Welcome to the Q&A Forum

So far it is still working. The customer is back in the local back. No other spotted disadvantages anywhere - so far. Adding a suite number didn't work out - like Joy Hawkins did confirm several times. Perhaps you would like to make some experiments with e.g. adding a letter to your street number? As I have seen the filter is working withing 5 - 15 minutes - so you can fix any change pretty quick.

Just read the whole "story". One of our clients had the same problem: has been in the local pack and was out for several search terms. Same with zoom-in zoom-out (appearing after movement). Obviously the filter because of a 2nd business with the same adress. We tested to change the address (which was a minor change - instead of "27a" we tried "27")  which did work out immediately. After 10 min the business was back in the 3-pack.

I don't recommend that changing of the address at all - but in conclusion with the customer we decided to stick to that slighly changed street number - at least until we get more information about that local update.

Hi,

could you guys confirm me that the following scenario is completely senseless?

I just got the instruction from an external consultant (with quiet good SEO knowledge) to use a rel="canonical" for the following urls.

http://www.example.com/petra.html/
to
http://www.example.com/petra.html

I mean a folder petra/ to petra is ok - but a trailing slash after .html ???

Apart from that I would rather choose a 301 - not a rel canonical.

What is your position here?

Just wanted to add the answer I got from Mike Blumenthal:

The Place label is determined via algo based on popularity of a given feature. One way to increase the popularity is to increase the rank so that more actions are taken in relationship to the feature. The things that likely increase the popularity of a feature are the impressions actions (as seen in Maps) compared to others in the same market like how many times a listing is viewed in Maps, the Place page is viewed etc

At some point in the past it was possible to increase popularity of a feature by changing the popularity setting in MapMaker and having the change approved by an editor. That feature has been removed (at least for most editors).

Hi Robert,

thank you for your detailed answer.
Google Map Maker is already on my to-do list :-).

Your assumption regarding verified listing in combination with Place Labels shown further zoomed in or out is not 100% conform - as far as I could see it.

Greetings

Petra

Hi Miriam,

thank you for your help and your links.
Yes, I meant Place Labels.
In the Google Support Link they wrote: "The place labels shown on Google Maps are determined algorithmically based on a large number of factors".
So I guess the zoom level as well has to deal with those algorithmically determinations.

But it would be great if you could give further feedback from you local specialists.

Have a nice day.

Petra

Most roadmap imagery is available from zoom levels 0 to 18, for example. With zoom level 0 the whole world can be visible.

As we all know, the more we zoom in on Google Maps, the more spots (e.g. name of restaurants, hotels etc.) are visible. Some spots are visible "sooner" - with a lower zoom level, which is of course better for the company. Some companies are only visible with a very high zoom level.

If I have a highly branded company is the zoom level lower? Is this the answer for the different display?

I would recommend following the step by step guidance of Google in the Webmaster Tools -> Configuration -> Change of Address:

1. Set up your content on your new domain.

2. Redirect content from your old site using 301 redirects.

3. Add and verify your new site to Webmaster Tools.

They offer further guidelines here: https://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=83105

I highliy recommend you to follow Andy Atkins-Krüger of www.webcertain.com - Search Engine Land Contributor http://searchengineland.com/author/andy-atkins-kruger with many useful posts as well as blog posts written on http://searchenginewatch.com/author/1831/andy-atkinskruger

Your developer wrote:

instead of:

Don't take that question too serious but all answers are welcome

Answer to all:
"Gentlemen, I see you did you best - at least I hope so! But after all I suppose I am stuck here to go on reading the SEOmoz blog if I can't sqeeze more secrets from you!

What about:

RewriteRule ^index.php?page=(.*)$ /$1 [R=301,L]

Sometimes we handle such small websites, too, and yes we do get good SEO results. Of course not with high competitive keywords - this would be kind of "David against Goliath".

Just take care that your on-page optimization is done well. If you can build up some backlinks, social media presence, social media mentions etc. - the more the better of course.

The 3 resources you mentioned are stil valuable.

A tipp regarding JoeAnt, it is quiet easy to become an editor there, then you don't have to pay for the input.

I highliy recommend you to follow Andy Atkins-Krüger of www.webcertain.com - Search Engine Land Contributor http://searchengineland.com/author/andy-atkins-kruger with many useful posts as well as blog posts written on http://searchenginewatch.com/author/1831/andy-atkinskruger

Additionally to usability and seo purpose you can let them change the term "search" in the url - they have the english word in all three languages - perhaps they can change it to "vacance", "urlaub" and "holiday".

The title looks a little overdone and cluttered to me. If the Ranch name has the word "Ranch" in, you have that three times in your title.
There will be certainly better solutions. Furthermore there are no separators in it - in my opinion this makes it hard to read, too.
You have the country, town, brand and activity in there - perhaps you can match e.g. to put one topic better on different pages so you clear your title.

We had a similar question over here too: http://www.seomoz.org/q/page-title-tags-seo-vs-cro- perhaps you find some answers there, too.

It's not that Google does not like that - Google just suggest not to use duplicate titles. It is not the best for the user experience as well es for the not optimized pages - for what ever reason they are not optimized :-). Titles are an important for seo, usability and they appear in the search snippets, so they have there in important role to play, too.

But it has not a negative effect on the optimized pages.

Hi Stuart,
title tag optimization is an important onpage ranking factor.
Just keep in mind the following items:

• the title should not be longer as seventy characters in lenght (although the spiders can read them, they are not displayed with more than 70 characters and regarding usability it is best to stay below that number)
• your most prominent keyword(s) should be - as you already wrote - at the left of the title
• don't keyword stuff the title
• just explain in short terms what the visitors are going to find on that page
  By the way - I love this tool here http://www.seomofo.com/snippet-optimizer.html

I would suggest to add your brand to the title - you can do that after your category page(s).
Each page should be treated as an individual (starting) page and like that your potential visitors can identify the brand, too and are more comfortable to click.

I have never heard about a negative aspect regarding SEO if a title is too short. Just try to keep your title as natural as possible.

E.g. buying a 72 hours day pass - http://www.linkresearchtools.com/products-overview/ for Euro 20,- - worth the money - even Ann Smarty recommended the tool.