Ranking Drops for Service Area Businesses

[julie-b]

I have already brought this problem to the community (Client's business profile suddenly not visible on desktop and dropped significantly on mobile - Google Business Profile Community)

My locksmith client's profile (KLS Locks) is no longer visible at all on desktop (although his profile is not suspended) and it has dropped over 30 places on mobile. Before this issue, he was usually appearing ~ #2 on desktop and mobile for 'locksmith Orpington'. He is a service area business with no address visible.

When I brought this problem to the community (Client's business profile suddenly not visible on desktop and dropped significantly on mobile - Google Business Profile Community), it was suggested that maybe because he has another business profile (Google Maps) the service area locations may be overlapping and causing a problem. I have tried to separate out the service areas to rule this out. However, my client was getting very worried about the large drop in business and decided to remove the second GBP (Google Maps)

I'm just worried that there's still something wrong with his main profile. He is losing a lot of business because of this and would be very grateful for your help.

 

[keyserholiday]

In order to fix it, you need to contact GBP support and tell them that you are being affected by the Kansas bug and that your address is now showing in the back end and that they need to add it back so that you rank in your real area and not the middle of the country.

 

[julie-b]

Without doing anything, today KLS Locks business profile has bounced back to #2 in the local pack!!

 

[Stefan Somborac]

I've got a few cases in which the Business Profile was suspended or disabled while showing a home address. We cleared the address and reinstated as a Service Area Business.

Some don't show up when searching for the business name, although the name is generic enough to be a search query. Others don't show up when searching the primary category. (And don't show up anywhere on grid trackers.)

So, I'm seeing some variations but in general, I'm seeing SABs disappear.

 

[keyserholiday]

It's the Kansas bug all over again. Google is taking SABs and tanking them in the middle of their country.
Here is a search I did in Kansas for pest control and a Boston business showed up.

 

[JoyHawkins]

Oh lord, you're right. He's been filtered. The number two slot is now a different firm at the same address. Any indications why this would have suddenly happened? Is there anything he can do other than relocate? A push for reviews at that location perhaps?

Your issue is unrelated to the others on this thread and I'd say that it was probably one of the algorithm updates in the last week that flipped the filter so that it's not in your favor. Moving is the best permanent option to fix it.

Hi, is the address for your business a residence, a p.o. box (like a UPS store/PostNet), a virtual office, or co-working space?

Our listing has always been set up properly as an SAB (using my home address) so no, the residential address was never visible. However, I think the stuff I was seeing is just from the algo update and nothing abnormal.

 

[keyserholiday]

My other client is back ranking again too. Looks like the fix is being rolled out now.

 

[JoyHawkins]

I'm hearing a few cases like this lately and I'm starting to wonder if it's related to the algorithm updates. Analyzing ranking drops is really time consuming and needs a pretty in-depth knowledge of the site, business, and competitors so I'm hesitant to offer advice on this. I would suggest looking to see if their organic ranking dropped as well or if it's just the local pack rankings.

 

[Beth Evans]

I have already brought this problem to the community (Client's business profile suddenly not visible on desktop and dropped significantly on mobile - Google Business Profile Community)

My locksmith client's profile (KLS Locks) is no longer visible at all on desktop (although his profile is not suspended) and it has dropped over 30 places on mobile. Before this issue, he was usually appearing ~ #2 on desktop and mobile for 'locksmith Orpington'. He is a service area business with no address visible.

When I brought this problem to the community (Client's business profile suddenly not visible on desktop and dropped significantly on mobile - Google Business Profile Community), it was suggested that maybe because he has another business profile (Google Maps) the service area locations may be overlapping and causing a problem. I have tried to separate out the service areas to rule this out. However, my client was getting very worried about the large drop in business and decided to remove the second GBP (Google Maps)

I'm just worried that there's still something wrong with his main profile. He is losing a lot of business because of this and would be very grateful for your help.

I’m having the same problem. My listing went from number one that would come up when searching for “house cleaning in fort smith, ar,” to now it’s nowhere to be found. I noticed this issue on Sept. 6th. I have asked and tried to get information as to what it could be. My listing is not suspended, I can still pull it up on maps but it will not pull up doing any kind of organic search. This is very stressful when you rely on those listings to get business. It’s a real stress for me.

 

[Adam Di Frisco]

If anybody has the option, I added the address back to one of my SABs and sure enough within hours we're back at the top of local map rankings. This client is a true SAB, but had a home address for a long time. A while back I convinced them to change to a SAB for fear of suspension. We switched it back to that address (no re-verification required *for now*) and everything went back to normal in less than 4 hours.

 

[Adam Di Frisco]

So tempted to try this but worried about getting suspended. When did you add the address back in?

