There Can Be Only One

[raylaminac]

I am working on consulting for a carpet cleaner in the Los Angeles area. While doing some initial review I saw something pretty troubling for his signature category or keyword.

THERES ONLY ONE LOCAL LISTING!

While there are more robust map packs for some of his top keywords I was curious if anyone else has encountered this and what possibilities are there to becoming the one, or even number 2 ?

Secondly this is an incredibly competitive field, are there any tips on how to stand out while working in such a flooded niche ?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Ray,

It's a problem with a fairly recent algo change.

See this thread: Attack of the Bad Google Local One-Boxes!

I've been harping at Google about it for months.

See post 51 for some things you can try to do. I looked at this one. Name on listing is "Carpet Cleaning Los Angeles" which is why the algo gave them a one-box. What I would do is call and see if they answer with a different name. If they answer with that name play dumb and try to trick them into telling you the real name of the company.

In fact I think I found the real company. I think it's this one which is at the same address:
Garey Signal Restoration Cleaning Contractors in Los Angeles

So call "Carpet Cleaning Los Angeles" and if they answer with that name, say, sorry wrong #. I thought I was calling "Garey Signal Restoration Cleaning". See if they'll say, yes that's us. If so then report "Carpet Cleaning Los Angeles" as spam in map maker. Or try to edit the name.

That will knock them out of the one-box and return it to a 7 pack.

 

[raylaminac]

Their NAP is a disaster! Just called a fertility clinic then a dead air number

Thank you for the tip though I'll definitely try to get to the bottom of this.

 

[whitespark]

Yeah, this whole one box thing is a real mess for Google. I searched our rank tracker records and found hundreds of cases like this.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hundreds?

As I suspected just based on the number we've happened across. Assumed there were tons more!

 

[Dustybones]

Just had to get involved in this. The company is a DBA as CARPET CLEANING LOS ANGELES.

Naming Your Business: Fictitious Business Name Search

---------- Post Merged at 02:50 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 02:49 PM ----------

Didn't U2 do a song called "One Box" ? I might have that wrong.

Yeah, this whole one box thing is a real mess for Google. I searched our rank tracker records and found hundreds of cases like this.

 

[whitespark]

Well, I am sure there are tens of thousands. I only looked at a small sample.

 

[Cam]

Sorry, I had posted but kind of went off topic. I didn't see a delete option so I have just edited this post.