Tag: Google Places

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Google Cracks Down on Fictitious Google+ Local Reviews

I knew that eventually Google would address the growing problem of SEO firms selling services to create fictitious Google+ Local reviews, and finally they have. Here is a quote from Google:

“For business owners:

  • Be wary of an SEO or reputation management service that promises to generate reviews for your business. We’ve seen companies make up fake glowing testimonies — and we’ll take them down.
  • We don’t take down negative reviews for simply being negative for anyone, regardless of any other relationships with Google. Instead, we encourage you to utilize the owner response functionality to respond to the review and address the user’s concerns.
  • If a third party claims that they know how to remove reviews from Google, don’t believe them. Google does not work with any third party reputation management companies and we certainly don’t remove reviews unless they violate our guidelines.
  • Don’t set up a computer or tablet device in your place of business for customers to leave reviews on site. Consider sending a reminder e-mail so customers can review on their own time.
  • Remember, we don’t allow you to give customers free gifts or discounts for leaving reviews.” Read the full disclosure for business owners and SEO on this Google page.

Based on what I see, it appears that Google is not only scanning for fake reviews, but actively and aggressively targeting Local Pages that use them, but interesting enough appears to be tracking the IP address. Take a careful look at the section that says don’t put a tablet or computer in your place of business – that means IP tracking.

Additionally Google has turned to crowd sourcing to catch the offenders. If you know a competitor is doing this or suddenly has tons of reviews magically you can report them to Google for review.

“If you see a review that violates our policy guidelines, you can report the review to us by clicking on the gray flag icon next to the review in question. You’ll be taken to a form where you can tell us why you’re flagging that review. Please note that we won’t follow up with you individually, but we do review every piece of content that is flagged.”

This information is very important for website owners. I know of several who have been approached by firms selling these exact review services. They are stating that they set up individual Google email and Yahoo accounts just for your review creation, work to mask the IP address and then create a glowing supposedly untraceable review. Be wary of these types of services, is it worth being banned from Google+ Local pages to try to scam Google?

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Google+ Local Allows Multiple Locations

Finally Google+ Local has listened to businesses that have multiple people in an office building or location and is now allowing more than one Google+ Local page per address.

Previously if you were a real estate agent located in an office the first person who grabbed that location in Google+ Local owned it and you could not set up an account to show your business. What was worse was if someone other than the legal business owner grabbed the location, you were stuck!

Now Google has allowed multiple businesses who may be in different suites, cubicles or floors to now verify an address. That’s great news for many small businesses and consultants.

Here’s what Google says specifically that is a nice new change:

“Individual practitioners may be listed individually as long as those practitioners are public-facing within their parent organization. Common examples of such practitioners are doctors, dentists, lawyers, and real estate agents. The practitioner should be directly contactable at the verified location during stated hours. A practitioner should not have multiple listings to cover all of his or her specializations.”
“Departments within businesses, universities, hospitals, and government buildings may be listed separately. These departments must be publicly distinct as entities or groups within their parent organization, and ideally will have separate phone numbers and/or customer entrances.”

To find out more about the Google+ Local guidelines, please visit this Google information page.

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Google Places Know the Attributes You Can Change

Don’t be scammed by Google Places optimization services, and here’s why there are only certain fields that Google Places now allows you as the business owner to update. Here is the list:

  1. Name
  2. Address
  3. City
  4. State
  5. Zip Code
  6. Country
  7. Main Phone Number
  8. Five Service Category but only from Google’s list
  9. Five of your own categories
  10. Latitude and Longitude

That’s it! No keyword dense title or business description, nothing  more than the list above. If you are approached by a supposed Google Places optimization service that says you need a special title and more keyword density, understand that they are not selling a program that they can deliver. You can only affect changes to the above elements.

If they say they will load hundreds of reviews, steer clear of them. There is no faster way to get your listing banned on Google Places than to have suddenly a bunch of new reviews suddenly appear. Once banned, you may never be able to get back in and with a strong location focus as the future of search, you could really be creating future problems for yourself.

For more information you can check out the attributes on this Google page.

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Got 10 or More Locations for Google Places? Use the New Bulk Upload Option

Google just released a new Google Places bulk upload option for businesses that have 10 or more locations and want to upload their account using a spreadsheet. Once you use the verification tool for the first ten businesses, you won’t have to go through the verification process again.

This new bulk upload option is available for all account from a link in the Google Places interface. What this tool is not, is a way to scam Google Places with fictitious addresses. You’ll get nailed on that one, so don’t waste time trying.

Although this feature is not for every business owner, it will make it easier for larger businesses to manage their locations and perform updates quickly. You can view the tutorial from Google Places to see if this may be a tool perfect for your needs.