I know, I updated my client on everything I know, and ultimately had her make the decision. We originally changed to a SAB around 5-6 months ago. We made the decision to change it back yesterday around 4pm Eastern Standard and you can see we immediately started getting impressions/clicks again

 

[keyserholiday]

Very interesting! Not sure if this is exactly what's happening though with my clients at least. I can see the service area is still outlined correctly when I do a branded search. It's just not showing up at all for any non-banded queries it used to.

The issue is that the address in the backend, which is cleared is missing on Google's end. So Google has moved these SABs to the middle of their country. I discovered this issue originally when it happened and Google told us what the issue was and how to fix it. I spoofed my IP address to Independence, Kansas, and 2 of the 3 business profiles in the map pack are not in the area. The fact that by adding and not clearing the address further proves its an address issue and nothing else.

 

[keyserholiday]

While it is true that adding the address and making it visible can fix the issue, I want to caution everyone against a knee-jerk reaction. Google is taking 3 to 5 weeks to reply to reinstatement requests, so if you get suspended by editing the business profile, you may be offline when this issue gets resolved. You will have to clear your address to get reinstated.

Four things will happen when you edit a business profile:
1. The edits will be accepted and published
2. The edits will go into pending review
3. You will need to reverify the profile
4. The business profile will get suspended.

It appears that Google is aware of this issue as social support changed its messaging yesterday. I would encourage everyone to contact support for assistance.

 

[Phil Rozek]

@Adam DiFrisco, I hear you. As I always say, there are no solutions - only trade-offs.

One consideration that may tip your decision-making one way or the other is: do competitors consistently hide or consistently show their addresses? Often in industries where you think hiding the address must be standard practice, it's not, or vice versa. Doesn't mean the competitors are approaching GMB in a smart way. The point is you need to launder Google's stated policies through Google's practice.

Another factor is to think of Google's angle in all of this. If your GBP is one page rather than one of 31 that you've splattered onto the map, and it had been ranking OK for a while and in existence for even longer, and you've got a good pile of reviews, and the only gray area is the "hide vs. show" question, Google doesn't benefit much from whisking you off the map, and the downside of getting it wrong is a lot of disappointed searchers. Google benefits more from keeping you around so they can coax you into some ads. In edge cases Google tends to give you the benefit of the doubt.

It's for reasons like this I'm constantly telling clients and others to focus more on organic SEO than on just the map. Most of one's Maps visibility comes down to organic (on-page + links) anyway, it augments whatever action you've got on the map, and it serves as a fallback whenever you run into trouble on the map.

 

[keyserholiday]

Wow this make you think where did the expert “

keyserholiday”get the information about google wanting the affected listings owners to contact support in order to fix the issue.​

I have no information on what the exchange was between this person and support. Did this person tell the rep that their address appears to be missing from the backend and needs to be added back? Was this yet another mistake on Google's end to not properly train support staff? There was no need to be rude to me. I didn't cause this issue nor am I responsible for training Google's 3rd party support staff.

 

[keyserholiday]

"Google has acknowledged that this is a technical issue affecting SABs. Please check the backend of my business profile to ensure that my address is there and if not, please manually add my address (add your full address)."

 

[JoyHawkins]

I don't think it will take 6 months to fix but it definitely sounds like the support agent you talked to has no idea what you are talking about. You might want to try a different support agent (contact support again).

 

[JoyHawkins]

Google is aware of the issue and is working on a fix but I'm not sure exactly how long it will take. If your husband is competing for any of the same keywords as you then it's possible he's filtering you.

 

[keyserholiday]

Good news, one of my clients got their rankings back. They are back in the map pack, but not in the same number one spot as before.

 

[keyserholiday]

I have two clients that have experienced this bug.

One is an electrician, their rankings returned to normal on 9/29 without any action being taken.

The other is a carpet cleaning service. They were caught up in the Kansas bug last year- after several attempts to contact support, we opted to add his address on the dashboard, got suspended, and then reinstated. They returned to maps, but not in the three-pack as they were before.

This time I contacted support and got a canned reply- I replied to that email requesting that they add the address to the backend. I got a phone call from GBP support and tried without success to explain, but all I could get from the rep were suggestions on how I could rank higher on Google. He did say that an address was included on the backend. We still have a verified listing that appears nowhere when I search for "carpet cleaners" or "carpet cleaning" in their city. I am tempted to try adding the address and getting suspended again- any suggestions?

If you do make the change and get suspended, it is taking 22 days to get reinstated. Google should have this fixed before you are able to get reinstated.

 

[JoyHawkins]

I think this is the third thread I've seen saying they can't find themselves anywhere.

Is the listing still live on Maps? If so, can you link to it?

Can you confirm the last date you saw yourself ranking for the keywords you're referring to?