More threads by RSKOPP

RSKOPP

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Hello all,

I seem to be having a similar experience to the gentleman in this thread:

Rankings tanked...


Though mine has some different twists that may have caused the issue.

I created my GMB profile several months ago and with the help of of this forum and other resources, my local search rankings climbed and I was consistently in the top 5 or 10 and with more reviews and time, figured that would go higher. One day, I made several changes to the profile...updated hours, the description, added a few more zip codes into service areas...basic and easy stuff. Business was suspended. I opened a case with GMB support, explained what I did and suggested the suspension was a mistake. They reinstated the business immediately. Issue was, now I was in the 50’s and 60’s rank wise. After some back and forth with support and waiting a few weeks, nothing got better. Then I noticed that, though my service areas were all local to me and my location was properly listed as Naples, FL, my business was showing up in Independence, Kansas (I was number 3 there!). I sent a screenshot of this to support. Something was broken in the backend for my business. After some more back and forth and weeks, no change. The final result was to mark the business as closed and delete, then recreate under a different email. I did all of this as directed. Set up profile the same way, same categories, web, phone, service areas.....etc. Identical. I post weekly, upload pictures weekly and have followed all of the optimization ideas found here and elsewhere. I sit in the 30’s or 40’s ranking wise with several competitive businesses that do not have complete profiles, reviews, photos or posts ahead of me. I am thinking that the old listing may be causing this issue but ask for your thoughts and comments. The business is Vintage Power Clean in Naples, FL. I hope it is appropriate to list the business name here for you...if not, please advise what information is needed and how to get you more details. Thank you in advance!
 
Couple things:

1. Did the old page have a good pile of Google reviews? If so, did you ask Google to transplant those?

2. What is the status of the old listing, exactly? (I know you deleted it, but I'm not sure if it's still around in some form.)
 
Hi Phil

Thanks for the reply.

The old page had 2 reviews....was only active for a few weeks. Held off getting more after the suspension and drop in rankings. New page has one of them back and the other customer should be reposting any day. Have nearly a dozen more pent up, but while these issues were going on have been hesitant to gather.

I was told to mark the old listing permanently closed then remove the listing. This was told to me on the phone from a google support person who called me after the issue dragged on for a while. Created new listing on a different email address(the business email address instead of my personal one)

After doing some more reading, seems there is probably a different process that should have been followed there and the old listing is somewhere in the backend causing me some issues now.

Thanks again for the assistance.
 
That's good to hear about the reviews.

If you can confirm with Google that there is no longer a mothballed-away GMB page, then you should be in good shape.

The only thing you may have lost in the process is the historical data Google had on the old GMB page: who clicks, for what terms, where the searchers who click are located, who looks up driving directions, etc. From what I've seen over the years, that seems to matter, but who knows for sure. In any event, you'll recoup that stuff soon enough, so once that possible hidden-duplicate issue is resolved, it should just be a matter of waiting and of focusing on other SEO items in the meantime.
 
Thanks Phil

I think that is the challenge. Getting Google to find this. Seemed simple enough to me to find out why I was showing up in Independence, Kansas instead of Naples, FL, but for over a month they could not.....I opened a case on this yesterday and tried to give the best details possible so they could remove any old remnants....fingers crossed. Thanks again
 
The final result was to mark the business as closed and delete, then recreate under a different email.

This is likely what tanked your ranking. This seems crazy to me that they would suggest you do this. There is a history attached to a listing that impacts ranking and when you get a brand new listing, that gets erased. Do you still have the link to the old listing? If so, please post a thread on the GMB forum and include both the old and new listing.
 
Thanks Joy.

I will post on the other forum as you are asking and putting here as well
The old listing link is

To your second note, I must have been very unlucky with the folks I had working this. It has been going on for well over a month. I was the one that discovered the Kansas bit, suggested a bug...etc. I asked for this to be escalated or a specialist get involved since it was dragging on....thread went silent for over three weeks. I appreciate the assistance here and will make the other post now.
 

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