How To Troubleshoot Google’s Local Ranking Failures?

  

After having put in a lot of time and effort towards building a flawless website, it can be daunting to encounter a fallout in Google’s local ranking. The trauma of suffering from a lower Google local ranking can lead into a reduction in the company’s reputation as a whole.

Fortunately, when there are problems, there are solutions as well. The same goes for reduced Google local rankings as well. Being familiar with the steps for troubleshooting this issue, you can easily combat the local ranking failure for your website. So, without letting you wonder anymore, let me walk you through a tutorial that will outline the steps that can turn beneficial when it comes to troubleshooting a website’s falling Google local ranking.

Step 1- Check for reports of mass issues or bugs
 

As the first and foremost step in troubleshooting low or lost Google local ranking, you must gain an instant access to reports that contain a collaborated list of issues that might be present in the website. Look out for any unresolved bugs that might be interfering with the Google local ranking of your website.

Talking about mass issues, the thing that you need to discover is whether a single issue is causing your website’s Google local ranking fallout or whether there are a number of issues causing the problem. You can start discovering this by visiting the Google and Your Business Forum where you can search for the problem you’re experiencing with your website. If you detect multiple threads reporting your identical issue, right from the time you’ve been encountering the problem, then there are good chances that a specific bug or a recent Google update might have been the reason for the problem. Once you’re clear on the issue, you can re-access the forum for related solutions that have been provided by experts.

Step 2- Check out for any Google Quality Violations 

 

One of the most significant reasons behind a lower Google Local ranking is a possible violation of Google’s quality guidelines. So, if you’re a bit dicey about having violated any Google standard, then it’s better to go through the Google Places Quality Guidelines and check out whether your website follows each one mentioned here or has violated anyone of the rules mentioned here.

Check whether mistakes have been made in relation to the naming of your business, phone number, address and other related components. Remember, breaking even a single Google rule can cost you a lot on your Google rankings. Hence, be sure your website hasn’t violated any of these rules.

Step 3- Watch out for any duplicate Google+ Local Listings


Excluding multi-partner practices like law firms, hospitals, restaurants etc. every business is allowed to have just a single Google+ Local Page per location. If your business website has more than one Google+ Local Page, it is likely to cause a lower/lost Google local ranking. While sometimes, duplicate Google+ local listings are created intentionally, there are times when they are built by spammers for undertaking hazardous manipulations. In either of the cases, duplicate local listings can cause a considerable harm to the website under focus.

Components that allow you to detect local listing duplicates include the name of business, address, phone number, product/service categories and product/service descriptions. Even if you find it challenging to detect any variance, it is better to check your website for duplicate listings, especially if your website is facing local ranking issues.

Step 4- Discover Website Quality Issues

Yet another critical reason behind a lower/lost Google local ranking is a bad performing website. As an entrepreneur, it’s your website’s on-page quality and methods you use for marketing it that play a vital role in the local search rankings. While troubleshooting local ranking issues for your website, it is recommended to look into aspects including the following:

• Is your website optimized for the local search engines?
• Do your website’s title tags contain related keywords?
• Does your website feature clear and crawlable navigation?
• Do Google Webmaster Tools indicate 100% crawling of your website?
• Does your website look professional or is it full of spelling and grammar errors. 

Wrapping Up
So, these were the 4 basic steps, which if followed seriously can allow you to troubleshoot the lost/low Google local ranking for your website. I’m sure you’d have found these steps easy-to-follow. Don’t forget being friendly with Google means a greater customer base. Hence, make efforts to ensure that your website is in sync with all the standards that form the basis of a well-defined search engine friendly website.

Please don’t forget to share your views/opinions on the above post. 

Author Bio:
Edword Jones is a web developer by profession and a writer by hobby and works for OSSMedia Ltd a leading Custom Joomla Development company. He loves sharing information regarding Drupal, Joomla, Magento and Wordpress development tips & tricks. If you are looking for Joomla Developers for Hire then just get in touch with him.

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3 Weeks Warning to Business Owners by Google to Save Their Listing

Google has taken many steps to stop link spam and it not only crushes link networks but a large number of businesses are also hurt. It includes many networks who offer link exchange services to the clients but now the situation is changed to great level. Now it would be the wastage of money to buy links before realizing the right condition. On the other hand there are certain businessmen stating that they have got emails from Google asking them to make legitimate progress and save the listing by avoiding illegal means.

It is reported that these mails are legitimate and are coming from Google. The subject line of these emails is “Action Required: You have three week to save your Google Places Listing”.

Jade Wang explained from Google that they are making changes in Google places for Google Maps and Business. So on the basis of these changes, Google is asking business owners to submit reliable information about them. So they are asked to review and confirm their information in Google places accounts. Her further added;

Don’t worry if you have received this email. You should login and review your business information, change it or update it if necessary and then press submit. It is required to perform this step to save your listing and to stay in Google Map on or before February 21, 2014. Otherwise you have to undergo the process of PIN verification and Google Places. There might be certain reasons of it and some might be;

• · It is possible that Google is testing a new variable which is looking to add in the algorithm with the name of “response time” and wants to see that how quick business owners respond it.
• · Google does not believe on its algorithm, actually it is said that Google wants to weed out bogus businesses so it needs help.
• · It can be a test to know that how many SEOs are still following the updates and wanted to remove those who are no more active from its SERPs.
• · Google is trying to refine its list by removing irrelevant listings and keep only those who pick the phone when you call them.
• · It is not an effort only to provide the right results and information to the users but the quickest one in performing it. There are people who take too much time on their queries so they can get quick results in less time with the help of these updates.

 

 

Author Bio:
Asjad Afzal
CEO
YourSeoCompany Australia
http://www.yourseocompany.com.au/
support@yourseocompany.com.au

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