Understanding Google My Business & Local Search
Google Pigeon Poo
With every update from Google we often get artifacts that are very annoying. With the Pigeon Local Update we have our share of Pigeon Poo. Barry Schwartz pointed out the inclusion of Expedia in the carousel.
Stefano Romero, Mike Ehline, Casey Meraz and David Perez have all pointed out similar, equally bad examples of Pigeon Poo type results. Here we have Avvo as a PI Lawyer and ZocDoc as a dentist.
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Comments
9 Comments
I doubt the LA PI lawyer one is a bug. It is just a spammer, who has placed a link to their Avvo profile on their fake listing:
https://plus.google.com/115183010952947692121
They’ve done the same with another fake listing, but that time the link is to a lawyers.com profile:
https://plus.google.com/115746668792696640721
These have been known to boost rankings, because the landing pages are found on very powerful domains. And now that Google apparently puts more value on website-related factors, these “goos” have emerged.
@Nyagoslav
Yes, you are right. Its a technique that goes way back but Google HAD been nuking them. Only recently have they seem to again have surfaced. And they seem to me part and parcel of the same thing.
@Nyagoslav – Of slight interest, that LA PI spammer actually linked to the LA PI Avvo page: http://www.avvo.com/personal-injury-lawyer/ca/los_angeles.html
I’m still of the thinking that these are “transition” results. Not much solace to the businesses that are getting crushed.
I still say that GOOG will have a hard time arguing that business directories satisfy intent for local business search queries than the actual businesses themselves…
For the lawyer example, the URL they used are directories that rank organically really high for the same keyword. I thought it would be interesting to test switching a client’s website with a high ranking directory and see if it has an impact.
@joy what is old is new again. This technique was used in 2009 and 2010 until google rewrote the guidelines and suspended businesses that used 3 rd party directory URLS.
I gotta think that this is a temporary bug. I can’t see how Google would justify having directories/non SMBs in the local section.
Mike, have you reached out to Google to get an explanation?
@Chris
I agree with you. Reached out yes, received a meaningful response; not yet.
Your citation to Michael Ehline’s article at the circle of legal trust is acknowledgemen of excellance. This is the only attorney group I know that costs nothing to join and brings the best practices in seo for lawyer marketing to the fore. About the only person we have tried to land to present outside of Matt Cutts is you. But you recognition of Mike’s article gives me solace .
@anthony it is not an acknowledgement of excellence but an acknowledgement of the source of information.
While I am glad to have you post and share here, the comment section has been declared a “commercial free zone” and posters are expected to further the conversation and only reference their own work or communities if it adds to that conversation.
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