Organically doing well, Google + Local is a ?

[Linda Buquet]

Awesome to hear Justin!

I knew we could get you in the Carousel where you belong.

But it's super cool you are #1 in both Carousel and organic too!

Here's a little bigger easier to see screen shot. Just have to show off that double #1.

​

 

[OmegaMan]

So it is possible to have BOTH - MAPS & ORGANIC listings on PAGE 1 ?

I read it wasn't

 

[Linda Buquet]

Yes it's possible a couple different ways. It's just not the norm and does not usually happen unless you know how to make it happen. I have a Dentist that I got a double #1 for - that's been that way for over a year - but that's with a special technique.

But in this case, that's not what's happening. We didn't do anything additional to get the double. I'm not sure if the algo or display changed for the Carousel or what.

In the beginning I thought the Carousel replaced the pack which was a blended listing, so you would only be in the carousel and not in organic too.

In Justin's case he was #1 in organic, but the Place page was penalized so it was not ranking in the carousel. But now that we took care of the issues that were causing the Places penalty, he's ranking in both.

But so is La Volta, the #2 in the Carousel. Both organics are for the home page, so maybe Google changed something?

 

[JacobPuhl]

Phenomenal.

Follow up question. Any feeling as to how many increased phone calls you are getting now? Or maybe patrons? Always curious how much business a #1 ranking leads to in different cities and different niches.

Great work!

 

[Harkey]

Happy to answer that question. We made those changes/fixes about 1.5 weeks ago. I ran a ranking report on Monday to see where we were. The changes showed up today for the first time.

Let's give it a few weeks and I can update you. One day (first week of school for our area) would not be fair just yet.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Phenomenal.

Follow up question. Any feeling as to how many increased phone calls you are getting now? Or maybe patrons? Always curious how much business a #1 ranking leads to in different cities and different niches.

Great work!

Great question Jake. Keep in mind though that he already ranked on top in pure organic. At that time when the carousel was new I felt like he might be better off in organic than in the carousel, if folks didn't trust it, bypassed it like some do Adwords, and went right down to the organic.

So now he still has the high organic but additionally the carousel. I suspect now that folks are used to it the image + the review stars help get the clicks and calls.

 

[Linda Buquet]

In the ranking report Justin sent me he went from #41 in Places on Monday to #2 today for one key phrase. YAY for big jumps!

 

[Dave]

This is a great thread. Its been going on for over a month. Big changes in placement over time, specifically in local and in the carousel. Lots of great details about changes being made to local attributes to clean up the ranking.

I have some questions similar to those of an above commentator.

How much google search traffic do you get? You can speak in ranges over time without giving specifics. Did it increase or decrease after the carousel went up? With the fix are you seeing anything different in google searches.

Gross searches is my question versus actual search phrases as so many people are signed into google when searching and data turns up as Not Provided....giving no info on keyword usage.

Interesting restaurant site. It has a LOT of pages. Far more than most restaurants. I'm wondering if the sheer page volume helped your restaurant in the organic side. I haven't looked at code, competition, links etc. but just on sheer page volume that is quite a lot more than most restaurants. and generally restaurants aren't link strong anyways. Just wondering about that as a possible cause for high organic rankings.

Also curious if you track OT reservations off your page itself. How have they been impacted? I know smart OT members would tend to make a reservation off the main OT site to get points...but not everyone does that.

And getting reservations off searches is a key measure of real effectiveness.

Great thread!!!

 

[Harkey]

How much google search traffic do you get?
You can speak in ranges over time without giving specifics.

3k in the past 30 days

Did it increase or decrease after the carousel went up? With the fix are you seeing anything different in google searches.

As I noted yesterday in the previous post, this just occured yesterday. It was a huge jump overnight basicly. I have 24 hours of data at this point, so nothing to share just yet. I have noted it on GA to see any changes.

Gross searches is my question versus actual search phrases as so many people are signed into google when searching and data turns up as Not Provided....giving no info on keyword usage.

Yes, we have about a 60% back hole.

