Why Losing Ranking while your citations are power synced and correct?

[Gsmithmike]

I would like to know why you loose ranking in local results, while citations are power synced by yext?

Could it be someone is doing black hat, or negative SEO towards a business, the rest of businesses in search results have incorrect citations!

any idea?

 

[Greg Schueler]

Re: Why Loosing Ranking while your citations are power synced and correct?

There is a lot more to ranking than just entering a business into Yext.

Also, if their citations have a lot of issues, just entering into Yext doesn't fix them all, just the ones you see. There could still be a lot of others that need fixed.

Also it can be the website itself, the settings on the G+Local listing, the backlinks pointing to the site...etc. You haven't really given us a lot of details to work with to answer in more details, but that is the overview.

 

[Gsmithmike]

Re: Why Loosing Ranking while your citations are power synced and correct?

Well, as i have done SEO for the business i am pretty sure the on site optimization is done pretty well, the back-links, this website was penalized long time ago which we cleaned , the last person in charge did everything to manipulate google algorithm, but fortunately we came with better solutions and fixed it. it was getting reanked good enough in local but since two days ago it dropped.

 

[webjutsu]

Re: Why Loosing Ranking while your citations are power synced and correct?

Yeah, I've have experienced the same issue. Clients citations were good already and I had them add Yext to mange them all and get them up to date. Rankings dropped right after...

 

[Linda Buquet]

Re: Why Loosing Ranking while your citations are power synced and correct?

I usually hear the opposite about Yext as far as rankings going up if anything.

But Greg is totally right. There are so many other factors and citations are not the main thing any more. There are over 200 factors that do into the local algo and citations, since the Pigeon update are not quite as strong of a factor. So I doubt that's the reason.

Could be a dupe cropped up, even a hidden dupe you can't see - need to learn how to find those. Could be a violation, could be algo change or competitors leap frogged.

It would be like guessing in the dark without seeing the listing and analyzing the pack.

Often when I diagnose ranking penalties I find it's due to violations of the Google My Business guidelines - even unwritten rules that many consultants are not aware of.

Here is a post that goes into detail about how to troubleshoot ranking problems:
http://localsearchforum.catalystema...ubleshoot-rank-high-organic-but-drop-out.html

Here's another good ranking troubleshooting tips post: http://localsearchforum.catalystema...266-local-troubleshooting-best-practices.html

If you don't mind sharing the clients G+ Local link and specific KW - I'll most this new post down to the help forum - then we can take a look and give you tips. We are pretty good at uncovering penalties and other problems that usually cause ranking drops.

 

[Gsmithmike]

Re: Why Loosing Ranking while your citations are power synced and correct?

Yes we usually hear things which are advertised brilliantly, however i have never seen anyone taking the challenge and dig into this matter, whether Yext is working or it is a loss, up to this point i can say unfortunately it is the only option when you like to clean incorrect citations and try to keep them constant, but on the other hand it does not do things clean enough. And you will only find out about it when you call to one of these directories and talk to their support team. The business listings submitted by yext is not claimed and time to time here and there you will see profiles telling you it is not claimed, or you might find yourself in a wrong directory, where if you do things manually you have the complete control.

On the other hand i am getting to a point where i am beginning to think the whole google search algorithm is a joke and is becoming absolute, and i have good examples of it. Also businesses without physical location are getting ranked in local, this is not right! and when you check them on the google earth you can not see the actual location but they tagged their company on map! google needs to do something about this. Here is the keyword plumber los angeles

 

[Linda Buquet]

Re: Why Loosing Ranking while your citations are power synced and correct?

Thanks for adding the link so we can research.

I'll move this down to the help and support forum since it's about a specific client and as we get time we'll take a peek and offer suggestions.

But we need the G+ L link not the site link. Since there are lots of locations we'd be guessing which ones rank or don't. So please be more specific and give us one G+ L page that's having the ranking problem. We can research 14 locations.

 

[Gsmithmike]

Alright i will do that it is the location in los angeles, i honestly can not find what the real problem the listing is synced to yext power listing, and i cleaned as much as i can, also created some back links related to plumbing, and plumber los angeles but they again in two days or a week it lost its ranking and none of the businesses showing in local have physical location in the area.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Re: Why Loosing Ranking while your citations are power synced and correct?

Trying to make time to look at the listing but wanted to comment on your post above.

Also businesses without physical location are getting ranked in local, this is not right! and when you check them on the google earth you can not see the actual location but they tagged their company on map!

That is by design!

In case you are not aware, service area businesses like plumbers in MOST cases need to have their address hidden. It's a violation for address to show. So that is not someone hiding address to game the system, they are abiding by the rules.

"you can not see the actual location but they tagged their company on map!"

Many of your Mr Speedy locations have address hidden as well, as they are supposed to.

 

[Linda Buquet]

OK so only had a quick minute to look at this one.

A couple issues I see, but don't know how much any of these are impacting ranking...

1) Address should be hidden from the looks of that building.
Are they staffed full time to accept walk in traffic off of the street?

2) The G+ L page links to the home page. I wonder if it might rank higher if linked to the LA page. It's a toss up. Home pages usually have more authority, but the LA page has more LA content. (I would however clean up the large bank of cities in the footer of your location pages and that is now considered spam by Google.

3) KW repetition in G+ Local descriptions can cause a ranking penalty. You have LA twice and plumber/plumbing like 5 times. I'd clean that up.

Others feel free to dig in with suggestions as well.

 

[Gsmithmike]

Why to hide the address while we do offer service to the neighbors and want to be visible in that area?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Why to hide the address while we do offer service to the neighbors and want to be visible in that area?

You'll still be visible in search and maps, it's just your address won't show. If you set the listing right so it's not in violation (like some of your other locations with hidden addresses are) then it will still show city and the map marker will be in your general area. Just street address will be missing.

