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IMPORTANT UPDATE: +Local Search is gone. See this post for a great alternative:
<a href="http://www.localsearchforum.com/google-local-important/32034-gmb-dupe-finder-spam-hunter-100-times-better-than-google-map-maker.html">GMB Dupe Finder & Spam Hunter - 100 Times Better Than Google Map Maker</a>
I have a new best friend for researching local listing problems - especially for duplicate discovery, finding bogus spam listings and discovering old "closed" listings that may impact ranking. (We'll be talking about that last part in a new thread later this morning)
Let me introduce you to my new friend and below is a time saving tip for getting along with her...
Google+ (Local) Search (Removed by Google)
<img src="http://marketing-blog.catalystemarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/GLocalSearch.jpg" alt="GLocalSearch" width="75%" />
Now you likely know about the G+ Local search engine, but like me you maybe don't use it much. For a long time it was showing a different ranking order than search so was useless in that respect. But now results line up. Plus I used to hate it because it had 2 separate fields. One for the query and one for city state, so was too was too much cutting and pasting for me when I'm flying around checking multiple listings all the time to have to make a 2nd pass back to the listings to copy/paste the city state.
THE DUPE DISCOVERY PROBLEM - In most cases if you do your initial dupe discovery pass using phone #
--- New maps, usually only returns one listing.
--- So then you try Classic maps, but since Pigeon Classic often hides dupes too.
Sometimes only a 2 out of 10 dupes will show.
So then I would try Map Maker, which almost always shows all the dupes, but 2 problems:
1) You can't click over to the live G+ L pages to check each one out.
2) If it's an SAB with hidden address then listings won't show on MM at all.
Well I found a little trick that makes it so easy, I now use G+ L search for dupe discovery all the time and it's better than anything else in multiple ways.
G+ Local search defaults to the city you are in. So if you want to search via phone in another city (like you normally would for checking for dupes on a client listing), you have to make 2 passes. One to copy/paste the phone # and a second one to copy/paste the city/state. If you are flying around troubleshooting tons of listings all day and have carpal pain like I do, it's just extra steps which take extra time.
So what I do now is set location to United States and save to my bookmarks toolbar, so it's always right there when I need it. (See image above and link below.)
Save this link to your Bookmarks toolbar: Google+ (Local) Search
(Has United States saved as location for quick checks)
In most cases for dupe discovery searching phone# + United States works just fine. But if doing deeper research you may want to plug in city and just double check. (If I was working on a client I would. But most of the time I'm just helping folks in forums and doing a quick scan with United States almost always finds all the dupes.)
Below are a couple examples that illustrate:
Here is the phone # we'll use as an example we'll use from this case I worked on:
(401) 737-3700
New Google Maps only shows 1 listing
Plug that phone # into Classic Maps and it only shows 10 listings (It won't let me link to the direct results)
Map Maker shows 15 listings
Google+ Local Search also shows all 15 listings.
But again with G+ Local search you can click through to each one if you need to see other info, like whether the listing is claimed, whereas with MM you can't. Since these don't show up in maps with a phone search, you'd have to copy the name and address of each listing into maps which would be a royal pain with 15 listings.
IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE: That case above also has a "closed" listing. You would not have found in with a maps search because only the main listing showed up with new maps. It's important to find out if there are closed listings, because Joy and I have seen many cases where a closed listing with the same phone # seems to suppress ranking on the main listing.
We have a big post coming out about that later this AM.
And here's a post where I started discussing the issue.
Hidden address SABs don't show up at all on Map Maker, so you can't use MM for duplicate discovery.
So here's another example using (828) 274-4858
Plug (828) 274-4858 into Classic Maps - it only shows the main listing.
Use Google+ Local Search and it shows 2 listings including an old listing with a different name and different phone#.
Joy also did some side-by-side comparisons regarding different ways to search for dupes, back in August when we 1st noticed Pigeon was hiding dupes in Classic maps.
<a href="http://www.localsearchforum.com/google-duplicates-merges/21431-best-ways-find-duplicate-google-places-plus-listings-post-pigeon.html">Best Ways to Find Duplicate Google Places/Plus Listings (Post Pigeon)</a>
So happy dupe hunting! Hope these tips help you find them all and saves you a couple steps.
What do you think???
P. S. Here's that new post about how old "closed" listings that may impact ranking.
It's an eye opener!
<a href="http://www.localsearchforum.com/google-local-important/27109-can-closed-google-local-listings-kill-ranking-important-new-troubleshooting-tip.html">Can "Closed" Google Local Listings Kill Ranking? Important New Troubleshooting Tip</a>
<meta property="og:type" content="article"><meta property="og:title" content=""><meta property="og:description" content="">
<meta property="og:image" content="">
<a href="http://www.localsearchforum.com/google-local-important/32034-gmb-dupe-finder-spam-hunter-100-times-better-than-google-map-maker.html">GMB Dupe Finder & Spam Hunter - 100 Times Better Than Google Map Maker</a>
I have a new best friend for researching local listing problems - especially for duplicate discovery, finding bogus spam listings and discovering old "closed" listings that may impact ranking. (We'll be talking about that last part in a new thread later this morning)
Let me introduce you to my new friend and below is a time saving tip for getting along with her...
