30 COMMON LOCAL SEO PROBLEMS ATLANTA

Local SEO can become quite complex. Especially with all the specific nuances associated with managing your Google+, reviews and citations.

After running into these issues multiple times, we decided to compile a list of some of the most common local SEO issues along with easy to follow solutions.

1. GOOGLE+ IS NOT SHOWING MY MAIN CATEGORY AS MY PRIMARY CATEGORY

If you have more than one category selected, Google doesn’t always show them in the order selected (or the order you want).

Solution Steps

Delete your categories (except the one you want as the main one) one by one, saving between each delete.
When all but your primary category is deleted, make sure that one displays correctly.
Now add all the other categories again, but this time at once.

2. HOW DO I MERGE GOOGLE+ LOCAL & GOOGLE PLACES LISTINGS?

When you migrated your old Google Places account to the new interface, a Google+ Local listing may have also been created. This duplicate needs to be merged with your Google Places Listing especially if you have +1s or a Vanity URL which you want to retain.

Solution Steps

Unfortunately there isn’t an option to merge them yourself, so contact Google Support using the “Contact Us” link. Choose:
- Your business type.
- “Another type of problem” in the first screen.
- Select “There are duplicate results for my business on Maps.”.
In the contact form, enter the URL to your Google+ page as well as the duplicate that has been auto-generated. In the additional details tab, you can enter a short message like this: >Hello There, > >While my Google Places dashboard was upgraded, a new Google+ Page was auto-generated. This page is a duplicate since I already have a page operational at {insert_link}
> >Could you please merge the newly created page with the old one > >Thanks, > >{Your Name}
If you don’t hear back from them for 3 weeks, you can have a Google rep call you back. I find having someone on the phone gets issues resolved faster.

3. THE GOOGLE+ VERIFICATION PIN I RECEIVED ISN’T WORKING.

This is a very common issue that happens with Google+; you are asked to verify your page, you request a pin via mail, but the pin you received on the postcard isn’t working properly.

This could be happening because of multiple reasons but is fairly easy to fix.

Solution Steps

Search for your business on Google Maps. Type in your address exactly as on Google Places and see if your business shows up. If you see “Did you mean…?” or don’t see your business under the search results, there may be something wrong.
Ensure that all of your information is not set to private. Log in to your Google+ page and set all your information to “public”. Make sure you don’t change any of your core information right now to ensure that your pin works properly. Now re-try your pin.
If it still doesn’t work, request a new one. Don’t get an option to request a new pin? Contact Google and they should be able to get it done.

4. MY BUSINESS HAS A BAD REVIEW FROM A DISGRUNTLED EMPLOYEE WHO IS NO LONGER WITH THE COMPANY. CAN I FLAG IT AND GET IT REMOVED?

Yes, you can flag the review at Google, however, a moderator will evaluate it based on some Guidelines and can take several weeks. If it hasn’t been taken down after 2-3 weeks, go to the forums to make your case about why it violates the above guidelines. Then hope for one of the reps reviews it for further moderation.

5. MY GOOGLE PLACES LISTING SHOWS ‘BEING REVIEWED’ STATUS EVEN AFTER VERIFICATION.

If you have already waited for 15 days just contact the Places Support team.

6. PIN ON YAHOO VERIFICATION POSTCARD MISSING/DOESN’T WORK.

All you can do that this point is to resubmit the PIN request after you have tried the existing PIN a couple of times. The best possible option is to verify the listing via a business email or phone immediately rather than choosing to verify by post method.

7. “WE CURRENTLY DO NOT SUPPORT THIS LOCATION” MESSAGE ON YOUR LISTING.

This is frequent issue that can appear for a variety of reasons. Most of the time it’s just a time or sync issue.

Solution

If you have only recently verified your listing it may take up to 2 weeks for the listing to appear on Google. So just wait and check again later.
If your listing has been live for quite some time it maybe a synching issue between Google Places and Maps. Use look up your listing on maps.google.com, but if you can’t find it, just go into the dashboard and try editing and resubmitting it once. You should be able to see the listing in couple of days.
If none of these help then you will need to get in touch with Google support. Fill out the form and wait for them to contact you.

