Keyword stuffing in Google My Business (GMB) is decades old. And by “keyword stuffing” I mean adding keywords to the official business name in order to rank better. For instance, a company may add the term “services” to the end of their business name in order to rank better.
More recently Google has been penalizing such a tactic. Google wants to match the GMB listing name with the official business name on the website and the official business name at the physical address (as well as the name the company uses on stationary, business cards, etc.).
To get around this penalty, some businesses have been rebranding their official business names, in competitive markets, to add keywords to their official business names.
For instance, do a Google search for “los angeles personal injury lawyer” and see what pops up in the 3-pack. As you can see from the screenshot below, all three firms have some if not all of the keywords as part of their official business names.
Google has not been penalizing sites like this because these keywords are part of their official business names, on their websites and on their physical addresses.
See some more examples from the Search Engine Land article listed in the citation section below.
Now, this could lead to many businesses having similar names which throws a big kink in the branding efforts and differentiating one business from another.
But, as long as this tactic works and Google doesn’t penalize it, businesses will continue to do it. And this is why this tactic may be here to stay.
Citations
https://searchengineland.com/the-real-world-impact-of-keyword-stuffing-in-google-my-business-348509
