Recent content by Phil Rozek

I'm glad to hear that, @JS Girard; thanks for the intel.

@JS Girard, what @keyserholiday said. Not only can edits sometimes stick to "permanently closed" pages, but I've found also that those pages are even more susceptible to getting removed. When you can get a spammy page marked as "permanently closed," it's more likely Google will remove it...

@steviephil, the strongest weakling of the bunch is the "Conflict of interest" option, which you see when you report a specific review. I've had a little success with that. You'll just need to go door to door, reporting each shady review on each GMB page. Google probably won't remove all of...

@sarmcl, those are your only two options (as far as I know), although you may want to ask others to send in the same "suggested" edit.

@Medicareexpert, to your earlier question / point about the guidelines, there are two separate issues: whether to use a home address, and (if you do) whether you hide it and instead set a service area on the GBP page. In my experience, Google doesn't care whether you use your home address for...

@Timur, in that case, getting unstuck should be a matter of doing the basic citation work (#6), basic on-page work (to the extent it's not squared away), and simply waiting. You may want to log into the "owner" account and see whether that banner still shows up. It doesn't sound like anything...

@greenfiend, I'd be interested to hear if those email addresses still get through. But yeah, I've found generally that when a site no longer gives business owners a way to maintain their listings, the site has circled the drain and is no longer important.

@Timur, a few troubleshooting questions: 1. "Moving SAB" means in this case that your client runs a moving company, correct? 2. In the "new account" you didn't create a GMB page that's on Google Maps right now, correct? 3. Your client's GMB page hides the address and shows the service area...

Sure thing, Tyy. With #2, even though the address is hidden, Google still has the address on-file, so they'd just send the postcard to whatever address you used for verification last. I'd be interested to hear how it goes.

@ForwardMotion, I'd try 3 things, in this order: 1. Try to claim the older page. I know you said you can't, but what happens when you try? What does Google tell you? 2. Do a "suggest an edit" on the older page to try to get the address switched to whatever your address is. Then try to get...

@greenfiend, YP is as mummified as ever, with even the "suggest an edit" feature gone (from what I've seen recently). You might try sending an email to either or both of these: ypcsupport@yp.com or customer.care@yp.com

@theoseo, I'd suggest keepting that list (maybe tweaking it as needed). Particularly on the homepage, I've found a super-explicit service area very beneficial for rankings. It's good SOP. Will your client rank in all of those places? Probably not. Can you overdo the list, like by cramming...

@therkf,:what @JeffClevelandTN suggested is also what I'd suggest, overall, for the reasons both he and @keyserholiday stated. Google still knows the address your client verified at, and takes it into account in decicing (geographically) where she should rank and where's too far away. If I...

@JamesGreenaway, what @keyserholiday said. Nobody has a magic touch on review removal, and Google always gets the final say. The results are disappointing far more often than not.

@Matt Chauhan, what @Justin Mosebach said (thanks, Justin). It's great if you can differentiate each page a lot, but I have found that it's no big deal if you can't. Some of the most effective pages I've made are very heavy on boilerplate. As in 85% generic, sometimes. The 15% is very good -...