37% of Toronto GBPs violate Google's TOS

[keyserholiday]

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.

 

[LadyGrapeAlliance23]

Over the last year I've been flagging, + submitting to the business redressal form, a particular brand that has about 20+ spam listings in and around Toronto; most of their locations are at residential addresses but some of their locations are using the same address as their billboards, where there is no discernable way for customers to access/enter the property, much less a business-front - one spot is legitimately an empty lot with nothing but a billboard

Somehow we were even able to get it escalated it to where we had a Google support rep. actually responding but at the end of the email chain they said they had reviewed/escalated it as high as it can go but they did not find any violations for any of the locations we submitted - that was even with several pages/screenshots/links of evidence suggesting otherwise.

Since then, we've found several more brands using the same tactic but not at the same volume just yet - I know most high-density population areas have some level of listing spam but I haven't been able to find a clear answer as to why Toronto in particular seems to be such a hot-zone.

 

[JS Girard]

Over the last year I've been flagging, + submitting to the business redressal form, a particular brand that has about 20+ spam listings in and around Toronto; most of their locations are at residential addresses but some of their locations are using the same address as their billboards, where there is no discernable way for customers to access/enter the property, much less a business-front - one spot is legitimately an empty lot with nothing but a billboard

Somehow we were even able to get it escalated it to where we had a Google support rep. actually responding but at the end of the email chain they said they had reviewed/escalated it as high as it can go but they did not find any violations for any of the locations we submitted - that was even with several pages/screenshots/links of evidence suggesting otherwise.

Since then, we've found several more brands using the same tactic but not at the same volume just yet - I know most high-density population areas have some level of listing spam but I haven't been able to find a clear answer as to why Toronto in particular seems to be such a hot-zone.

I've used @Phil Rozek 's "throw everything at the wall once a week" and have had good success with it in the past for networkds of spam listings. It's a little tedious, but when it works, it works.

 

[keyserholiday]

Over the last year I've been flagging, + submitting to the business redressal form, a particular brand that has about 20+ spam listings in and around Toronto; most of their locations are at residential addresses but some of their locations are using the same address as their billboards, where there is no discernable way for customers to access/enter the property, much less a business-front - one spot is legitimately an empty lot with nothing but a billboard

Somehow we were even able to get it escalated it to where we had a Google support rep. actually responding but at the end of the email chain they said they had reviewed/escalated it as high as it can go but they did not find any violations for any of the locations we submitted - that was even with several pages/screenshots/links of evidence suggesting otherwise.

Since then, we've found several more brands using the same tactic but not at the same volume just yet - I know most high-density population areas have some level of listing spam but I haven't been able to find a clear answer as to why Toronto in particular seems to be such a hot-zone.

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

 

[JS Girard]

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.

Comin back to this, I realize I have a pretty important question: where you looking only at verified profiles? If not, was the proportion different between verified vs. unverified profile?