How Can We Remove a Competitor Benefiting from Our Brand Name in Google's Listings?

[witchwendy]

Hi everyone,
We have a situation with a competitor for one of our clients. Our client, Munley Law, is a medium-sized law firm in Pennsylvania. We have multiple offices throughout the state and we are headquartered in Scranton, PA, a place that we have dominated in the SERPS and the Maps for years. For the past couple of years, another attorney who has the same last name (no relation to our partners), has been benefiting from our brand name. Instead of using the name of the firm he is a partner at, he uses his name for his Google listing as well as his website. Most of his traffic is coming from our client's name.

We noticed about a month ago that Google has been listing him in the three-pack for one of our major keywords, truck accident lawyer. This is frustrating because the listing does not have the real name of his firm. What can we do to have him removed? We've contacted him and his partners who ignore us and we've complained several times to Google, showing evidence that it's not the name of his firm but nothing changes. Any advice would be appreciated, thank you.

Wendy

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Instead of using the name of the firm he is a partner at, he uses his name for his Google listing as well as his website. Most of his traffic is coming from our client's name.

There isn't anything that can be done because that is how Google wants individual attorney's to represent themselves on Google Business Profiles.

 

[Professor M]

Hi everyone,
We have a situation with a competitor for one of our clients. Our client, Munley Law, is a medium-sized law firm in Pennsylvania. We have multiple offices throughout the state and we are headquartered in Scranton, PA, a place that we have dominated in the SERPS and the Maps for years. For the past couple of years, another attorney who has the same last name (no relation to our partners), has been benefiting from our brand name. Instead of using the name of the firm he is a partner at, he uses his name for his Google listing as well as his website. Most of his traffic is coming from our client's name.

We noticed about a month ago that Google has been listing him in the three-pack for one of our major keywords, truck accident lawyer. This is frustrating because the listing does not have the real name of his firm. What can we do to have him removed? We've contacted him and his partners who ignore us and we've complained several times to Google, showing evidence that it's not the name of his firm but nothing changes. Any advice would be appreciated, thank you.

Wendy

I agree with Colan, that lawyer is doing nothing wrong, lawyers are allowed to have individual practitioner profiles as per Google guidelines.

 

[witchwendy]

Even if they're not an individual practitioner but is a partner at a law firm?

 

[Professor M]

if that person is a practicing partner, it's considered an individual practitioner wthin the business.
So yes a law firm can have a business profile and each partner/lawyer can have one as well.

 

[witchwendy]

That's interesting because wouldn't the practitioner essentially be competing against their own law firm?

 

[Professor M]

That's interesting because wouldn't the practitioner essentially be competing against their own law firm?

Yes, that can happen. Especially in real estate where many realtors work for the same location.

 

[KristiSimone]

And, if both the individual practitioner profile and the practice profile are optimized well, they may take up 2 spaces on the map pac and knock a competitor off. So, individual practitioner profiles can be great.