GMB ranking is not improving

[squadbe]

I started working with a client about 1.5 months ago doing local SEO for the GMB and Website. The niche is Home Remodeling and he is in a competitive city.

The GMB is all filled out, NAP citations made submitted with Semrush, Web2 backlinks built with citations included, running 1 review per day, products are locations optimized linking to location pages, daily posts linking to website. The primary category is General Contractor same as competitors that are ranking and 2 secondary categories are kitchen remodeler, bathroom remodeler.

My local rankings have been stagnating, picture below of mine vs competitors. By the way main competitors name is "... home remodeling" and the heat map is ran for "home remodeling" query. That could be why he is ranking so well.

Most competitors in the SERPS have at least 40-50 reviews and we have 10-20. Could that be why? Maybe just give it more time? Any advice is appreciated!

PS @SOCOM @coolsheet @Holzr would appreciate your guys feedback. You seem like experts in this niche.

 

[SOCOM]

They're getting a lot of natural CTR + reviews so you need to up your reviews and up your CTR in proportion.

There are some other tricks but these are some things you can control.

Do you have your basics like on-page and citations? Local backlinks with city name in the URL string?

 

[squadbee]

They're getting a lot of natural CTR + reviews so you need to up your reviews and up your CTR in proportion.

In terms of reviews, I know I have less than those that are ranking. I have been running 1 review per day but a good amount of them get dropped. So would putting 50 reviews all at once than maintaining with one a day a good idea?

Do you have your basics like on-page and citations? Local backlinks with city name in the URL string?

I put effort into my on-page by researching what the local SERPS are rewarding and adapting to that. My main website that I have all of the links run to is sitting at 24 for a good couple of weeks now. If possible would you be able to take a look at my GMB and website? Would really appreciate it.

 

[SOCOM]

In terms of reviews, I know I have less than those that are ranking. I have been running 1 review per day but a good amount of them get dropped. So would putting 50 reviews all at once than maintaining with one a day a good idea?


I put effort into my on-page by researching what the local SERPS are rewarding and adapting to that. My main website that I have all of the links run to is sitting at 24 for a good couple of weeks now. If possible would you be able to take a look at my GMB and website? Would really appreciate it.

Yeah dude send it my way.

Remember that fake reviews don't hold the same value today.

It's been tested that Google will reward real interactions after a longer period of time because they analyze that profile's continuous interactions in the area.

Where as before, review velocity was a ranking factor so all you had to do was maintain 1 per day in many cases and you'd win.

Google is getting smarter in some cases with how they reward companies which is good news because it means less competition from people still doing the old thing.

 

[squadbe]

Appreciate the insight.

Yeah dude send it my way.

Am not even able to look at your profile on here so can't DM. Here is my discord so you don't have to post yours
squadbee
https://discordapp.com/users/460234398520836107
Or let me know of another way to contact you

 

[coolsheet]

I have been running 1 review per day but a good amount of them get dropped.

This is a big problem right here. Your review provider is no good. Bad gmails probably. Continually getting reviews removed is going to hurt your ranking. I had to do my own reviews with Multi Login, good Gmails, and being tedious about my process keep track of browsing behaviors and what browsing behaviors to perform. However Multi Login is expensive and you'd be better off grabbing iphones on ebay for $50. 1 good review done right is better than 30 fake reviews done poorly. I don't even work on reviews anymore. I put a process in place for my clients to entice their customers to leave a review and explain the value of a real review to them, how much the fake ones cost ($10 for a good fake one that still might be removed), and what the risk is. Versus offering a customer $20 in value for a REAL geo targeted review on an aged gmail. If they don't have a gmail send them to Yelp.

SEO is ongoing if you want improvement.

Are you ranking for other keywords?
Are you creating blogs and showing google you're an expert?
Social media?

Why "home remodeling"?

Aren't there less competitive more specific keywords to go after first?

I always drill up. And in the home remodeling space I would have a page on my website for each service. A location page that links to each service.

Then drilling up would look like ranking more direct keywords first to the then more broad ones

In your case I would do something like:

Have a page for each type of remodel. Kitchens, Bathrooms, add-ons, basements, etc

Then I would optimize those pages for keywords, kitchen page for example:

Kitchen counters
Kitchen cabinets
Kitchen floors
etc etc

This is going to show Google you're the expert you claim to be. How can you be an expert in home remodeling if you aren't an expert in kitchens, bathrooms, etc etc. And if you are an expert in those areas why don't you have pages for them? Thats the idea behind this.

 

[squadbe]

Your review provider is no good. Bad gmails probably. Continually getting reviews removed is going to hurt your ranking.

