Much like a bad penny that keeps turning up, there are some widespread myths and misconceptions about local SEO, its DOs and DON’Ts, that keep popping up and circle around the SEO community. Before we move forward, however, please note that all of these are simply not right.
Myth 1: Break Any Google Guideline and Your Ranking Will Be Penalized
This is probably the most common misconception, and while it does sound logical, it is not true.
If you break any of the Google My Business (GMB) guidelines, one of two things will happen — you will either get a soft suspension or a hard suspension, neither of which will affect your ranking.
In the first scenario, you will no longer be able to manage your local business via GMB which means you will cease to receive notifications about your listing, respond to reviews, or use Google Posts. In the case of a hard suspension, Google will remove your entire local business listing: maps, reviews, images, all will be taken down. Since your listing won’t exist anymore, you will not rank in the local results. Ouch!
There are manual penalties for violating Google’s guidelines but those apply to organic search only. Unlike Google, however, Yelp does penalize the ranking of business listings that break their guidelines.
Myth 2: Your Service Area Impacts Where You Rank
On your GMB dashboard, you have the ability to set your service area. This is a visual indicator showing how far you are willing to travel to get to your clients. But even if you say you serve 12 cities, this won’t impact your ranking in any of them. The locations you rank in are primarily based on the location of the city you are based in, a.k.a. the address in your NAP, as well as the city the user is searching from.
Myth 3: Using a Call Tracking Number Hurts Rankings
If you move your “normal or regular” phone number to the additional phone line in GMB, using a tracking call number will not hurt your ranking. However, you should avoid using call tracking numbers on third-party directories as Google can have issues consolidating those.
Myth 4: Suite Numbers Are a Ranking Factor
As funny as it may sound, many people still believe that including their suite number will make their NAP unique and help them rank better. This is especially popular among people renting offices or sharing a workspace with other small businesses. Google often ignores suite numbers and only uses them for visual aid, nothing more than that.
Myth 5: GMB Support Agents Can Resolve Your Ranking Issues
GMB has a support team available on Facebook, Twitter, via phone, chat, and email, and on their online forum. The purpose of their support, however, is not to resolve your ranking issues for you but to help you handle problems with the GMB features. So, if you call them asking about an inexplicable ranking drop, you will not be speaking to the engineers who created the algorithm, so you don’t expect to get much from your call.
One Last Note
Some of these may have been surprising and others may have cleared up the air. In either case, local SEO is a taxing endeavor. If you lack the experience or time to optimize your own business listing, let a reputable SEO company do it for you. At 411 Locals, we will gladly give you a hand!
Stay tuned for our next topic!