Google Map Penalty or Odd Filter? Listing Goes Missing
-
Hello Moz.
We have a law firm client who practices criminal defense law. Historically, he has been ranked for _years _in the map pack and first page of search for a variety of phrases. This is a law firm with twice the number of reviews of the next competitor, solid back links, and open 24 hours a day.
Over the past 30 days, he now appears inconsistently in the map packs. Sometimes he is in the C slot and sometimes he does not appear at all. Most of the time he is not listed for specific legal phrases for DUI, DWI and criminal defense.
When he is not listed in the A, B, or C slot, then he is actually gone completely. You click on More Places and his listing for the map is just completely gone. You can scroll down from listing 1 through 20+ and not find his firm in the Map listings. You would think he would just be further down on the list at 5 - 10. But it is just missing.
However, when you change the filters for either rating or reviews, he suddenly will appear. In fact, he will be near the top of the list, but only on filtering. You can even clear the filter and he stays listed in typically the C slot too. However, if you refresh the page, he is gone again.
My question is simple: Do you think there is some type of data issue or penalty in place? Or is this just how the filters work - suddenly showing a list that should appear in the main area.
PS: If I am not clear on the above, I can send video evidence of this oddity.
-
Hi Pete,
Glad I was able to help you identify Possum.
-
Agree, it is most likely the filter Possum update. They are absent on More Results, but appear on filter or zoom. Thanks!
-
Hi Pete,
Thank you for the further details. Given that your client shares the same building with other attorneys, your scenario hints at the possibility that what you are experiencing is the effect of Google's Possum update, which influences the local finder results for businesses in the same category/same building. Joy Hawkins does a good job of describing this phenomenon in the #2 point in her article at Search Engine Land: http://searchengineland.com/everything-need-know-googles-possum-algorithm-update-258900
If your business appears absent from the map at the automatic zoom level, but then appears in the results if you zoom in on the map, chances are strong it's Possum. As you can't share the identity of the client, please try that experiment and see if it fits. Possum was released in September 2016 and was believed to impact well over half of the Local SERPs.
-
Lawyer shares a small office building with 40 other businesses. Two other businesses on same floor are also criminal defense firms. This is not a Regis style office suite, rather a regular office building with many tenants. Each has its own office number.
Firm only has one Google My Business.
Can't share right now. Just trying to see if anyone else has experiences a similar filter where the listing won't appear at all on maps, but on ratings/hours filter it will appear in a high slot. At first glance, it appears some penalty is in place. Maybe if we can't get anywhere we will share the domain.
-
Hi Pete,
Quick questions:
-
Does the lawyer share a building with any other lawyers?
-
Does the legal practice have a Google My Business listing for the business + listings for multiple attorneys at the firm?
-
Is it possible to share the name of the business with our community? It's okay if you can't, but looking at a live example would certainly be helpful in taking a stab at identifying what is going on.
Looking forward to your replies!
-
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
What's the best way to identify duplicate listings?
I'm doing manual duplicate research for an account and wanted to know if anyone had a resource to share on how to find duplicate listings for GMB and other citations. https://searchengineland.com/definitive-guide-duplicate-research-local-seo-238719 Ive been working off of this article from Joy Hawkins, but she mentions using Map Maker to search a phone number, but Google has since shut Map Maker down. Maps doesn't seem to work the same way, as I've searched a phone number which I know has duplicate listings and they don't come up. Any tips on a better tool or process?
Local Listings | | formandfunctionagency0 -
Disadvantages to Hiding Business Address on Google Places?
From a Local SEO standpoint, wouldn't hiding a business address on Google Places for Business create an SEO disadvantage in that I would expect in the local portion of the search results, there would be a bias to showing businesses that have not hidden their address as then you can place a pin on the map at the location? Or from a Local SEO standpoint does it not matter if you hide your address or not?
Local Listings | | Jazee1 -
Google Business - Adding location into business name
Hello, I've a client that has many services in different locations and addresses with the same website and phone number. But the thing is they want me to involve location name to business name. Is there a way to add and verify as bulk ?
Local Listings | | omeryamac0 -
Google Plus Business Page is not showing up
Hello, I had 2 google+ business pages. But the website under those pages were different. For example, www.abc.com on 1st one and then www.xyz.com on 2nd one. Both of them had the different business name and website but same address and phone number. Also, www.abc.com domain was set as redirecting to www.xyz.com. My 1st business page was ranking good but I wanted to use 2nd one only so I called up google and asked them to remove the 1st one and then they closed it. Now, the problem is that I lost the 1st one and 2nd one is not ranking for any of the keyword (I have checked all the pages in the SERP and it doesn't show up anywhere until last page). I have fixed all the citations everywhere recently but no luck in getting ranking. Can anyone suggest what steps can be done to rank 2nd one now? FYI, I am talking about local places ranking, the domain www.xyz.com is ranked well in organic ranking. Any help is appreciated! Brian
Local Listings | | BrianBotts.0 -
Google not finding my site
I built a website, http://deeprootshgc.com. I submitted the site to google and have set up analytics. When I search for the site, deep roots home and garden center, I get their facebook page, manta and everything but the actual URL. Any thoughts?
Local Listings | | MarkBolin1 -
Hotel Local Listings Greatly Varying With Date
Searching for accommodation in a local region brings up a local listing block (e.g. http://puu.sh/irEoJ/635140594d.png). When clicking through to the block and changing dates, the order of the listings vary greatly. See attachments for 4 samples. How is Google deciding to order these listing blocks? I initially speculated they are pulling availability rates from Online Travel Agents like Expedia or Booking.com, but doubt this to be the case given a lot of those listings do not have Google Hotel Ads and smaller operators do not have their distribution system hooked up to Google Hotel. tVX816P,8U6RbcP,N6xGEdx,YC4K344#0 tVX816P,8U6RbcP,N6xGEdx,YC4K344#1 tVX816P,8U6RbcP,N6xGEdx,YC4K344#2 tVX816P,8U6RbcP,N6xGEdx,YC4K344#3
Local Listings | | fastrack0 -
Is there any data about how user interact with the local 7 pack listing, do they scroll past it or use it like a normal SERP ?
Does any one have any data about how users interact with the local 7 pack listings in regards to position to CTR ratios, do everyday users tend to scroll past it to the normal SERPs as they might do with adwords ads (as the local pack is formatted slightly different to normal SERPs) ? bMvtUSe.png
Local Listings | | Sam-P0 -
Why does it take so long for citations to get listed?
I understand that several citation places take over a month to get listed, but I just don't understand why. Granted, there's nothing I can do about it, but I'm just curious what the hold up is based on. Thanks, Ruben
Local Listings | | KempRugeLawGroup0