Source: Moz.com. We often hear things in the local SEO world that a lot of people believe, but that are completely false. We wanted to put a number of these myths to rest by listing out the most popular 9 local SEO myths that we run into most often.
1. Deleting your listing in Google My Business actually removes the listing from Google.
Business owners can usually question how they'll get rid of duplicate listings on Google. One in every of the a lot of common things people try is claiming the duplicate then deleting it from the Google My Business Dashboard. Once you head to delete a listing, you receive a alarming message asking if you are certain you would like to do this:
The truth is, removing a listing from Google My Business (GMB) simply makes the listing unverified. It still exists on Google Maps and can usually still rank, provided you didn’t filter all the categories/details before you deleted it. The only time you’d actually need|actually need|really need} to delete a listing via GMB is if you now not want to manage the listing.
When you delete a local page, the corresponding listing are going to be unverified and you'll now not be able to manage it. Google may still retain business info from the page and will still show info about the business on Maps, Search, and different Google properties, together with marking the business as permanently closed, moved, or open, counting on the data that’s best-known about the business.
2. Failure to claim your page means that your business won’t rank anywhere.
We are sure most of you have received those annoying phone calls that say: “Your business isn't presently verified and can vanish on Google unless you claim it now!”
First of all, think about the authority of the those who are calling you. We can say with certainty they are not specialists in this industry, or they wouldn’t resort to robo-calling to create sales.
3. "Professional/Practitioner" listings on Google are considered duplicates and might be removed.
Google usually creates listings for the actual public-facing professionals in a workplace (lawyers, doctors, dentists, realtors, etc), and also the owner of the practice typically wants them to disappear. Google can get rid of the listing for the professional in 2 different cases:
a) The professional isn't public-facing. Support employees, like hygienists or paralegals for instance, don’t qualify for a listing and Google can remove them if they exist.
b) The business only has one public-facing individual. As an example, if you have got a law firm with just one lawyer, Google considers this to be a “Solo Practitioner” and will merge the listing for the professional with the listing for the office. Their tips state to “create one page, named using the following format: [brand/company]: [practitioner name].”
In the case that the professional has left your office, you can have the listing marked as moved if the professional has retired or is not any longer working in the industry. This can cause it to vanish from the search results, However it will still exist in Google’s back-end. If the professional has moved to a different company, you must have them claim the listing and update the address/phone number to list their new contact info.
4. Posting on G+ helps improve your ranking.
Phil Rozek explains this best: “It’s nearly not possible for people to check your Google+ posts unless they hunt for your business by name. Google doesn’t include a link to your 'Plus' page in the local pack. Google doesn’t even decision it a 'Plus' page any longer. Do you still believe being active on Google+ could be a native ranking factor?”
No, posting on G+ won't cause your ranking to skyrocket, despite what the Google My Business phone support team told you.
5. "Maps SEO" is something which will be effectively worked on separately from "Organic SEO."
“Maps Optimization” is not a factor that can be separated from organic. At local U in Williamsburg, Mike Ramsey shared that 75th of ranking local listings also rank organically on the primary page. The two are directly connected — a modification that you simply make to your website can have a large influence on where you rank locally.
If you are a local business, it's in your higher interests to have AN SEO company that understands Google Maps and the way the 3-pack works. At the company I work for, we've always made it a goal to get the business ranked both organically and locally, since it’s nearly not possible to get in the 3-pack without a {strong|a robust|a powerful} organic ranking and a web site with strong local signals.
6. Google employees are the best authority on which ranking signals you should listen to.
Google employees are great; i like reading what they are available out with and also the insight they provide. However, as David Mihm pointed out at local U, those employees have absolutely no incentive to give away any top-secret tips for getting your web site to rank well. Here are some recent examples of advice given from Google employees that should be ignored:
- Duplicate listings will fix themselves over time.
- Posting on Google+ will help your ranking (advice given from phone support reps).
- If you want to rank well in the 3-pack, simply alter your business description.
Instead of trusting this advice, I always suggest that people make sure what {they're|they are} doing matches up with what the pros are saying in massive surveys and case studies.
7. Setting a huge service area means that you’ll rank in all kinds of additional towns.
Google allows service-area businesses to line a radius around their address to demonstrate how far they are willing to travel to the customer. People often set this radius really large because they believe it'll help them rank in additional cities. It doesn’t. You will still possibly only rank in the city you are using for your address.
8. Once your business relocates, you would like to mark the listing for the previous location as closed.
The Google My Business & Google MapMaker rules don’t agree on this one. Anyone on the Google MapMaker aspect would tell a business to mark a listing as "closed" once they move. This will cause a business listing to have a big, ugly, red "permanently closed" label when anyone searches your business name.
If your listing is verified through Google My Business, all you need to do is edit the address in your dashboard when you move. If there is AN unproved duplicate listing that exists at your recent address, you wish to create certain you get it marked as "Moved."
9. Google displays whatever is listed in your GMB dashboard.
Google gives business owners the power to edit info on their listing by verifying it via Google My Business. However, whatever data the owner inputs is just one of many sources that Google can get info from. Google updates verified listings all the time by scraping information from the business website, inputs from edits created on Google Maps/MapMaker, and third-party information sources. A recent case I’ve seen is one where Google repeatedly updated an owner-verified listing with incorrect business hours as a result of not being able to properly read the business hours listed on their website.
Know more about local seo practises at Axat Technologies.