Good point about this. I have been working with him for awhile now and his process has improved. The last 4 reviews he posted stuck, will see if he can do any better than that.
I have had success though a couple months ago ranking a GMB I made entirely with fake reviews. To this day all reviews are fake on there and I am renting it to a client. Maybe things have changed now.

Are you creating blogs and showing google you're an expert?

I have not done any blogs. Will start that today.

Why "home remodeling"?

Assumed this is the best broad term to focus on and build links to.

A location page that links to each service.

Have made 5 locations pages and going to make 5 more. Should I make location + service page?

 

[coolsheet]

Good point about this. I have been working with him for awhile now and his process has improved. The last 4 reviews he posted stuck, will see if he can do any better than that.
I have had success though a couple months ago ranking a GMB I made entirely with fake reviews. To this day all reviews are fake on there and I am renting it to a client. Maybe things have changed now.

I have not done any blogs. Will start that today.

Assumed this is the best broad term to focus on and build links to.

Have made 5 locations pages and going to make 5 more. Should I make location + service page?

Ah so its multi location. Yeah you need some hella silo'ing going on. Multi location GMBs are harder to rank. I'm assuming you're linking out to the location page in the GMB?

Also I don't know if I'd build out location + service pages. In the beginning I like to go after easy tasks. How I'd do it first is just have one page for each service and on the location pages just make sure to have a "Services we offer" section and link to each service page. And on the services pages embed the locations you serve somewhere. Preferably maps embedded with CID.

See how that goes.

Then I'd probably start with blog content that targeted stuff like "How to choose a roofer in [insert city]" to build out that geo relevance.

Tag the blog content with location. Embed tagged post in the location pages.

 

[squadbe]

Ah so its multi location

If by multi location you mean multiple GMB's than no its not. One GMB but looking to target areas around main city. It is relatively close I see GMB's next to me reaching those areas.

I wanted to mainly focus on the GMB because that gets most of the leads but will look at making blog posts. Chris Palmer might have videos on that.

BTW I have the business set as 24/7 so around 6pm the rankings improve massively. Am getting some organic traffic, client has gotten some leads. Am hoping it starts to affect my rankings and thus get more CTR, and thus improve rankings even more, etc.

BTW about reviews. What could I tell my review provider to be able to post better reviews that are location relevant and have impact?

 

[SOCOM]

This is a big problem right here. Your review provider is no good. Bad gmails probably. Continually getting reviews removed is going to hurt your ranking. I had to do my own reviews with Multi Login, good Gmails, and being tedious about my process keep track of browsing behaviors and what browsing behaviors to perform. However Multi Login is expensive and you'd be better off grabbing iphones on ebay for $50. 1 good review done right is better than 30 fake reviews done poorly. I don't even work on reviews anymore. I put a process in place for my clients to entice their customers to leave a review and explain the value of a real review to them, how much the fake ones cost ($10 for a good fake one that still might be removed), and what the risk is. Versus offering a customer $20 in value for a REAL geo targeted review on an aged gmail. If they don't have a gmail send them to Yelp.

This right here is FIRE.

If you're still buying reviews, those things are junk. The value is in the real reviews.

To further add to this, imagine if Google wakes up one day and decides to do something crazy. It decides to give profiles a spam score if they have a certain amount of reviews from fake profiles with no activity?

It's not happening now, and I don't see it happening, but there is so much more long term value and zero risk in getting real reviews.

The most successful business owners look for low risk.

Most people in the lower class love the high risk high reward mantra when the high risk often leads to failure and they stay poor.

Buying fake reviews is old news. You might be able to still get some to stick but why bother when their value is practically zilch because Google doesn't count them as engagement?

 

[SOCOM]

If by multi location you mean multiple GMB's than no its not. One GMB but looking to target areas around main city. It is relatively close I see GMB's next to me reaching those areas.

I wanted to mainly focus on the GMB because that gets most of the leads but will look at making blog posts. Chris Palmer might have videos on that.

BTW I have the business set as 24/7 so around 6pm the rankings improve massively. Am getting some organic traffic, client has gotten some leads. Am hoping it starts to affect my rankings and thus get more CTR, and thus improve rankings even more, etc.
View attachment 315095

BTW about reviews. What could I tell my review provider to be able to post better reviews that are location relevant and have impact?

The open hours algorithm change is definitely benefiting you and you'll see a bigger boost soon.

I had a client go on vacation and marked their business closed.

As a result, 2 of their competitors got more CTR and even though my client was open again, the other 2 built up some real CTR and were still on top.

It takes some more CTR to beat them out. Real engagement is very important to Google and with hours being a big ranking factor, it's going to create a big shuffle.

 

[squadbe]

This right here is FIRE.

If you're still buying reviews, those things are junk. The value is in the real reviews.

To further add to this, imagine if Google wakes up one day and decides to do something crazy. It decides to give profiles a spam score if they have a certain amount of reviews from fake profiles with no activity?