<img src="http://marketing-blog.catalystemarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/GLocalSearch.jpg" alt="GLocalSearch" width="75%" />
Now you likely know about the G+ Local search engine, but like me you maybe don't use it much. For a long time it was showing a different ranking order than search so was useless in that respect. But now results line up. Plus I used to hate it because it had 2 separate fields. One for the query and one for city state, so was too was too much cutting and pasting for me when I'm flying around checking multiple listings all the time to have to make a 2nd pass back to the listings to copy/paste the city state.
THE DUPE DISCOVERY PROBLEM - In most cases if you do your initial dupe discovery pass using phone #
--- New maps, usually only returns one listing.
--- So then you try Classic maps, but since Pigeon Classic often hides dupes too.
Sometimes only a 2 out of 10 dupes will show.
So then I would try Map Maker, which almost always shows all the dupes, but 2 problems:
1) You can't click over to the live G+ L pages to check each one out.
2) If it's an SAB with hidden address then listings won't show on MM at all.
Well I found a little trick that makes it so easy, I now use G+ L search for dupe discovery all the time and it's better than anything else in multiple ways.
G+ Local search defaults to the city you are in. So if you want to search via phone in another city (like you normally would for checking for dupes on a client listing), you have to make 2 passes. One to copy/paste the phone # and a second one to copy/paste the city/state. If you are flying around troubleshooting tons of listings all day and have carpal pain like I do, it's just extra steps which take extra time.
So what I do now is set location to United States and save to my bookmarks toolbar, so it's always right there when I need it. (See image above and link below.)
Save this link to your Bookmarks toolbar: Google+ (Local) Search
(Has United States saved as location for quick checks)
In most cases for dupe discovery searching phone# + United States works just fine. But if doing deeper research you may want to plug in city and just double check. (If I was working on a client I would. But most of the time I'm just helping folks in forums and doing a quick scan with United States almost always finds all the dupes.)
Below are a couple examples that illustrate:
<img src="http://marketing-blog.catalystemarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/dividermulti.jpg" alt="dividermulti" width="550" height="4" />
Here is the phone # we'll use as an example we'll use from this case I worked on:
(401) 737-3700
New Google Maps only shows 1 listing
Plug that phone # into Classic Maps and it only shows 10 listings (It won't let me link to the direct results)
Map Maker shows 15 listings
Google+ Local Search also shows all 15 listings.
But again with G+ Local search you can click through to each one if you need to see other info, like whether the listing is claimed, whereas with MM you can't. Since these don't show up in maps with a phone search, you'd have to copy the name and address of each listing into maps which would be a royal pain with 15 listings.
IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE: That case above also has a "closed" listing. You would not have found in with a maps search because only the main listing showed up with new maps. It's important to find out if there are closed listings, because Joy and I have seen many cases where a closed listing with the same phone # seems to suppress ranking on the main listing.
We have a big post coming out about that later this AM.
And here's a post where I started discussing the issue.
<img src="http://marketing-blog.catalystemarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/dividermulti.jpg" alt="dividermulti" width="550" height="4" />
Hidden address SABs don't show up at all on Map Maker, so you can't use MM for duplicate discovery.
So here's another example using (828) 274-4858
Plug (828) 274-4858 into Classic Maps - it only shows the main listing.
Use Google+ Local Search and it shows 2 listings including an old listing with a different name and different phone#.
<img src="http://marketing-blog.catalystemarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/dividermulti.jpg" alt="dividermulti" width="550" height="4" />
Joy also did some side-by-side comparisons regarding different ways to search for dupes, back in August when we 1st noticed Pigeon was hiding dupes in Classic maps.
<a href="http://www.localsearchforum.com/google-duplicates-merges/21431-best-ways-find-duplicate-google-places-plus-listings-post-pigeon.html">Best Ways to Find Duplicate Google Places/Plus Listings (Post Pigeon)</a>
So happy dupe hunting! Hope these tips help you find them all and saves you a couple steps.
What do you think???
P. S. Here's that new post about how old "closed" listings that may impact ranking.
It's an eye opener!
<a href="http://www.localsearchforum.com/google-local-important/27109-can-closed-google-local-listings-kill-ranking-important-new-troubleshooting-tip.html">Can "Closed" Google Local Listings Kill Ranking? Important New Troubleshooting Tip</a>
<meta property="og:type" content="article"><meta property="og:title" content=""><meta property="og:description" content="">
<meta property="og:image" content="">
