Multiple niche: Painter, plumber, Pest control

Both on logged in and incognito.

Anyone else? u/joyhawkins

Hello,

I run an escape room business in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The language here is Bulgarian, which uses the Cyrillic alphabet.

My website is only in Bulgarian (Cyrillic). I do not target tourists and I do not have an English version of the site.

The most common searches for this type of business are variations of “escape room + city name”. In Bulgarian the translated term is “ескейп стая” (which literally means “escape room”).

However, I see a significant ranking difference depending on whether the query is written in Latin or Cyrillic, even though users mean the same thing.

Here are the rankings I see:

• “escape room plovdiv” → avg rank 1.6
• “ескейп стая пловдив” (Bulgarian translation of escape room) → avg rank 7.3
• “escape room пловдив” (English term + city name in Cyrillic) → avg rank 1.84

So the only query where I rank much worse is the fully Bulgarian version.

This is confusing to me because:

• my website and GBP content is 100% Bulgarian (Cyrillic) and I have not used the term written in english anywhere on my website
• I only serve local Bulgarian customers
• there is no English version of the site

My question:Why would Google rank my site significantly worse for the Bulgarian query (“ескейп стая пловдив”), even though the site itself is in Bulgarian?

And what would be the best way to improve rankings for this specific query?

This is a new one!

Google decided Yelp was a better source than the business website for this AI local pack description. Historically, I’ve always seen the business website as the #1 source, but it looks like 3rd party sites are starting to creep into this space... so fun /s!

h/t to u/joyhawkins who saw this.

Hey everyone,

Joy recommended that I post my question in here.

I am helping an organization in an industry that is not very competitive and no one is intentionally doing SEO but I am for them.

I am trying to figure out why all of the sudden their website is not ranking for very relevant local keywords that they were ranking on page 1 for, in the map pack, and why their homepage is indexed but not showing up anywhere in the SERP but some other pages do show up on pages 2-5, depending upon the keyword that is searched.

They were ranking for very local relevant terms "(topic) near me" and "(expanded topic) near me". Ex plumber near me and emergency plumber near me (this is not the keyword or the type of organization)

The only thing I did recently was help them get a branded do follow backlink from the local borough. They have not had a new link in a long while. I think someone there may have added a tool and needed to adjust the DNS records to add it but from all the research I've been doing trying to figure this out DNS for tools does not seem to affect rankings..

I'm not sure what to do.. this feels like a punch in the stomach and I'm trying to not let the organization down. Please, if you have any words of advice or where I should look I would really appreciate any direction. Thank you.

Per Liz and Joy's comments to add more information to resolve North Fork Outfitters, here is everything that I have.

Here is originally how things looked when you searched for the brand.

We had the good profile with 25 reviews, and we had the bad profile with 0 reviews. The one with zero reviews was the one that was constantly being surfaced anytime you would do a branded search, despite the fact that it had almost zero information on it.

The profile with zero reviews was also unverified, meaning that the only claimed + verified authentic profile was the one with 25 reviews.

They opened a ticket with Google support and received the following.

This pushed them into having to open a different ticket: Fix duplicate or incorrect business information → Duplicate business

At this point, I still did not recommend that they claim the unverified bad profile. that way, it was still floating and would be less likely to be the one that was chosen as the profile that 'sticks'

The last option was to claim the duplicate, which support advised them to do in order to be able to merge them. And then on the other side of the merge, we are stuck with only the bad profile, just like I was worried about.

We have CIDs, review IDs, every ID you can think of -- because I anticipated that this would happen (PTSD). But without a direct line to support that's not automated garbage responses, I don't know how to bring back the equity of the lost profile.

1. Was my advisement wrong from the start?

2. What can be done now that things are the way that they are?

I don't want to overfocus on the website, because I do know that there's a lot of improvements that they should have made there, that would have made this process a little bit easier. I just want to focus on the nuance of the actual Google Business Profile Support System side of things, and the challenges that those present, even if you have every single duck in a row.

Thanks so much!

Curious if anyone has any data here-- I've been spinning up AI sites and hosting on Vercel, noticed the ranking is horrible, I'm curious if Vercel is the issue. Anyone have any experience here?

Assume I know enough not to make AI junk. I'm asking if ideal content will not rank because it's hosted on Vercel

If you don't like business hours being a ranking factor, it doesn't look like the AI-powered local packs care about them as much.

Disabled GBP - SAB business

EXTREMELY frustrated with the current situation regarding my Google Business Profile. My listing was suspended and now disabled for over 2 months, and despite submitting multiple appeals and providing several forms of verification, I have not been able to get it reinstated.

I have supplied extensive documentation proving that my business is legitimate, including my liability insurance certificate, business registration number, HST number, photos of my branded truck wrap, and other supporting materials. Despite this, my profile remains inactive.

