Seo great Google maps listing terrible?

[Prosperity]

I have 2 websites which both rank 1-4 for 20 keywords page 1 of Google.
However before you get to the non sponsored results you will of course see the map of which is xx miles away. Even though I can be closer from competitors and have more Google reviews they appear way above me.
Is there any reasoning to this? Any way to improve. Thanks.

 

[fisicx]

Make sure your business listing has the correct location and is fully optimised.

 

[Prosperity]

Cheers. It does and is?

 

[fisicx]

Then what's the search you do and what's the name of your business?

 

[Prosperity]

tyres st helens, and then various variants such as cheapest tyres st helens car tyres st helens best tyres st helens etc my business is stone tyres

 

[JamesMason67]

On the subject of Google maps I am seeing the 3 pack being cut down to a 2 pack and ads starting to take top spot in the 3 pack. I had heard about this but had not seen it in my niche til now.

 

[Prosperity]

In layman's terms please

 

[JamesMason67]

Prosperity. I was referring to the box up the top, under the map with 3 local businesses in it, directly above the organic ie ordinary listings. Not an expert but there are definitely some changes happening in the 3 pack as described in my post. What I was getting at is that it may get increasingly difficult to get yourself in this coveted spot.

There is usually/often correlation between your organic rankings and your 3 pack placing but by no means all the time as you yourself are finding. Optimising for the 3 pack appears to be different/harder than organic results.

I tried very hard to get to the top of 3 pack way back but have long since given up.

 

[Prosperity]

Do you mean the sponsored ads? I and most others I know always skip straight past these anyway...

 

[JamesMason67]

No mate. Below these. Some may have stars against them..

 

[Prosperity]

Ahh, my apologies. Yesthis is the bit I mean. I rank brilliant on normal listings with my seo but crap in this. And i have 16 stars where others higher up only have less than 5....

 

[UKcentric]

Do you mean the sponsored ads? I and most others I know always skip straight past these anyway...

It's not correct to say the nobody clicks paid ads. You might think you don't but studies show that even those who claim never to click paid ads actually do, quite a lot. Also keywords with a high commercial intent such as "plumbers near me" have far higher ad-click rates than keywords with a low commercial intent such "what is a stopcock?".

 

[JamesMason67]

Yeah I knew what you meant. There is a lot more to it than reviews/stars unfortunately.
James.
Ps.. UKcentric is absolutely correct

 

[Prosperity]

I didnt say nobody clicks paid ads... Just that I dont nor the people Id asked and I always ask my customers how they founnd me and why they chose me. A lot say they ignore the sponsored ads as they assume it will cost more because the company pays to be there...

 

[aflat9]

Once thing that is often ignored is click through ratio and time on page! You could have more ratings, more links, more reviews, a higher domain authority but if your title for your pages isn't good and people are clicking on the other business then you will drop in rankings. Also, if people aren't interacting with your website, your rankings may slip - Google is a bit of a b***h for this. What's your bounce rate & time on page like?

Also, could you post a picture of a screen shot with the keywords you want to rank for with you and your competitors appearing? (It could be down to your title is what I'm saying - potentially anyway!)