Ranking Puzzle: Discovered a listing that ranks for two separate domains

[Charlie Needham]

Hello All,

Doing some research for a client, I discovered a listing that was behaving oddly.

I was doing a search for "Charlotte Import Service" and was first surprised when I saw that "Evans Import Service" which is clearly not Charlotte, ranking in the map pack above every one else (which is a question in itself). If you take a look at the linking URL on the map listing, it links you to www (dot) evansimportservice (dot) com

Then, however, if you do a brand search for "Evans Import Service" you are served a local listing with a completely different URL:www (dot) ehsautorepair (dot) com. Clicking through to the Google+ page, the Google+ page changes the URL and shows the correct one: evansimportservice (dot) com.

I figured ehsautorepair would redirect to evansimportservice, and perhaps that it was just a domain change that hasn't worked its self out yet. I don't believe that's the case, as their is no redirect, they both function as working domains.

Any ideas how they may be accomplishing this? Could it be connected to how they rank so well in a city they clearly aren't in?


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[Linda Buquet]

Thanks for sharing this one Charlie.

Sorry, but I can't research due to RSI pain. Need to save my carpal for QA on the big webinar today.

But I moved your post from G+ specific issue to the Ranking Puzzle forum and added
Ranking Puzzle to the title so I can Tweet this and get some feedback from our pros.

 

[Charlie Needham]

Awesome, and thanks for moving the thread and additionally all of your help, Linda!

 

[JoyHawkins]

Hey Charlie,

This is happening because there is a canonical tag on evansimportservice that shows that ehsautorepair is the real/true domain they want indexed. I saw the same thing today for a client of ours. The branded search is pulling the canonical domain b/c Google recognizes they are the same business but is showing a search result that is an organic result blended with the local result (vs a pure local result like you see for "Charlotte Import Service")