Ranking Hints from Google Support?

[rosshouser]

Today I contacted Google to inquire about a clients listing not showing up in either classic view or the new maps for there category or for any keywords.
I noticed that only one location was showing even in the category of a clients, the listing was brand new and did not have a website nor was it listed anywhere else.
I showed a rep which many examples for a good 20 mins or so..she stated she was in India also..
We walked through all variations that any normal client or customer would when searching Google. She stated and showed me that my clients location was showing on her side, she did send me a screen shot and it was indeed showing in India correctly..
I told her that is great ... ... ONLY if my client had a business in India..
She kept going on and one about the ranking within Google is done by a algorithm that we all know and is there famous saying when seeking help lol.
However she did look at my clients Google plus page and straight up told me that if I actually put a Google Plus badge on my my clients website that It would indeed rank greatly within Google.. She also told me that if i link my clients information and or local page from my clients URL to my clients Google plus page it would she called it greatly improve my clients rankings even over night....
So I being so skeptic, asked to talk to her supervisor and explained the situation again.. He told me the exact same thing as she did he even told me that keywords are not holding relevance like they once were and that having a URL/Website that has a lot of good information about my clients service's and is marked up with schema and had a highly organised internal linking would increase not only my clients ranking but it would consider my clients website as a highly trusted resource of content for my clients service and business category..

I have never once actually had a Google employee go in detail like they did.. so I took their advice and asked my client if I could make some edits to his website I did not build it mind you someone else did that for him... But I did get access and made all changes yesterday. Today i spot checked the business and sure enough my clients Website and listing is now the only location showing when searching and if you go to maps in either the new or classic view it is number one in both...

So with all that I have come to the conclusion that keywords for SEO are becoming less and less a ranking factor and that good quality content and proper SEO and internal linking is becoming more and more a key ranking factor...

Note from Linda: Split as off topic from this thread:
http://localsearchforum.catalystema...e-local-ranking-problems-excellent-guide.html

 

[Linda Buquet]

Re: Troubleshooting Google Local Ranking Problems - Excellent Guide by Miriam Ellis!

Could you rephrase this? Not sure I understand.

"I noticed that only one location was showing even in the category of a clients, the listing was brand new and did not have a website nor was it listed anywhere else."

Are you saying the clients listing was brand new? Or are you saying someone had a one box in your client's category?

So Ross, are you saying the main thing they advised and you did was to add Google+ badge and a link to the G+ Local page on their web site?

You did that and they jumped up from nowhere to #1 in maps overnight?

Where do they rank in Google search? You keep talking maps ranking but search is where it's at.

Would you mind PMing me the client so I can take a look? And also let me know anything else you changed? I find this very curious.

 

[rosshouser]

Re: Troubleshooting Google Local Ranking Problems - Excellent Guide by Miriam Ellis!

Sorry for the late response I have been in meetings all morning...
and let me rephrase my previous statement Two days ago I contacted Google about a clients site not showing correctly they told me to add a Google plus badge on my clients website linking to my clients Google Plus page and then on my clients Google plus page linking to his website which is normally how everyone lists there url/website on their Google plus page. How ever they stated that simply adding the Google plus badge will give my clients a HUGE boost in ranking and that internal linking within the website with good quality content is now playing more of a role....
So I added the Google plus Badge on the website for the client and then submitted the url for Google to crawl.. i also checked and the clients website before adding and submitting it to Google to crawl it was on the 5th page of Google Organics and Now for the search terms that they wanted and listed below they are fist in organics for every single location... ... Also clients Google Plus page is a Brand page mind you and the crazy part is I looked and the content on the clients website is even copied almost word for word of another persons website....

Linda I also PM you the clients website and info.. Let me know what you think cause after I seen that the content was almost word for word copy and pasted from another businesses site i was completely dumbfounded

 

[Linda Buquet]

Re: Troubleshooting Google Local Ranking Problems - Excellent Guide by Miriam Ellis!

Thanks Ross, going into a meeting will check later.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks for sharing the example with me.

I moving your post to a new thread.

The thread you posted in was for TROUBLESHOOTING a LOCAL ranking. This is not even a local site or local result or anything to do with local that I can see.

