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.

 

[Jezcor]

Update: Still not showing in Local Pack BUT now we show #1 for organic search results

 

[julie-b]

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

 

[Beth Evans]

I’m having this problem also. I noticed it September 6th. My business just disappeared on searches and it has not been suspended. It’s still live but if you try to search for my business, it doesn’t show up at all.

Custom Maids Inc.

Custom Maids Inc. · 8901 Jenny Lind Rd Suite 4B, Fort Smith, AR 72908

âââââ · House cleaning service

maps.app.goo.gl

 

[Jezcor]

I’m having this problem also. I noticed it September 6th. My business just disappeared on searches and it has not been suspended. It’s still live but if you try to search for my business, it doesn’t show up at all.

Custom Maids Inc.

Custom Maids Inc. · 8901 Jenny Lind Rd Suite 4B, Fort Smith, AR 72908

âââââ · House cleaning service

maps.app.goo.gl

is it also a SAB?

 

[Beth Evans]

is it also a SBA?

Yes it is a Service area business.

 

[Beth Evans]

We are on the same page. It's incredibly frustrating. Lets hope for the best and keep digging.

Someone told me there has been a bug (the Kansas bug) that has resurfaced in SABS in the time frame that this has happened. I was told to hold on until Monday and if the listing returns and if it doesn’t to contact google again.

It essentially removed back end information about your location and effectively relocated your business to the middle of Kansas.

I hope if gets sorted out soon.

 

[Jezcor]

Someone told me there has been a bug (the Kansas bug)
that has resurfaced in SABS in the
timeframe that this has happened. I was told to hold on until Monday and if the listing returns and if it doesn’t to contact google again.

It essentially removed backend
information about your location and
effectively relocated your business to the middle of Kansas.
I hope if gets sorted out soon.

holy cow. Incredible.

Thank you for following up.

 

[Beth Evans]

holy cow. Incredible.

Thank you for following up.

I hope that’s the case so I can stop worrying to death about this!

 

[Beth Evans]

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.

 

[sangfroidweb]

We are having the same issue with a Garage Door SAB in Panama City Beach. They rank reasonably well in organic results for terms like 'garage door repair' and 'garage door repair panama city beach' and related terms. Their organic rankings do not seem affected, but what feels like overnight on the 12th, they dropped about 18 spots in map results, or cannot be found at all.

When searching for them by exact name, their knowledge panel does not come up...a competitor does. This is also new behavior.

When you click through the 'More Places' link to see more maps results, the map is showing pins for businesses that are 100 miles away in Pensacola.

They do not have a recent suspension, but did have one back in August of 2020.

Their current address they use is a virtual office that technically does not meet guidelines (they have been informed multiple times), but the listing was never suspended so they have just continued using that address.

The listing is not marked as suspended.

Is it possible the listing is being filtered for being spammy based in the address?...but then why not just suspend it? Any advice or insight is welcome.

I hope it's ok to post this loom video link showing what we're seeing: Loom | Free Screen & Video Recording Software

This is the business - All About Garage Doors, INC.

 

[keyserholiday]

Someone told me there has been a bug (the Kansas bug)
that has resurfaced in SABS in the
timeframe that this has happened. I was told to hold on until Monday and if the listing returns and if it doesn’t to contact google again.

It essentially removed backend
information about your location and
effectively relocated your business to the middle of Kansas.
I hope if gets sorted out soon.

I would reach out to Google support ASAP and not wait to see if it fixes itself by Monday. It's hard to believe that anybody would know that it can be fixed by Monday. A lot of issues with Google take a while to get fixed.

 

[Beth Evans]

I would reach out to Google support ASAP and not wait to see if it fixes itself by Monday. It's hard to believe that anybody would know that it can be fixed by Monday. A lot of issues with Google take a while to get fixed.

Yes I did reach out. I only had the option to email so I did that. I’m worried i will end up with someone that has no idea about this. I saw a post on the community page about google not helping.

 

[seaniaaa]

See, I'm having this issue with a client who's on page one for "personal injury attorney [city, state]" who is NOT a service area business, who IS verified, but who is located at a co-working location(within the guidelines though, signage/staff/etc), and who was as of a week ago, #2 in the local pack. It's almost like Google is shadow banning anyone who's address it has an issue with instead of just accepting their prior verification or forcing them to re-verify. The relevant location is now completely missing from local pack/finder results.

 

[Beth Evans]

See, I'm having this issue with a client who's on page one for "personal injury attorney [city, state]" who is NOT a service area business, who IS verified, but who is located at a co-working location(within the guidelines though, signage/staff/etc), and who was as of a week ago, #2 in the local pack. It's almost like Google is shadow banning anyone who's address it has an issue with instead of just accepting their prior verification or forcing them to re-verify. The relevant location is now completely missing from local pack/finder results.

I would reach out to Google support ASAP and not wait to see if it fixes itself by Monday. It's hard to believe that anybody would know that it can be fixed by Monday. A lot of issues with Google take a while to get fixed.

 

[Bas_L]

I merged the 2 threads about this same topic so there is one place where people can compare notes. I had someone message me about something similar and I'll ask them to weigh in here. It looks like you both experienced the drop in the last 5-6 days. This does correlate with the date range for the Useful Content Update so it's possible that's what is going on here.

Same issue here Jo,

A GBP I manage lost all rankings on the 8th September and it was dominating all its related keywords for over 7 years.

The listing is in Australia. The interesting thing to note is that it stopped showing for its brand search from within Australia and New Zealand but if you search for the brand from USA, Canada, UK and Singapore (those are the countries I tried) then it will show the business page (Knowledge Panel). I’ve tried searching the brand from a few other European countries and it shows it as a local business in the 3 pack among 2 more businesses.

I think there’s some bug that needs to be brought to google’s attention.

 

[keyserholiday]

Yes I did reach out. I only had the option to email so I did that. I’m worried i will end up with someone that has no idea about this. I saw a post on the community page about google not helping.

I see that it's a trending issue so that's promising.

 

[keyserholiday]

See, I'm having this issue with a client who's on page one for "personal injury attorney [city, state]" who is NOT a service area business, who IS verified, but who is located at a co-working location(within the guidelines though, signage/staff/etc), and who was as of a week ago, #2 in the local pack. It's almost like Google is shadow banning anyone who's address it has an issue with instead of just accepting their prior verification or forcing them to re-verify. The relevant location is now completely missing from local pack/finder results.

Are you saying that the business profile needs to be reverified again? If that is the case, then it sounds like the business is not live on Google.

 

[Beth Evans]

I see that it's a trending issue so that's promising.

I did go to google 3 times before (I know I shouldn’t have that many times) but each time they didn’t seem to understand what was happening. They would just send me ideas to rank higher. And in the community they said it was a seo issue. I’m hoping this time they will understand and do something.

 

[JoyHawkins]

See, I'm having this issue with a client who's on page one for "personal injury attorney [city, state]" who is NOT a service area business, who IS verified, but who is located at a co-working location(within the guidelines though, signage/staff/etc), and who was as of a week ago, #2 in the local pack. It's almost like Google is shadow banning anyone who's address it has an issue with instead of just accepting their prior verification or forcing them to re-verify. The relevant location is now completely missing from local pack/finder results.

Your issue sounds a lot more like a business that is filtered which is pretty common after an algorithm update.

 

[Beth Evans]

Your issue sounds a lot more like a business that is filtered which is pretty common after an algorithm update.

What could be done in that case? I do think I may be in the Kansas bug but would like to know just in case. I’m a service area business.