Business Name is stuffed with extra keywords and already verified?

[MatthewMagicMan]

Hey,

Got a listing that is stuffed with extra keywords and already verified:

[Real Business Name] iPhone, iPad, Samsung Galaxy and other Electronics Repairs

What would you do?

Log in and change the business name? This will prompt re-verification, correct?

No citations exist but client did this on their own and is receiving several calls a week so doesn't want to completely cut that off.

Suggestions are appreciated!

 

[Linda Buquet]

I Matthew,

I cover all this in the training you took, but if the name is KW stuffed it's a major violation. Could get him suspended or deleted.

Carefully research to be sure when you change it you are changing to the correct name, because any NAP change can cause loss of rankings so you don't want to think better of it and change it again.

Must be the real business name. But now, in case you missed it, there is a new rule where you can add a SINGLE descriptor. So either a keyword or city but not both. (But we don't really know what effect it has if any.)

So again I'd think it through very carefully and only change it once then leave it. And yes, you'll need to reverify. But if it's in same account as Google analytics there is an easier way to verify now. Brand new in last month. Did you see my post here? (Its in Google Local IMPORTANT forum.)

 

[Phil Rozek]

Hey Matthew,

I've dealt with the descriptor for a good number of clients so far. Including one in the phone/electronics-repair space who didn't heed my advice at first (the exact situation you're in).

Here's what that particular client found out the hard way:

1. He had a "descriptor" with at least as many keywords as your client's has, and was fine until he got greedy and added more words.

2. It did help rankings (significantly) until he got greedy.

3. As I recall, his listing got suspended a couple of times. But it was not deleted. (Note to Linda: Google doesn't seem to be deleting listings anymore; just making local pages into "business" G+ pages.)

Google is lax about descriptors. They haven't defined a "single" descriptor because they don't know. Even if you have a spammy descriptor, you probably won't get into trouble unless you keep changing it around or lengthening it.

But more often than not, the descriptors are useless. If you throw 4 keywords in there (which I suggest you don't), maybe you'll rank for one of them. Not all 4 (unless maybe you're in E. Tree Stump, Wyoming, and have no competitors).

I have not found that they mess up your NAP consistency.

As Linda said, you really should be cautious. If you're going to change your client's business name, shorten the descriptor. But I wouldn't say you should remove it. Google is looking the other way, at least for now.

 

[Linda Buquet]

(Note to Linda: Google doesn't seem to be deleting listings anymore; just making local pages into "business" G+ pages.)

Actually I don't think Google changes it from one to the other per se.

I'm pretty sure based on working through issues like this with Google management that what happens is Google deletes or disables the local part of the page - then you are left with the Google+ business part of the page, which does not rank or have reviews.

We deal with issues like this quite often in the G Business forum. When a listing changes from a G+ Local page to a G+ page, it's usually due to the fact there are violations on the local side of the house. And then it turns out it happened because Google deleted, suspended or disabled the local part of the listing.

 

[Phil Rozek]

Actually I don't think Google changes it from one to the other per se.

I'm pretty sure based on working through issues like this with Google management that what happens is Google deletes or disables the local part of the page - then you are left with the Google+ business part of the page, which does not rank or have reviews.

We deal with issues like this quite often in the G Business forum. When a listing changes from a G+ Local page to a G+ page. it's usually due to the fact there are violations on the local side of the house. And then it turns out it happened because Google deleted, suspended or disabled the local part of the listing.

That would also explain what I've been seeing.