Friday, April 1, 2016

Disappearing Google Local Listings & Reviews - NOT an April Fool's Joke.

This morning I noticed that our a Google search for our brand name no longer displayed the Knowledge Panel.



 


Checking for the listing in Maps, I noticed that it was messed up:



  1. Address is now showing, even though I have it hidden in the GMB settings

  2. All the reviews are gone.



Another thing I noticed is that a TON of listings have been removed from Google's local results. A search for "edmonton seo" used to bring up about 8 pages of results in the Local Finder, but now it's only showing 9 results. By my estimation, that means that about 71 listings have disappeared on this search term. That's almost 90% of the listings in this particular query space.


Reports of this problem have been flying in all over the Google My Business forum, Linda's Local Search Forum, and the Local U forum.


The fix, as reported by Joyanne Hawkins here, is to edit the listing in GMB, move the map pin marker a tiny bit, then save.


I just did it for our Whitespark listing, and seconds later, the Knoweldge Panel was showing again for a branded search. We're also showing up in the Local Finder again, so, rankings are restored. PHEW!



 


I recommend reviewing all your listings and doing this little edit on them, otherwise you'll be missing out on some traffic and leads from Google this weekend.

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