Google local listings changed about a month ago?

[vikingred]

I have had a google business listing since 2010 for my B & M biz. Example: "Las Vegas Plumbing"
I also had a google business listing for myself as an individual at the same address (NAP). So for example, "Viking Celtic, Plumber". For the longest time, well, up until a month ago when my phone stopped ringing, I looked and realized that when you google my exact business name i.e., "Las Vegas Plumbing" (and my site has an EMD that is 7 years old and site is well-SEO'd), that the BUSINESS listing does not come up in the map listings first, like it used to, my individual name listing does instead, WITHOUT the map and pictures and all that on the right side, and it's fucked me. Bad. Much less traffic, less phone calls.

Nothing else has changed. I'm still 1-3 in organic SERPS for my main and a few longtail KW. So, I never realized how much that google business/maps listing was working for me until it changed.

What would you guys recommend? Should I combine the two? Get rid of one? WTF. Phones ain't ringing, and I'm getting nervous. A bit.

 

[lion1978]

It is a tough question, it seems like google has decided that the more important business name for you is your individual name odly enough. if they are within the same niche I'd probably combine/merge the two together into one.
If it isn't within the same niche OR you for some reason want to keep them seperate then you should start building more local citations for the underperformer in order to tell google this is the most important buisness on the adress.

 

[Sin]

It happened to me a while ago and the google employee couldn't merge it.

Having 2 of the same business on map was screwing with the results and I had to kill the less important one.

Once deleted the main one came back a few weeks later.

 

[vikingred]

It happened to me a while ago and the google employee couldn't merge it.

Having 2 of the same business on map was screwing with the results and I had to kill the less important one.

Once deleted the main one came back a few weeks later.

Yeah, I'm thinking this is what I'm going to have to do. Especially since the big traffic was coming from the business listing itself, not the personal listing.

Ok, I just deleted the personal listing. We'll see how it goes. Hopefully at the next refresh, my other listing will come back. More local citations also sounds like the way to go.

 

[vikingred]

I deleted the personal google business listing, which was at the same NAP, and even though I deleted it, it's still showing up (I know it may take time for a refresh) but I saw something along the process of deletion that indicated it may remain in the serps I just don't control it anymore. Fuck, really? Killing me. Ideas besides hitting more local citations? And is Loganix the best game in town?

 

[Ryuzaki]

I'm not a local guy at all so this might be a completely bad idea. You'd want to pass it by someone who knows what they are doing.

If Google doesn't actually delete your other listing but just stops giving you access to it, I wonder if you couldn't create a ton of citations for it using a second address in another state or something. Or even 100 random addresses. Something like a negative SEO campaign against your own listing to blur the waters and remove consistency so it doesn't rank.

 

[lion1978]

great idea by @Ryuzaki right there couse if there is one thing google cares about in local serps it is NAP consistency across every citation that is out there. And if it works which it should do then you've also got something really powerfull to dominate the local serps by aplying it in a slightly diferrent way, if you know what I mean