The Local Business Knowledge Info Panel is fantastic for local businesses, for Branding, Customer Engagement, Instant Reviews and the Latest post. But what happens when Google Displays the wrong business in the knowledge panel?
How does a business identify why Google displayed the wrong business?
How to have the correct business displayed in knowledge panel?
I will say that this does not happen that often, but it tends to happen with Businesses using the Local area as part of their business name; in the above Bayway Volvo Car Dealership, has the Bayway Lincoln Car Dealership appearing.
It also happens quite often with hotels and local serviced businesses.
Why has Google Displayed the Wrong Business? |
To put it simply >> signals.
Local Business pages appearing in the local pack as well as knowledge info panel have their own set ranking signals
Ranking of Local Business Results |
Relevance: Relevance is how well a local listing matches what someone is searching for. Adding complete and detailed business information can help us better understand your business and match you to relevant search results.
Prominence: This describes how well-known or prominent a business can be. This is based on information we have about a business from across the web (like links, articles, and directories). Some places are more prominent in the offline world, and we try to reflect this online as well. For example, famous museums, landmark hotels, or well-known store brands that are familiar to many people are also likely to be more prominent in search results.
Read: Ranking Signals for Business Pages
Comparing the Local Business Pages |
Both have a verified page, both have Car Dealer as main category.
Lincoln has added an additional category : Lincoln car Dealer – Volvo, did not
Lincoln has 8 reviews, and they respond to those reviews. Volvo none.
View Counts: I must say that view counts are irrelevant ( they are easily inflated ) but in this instance, it gives an idea how their Posts or Content and engagement with their page is seen.
Lincoln posts regular posts: A mixture of images, video and linked page posts.
Volvo only posts videos, no introductory text, #hashtag
Although there are no followers for both, people are viewing the Lincoln content.
The result: Google believes that a user will find the Lincoln page far more useful to a searcher based on the information, reviews and engagement on the local page.
Website & Local Page Connections |
The usual suspect when comparing the details on a businesses website to a Local Business Page, is normally the name. In most cases the business name is slightly different to the name on the website and also the title tag, may also contain a slightly different name.
In this case they all marry up. The addresses are correct and matching.
The difference: Lincoln has local business markup whilst the Volvo site has no markup – neither are using rel=publisher.
In this instance I recommended using http://schema.org/AutoDealer
The website pin marker located on their contact page, also need some slight adjustment to match the pin marker in the local business page.
Dot the i’s and cross the t’s.
Local Business Citations |
Prominence: This describes how well-known or prominent a business can be. This is based on information we have about a business from across the web (like links, articles, and directories)
See: Local SEO Citations
Volvo should build up their local citations.
Lincoln has approx 1K of local citations to their business.
Checklist |
Business Name Must Match :
- Local Business Page
- On Website
- Websites <title>
Business Address (NAP):
- Match across all properties
- Markup with schema
Local business Page:
- Engage on page >> text, images, video
- Make reviews part of your sale follow up
- Choose the correct categories
Build Local Citations
Contact Us for an informal chat about your Local Business Page