How Google Local killed my business, Is it killing yours?

yes it is true, Google is now truly evil, the new microsoft.

The only option I can see is to turn Google local off for that site, and fight really hard to make position one,

If i dont make it, at least on the suburb level I will be seen, but will drop to the bottom of the page for the more generic Melbourne wide searches.

any other suggestions are very welcome!

As you are probably aware, almost daily Google, like microsoft are taken to court for anti competitive activities, killing the competition.

True, when I become an almost unassailable rank 1, for the core keywords, I wont have to worry about being in the google Local swamp, but for the moment its the equivalent of the sandpit. They have stripped away my Title and description. Funny how they allow you to chose those for adwords.

I think the only way around this will be to turn google local off - suspend the listing, and see if my calls pick up. As a by the way, dog walking is almost a charity, I give discounts to pensioners and walk a cancer victims dog free once a week, but having family commitments, I need to make money. My volunteer time is spent doing seo manually and white hat, but thanks for the suggestion about volunteering.

Many of the other suggestions like billboards and radio etc are not financially viable. I am attempting off line marketing, but these things take time. I have an MBA in marketing, so I know a few thing,s but this whole google local thing is hideous. Thanks for all the comments.

-Most jurisdictions have competition laws in place that prohibit monopolies. Google has, for a long time, used its size and dominance to corner every market and force business owners out, pay up and/or go under. I wouldn't be surprised, however, if google operates under a government-granted monopoly by way of snake oil lobbyists and greedy politicians.

Hi Don,

Thank you for a very good response.
I have copied this to my drive and will add some of the points into future campaigns. Please note that I am a dog walker and sell dog treats. The dog walking is only applicable to a small area of Melbourne, while I can sell treats australia wide, so my 'rant' about google local was mostly about dog walking/ but I am of course trying to rank both my dog sites.
This is what I have found about off line ..
-pet stores that sell dogs (there are very few around, of those that did exist locally I gave them flyers and cards etc) but I think they closed down.

-stores that sell pet food - grocery stores and pet stores (as i also sell dog treats on my dog walker site, this precludes me from advertising in stores that also sell dog food/treats. I have attempted to get other non food stores to put up flyers such as grocers, but I have found that of the ones that do, they are humouring me, because they pull them down the next week (or someone does)

-boarding kennels, As these are businesses, they usually dont want to promote my products for free. I sell my dog treat products at very low margins, so discounting further or giving them any financial incentive is tricky
-animal shelters- are often not for profit, and so wont promote my profit busineses. They will LIKE me on my facebook page, but wont actively promote me to their customers.

-veterinarians - back to the level playing field theory. the incumbent walker who started 15 years ago has got some strong loyalty in the three vets in my area. I have my business cards in these vets, but again have not received one client over the last two years. Then I found out that nurses and admin staff at vets often moonlight as dog walkers and pet sitters. They do this without any liability insurance and undercut other walkers who do it for a living, so the whole vet thing seems like a closed shop too.

-dog owner clubs - I have approached some for dog treats, but as they are volunteer organisations, if they do think my product is ok, it still needs to go before a committee meeting and then who knows ... it has merit, but we will see.

-breeders in aust there are kennel clubs, dob obedience clubs, show clubs and specific breed clubs. I can try all of these, just takes time to send the info, follow up calls and persistence.

-pet accessory websites - I am lucky to trade links with these guys let alone cross promote. many of them already sell dog treats, and of the ones that dont, they want to sell me home page banner space.

>>> Next figure out why people (potential customers) should hire your service
I have dot pointed that on my homepage (and tried to sell the emotion rather than just fact). Its backed up with testimonials, but this doesnt seem to be the problem, as said, its about google local hiding your site info away so they dont click on you in the first place.

>>>Do any of the dog related businesses send out a news letter, or regular emails.

This is a big thing missing from my current activates. My days are spent writing articles, sending out information, link building etc. I dont want to pay a monthly fee for an auto- responder, and I don't have a vast amount of emails from my dog walking clients, and not sure what a monthly email could contain.

I would probably have more success with devising a dog treat email from previous customers .. but again working out what incentives I could offer them or new information to provide the so they stay on the list is the interesting thing. I am looking at getting a good coupon add on my site ... just been stalled on implementing it.

Yes I do put up A4 flyers where I can already ... with tear off strips.
You have definitely given me a few new ideas- thanks very much!!

both my dog walking and dog treats sites are PR 4.

The issue with them was while my wife was pregnant, she moved to her parents and I stayed in the house (living in the kitchen with my dog) while the front of the house was fully renovated, I helped the tradesmen (painting, carting rubbish etc) and the sites were neglected for nine months and have slipped in rank. I am having great difficulty getting my dog treats site back on page one.

the issue I posted here was about google local stripping off the 'advertisement' title and description, so the site stays hidden.

Hi Ken,

I have made about ten goes at DL flyers in peoples letterboxes. I can deliver about 300 flyers in about 2 hours and I do that after my morning walks. This has had little response.

I think that unless its word of mouth, or someone actively searches for a dog walker on google, that the push method has very limited success in dog walking.

Some more great ideas, thanks ..

the thing about google local is that it seems to now be used in both greater melbourne, AND down to suburb level. And since I am registered with them, any time there is at least one competitor (for a given dog walk search) that has also registered for google local, then google will put up its Google local A to G ranking list (stripping out your chosen title and description). It commodities a business - and no, showing a small pic of the website when you run your cursor over the local business is not the same as allowing you to have title and description.

The only way around it, as per my original post will be to be number 1 or 2 rank for dog walking melbourne (which is above the google local list) and is my aim, or to de register, and be put below the google local list and below the fold.

I do dot point my best points on my home page, how I am different, but many people don't know what to expect from a walker, or if your suggestions are better.

I think the pay ten and get 1 free is great for pizza, but my rates are already very low, losing another 10% of my rates isnt so attractive. I did trial 50% off first walk on the flyers, but that didnt seem to help.

At the moment I just arent getting the contact numbers through my website that i used to get, and I am guess its the google local thing making me seem invisible, who cares that it shows my business name and my street address, that just kills my advertising.

I give my existing clients free dog treats a few times a year, and they say they love my emails and pics, but it seems people are reticent to recommend their dog walker to others, perhaps its just something that people dont talk about? Maybe its just our slack aussies culture not recommending people??

Maybe I will add a 'recommendation offer" in my email signature .. as a standing offer?

Please clarify?

I dont have a google plus page, and if I just de list my website, it will slip under the google local list and be just as unseen.

I dont see any easy way around this besides learning to rank for number one or two.

I have been a member here for a while, and thought I was going ok with ranking, and yes I slipped by non activity on my sites and link campaigns, but I also think that penguin and all the other animals may have killed my traditional link strategies.

I am now toying with getting level one sites ranked to boost my money site but am also seeing if there are any new techniques that work particularly well in the new google ranking environment.

I still see people in here recommending xrummer and senuke and auto-posting, but as a novice I am loathe to do this, or hire someone else to do it. Not sure if my sites new google sandpit is just due to my time off my sites, or because traditional linking (blog postings etc) carries no weight, any more?

I only have a few level 1 sites, but finances have me host them all on the one IP .. not sure if that is ok if I do that for my few sites (as if there is a magic number of sites like TEN where google decides to KILL the link juice if you co host them) I have asked that in here before but got mixed responses ..