoga studios". Here's the bug: even when you're completely zoomed in to my precise location, my studio does not appear (not even as a small dot) in a search for "yoga studios".
Screenshot, search for "yoga studios"



Remove the "s" in studio, and we appear (depending on the zoom, as a small dot or as a flag). In fact, for all other searches related to yoga, we appear (quite well thanks to the advice on this site ).

Screenshot, search for "yoga studio"



As I'm sure you can see, this is a problem because most people choose the Google anticipated search term

My studio is called Energy Yoga, 4 Foster Lane, London EC2V 6HH, UK. Energy Yoga London - Yoga in the City of London.

I hope someone here can help by suggesting how I can become visible to Google for their anticipated search term, "Yoga studios".

Thank you very much for you time.

Kind regards
Saro

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Saro, I saw your post over at the Google forum too.

Have a couple ideas, but 1st concern is when did you PIN verify? Because your listing is showing symptoms of being a new listing that has not worked into the local database yet.

 

[saromckenna]

Hi Linda
thanks so much for your speedy reply. I pin verified to merge my Google Places for Business with G+ three weeks ago. I pin verified for the Google Places for Business account 6 or 7 weeks ago.
Since I'm visible for many search terms it never occured to me it could be a time issue... Could it be?

Thanks again for your time!

Kind regards
Saro

 

[Phil Rozek]

@Saro

In addition to seconding what Linda said, I'd also suggest paring down the categories. The only one you should have is "Yoga Studio"; the others are redundant, and I suggest you remove them.

Google may be whacking you for having them. Google is smart enough to know that if you're a "yoga studio" you offer yoga classes and would be a good match to show customers who might type "yoga class," "yoga classes," etc. into Google. To Google, adding those as categories is excessive.

You can always try reintroducing those excess categories later if you were so inclined. But in the meantime, while you're not visible on the map, you don't want to show any flesh that Google's anti-spam K9 unit can sink its teeth into.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks Phil great minds think alike. After I got an answer about the PIN timing I was going to mention that next.

You can get dinged for the redundant categories no matter how you cut it- but your comment at the G forum really proves our point.

You said "All the other yoga studios have the same primary category as me (the singular "yoga studio") and none of them have the plural "yoga studios" as a custom category (whereas I actually do)."

They DON'T have plural but rank for it. You DO have plural and DON'T rank for it. That kinda tells you something.

BUT NOW the question is what to do. Because after you merge you are not supposed to edit in the Places dash any more. I honestly don't know what happens if you do but Google always says not to.

I'm thinking maybe try edit details right on the page which would get someone in Map Maker to do the edit. BUT the redundant cats would still be in dash, so I'm thinking could still get dinged.

Hang on, don't do anything yet. Let's get a couple other opinions on how to remove those cats.

In fact, hang on til Monday. I'm going to add part of this discussion to your G forum post and then escalate to Google. Because stuff like this comes up a lot and I want to find out for sure:

1) What happens if you DO edit in dash?

2) If bad cats are still in dash but you edit in MM does that fix it or is the algo still seeing those bad cats in dash?

 

[Linda Buquet]

OK expanded a little on my questions above and posted at the Google forum.

Google category does not match Google anticipated search - "Yoga studio" vs "Yoga studios" - I don't appear on maps for the anticipated search term - Google Groups

Escalated it to Google but they don't usually work weekends so could be Mon or Tues before I get answers.