Content by keyserholiday in January, 2026

This is not correct. The Wall Street Journal article on lead generation spam forced the GBP team to make changes. The same thing happened after the New York Times article on the extortion review attacks. The media does force Google to clean up the abuse. I was on the inside and so I know first hand.

Conferences are already extremely draining. I get home from a conference exhausted. Sitting at a computer all day to watch an online event is mentally taxing and draining. Then you add in the online chatter, and I am wiped out that night. The nice thing about in-person events is that you can get...

I conducted this audit due to the high volume of complaints I have seen and/or received regarding spam and abuse in and around Toronto. For businesses playing by the rules, these GBPs take away business and customers. According to a study @JoyHawkins shared last month, calls from GBP are...

I was looking at both verified and unverified GBPs. I checked AC repair, and 97% are verified.

I wonder if it’s to stop spam and abuse. I know that some people from overseas where committing click fraud to destroy performance.

When I click on the link from the @oseka, I only get the category. When I edit the URL to https://www.google.com/localservices/prolist?src=1, I see the category and city fields.

Please feel free to send me the listings. I might have the on my list.

LOL!!! I have a lot of credits and need their data for a project I am working on. I was more curious to see if this had anything to do with Google suing SERPApi or attempting to stop scraper tools. @whitespark are you worried about Google coming after you or shutting down your product?

I looked at 5,734 GBPs across 35 categories in and around Toronto, Canada. I discovered that 37% are violating the address requirements. One data point that surprised me is that only 8% of GBPs use UTM URLs.

I'm not sure whether it's because you are not based in the United States or if there is a broader issue at play. It works for me.

I was able to remove the additional parameters and I was able to search...

I am not sure what’s wrong with your search URL. It doesn’t work for me. When I search for lawyer, I am given two LSA ads. Lawyer is too general and you may want to look at more specific categories

I am curious to see what happens. They should have recieved the pin postcard by now.

I ran two ranking reports over the weekend. They came back with no data, and after I attempted to recompute the reports, I got a 500 error. My last batch of rankings reports didn't list the websites for two keywords. I haven't checked the other reports I ran on December 27th. I have emailed...

So it wasn’t for a newly created GBP, but in the process of claiming ownership. It’s still interesting,

if the GBP is showing on Google, you are safe. I know that Google was deleting profiles if they haven’t been touched in over six months. Don’t stress it.

It doesn’t matter at all. NAP consistency hasn’t mattered in over 6 years. Google has never used suites as part of the ranking process.

The locksmith category is known for abuse to the extent that Google has placed strict safeguards on it. Chances are extremely high that when you attempt to create this new GBP that it either the video will be rejected or it will get suspended. If it gets suspended, it will be nearly impossible...

Update the address and complete the video verification process.