8. HOW DO I SETUP A GOOGLE+ PAGE FOR A BUSINESS WITH A BUSINESS ADDRESS WHICH IS DIFFERENT FROM THE ACTUAL MAILING ADDRESS?

A number of business owners work from their residence and provide service at the customers’ location. You will be able to set service areas based on zip codes or cities you service. You do have an option to select ‘I serve customers at my business address’, but only select this option if you want your complete address to be displayed on Google and you are staffed to service customer at your business location. Google no longer provides the option to hide your address by selecting ‘Do not show my business address on my maps’ section. They will apply the correct settings based on the selected choices from the maps dashboard.

Need More Info?

Go through the detailed guidelines published by Google for service area businesses.

9. MY YAHOO MAP MARKER LOCATION IS INCORRECT AND YAHOO’S HELP REDIRECTS ME ELSEWHERE.

There has been an issue with Yahoo redirecting to Nokia’s now discontinued primeplaces.here.com

Solution

The data can be corrected using MapReporter.

10. WHAT DO I DO ABOUT DUPLICATE CONTENT?

Duplicate content within a website and across websites can get your into trouble. A lot of local business websites have template driven/boilerplate content with just the location terms switched out.

Avoid duplicate content at all cost!

Solution

If you do find yourself with duplicate content on your hands, utilise tools like Siteliner to search for duplicate content within a website and CopyScape to make sure the content being published on your website is unique.

Use unique URL for location pages if you have more than once location.

11. HOW CAN I ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO REVIEW MY BUSINESS?

Online reviews from happy customers can provide you the much needed boost to your online presence. Most businesses we have worked with are either very reactive when it comes to their review policy and others end up hiring the wrong kind of people to ‘buy’ reviews which do not stick.

Tips

Do not pay for reviews/fake reviews. Businesses have and will keep landing into major trouble for doing this.
Setup a simpler landing page with a link to online review sites where you want your customers to go and write a review.
Try to avoid putting all your eggs in one basket – diversify.
Setup a simple email template that you can send to your customers after you have sold them a service of a product.
Avoid setting up a customer review kiosk with a laptop/tablet. Instead provide review handouts or cards with link to your major review sites to guide them.
Train your sales/service team who interact with customers the most; they’re the ones who build rapport.
Plan for negative reviews. Make sure to respond to them and take them up as opportunities to improve your product/service.

12. I’VE CHANGED MY NAME/ADDRESS/PHONE DETAILS.

As per the local ranking factors survey NAP data consistency had a huge effect on determining your site’s search performance. In fact consistency of Name, Address and Phone data for your business plays a big role in over half of the ranking performance.

Solution Steps

Claim your business listings on all major directories.
Search for your business name, address and phone number on these directories to ensure there are no duplicate listings with incorrect or old information.
Contact the directories to ensure any duplicate listings or inaccuracies are removed.
Keep checking every few months as issues keep propping up.

13. MY SITE LOADS SLOWLY.

Yes, speed does matter. Especially nowadays when most people don’t wait for more than a couple of seconds before they lose interest. Slow sites provide very bad user experience. While testing for site speed ensure that you don’t just optimize the homepage. Check all your internal and money pages to make sure they are all optimized.

Solution

You can use Google’s pagespeed insights tool.

Additionally install Google analytics on your website to track and measure site speed along with a host of other metrics.

14. DO I HAVE TO OPTIMIZE TITLE TAGS ON ALL MY PAGES?

We still find a number of business websites where they have not optimized the title tags of the internal pages. Please remember that your internal pages are as important for search visibility as your homepage.

Solutions

Make sure to check and optimize all title tags.
Avoid duplicate title tags – you can check your Google Webmaster Tools to check for them on a regular basis.
You don’t need to keep mentioning your business name on all title tags.
Do not just stuff keywords – write titles that are easy to read and makes sense.