Big Brands Beware

There has been lots of discussion about why big brands seem to be performing worse in pack results post-pigeon. Originally it looked like this was a byproduct of how Google was processing brand queries combined with an abundance of local spam. However after seeing what has happened to some large, multi-location brands after they transitioned to the GMB Locations dashboard it looks like another piece of the puzzle could be related to this slow & clunky upgrade process.

Specifically, we have been seeing new GMB location pages created even though the brand already had an existing page for that location. To make matter worse, we are seeing the old page lose it’s verified status as it is moved over to the new page. While the verified status is getting moved to the new page, optimizations are not. This means there are now 2 location pages out there and the newly verified one that is getting returned in search results don’t have any post history, proper categories or relevant banner images.

For instance, this page used to be the claimed, verified and optimized page for Days Inn Chicago (notice the “Linked Website” checkmark), and after the migration to GMB Locations this is now the “Verified” page for that same location. And if you do a Google Search for “Days Inn Chicago“, the page linked to that Days Inn location is the new page.

Something that’s interesting to note, the new “verified” page has the sponsored “Make a Reservation” widget.

While we aren’t seeing this for every location in migrated bulk accounts, this is still a huge nightmare for large, multi-location brands and is costing them SERP real estate. The money they have spent on Google local page optimizations is getting throw to the wayside during this migration. Maybe it’s time to start offering large brands dedicated GMB support…