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Hello everyone….
I am a new operator! I have a quick queston regarding organic google listings….
I hired someone to do the optimization (not per click) and we were in the organic section in the top 5 last month. After the 1st of this month (August) we completely disappeared and nowhere to be found to date – so now over a week….Have you ever experienced this before or had this issue?
The guy that I hired tells me it’s completely normal but not sure that I buy that.Please let me know! Appreciate the help/ suggestions.
Thanks
Ross
yeah it CAN be normal. It may just be the “Google Dance”, (look it up). It may be that the company is doing black hat SEO, (look it up). Wait about a week and check rankings then.
If your website is new it is very common for Google to give you an initial ranking that is very good and then you get put into what is called the sandbox and depending upon the size of your market can last anywhere from 3 weeks to 6 months. During this time just continue to build links and when you come out of the sandbox you should have a decent ranking.
Thanks guys! I appreciated your help.
We are optimized: Google, Yahoo and all the rest. Here is my current problem, situation. We have been steady in the pinpoints of Google for a few years. Over the last half a year, sometimes we disappear and come back a week to 2 weeks later. Other carpet cleaners in town, report my address to Google as, not correct. Google pulls you down for review. Meanwhile, these companies are piling on obvious fake reviews for their comapny, all 5 star reviews. When you check the name of the reviewer, and the posts left, the person has left 5 star reviews for companies in Brooklyn, Colorado Springs, Michigan and my home town all on the same day. Some reviews left are word for word identical! Google has this open back door policy that lets other visitors edit your page and profile where your reviews are. Someone posted a picture of a rugdoctor machine next to my profile and has done it to other operators too. I get calls from India, Google operators asking me questions about my address and what cross streets are nearby. When these companies are posting their bogus reviews, it cuts into my business. I had a BRUTAL month of March, our worst ever by far. I wonder how many calls were lost to these cretins. 👿
Adam,
YIKES! I haven’t run into that one yet. I have had bogus reviews on my facebook page, but thankfully I can take that down as soon as it happens. I know Google is constantly changing things to shut down that kind of dishonest behavior. Have you been reporting it? I would think they could start blocking out the specific IP address whether it be from a single computer or network.
I know a big thing that hit with Google just this week is a lot of sites lost their google listings or rank because of their back-linking…so they are working on it.
*just had another thought that might help. Do you have a facebook page? Besides being another link to your main site it also tends to get good listings within Google. I’ve found at times that our facebook page ranks higher than our site (within regular listings- not the local places listings) and it’s not quite as vulnerable to those types of attacks because they can’t really go after facebook as easily as they can go after you.
~Lauryn
@Adam Novak wrote:
We are optimized: Google, Yahoo and all the rest. Here is my current problem, situation. We have been steady in the pinpoints of Google for a few years. Over the last half a year, sometimes we disappear and come back a week to 2 weeks later. Other carpet cleaners in town, report my address to Google as, not correct. Google pulls you down for review. Meanwhile, these companies are piling on obvious fake reviews for their comapny, all 5 star reviews. When you check the name of the reviewer, and the posts left, the person has left 5 star reviews for companies in Brooklyn, Colorado Springs, Michigan and my home town all on the same day. Some reviews left are word for word identical! Google has this open back door policy that lets other visitors edit your page and profile where your reviews are. Someone posted a picture of a rugdoctor machine next to my profile and has done it to other operators too. I get calls from India, Google operators asking me questions about my address and what cross streets are nearby. When these companies are posting their bogus reviews, it cuts into my business. I had a BRUTAL month of March, our worst ever by far. I wonder how many calls were lost to these cretins. 👿
You have to be very careful about addresses that you use in your Google Places listing. If you use a bogus address, a PO Box, or a UPS mailbox address, there is a good chance that a competitor will report you to Google and you stand to lose your Google Places listing and any reviews that you might have. In this day and age that could be detrimental. Using these types of addresses is a violation of Google’s terms, and this practice is dishonest and should be avoided.
There are several carpet cleaners that use UPS mailboxes and/or phony addresses and making several Google Places listings in surrounding towns or areas. I look at it this way. You can game Google for a while, but in the long run, it will catch up with you. Competitors will report you, or Google will get wise in some other way, and there goes all the hard work.
I’m not saying that you are guilty of this, but since you brought up this topic, I would caution other operators to avoid anything that violates Google’s Terms of Service, or those of Yahoo or Bing for that matter. It will catch up with you eventually.
The best thing you can do is a build a good website on a good platform, and fill it with rich content. If you have ONE physical address, make ONE Google Places listing and optimize it properly. There are options for service businesses that travel to the customer’s location. Using them will help you get listed in surrounding areas.
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