Because it looks like a warehouse type location not a walk in customer facing office.

Do you see customers in person at your location all the time? Or are you out servicing them at their location?

Do you have staff in the office full-time to greet customers if they pop in at any time during business hours? If I come over at 6:30 tonight will someone be there to see me?

Your hours are 7 - 10 so to show address you need to be staffed for walk in hour at those times to show address.



Thousands of listings in the past were deleted by Google for violating that guideline.

See the service area section, under the address section in guidelines here:
https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en&ref_topic=4540086

 

[Rich Owings]

OK so only had a quick minute to look at this one.
KW repetition in G+ Local descriptions can cause a ranking penalty. You have LA twice and plumber/plumbing like 5 times. I'd clean that up.

I had heard somewhere not to use city more than twice, so I'll have to be even more cautious in the future. How about service/synonyms? How many times is the maximum to use something like plumber or plumbing, in your opinion?

 

[Gsmithmike]

I think I should look in to this matter myself, I am pretty sure keyword stuffing is not recommended, but keyword density is completely gone and probably out of ranking factors, on the other hand if you do write a content which is relevant and you use the keywords and when you read it still make sense then you are good. Using one keyword or adding another keyword there wont interfere with ranking

when it is plumbing service i would rather use plumbing service rather than "services" only, the correct way of writing is to mention everything, so in this case it is plumbing service, or plumbing repair, in my experience you get different results when you search for plumber or plumbing. I still not sure if people type in "Plumbing Los Angeles" I myself will type in emergency plumbing, or plumber, and if i am right then i am just pushing to much on the keyword+area. Any one have an idea on this?

 

[Linda Buquet]

I had heard somewhere not to use city more than twice, so I'll have to be even more cautious in the future. How about service/synonyms? How many times is the maximum to use something like plumber or plumbing, in your opinion?

I think I should look in to this matter myself, I am pretty sure keyword stuffing is not recommended, but keyword density is completely gone and probably out of ranking factors, on the other hand if you do write a content which is relevant and you use the keywords and when you read it still make sense then you are good. Using one keyword or adding another keyword there wont interfere with ranking, i am still looking to get better suggestions but thanks.

No Rich and I both are talking KW repetition in the G+ L description.

There can definitely be a penalty for that. I've seen repeating city twice there cause a 10 point ranking penalty. And I've seen listings that are excessive with KW get a 50 point drop that lasts for 5 months. Mike Blumenthal has talked about this ranking penalty too and there are posts from that prove it too.

Rich asked: "How about service/synonyms? How many times is the maximum to use something like plumber or plumbing, in your opinion?"

Pigeon seems to be a little more lenient and I've seen even super spammy descriptions rank.

However since we know, or at least have been told directly by Google that descriptions are not a ranking fact - then why risk it? If it's not going to help you rank and looks tacky to prospective customers?

I used to say KW no more than once. But now post Pigeon I'd say a couple times is OK. But it depends on length of description too.

 

[Gsmithmike]

Keyword repetition or keyword stuffing are not the same? cause when you are repeating a keyword in a sentence or paragraph and make it totally spammy then again its the same.

The most important factor is to have correct citations, none of the people above my search results have it, any explanation there? I think google will go out of business soon, I am not sure pigion or any other update will help to save, If my business is in los angeles, then why someone who is not in los angeles territory has to show up, there might be another issue! and about my description on google, i am not sure if you are aware of this but it just recognize till 200 words gets the attention.

I like to know how come when i have correct citations and the business is in los angeles, and even if you look at the map you will see the sign on the roof!=)) any suggestions? and by the way we have a very active google plus.

 

[Rich Owings]

Thanks Linda. And thanks for all you do to run this forum. It must be a HUGE amount of work. I visit every day for the awesome info. You are definitely one of my local SEO heroes!

 

[Carleton Wilkins]

My opinion-

I would drop this entire section, as it does not benefit the user (which is what Google looks for):



Why are you not using the Google+ linked map instead of that image?

<iframe width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="https://maps.google.com/maps?sll=34.0452454,-118.2377928&sspn=0.0017069,0.0027466&cid=9835978390214655688&q=Mr.+Speedy+Plumbing+%26+Rooter+Inc.&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=&t=m&iwloc=A&ll=34.042455,-118.233862&spn=0.006295,0.006295&output=embed"></iframe>

Also there is no formatted schema: Schema Creator for 'Organization' schema.org microdata


Lastly, there are multiple numbers listed, but neither in the correct (999) 555-0000 format:



Just my $0.02 after a quick run down.

 

[heckler]

Knowing what I know about Yext and blue-collar segments, I would ensure (especially if the business has changed locations or ownership) that Yext didn't build you a bunch of duplicate listings and murder your NAP-consistency.

Mr Speedy Plumbing in Los Angeles, CA - Menu and Directions

Mr Speedy Plumbing Los Angeles in Los Angeles, CA - Menu and Directions

Mr Speedy Plumbing Los Angeles (closed) in Los Angeles, CA - Menu, Photos, and Directions (marked as closed)

Mr. Speedy Plumbing in Los Angeles, CA - Menu, Reviews, Photos, and Directions

It looks to be a multi-location business (and this was just a quick look with the 10 min I have to spare), but if these are duplicate/erroneous I would bet there are issues on other citations as well.

Also you may want to fix this listing:

https://plus.google.com/102716009720990696083/about?gl=us&hl=en

 

[Linda Buquet]

Also you may want to fix this listing:

https://plus.google.com/102716009720990696083/about?gl=us&hl=en

Oh dear! Good catch heckler! That one is just begging to be suspended and if it's in the same account as other listings and the whole account gets suspended, they will all go down.