Interesting restaurant site. It has a LOT of pages. Far more than most restaurants. I'm wondering if the sheer page volume helped your restaurant in the organic side. I haven't looked at code, competition, links etc. but just on sheer page volume that is quite a lot more than most restaurants. and generally restaurants aren't link strong anyways. Just wondering about that as a possible cause for high organic rankings.

I am going to say "thank you" here, even if you did not mean it that way. I have worked very hard on this little experiment. I am not a SEO professional, but feel I have done a decent job with it. I need the Linda advanced help and am very happy I asked her for it and paid for it. It was money well spent.

However, if you look back this was the original query in the post. We had been doing very well in this keyword for MONTHS, ranking 1 or 2 for over 5 months. But from a pack or carousel standpoint we flatlined at 21. We did not budge for three months or so.

As a parenthetical - (I am curious, tracking a more overarching term like "raleigh restaurants" - we have never moved lower than 18 organically, but yesterday ranked 16 organically. So I am wondering if the penalties carried over to organic search??????)

But we have NEVER ranked (under 50) in the carousel for that term either. Ever. But starting yesterday, we are currently at 44 and seem to be climbing. Hope to report better news in a few weeks.

Also curious if you track OT reservations off your page itself. How have they been impacted? I know smart OT members would tend to make a reservation off the main OT site to get points...but not everyone does that.

We track both on and off. OT only shares search info on PAID - PPC searches. We can track the outbound click, but do not know for certain if a reservation was actually made. We get about 70% to 75% of our OT resos from their site, just for the reason you mentioned it just more prevalent than you thought. They are a horrible company. But, to your questions about time, again this is very new - so no data yet.

 

[Dave]

Thanks for your quick response. Nice looking website and best of luck. I Looooooooooove Italian food and if I lived there I would eat there!!!

Regarding my question about traffic after the carousel it was a general question. When the carousel first went up what occurred with google traffic? Could you discern any difference? Did it go up, go down, remain unchanged at all.

I was wondering if the carousel replacing the traditional PAC had any impact on your google traffic. That assumes you weren't in the carousel when it first went up...and that assumes you probably weren't showing in the PAC either. (but did have that high organic ranking)

 

[Harkey]

LOL. Thanks!


No we were not in the pack or wheel. So, not possible for me to identify any changes.

 

[Harkey]

Well, after 4 days all went back to the way it was prior to any changes.

There must still be some penalty of some kind somewhere!?

Based on that, I have the term being pulled daily to micro track the changes. I have some charts below. Views were significantly higher, not surprisingly.

Could it be the main landing page being too spammy with Raleigh or Restaurant? But, if that is the case wouldn't organic be pushed down also. We have ranked top spot for MONTHs now for that term organically. This is really confusing/frustrate me. What could I be missing?

 

[Dave]

some questions just to get clarification?

For the phrases Italian restaurant raleigh or Italian restaurant (with my location set to raleigh, nc)

I don't see you in the carousel at all. Is that correct?

For the organic phrase Italian restaurant Raleigh

I do see you ranked 1st, 2nd or 3rd organically. Is that what you see?

I don't get your traffic graphs. Are the axes reversed? It looks like you got help from Linda. I'm not going to jump in. But with 20 restaurants in the Carousel and you not being in it..I'd say penalty assuming you are doing enough other proper things to get into the carousel.

I haven't been looking at carousel or restaurant analytics data. I would assume though, if somebody clicked on a picture in the carousel in that Google redirects the search to your business name, you will never see traffic via the carousel for a phrase such as Italian restaurant Raleigh

Google redirects the search to a search for your restaurant by name. I assume you would only see Carousel searches that come in via "not provided" assuming the searcher is signed into gmail, or via a search for your restaurant by name as that is how the google redirect from the carousel works.

Is that accurate?

 

[Harkey]

Dave,

I cannot speak to the suppositions part. For the graphs on the 20th viewership jumps and it correlates to the carousel posting, it also falls when the carousel drops - which I think I cut off by accident.

 

[Dave]

Dave,

I cannot speak to the suppositions part. For the graphs on the 20th viewership jumps and it correlates to the carousel posting, it also falls when the carousel drops - which I think I cut off by accident.

More simple questions: So when you were in the carousel you got more traffic and when not in the carousel you got less traffic. Is that accurate?

Which ranked pic were you in the carousel and for which phrases?

On a simple basis it suggests you need to be in the carousel for more traffic. (duhhh!!).

Again, off the top of my head w/out looking at detail, with 20 restaurants showing in the carousel it suggests a penalty within local of some sort.

(btw: looking at classic maps for the phrase italian restaurant raleigh I see you ranked at #21)
Just got to beat that penalty where ever it is and add some maps/local strength imho)

 

[Harkey]

Broadly to the traffic, yes. Specifically, views that I infer lead to the traffic, yes. Completely agree with the "duh" part. I was operating under the constant that we all know, more eyeballs will increase traffic, if even slightly.

The basic answer, that we begin with was "Italian Restaurant Raleigh" and "Italian Restaurant" with location set to this locale under both.

Yes, there was a penalty that Linda found and corrected, as we pointed out and celebrated a few posts back.

My point now, is there must be another penalty of some kind.......but its origins are baffling and unknown.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Justin I think there are 3 possibilities.

1) I have seen penalties linger AFTER the offending data was changed. So maybe a temporary oops that you were in the carousel for a couple days, but in reality the penalty still really was lingering.

2) The changes corrected everything, but there was a data flux and she picked up the changes for a couple days, then something reverted back and she's still seeing the old data and in a couple weeks or so, whenever the next update is, all the old data will flush out and you'll pop back up.

3) There is something hidden we didn't find.

BUT INTERESTINGLY...

You rank #1 in the carousel for Italian Restaurant 27609
You rank #4 in the carousel for Tuscan Restaurant Raleigh
(Both less competitive than Italian Restaurant Raleigh)

So it's not that you are totally penalized and can't rank in the carousel. It's just the KWs that were overly repetitious that aren't ranking.

It's either the carousel is too competitive for Italian Restaurant Raleigh or you are penalized for just those KWs. Which I think makes sense due to the major keyword repetition for those specific KWs that were in your description initially.

ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION:

Raleigh Restaurant Mia Francesca Trattoria celebrates being the areas only authentic Italian Restaurant in the triangle. Our Raleigh Restaurant features authentic Italian food with rustic Northern Italian flare. Showcasing farm fresh ingredients and a warm welcoming service, Mia Francesca Trattoria the Italian restaurant - Raleigh, NC - invites you experience the best Italian food in Raleigh at our North Hills location. Whether is just a regular Monday night out enjoying our 1/2 off Wine special or a special occasion, Mia Francesca's everyday prices, great food, and great service will never disappoint. We boast two Private dining rooms for your special events, business meetings, or group events needs . With our Raleigh Brunch Menu come enjoy the best brunch in Raleigh

NOTE: I redid the red highlights cuz the 1st time I did in in the page before this one I even missed a couple more instances of KW repetition that I added this time.

So my best guess is still penalty due to the above - just on the main repeated KWs. And either there was flux in the database and she picked up changes then temporarily lost them OR the penalty stands and there was just a day when it resolved then the penalty reverted back.

 

[Linda Buquet]

OK think I just solved the mystery.

I Googled an obscure part of the OLD description that is no longer there.
"With our Raleigh Brunch Menu come enjoy the best brunch in Raleigh"

Look what I found...

​

She still has the old description in cache. "Raleigh Restaurant Mia Francesca Trattoria celebrates being the areas only authentic Italian Restaurant in the triangle."

Whereas a search for new description snippet ""We are the area's only authentic Tuscan eatery"
shows ZERO results.

So again maybe there was an update or oops for a day, and then the database reverted back or something. So hopefully once she spiders your page and picks up the changes you'll be good. Fingers crossed!

 

[Harkey]

Thanks Linda. Pulling my hair out here.....Sorry for the freak out.

 

[Harkey]

Ok. Followed up on this again today (its Monday for me)

Searched:

"We are the area's only authentic Tuscan eatery"



Notice on your picture that /video was at the end of the link for the old:


Maybe I have that attached to a Youtube video somewhere?

Now that the old version is out of cache, I will look to see if there is any movement throughout the week. At the present there has been none, so we have a new clean baseline.