Correcting mapspam

[Tim Colling]

Hi - New here, this looks like a great resource. I hope to help sometimes!

Question: a new client comes to me and has one real office and six or so "satellite" offices that are really po box places. They're all in what used to be Google Places. Shall I just go and mark them as closed, all at once? Is that going to bring down undesired manual action wrath from Google?

Thanks!

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Hi There, welcome to The Local Search Forum, glad to have you.

I don't think it's necessary to mark them as closed. You will want to make sure that they aren't claimed/verified into a Google Places account though.

Google can't really penalize a business for having unclaimed listings floating around. Google scrapes together these types of listings all the time so that would be unfair.

 

[Tim Colling]

Hi There, welcome to The Local Search Forum, glad to have you.

I don't think it's necessary to mark them as closed. You will want to make sure that they aren't claimed/verified into a Google Places account though.

Google can't really penalize a business for having unclaimed listings floating around. Google scrapes together these types of listings all the time so that would be unfair.

Hi - Thank you very much for taking time to answer my question. I appreciate your help!

Unfortunately, these listings WERE claimed and verified in a Google Places account, and in fact WERE created by the owner, years ago, for SEO purposes.

With that in mind, what do you recommend that we do?

Thanks!

 

[Linda Buquet]

They need to be deleted from the account. Since they are in violation Google could suspend the entire account including the actual location.

 

[Tim Colling]

They need to be deleted from the account. Since they are in violation Google could suspend the entire account including the actual location.

So, really delete them, not just mark them closed? Isn't that a red flag?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Delete from dash. That does not delete them from maps. Just removes from account so you can't get in trouble for them. If there are no citations they'll eventually drop off maps.

Trying to close them when they are all still claimed in dash could trip a bigger red flag I think.

 

[Tim Colling]

Thank you for your quick responses, Linda. I appreciate your help!