It's not happening now, and I don't see it happening, but there is so much more long term value and zero risk in getting real reviews.

The most successful business owners look for low risk.

Most people in the lower class love the high risk high reward mantra when the high risk often leads to failure and they stay poor.

Buying fake reviews is old news. You might be able to still get some to stick but why bother when their value is practically zilch because Google doesn't count them as engagement?

Got it, these are some good points. I did tell my client that real reviews are so valuable. He has gotten 3 since, one of them being long and with a picture. Google is showing that review as second to most relevant.

If my clients are paying me I want to be able to provide a good service and get them ranked ASAP. Don't want to tell them that I set everything up but we will only start ranking after they get reviews. I want to deliver results fast. Maybe work on getting better quality fake reviews? What do you think?

 

[squadbe]

The open hours algorithm change is definitely benefiting you and you'll see a bigger boost soon.

I had a client go on vacation and marked their business closed.

As a result, 2 of their competitors got more CTR and even though my client was open again, the other 2 built up some real CTR and were still on top.

It takes some more CTR to beat them out. Real engagement is very important to Google and with hours being a big ranking factor, it's going to create a big shuffle.

Yea I wouldn't be surprised if most of the CTR comes when other businesses are closed and we are open. This also happens to be 6-7 pm when people are home from work and relaxing, most likely looking online for companies if they need them.

Do you think this CTR later in the day would benefit rankings and I will start to rank better during the day?

 

[SOCOM]

Got it, these are some good points. I did tell my client that real reviews are so valuable. He has gotten 3 since, one of them being long and with a picture. Google is showing that review as second to most relevant.

If my clients are paying me I want to be able to provide a good service and get them ranked ASAP. Don't want to tell them that I set everything up but we will only start ranking after they get reviews. I want to deliver results fast. Maybe work on getting better quality fake reviews? What do you think?

Your job is to get them rankings. As soon as you start, you hit the on-page and get the quick wins. But the beginning is the hardest and you need to be influential. Having clients is very much management. If you don't have time, hire someone to do one of the other tasks.

Your job is to tell them they need reviews, you follow up and ask them how many they've asked. You come up with strategies to entice people. You ask the client to get friends to leave character reviews. Whatever it takes.

Yea I wouldn't be surprised if most of the CTR comes when other businesses are closed and we are open. This also happens to be 6-7 pm when people are home from work and relaxing, most likely looking online for companies if they need them.

Do you think this CTR later in the day would benefit rankings and I will start to rank better during the day?

Yes

 

[squadbe]

Your job is to tell them they need reviews, you follow up and ask them how many they've asked. You come up with strategies to entice people. You ask the client to get friends to leave character reviews. Whatever it takes.

Have told my client once but will send him a text today about it. Thanks again!

BTW would really appreciate it if you could add me on discord, have a question about verification for one of my clients business, legit business but keeps getting unverified.
Discord: squadbee

 

[coolsheet]

If by multi location you mean multiple GMB's than no its not. One GMB but looking to target areas around main city. It is relatively close I see GMB's next to me reaching those areas.

I wanted to mainly focus on the GMB because that gets most of the leads but will look at making blog posts. Chris Palmer might have videos on that.

I'm a strong believer in blog posts and map embeds, driving directions, geo locators, and schema on those links (mentions or about). I use semantic mastery method for tag silos. I don't now what Chris does but I've seen him use a lot of the SM methods.

 

[alonelywriter]

map embeds in Citations that allow it + real time image clicking and posting through GMB app might help.

 

[NeedMyLink]

1.5 months is still early days in the GMB, especially in home remodeling.

 

[davidexec]

I started working with a client about 1.5 months ago doing local SEO for the GMB and Website. The niche is Home Remodeling and he is in a competitive city.

The GMB is all filled out, NAP citations made submitted with Semrush, Web2 backlinks built with citations included, running 1 review per day, products are locations optimized linking to location pages, daily posts linking to website. The primary category is General Contractor same as competitors that are ranking and 2 secondary categories are kitchen remodeler, bathroom remodeler.

My local rankings have been stagnating, picture below of mine vs competitors. By the way main competitors name is "... home remodeling" and the heat map is ran for "home remodeling" query. That could be why he is ranking so well.

Most competitors in the SERPS have at least 40-50 reviews and we have 10-20. Could that be why? Maybe just give it more time? Any advice is appreciated!

View attachment 314895View attachment 314896
PS @SOCOM @coolsheet @Holzr would appreciate your guys feedback. You seem like experts in this niche.

What about schema?

 

[squadbee]

What about schema?

Have name, type, address, phone number, etc set up with Rank Math SEO WP plugin. Under local section. Pretty sure that’s what you’re referring to?