Google Local Drastic Rank Drop

[ComputerClinic]

So I was #6 on google local for "computer repair bozeman" and similar searches. Out of nowhere I dropped all the way to page 7 or 8, but all my competition stayed in the same order. What gives? Did Google decide they didn't like P.O. Boxes? I recently submitted my business to manta, getfave, and hotfrog, but I doubt that has anything to do with it. Anyone have any ideas on how to fix this? I checked for duplicate entries but I'm the only "Computer Clinic" in bozeman.

[NYJimbo]

Originally Posted by ComputerClinic

So I was #6 on google local for "computer repair bozeman" and similar searches. Out of nowhere I dropped all the way to page 7 or 8, but all my competition stayed in the same order. What gives? Did Google decide they didn't like P.O. Boxes? I recently submitted my business to manta, getfave, and hotfrog, but I doubt that has anything to do with it. Anyone have any ideas on how to fix this? I checked for duplicate entries but I'm the only "Computer Clinic" in bozeman.

Google is very unpredictable. I do some SEO for a couple dozen customers and a few of them dropped way down, some disappeared and we cannot figure out why. Servers were not down, nothing changed on the pages, no multiple submissions or any "tricks" on the sites. Yet other customers remain high up even though they are doing the same as the badly affected customers.

[NickCat11]

I had the same thing happen to me. When my site first got indexed my ranking's were great and then all of a sudden boom I dropped off considerably. After time and gradually working on SEO I worked myself back up. I did read an article (I'll try to locate it) that says this is fairly common with new sites. Your site is new right? Other members like Cmonova may have some more concrete answers for you as to why it happens.

[ComputerClinic]

Originally Posted by NickCat11

I had the same thing happen to me. When my site first got indexed my ranking's were great and then all of a sudden boom I dropped off considerably. After time and gradually working on SEO I worked myself back up. I did read an article (I'll try to locate it) that says this is fairly common with new sites. Your site is new right? Other members like Cmonova may have some more concrete answers for you as to why it happens.

It is new. I didn't appear on page 1 until I changed my title to "The Computer Clinic - Computer Repair Service". I'll have to work on getting some more reviews I guess, and maybe add some pictures and video. What really annoys me is that #1 and #3 don't even have websites!

[K007]

I believe Google is at it again.
They may have changed once more their page rank algorithm.
Starting with today my home page scores one rank higher.
I did not fiddle with anything, nor did I change any of the content.

[Iconic]

I still have a lot of work to do on my site since it still shows as pagerank of 0 by all pagerank checkers out there.

[ComputerClinic]

Well it seems that Google has updated their business listing quality guidelines. I am likely being penalized for two things:

1. using a P.O. Box instead of a physical location
2. putting keywords in my business title that aren't a part of my legal business name

I reluctantly changed my P.O. Box to my physical address and removed the keywords from my title. Instead I put more keywords in my business description and I'll upload some pics and videos soon. I hope I'm not penalized for having an address that doesn't match other sites (I use my P.O. Box everywhere instead of my physical location.)

[NickCat11]

Man, they are really getting strict. My site dropped off a few spots as well this week on some of my keywords, on the other hand though it just moved up to a page rank of 3. I need to keep up with getting more back-links before I drop off some more.

[Mr I]

I also have listed my PO BOX instead of my physical address and my site dropped a few ranks. Does anybody know if having testimonials in google leads to more ranking?

[NickCat11]

Originally Posted by Mr I

I also have listed my PO BOX instead of my physical address and my site dropped a few ranks. Does anybody know if having testimonials in google leads to more ranking?

Back-links and fresh content are the two biggest factors I think that will help your ranking. Having a testimonial page may not necessarily help you tremendously in your ranking but it certainly won't hurt. Visit this page for some good tips...http://www.seobook.com