Some companies disregard Google’s Suggestions RegulateMoon their competitors, and are punished with great local placings and lots of business. How do they get away with this so often?

The reasons vary from on a case by case basis, but they’re always more specific than “duh” explanations like “Google doesn’t care” (they don’t care) or that some people play dirty pool (they do). I don’t claim to know exactly what goes into Google’s internal decision-making. But I’ve observed when a questionable Google business profile page is likely to be removed or fixed, and when it’s likely to linger and stink in the store.

Why does that matter? You need to know what is most likely to get stuck when you try Scratch it from your local map, and likewise if you’re trying to protect your Google business profile so it doesn’t get confused with spam. The better you know Google’s blind spots, the more aware you will be of your blind spots.

Here are the factors that increase the chances of a spammy GBP site sticking around and staying as it is:

1. Use only one Google business profile page and not multiple pages. For a business, removing the only GBP page can be a disaster. This may be why Google is hesitant to destroy it.

2. Distributed GBP pages. Most true Companies with multiple locations to diversify somewhat to cover a larger portion of their catchment or target area. If the competition doesn’t do that Carpet bomb a small area Multiple GBP sites are slightly more likely to slip under Google’s (and competitors’) radar, regardless of whether they spam the map or not.

3. Claimed/confirmed by owner. It is easier to remove an unverified or temporarily blocked GBP page from the map than a page whose owner has been verified. Even if your competitors are using a completely shady address for their GBP page, as long as they have the opportunity to re-verify it at that address (by hook or by crook), it will be much harder for you to get Google to remove it. It.

4. Use a residential address AND hide the address on the GBP site. Google doesn’t really care (more) when someone uses a home address, and most competitors, customers, or business owners don’t either. Although this is a case-by-case question, in most cases it is a good idea. The problem is that a GBP page that uses a private address is very vulnerable to the Not Open to Public edit type. Often this page is removed and its owner is forced to re-verify at a different address or hide the address instead Specify a service area. However, the likelihood of the same page being removed is much lower if the address is hidden from the start.

5. Use an address that is difficult to spoof. If it’s an address with a lot of tenants or other residents, or one that appears to be both commercial and residential, Google is more likely to be gun-shy and leave the GBP site alone, even if the company has sophisticated methods to do so Tracking down has or may not be the wrong address.

7. No overlap in branding or NAP+W information. Let’s say your competitor has littered the map with additional GBP pages that claim to be for a separate ‘brand’, even though you know this isn’t the case and that it’s simply a lead generation scheme. If the branding on the site, the names, addresses, phone numbers and possibly the websites are different, it is more likely that Google will see two or more GBP pages as de facto separate brands, or at least Google will not be able to recognize the real one from that Potemkin village. This is one of the oldest and most well-known local SEO measures, but that’s because it has a high chance of working.

8. Display GBP street address on the website. Google expected to display a company’s address on its website. If it is on the website, the GBP page is less likely to be viewed, regardless of whether it is a legitimate address or not.

9. Quotes on the base pages. A GBP page hanging out there on its own seems strange to Google because most business owners try to get their attention in at least a few places on the internet. A GBP page is more likely to persist if it is reflected by listings that appear where Google expects them to appear.

10. Reviews. A page with dozens or hundreds of Google reviews can certainly be removed from the map, but the chances are slightly lower. (I have my own theories about why that is.) At the same time, the likelihood of Google doing this is as high as ever Approve changes to the name of this company.

11. Use of a free website hosted by Google. As Tim Capper has documentedLinking one of these to a GBP page will reduce the chances of Google flagging it.

12. Lack of persistence from competitors. Sometimes it takes months of waiting and a few different types of “Suggest an edit“Google Maps complaints about removing a spam GBP page or even correcting a spam GBP name.” Google often doesn’t immediately tell you whether it agrees with your changes. But just because you didn’t make it doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t make it. Thinning the herd is not a one-time activity. If your competitors are persistent in spreading spam on the map, you need to be persistent and report problems. It doesn’t have to take up a lot of your time or become your new hobby, but if you don’t do it, Google will usually just ignore everything your competitors are doing, at your expense.

Additionally, I have a few possibly crazy theories about what else makes some spam persistent. There may or may not be some truth to that, and perhaps I can go into it a little more in another blog post, but My basic list of speculative spam stick factors includes:

• Age and historical data (does it seem to have been a relevant search result for years?)
• Choice of category (doesn’t the company belong to a GBP category where there are a lot of spammers?)
• Advertising (I’ve looked into it a bit in a post from 2019)
• Photos from customers (If customers upload photos of the place, isn’t it much more likely that they are legitimate?)
• Faking one thing and not everything (e.g. a competitor’s address). And Surname And Hours are inaccurate, and maybe the assessments are also fake, then there are more opportunities to attract attention and fail the exam)
• Don’t change GBP information often (when a business owner selects an address, name, category, etc. and sticks with it – whether compliant or not – Google may conclude that he or she is not desperately trying to “crack the code”).

What do I suggest you do about it? Nothing I haven’t already recommended. Do not spam the card if you can possibly avoid it (see there). Are Sometimes, paradoxically, you have to fight fire with fire while trying to lower the temperature. Do Your Google Maps spam patrol considering the above spam stick factors. Be organized Experiment a bit with your spam messages and maybe get a backup dancer or two. Not fix on the map, and spend most of your time on your organic SEO instead, which will help both of you on and next to the map.

What type of Google Maps spam is littered? your Local market? What “fake it until they make it” strategy do your competitors seem to be following? What helped, if anything? Leave a comment!