Glad I asked for link because I was assuming 7 pack since that's what that troubleshooting thread was talking about.

This is for long tail national phrases not even local queries. Pretty easy to rank for long tails that are that specific. But still interesting that they ranked so low before and then jumped to #1 after adding the badge.

Thanks for sharing the advice Google gave you, still interesting.
We'll be testing...

 

[Linda Buquet]

Forgot to ask...

How were you calling support and getting them to help you since that does not even look like a local site.

No Local SEO on the site at all. Not optimized for city. No NAP or local phone # anywhere. There is not even a contact us page or anything. Just looks like a national organic site or online business.

And the queries like "Life Insurance for Ages 18-30 Years" were generic long tails and not local at all. And the queries did not even pull a local pack.

And I could not find a G+ L listing based on the 800# on the site.

So again this does not look local, how did you get local support to help you?

 

[rosshouser]

No actually it was in local pack today the 7 pack is not showing How
ever if you click and search on maps It is second and there Is only one other business showing with my clients as you can see below and by clicking life insurance agency loc: St Louis, Missouri - Google Maps | Awesome Screenshot

 

[Linda Buquet]

Sorry what do you mean?

"No actually it was in local pack today the 7 pack is not showing"

How can it be in the local pack if the 7 pack is not showing???

So now that I see everything and I see why they were having a hard time ranking for primary keywords in search since the site is not optimized for local, no NAP on site, no city on site.

The G+ L page does not even appear to be claimed and it's a different 866# than the web site.

Curious to know why you called support to see why it was not ranking when it appears no optimization was even done yet?

Also why are you searching like this? "life insurance agency loc: St Louis, Missouri" no one searches like that.

Plus for me they don't rank for that either so I'm confused why they rank for you and you are only seeing one other listing. I see pages of listings but not that one???

Here is my screenshot and there are pages of listings but not theirs. life insurance agency loc: St Louis, Missouri - Google Maps | Awesome Screenshot

It looks like you are using Classic maps just like I am so not sure why you are getting abnormal results. What browser?

 

[rosshouser]

Linda,
I did not call them... nor did I ever say I did. I was contacted after i reported a issue I was seeing with the URL/Website by the report a problem link they as in Google called me promptly from a this number +91-40-6619-3000
The problem I was having was the url reporting itself in Google Analytic's and it actually listed and showed the exact link/URL twice in organics.... I in all my years of advertising have ever seen Google list a website twice ... the same exact link same meta tag same snippets same ...They told me it was a glitch is what they called it and that it if i have Google crawl the url it would most likely fix my problem....SO
I being the curious one and since We are all still trying to figure out this mess of Google's new Update AKA Pigeon...I asked questions ...That is when they gave me the advice of how to rank better...
Also I agree and have said even to you in private messages that I see how poorly the website is and how the content is all copy and pasted from a totally different URL and that site is not optimized for local, no NAP on site, no city on site.

As for the search using Loc: it is a way to not have the new Google maps search fluctuate it is normally used for longitude and lat.. How ever if you use the city name and state along with category then [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]this pulls the exact same results as the search nearby function in the classic maps but in the new Google maps [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]meaning[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] it shows the newly listed data in Google's new database...and also what will show in [/FONT] Google Maps Mobile[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
[/FONT] Barry Schwartz wrote a little about this feature on SEO Round Table you can find that here:
https://www.seroundtable.com/archives/020274.html

I figured you knew that little trick ....

 

[rosshouser]

Also look at the url when you search that way. It will have output classic in the url of the new maps search.. this pulls the exact same results as the search nearby function in the old maps.

Here is a update screenshot.....Also I have no clue as to why your Google search is showing something totally different than me.. Maybe someone else can shed some light on that...
http://awesomescreenshot.com/01f3fubke8

 

[Linda Buquet]

Linda,
I did not call them... nor did I ever say I did. I was contacted after i reported a issue I was seeing with the URL/Website by the report a problem link they as in Google called me promptly from a this number +91-40-6619-3000

Sorry you keep losing me Ross.

You said in the very 1st post:

Today I contacted Google to inquire about a clients listing not showing up in either classic view or the new maps for there category or for any keywords.

So I was following up on what you said right at the top.