Ranks D in 7-pack yet beats A-C in BrightLocals metrics and has strong OnPage

[jasonkd]

When searching for Signage in Fairfax, Fastsigns of Fairfax comes up 4th:


A-C are not even located in Fairfax, VA. They have less citations, less backlinks, less reviews, and less pictures, yet rank higher than Fastsigns. If you search "signs fairfax", Fastsigns does come up in A. But if you are in Fairfax and search "signs", it comes up D.

Any ideas?

 

[Chris McCreery]

What is the primary category of Fastsigns?

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Jason,

What is the main thing you are trying to figure out? Why those competitors are outranking or why you see Fastsigns in A and D depending on how you search? Or both?

 

[Linda Buquet]

When searching for Signage in Fairfax, Fastsigns of Fairfax comes up 4th:

A-C are not even located in Fairfax, VA. They have less citations, less backlinks, less reviews, and less pictures, yet rank higher than Fastsigns.

Yes Jason, I'm with Colan. I'm totally confused and need more info.

When I search Signage in Fairfax Fastsigns is A and everyone in the pack is in Fairfax.

Are you just talking about how they rank in the BL report? That does not matter, it's how they rank in G search.

I think we are missing your point. Please fill us in some more.

 

[jasonkd]

I'm sorry for the lack of info. Also just got back from a whole day at church :O

Scenario A:
Searching from: Anywhere else
Search Term: "Fairfax Signage"
Result: Fastsigns does come up A and everyone in the pack is in Fairfax.

Scenario B:
Searching from: Fairfax 22031
Search Term: "Signage"
Result: Fastsigns is D and A-C are non-Fairfax companies (as in the screenshot) even though the search is done within Fairfax.

I hope that makes more sense then how I originally presented it.

If anyone wants the G+ Page: https://plus.google.com/115988678948641385188/about
Categories are: Sign Shop, Graphic Designer

What I'm trying to determine is why the results in scenario B occur. I would assume that scenario A and B would have similar results, but for some reason Fastsigns is de-valued in scenario A.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks for clarifying, that makes more sense.

When you search with city modifier, the results are always or usually quite different than KW only without city.

I've never taken time to figure out the KW only algo as it seems more unpredictable to me.

We've also had people complain in the opposite direction and say "I rank A for KW only but even though I'm well optimized for city I don't rank for City KW."

 

[jasonkd]

It would have made more sense the other way around as you said, but it's really strange that when you search in Fairfax, A-C aren't even in Fairfax and have less citations, reviews and links.
My theory is that because FastSigns is a franchise and has hundreds of locations and G+profiles, that somehow hurts them to have the hundreds of profiles tied in to one single website.

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[painperdu]

Were you searching the other brands before you searched for your brand? Could it be possible that Google saw you searching for other brands and that these other brands have slightly different categories? I'm thinking that the Google is trying to consider your search intent.

Have you tried searching anonymously?

 

[jasonkd]

Even if I had search bias, the Bright Local report doesn't. Also, I use incognito mode when looking at rankings.

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