(x-post) Need advice on what's going on with a client

[comitdevelopers]

One of my major clients is Pop-A-Lock locksmith. I've noticing an issue lately with some of my clients in different markets and I was wondering if anyone had any insight.

For example, Pop-A-Lock of Brevard County has an odd issue. They are located in Brevard County, Florida. One of their major cities in their service area is Palm Bay. We are first on organic results, but nowhere to be found on maps. On new Maps, our listing doesn't appear at all, but on old maps, we're back on page three. This is all when we search "palm bay locksmith".

This is happening to couple of my listings across the nation, so I know it's not a regional thing.

So, the question is does anyone know why we wouldn't appear on maps using our primary category and one of the city's in our service arean in the search string.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Please share a link to the G+ Local page.

I'm swamped playing catch up after webinar and then am jammed all afternoon, so hopefully other members can jump in to help.

 

[comitdevelopers]

Here you go.

https://plus.google.com/+PopALockofBrevardCountyRockledge/?hl=en

 

[comitdevelopers]

I don't know if this requires bumping, but I'd like to see if a bump could work?

 

[Linda Buquet]

"palm bay locksmith"

I peeked at this the other day but didn't have time to reply. Now I don't have time to look again. But if memory serves your client is in a different city, quite far north so that's why.

In local you can typically only rank in the city the address is in.

If you check that pack and look at the map on the main search page too, most of the locksmiths are right in Palm bay. A couple are in Melbourne, but the map does not even extend far enough north to include your client. They are WAY north of where the map cuts off so aren't even close to being in the included radius for that search.

So best you can do is rank in organic.

 

[comitdevelopers]

I think my main concern isn't that I'm not ranking, but is that we aren't showing up at all. I can live with not ranking, because at least rankings can change, but I really don't think it's fair that we aren't on maps in any way.

 

[Linda Buquet]

I'm seeing you ranking AND on maps when you search KW + the city they are in.

That's how local works and you normally won't show up in other cities.

 

[comitdevelopers]

Even if I have the service area dictated to include those other cities?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Service area settings have nothing at all to do with ranking. It's a common misconception.

You can set service area to whole state or just your city. You will still rank the same based on whatever address is listed in dashboard.

If those settings affected rank then everyone would do a big service area and results would not be local. I'd be searching for a dry cleaners in my city and see results from all kinds of other cities farther away.

That setting simply shows potential customers how far you are willing to go to provide service.

 

[comitdevelopers]

Ah okay. I was under the impression that if you optimized your site for certain areas and added them to the service area on Google My Business, then the rankings might translate as well.

 

[Eric Rohrback]

I think Linda nailed the explanation. One thing I'll add is where you position the marker (middle part of the service area - eg the map marker) will affect how you show up in certain cities. If you set a general service area around your location and do the radius, the marker will be dead center of your city. If you start listing off a ton of zip codes or other cities you serve in, then the marker will be dragged to a different part of the map. Sometimes that will lead to unintended locations it's hovering over.

Just something to keep in mind and be aware of for the future.

Check out the cities closer to your actual location. I did a search for "locksmith cocoa fl" and found you're #1 locally. Palm Bay is just too far away to get a solid local ranking for (32 mins away according to Google Maps).

Hope this helps

 

[comitdevelopers]

Perhaps I can pose another question. For the search string "Palm Bay Locksmith", our listing used to come up first. Now, we don't show up at all. This has happened within the last couple of weeks. Do you have any insight into what changed?

---------- Post Merged at 08:06 AM ---------- Previous Post was at 08:04 AM ----------

I would just set the radial option, but there are other Pop-A-Lock franchises in my area, and I am required not to set our service area to overlap them. It's the nature of the beast...