Why Does Google My Business Show 'Weed' Listings in Local Searches?

[JayT]

When typing "weed control atlanta ga" or pick your city (any city in the US), GBP always returns listings with the word "Weed" in the search results with no exceptions. Even the major lawn care companies that are most likely spending thousands on marketing and SEO do not show up on GBP for any weed control related terms. Feel free to pick any location in the USA to test my findings. I've been monitoring this bug since January of this year. We have a client that's asking us why he doesn't rank on the map for "weed control city st" and we have to tell him that it's because there's seemingly a bug with GBP. I've reported this to @Johnmu on Twitter and GBP on twitter on multiple occasions but always get their canned response like I'm an idiot and don't understand dIsTancE, prOxImiTy, and reLEVanCe. How would one go about getting someone at Google to recognize this obvious bug and get it corrected? I believe this is obviously an algorithmic issue with the map rankings.

 

[JS Girard]

Misaligned search terms are a thing yes, and they are almost impossible to get around. I'm more familiar with charging station-related ones: it's IMPOSSIBLE to get a threepack for electricians with anything whatsoever to do with charging stations.

 

[bdlowery]

Misaligned search terms are a thing yes, and they are almost impossible to get around. I'm more familiar with charging station-related ones: it's IMPOSSIBLE to get a threepack for electricians with anything whatsoever to do with charging stations.

isn't he saying that the only companies that rank for anything regarding "weed control" in the 3 pack are companies who keyword stuff their GBP name.

So like:

• Lawn busters - weed control Atlanta
• Lawncare - weed control
• Jerrys lawn service and weed control

Ranks for weed control specifically because they keyword stuff "weed control" in their name. He's saying that Google is only showing businesses who keyword stuff.

 

[JS Girard]

isn't he saying that the only companies that rank for anything regarding "weed control" in the 3 pack are companies who keyword stuff their GBP name.

So like:

• Lawn busters - weed control Atlanta
• Lawncare - weed control
• Jerrys lawn service and weed control

Ranks for weed control specifically because they keyword stuff "weed control" in their name. He's saying that Google is only showing businesses who keyword stuff.

You are totally right. I thought he meant he was getting weed shop stuff (which, admittedly is not likely to happen in Atlanta, but I'm in Montreal). Not surprising, either way, sadly. All things being equal, the business with keywords in the GBP name will have a significant edge.

Mind you, the top three I see shows no keyword stuffed names: