Google My Business Listing Harmful for Online Store SEO?

Sometimes a GMB Listing can Harm

Alex one of our SEO guys has uncovered what may turn out to be a stunning revelation.

He has found that having a  Google My Business (GMB) can negatively affect SEO in certain cases.

I was shocked when he told me.

Why was I shocked? Because the quest to verify our customers Google Business listings has always been a difficult part of our go-live process for new online stores. And we have always believed that it was so important.

Why difficult? Because Google is loath to verify a business that does not have a proper bricks and mortar presence. In our experience this has resulted in quite a few video verification sessions that have gone horribly wrong.  One time because there was no proper signage and another because there was not a dedicated reception area.

Tripping Down the Rankings

So it came as a bit of a shock to find that a new site we listed recently was dropping down the Google search rankings.

The reason, after much ado, was that the local search was interfering with the organic search.

So if someone not geographically close to the area covered by the GMB listing was searching for a product on the site, they were preferentially being shown other stores. Simply because the store was outside some arbitrary Google geo limit.

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