Incorrect Google Link Needs Fixing Options

[Jonathanl]

The Good News:
Google ranks our site high on the page when you enter the key words:
"magicians montreal"

Our company name is: "Max & Maxine" and it is very visible in the
listings under "local reults for magicians, Montreal"

The Bad News:
Unfortunately, when you click on our company name (hyperlink) you are
taken to a page with a map, our tel. number and our address. It also
shows a web site/hyperlink to www.lawrenceclemen.com Lawrence is a
local photographer, and when you click on the link, you are taken to
his site (not ours!).

As many of you can imagine, this situation is very frustrating to us (we're losing potential traffic/customers!).


We wish we could simply pick up the phone and tell Google that they
should correct this hyperlink so that our proper link is displayed --not
the photogapher's link.

There seems no way to call or even write to Google.

Does anyone have any advise for us, based on your own expereince and anbility to solve this problem?

Many thanks in advance.

[rmccarley]

Unfortunately the issue is not with Google. The site that comes up #2 is http://www.gigmasters.com/Magician/Magician_Montreal_QC.asp which happens to list you on their site. I take it they are charged with representing you and online is a place where they seem to being doing a good job of it (you even have their banner on your home page).

If you want *your* site to rank better in Google your site needs some work. The content is hidden behind image buttons ("click for english" and that other one) that don't even have alt attributes. There's no way for Google to know what these links are for!

You need to do some onpage optimization for your site so that the spiders can crawl it accurately and then do some offpage promotion to bring more attention to the site including a link building campaign.

Stick around here and you will learn more or ask specific questions. I recomend asking what to do about SEO in the "website hospital".

Good luck!

[Jonathanl]

Thanks rmccarley.

You had some very helpful feedback on why our site is not being listed near the top by Google.

Much appreciated. We will attack this issue (of the buttons hiding our key words) at a later date. Still, we thought that the info provided below and to the side of the homepage buttons the buttons gave some key words for the spiders to crawl onto. We use to have key words imbedded (in black font) at the bottom of our home page but we were told this was no longer good to do.

As for my original concern, about needing to fix our google link, perhaps I was not clear...

As mentioned above, our immediate concern is that we are ranked high in Google, under "Locale Results for Montreal Magicians", but when viewers click on our hyperlinked name ("Max & Maxine", they are taken to a page with a map of our geo location and our correct phone number, along with a hyperlink to a photographer's web site (www.lawrenceclemen.com)

This is the problem that we want to solve asap.

Should you or any other members have suggestions on how to solve this so that the hyperlink that is show is ours (www.maxmagician.com) and not the photographers, we would be very grateful.

[JohnMu]

Hi Jonathan

You can't "solve" that without attacking the underlying problem: why that site ranks higher than yours. Google does not manually adjust the search results, that would be too easy .

You need to work on all the usual ways that you can rank higher -- that includes changes within your site and of course changes outside of your site (like working on getting more good links to your own pages). There's no easy way to do that (otherwise we wouldn't be here ) - it's all work, hard work, and some work on the side as well.

But the first giant step is to recognize issues and to realize that you have a problem - it's good to see that you've made it that far (many don't). Now you just have to do the work.

John

[rmccarley]

I got ya and softplus is right. The link on the "local" page is there as a source stating that your business is at that location. You want your site to be the best source - this means you need to outrank them.

[incrediblehelp]

Why cant you just update your info here?

http://www.google.com/local/add/lookup

[Jonathanl]

Thanks Incrediblehelp.

Very thoughtful of you to provide the direct link to Google Map, for me to make the revision myself.

Because I'm "green" to the net, (though not as "green" as you!) , it took me a really long time to find that link on my own. I finally did , a few days ago, and made the revision.


Once I made the update, Google's prompts acknowledged the submission and suggested that they would call me shortly to verify my info. UNfortunately, I never received such a call.

Do you think they will really revise our listing?
How long does it usually take for the update to happen?

Again, many thanks.

Jonathan

[incrediblehelp]

I have made change before and it was chnaged. Phone number i think It has been some time ago so I cant give you an accurate time for how long it took them to do my change. Hopefully soon!

[bragadocchio]

Once I made the update, Google's prompts acknowledged the submission and suggested that they would call me shortly to verify my info. UNfortunately, I never received such a call.

That phone call is made almost instantaneously with the submission. It's so quick, that if you have other people where you are at answering calls, you don't have a chance to warn them about it. Happened to me.

If they miss you with the phone call, they will likely send you a postcard as a followup. Be careful, it's easy to mistake the postcard for junkmail. If they don't send the postcard, try again. They will tell you that they will not call, because no one answered when they tried the first time. But they will send something out in the mail.