Local Search Problems – A Quick Analysis of Two Businesses

google business pagesToday, I came across two different and interesting scenarios in regard to local business and what they were doing with regard to ranking in local searches for their particular businesses. Both are quite different and provide completely separate types of services. One business, a home services provider, is trying to get ranked for a variety of towns and cities, while another faces different challenges.

Both are doing some things wrong. The first one is doing things, on the advice of a person who claims to know about Local SEO that are verging on “grey areas” and while there is short term gain, could eventually see themselves completely out of Google Search with penalties.

The other business, a medical practice, while not doing anything “wrong” necessarily, appears to be confused by some of the nuances and best practices to ensure high rankings on local search.

Let’s take a quick look at both:

Home Service Business

In attempting to gain high rankings on other cities and towns, this business is engaging in practices that likely will result in major penalties in the long term. While the practices are seeing some gains at the moment, more than likely these will be temporary. As Google slowly discovers some of the activities that are going on in order to attempt to increase rankings, the search engine will come down with the big hammer of a ranking penalty. I suspect that the expectations of the business owner have not been properly managed by the Local SEO consultant they are working with.

There are actually a number of legitimate things this business can do to increase rankings. They might take a little more time, but they will also have the effect of a more likely permanent high ranking. That of course goes with the caveat that permanence is never guaranteed in SEO and we are all subject to the whim of Google search engineers adjusting their logarithms and introducing or removing factors for ranking.

When trying to increase your rankings for Local Search, always keep in mind what Google has in mind. They want to provide the best results (which of course, is subjective but we have to live with their definition of ‘best results’) to their users. Businesses that want to obtain better rankings need to adapt to Google and understand the search engine’s policies.

Medical Practitioner

A business that involves “practitioners” (this could include medical doctors, clinics, law practices, chiropractic practices and the like) also are subject to policies that Google has implemented in regard to their Google Business pages (by the way, now called “Google My Business” or GMB). Not abiding by these policies could see a practitioner and/or their practice being penalized in the local search results. While the policies are not all that confusing or difficult to deal with, it’s easy if you don’t know what they are, to infringe the policies and end up being penalized.

In addition, it’s easy for practitioners that also have a branded business name to find themselves in a position where mentions are not all that uniform. For example, they will often list their personal name first, followed by their branded business name in some places, while doing the opposite in others. Google has their own standards as to what it wants to see, and this should be followed wherever possible.

Additional confusion can arise when a branded business that has more than one practitioner begins to create GMB pages. Again, to ensure you get it right, it’s best to seek the advice of someone that has expertise with Google and Business pages.

If you’re wondering why you’re business is not appearing in local search results, or perhaps not the placement you’d like to see, contact us for assistance.

If you are a brand new business, it may even be more essential to get some expert help before making a lot of mistakes to ensure your best efforts are not wasted.

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