Took over a new client's SEO and their GBP rankings tanked immediately

[acharlton]

I didn't even touch their GBP yet. But, interestingly, their rankings tanked much harder for keywords that were (a) not in their name and (b) not in their primary category. They're a window & door replacement company and 'windows' is in their name & category but 'door' is not. They tanked harder for all their door keywords. They had been ranking #1-3 for 10-20 miles out for uber-competitive keywords in a dense large urban area, but now rank only around their shop as I would normally expect.

My assessment is that their former SEO was almost certainly using CTR manipulation.

What do you do in this case?

Please be honest. If you don't want to say publicly, then feel free to DM me, and I will share your response anonymously.

Thank you!

 

[Brian - TGL]

What changes were made to the website for the GBP?

 

[acharlton]

There were no detectable changes to either. This happened immediately, before I could make any changes.

 

[LightOfHeaven]

I doubt you taking over had anything to do with that. Pure coincidence, I say stick to your plan and do not make up problems that are not there
(unless you ran the scan while they were closed)

 

[acharlton]

I doubt you taking over had anything to do with that. Pure coincidence, I say stick to your plan and do not make up problems that are not there
(unless you ran the scan while they were closed)

I will explain again: The previous SEO was using a CTR manipulation tool. They shut it off when they lost the client. I gained the client and now the rankings are terrible 10 days later. I have proof of the manipulation from the ranking grids (current vs last report from the previous SEO) and weird metrics in the GSC.

 

[JoyHawkins]

I've definitely heard stories like this before. One of the many reasons why I avoid CTR manipulation. Not sure how easy it is to recover from but I would tell the business about it and tell them to focus on getting new reviews.

 

[acharlton]

Thanks for your response @JoyHawkins !

If anyone is still following, I did find out what tool they are using. Although they mainly use Local Viking for all their ranking grids, I found a ranking grid in their company Facebook profile that seemed very unfamiliar. I did some snooping and tied it back to a specific CTR tool (not saying which one because I don't want to encourage it). The previous web designer/SEO guy was kicked out of my BNI chapter 6 months ago, creating the opening that I ended up filling a week or two later. He had done SEO work for a lot of people in the chapter and still has at least one other client. So this is a very interesting piece of the puzzle and fits with his off-page SEO strategy which of course was ineffective PBNs. Unlike the PBNs though (which are total garbage and haven't helped his clients' rankings much at all), the CTR manipulation has been effective so it's tricky to deal with.

 

[JS Girard]

I'm curious, did other useful KPI (rankings are only a small piece of the puzzle) like calls and bookings experience a significant dip? Because rankings may be more easily spotted, but if no other effects is visible, you have a clear argument that whatever the previous person did was not business effective.

 

[acharlton]

The owner noticed a massive drop in inbound calls. He starts doing searches for his business category. Can't find his business. He let me know and I did the analysis to quantify the ranking drops. The ranking drops were MASSIVE. I had already suspected that the previous SEO was using CTR manipulation but had no proof. Now I know for certainty. But, yeah, rankings are only one piece of the puzzle but it's the piece I'm most responsible for as an SEO guy.