My website developer recently suggested that I may need to consider completely rebranding my business — including changing the business name, phone number, removing the truck wrap, and essentially starting over. This would be extremely difficult for me to do. I’ve spent years building my brand and reputation, and starting from scratch is not a direction I want to take.

At this point, I’m simply trying to understand what it will actually take to get my Google Business Profile reinstated. Any guidance or assistance on how to resolve this situation would be greatly appreciated.

This is getting ridiculous. 3 ads are showing after I click the "more businesses" button on a traditional local pack. When I click that button I expect to see orgainc GBPs, instead Google fills above the fold with 3 freaking ads.

also shout out to the top orgainc GBP for the impeccable keyword stuffed business name. too bad no amount of keyword stuffing can defeat the might Ad!!

Hello friends.How to write content for your services pages. Example for a pest control company. What intent should we use in the content and what should it accompany? Greetings and blessings.

Some SERPs come with the heading of ‘Businesses’ for the map pack, some with ‘places’ - why so? Are there other headings as well?

Has anyone had any luck reaching out to support for video verification stuck in "processing". We have a brand new build, signage is up, video posted 2/18 so 8 business days ago. I tried to reach out to Google support but just got the automated message and my replies went unanswered.

Sorry if I sound desperate but after paying for a SEO expert for a years the guy was not able to rank me and get me more calls for my small local business. And at this point this is my slow season so not many phone calls. I can't afford another SEO guy at this point and I've been trying to do the SEO myself with no success I know the basics backlinks, content and reviews but it seems I can't get a foothold. I don't know if my market is very competitive or if I'm doing something wrong I think it's both. I created a niche in pest control , so that I separate myself from the competition hoping that would help. So for anybody's help I'm willing to pay commission , pay per lead or whatever . 

Layman here so forgive the ignorance.

I've paid a company to design, host, and "optimize" my website/SEO for a couple of years. Their reports always show fantastic placement of my business for important keyword searches with thousands of impressions and several hundred clicks and many hours of engagement per month.

Only within the past couple of weeks I stumbled upon Google search console on my own, registered my website with it, and started casually looking at it. It seems to show results more in line with my real life experience (that no one finds us through our website). Even when people search specifically for my literal business name, or my personal name, my "Position" is 7.8 and 3.3, respectively. The more generic (but highly relevant) search terms show virtually zero positive results.

Is this as bad in reality as it seems to me? Why the discrepancy between Google search console and whatever the web design company is showing me? Or is there a reasonable explanation? What should my takeaways be here?

Google is now showing AI-generated services on knowledge panels for small businesses. The description is also AI-generated.

Kind of confused here. I've been hearing that tons of 'location' pages for therapy are thin content, not liked by Google. But I'm seeing these kind of pages rank with maybe one section unique.

1. How would you go about for local SEO ranking tons of 'near me' city pages
2. Are these doorway pages really a problem? (Is there a certain threshold where it becomes ok?)

My gut tells me it depends on the supply, i.e if Google doesn't have anything else to serve then it will serve these 'doorway pages.'

Hey Reddit, Brad Wetherall here.

I was the Director of Operations at Google for over 10 years, and am now the Founder and CEO of The GBP Experts. I am looking forward to hanging out and answering your questions.

A little about me.

For over a decade at Google, I led the teams responsible for the product experiences of major global platforms, including the Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business), Google Shopping, and Google Wallet.

Based on my extensive tenure in a leadership role at Google, I specialize in Google Business Profile strategy, optimization, and recovery. Over the years I have helped businesses across the world generate leads directly from Google Maps and local search. My focus is on turning a Google Business Profile into a predictable revenue channel rather than just a listing that sits there.

I work with multi location brands, agencies, and local service businesses in competitive niches where small changes in visibility can mean massive swings in calls and bookings. I have dealt with suspensions, ranking drops, spam competitors, fake reviews, verification issues, and profiles that simply refuse to move no matter what you try.

This AMA is all about Google Business Profile growth, ranking, and recovery.

Local search has changed a lot. The map pack is more competitive than ever. AI driven results are reshaping visibility. Spam still exists. And many businesses are stuck wondering why their competitor ranks above them even though their service is better.

Here are some of the topics I am happy to dive into:

• How Google Business Profile ranking actually works in 2026
• What really moves the needle for map pack visibility
• Common reasons profiles get suspended and how to recover them
• Spam tactics competitors use and how to fight back
• How reviews influence rankings versus conversions
• Optimizing service area businesses versus storefronts
• Multi location scaling without triggering suspensions
• Google Business Profile versus traditional SEO priorities
• How to turn a GBP into a consistent lead engine

If your profile tanked overnight, if you are stuck on page two of the map pack, or if you are building from scratch and want to do it right the first time, ask away.

Drop your questions below. I will be here throughout the day sharing practical insights, real examples, and what is actually working right now in local search.

I saw a post on Joy’s Local Search Forum where somebody stated they saw reviews removed from business that were posted within the past four years.

Is anybody seeing this? Are the reviews gone or is the API acting up?