More threads by neighbor_google_maps

neighbor_google_maps

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Last month it seems that Google created a bunch of profiles in the parking garage or parking storage business category. It looks like they created them because you can find pins like Lowes parking lots now (why would Lowes create a pin for their parking lot?) - see picture.

There were also about 36 pins that were seemingly scraped off a parking supplier, WhereiPark's, website in Seattle. It seems like they were scraped by Google and created by Google as opposed to being created by them, because they all have the same generic landing page that funnels to their main webpage, phone number is not unique, the titles are not uniform (and would've been flagged during the chain verification approval process), and the pins all offered the ability to claim them for about 2 weeks (now it's gone).

When they were created we dropped down from top 3 to number 37.

These profiles are also ranking higher than ours despite the fact that they have 0-1 reviews, often times with a 1 star rating. You can see our pin ranking because we paid for it and it has a positive 5 star review from a local guide. This goes against everything we know about the Google algo.

I am sure that there are more profiles that were seemingly created overnight that I don't know about. As someone who is trying to rank higher on google maps for parking, my question is - Do you think that Google would do something like this? Have you seen anything like this in the past? Is there anyway to compete against these profiles?

Screenshot 2024-01-23 at 10.56.53 AM.jpg


Screenshot 2024-01-23 at 10.57.07 AM.jpg


Screenshot 2024-01-23 at 10.57.27 AM.jpg


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Yes, Google scraps data and creates these GBPs. These are all unclaimed. I find I can get them removed using suggest an edit.

Published-Your-edit-to-Parking-Lot-Lowe-s.jpg


Parking-Lot-Lowe-s-Google-Maps.jpg
 
I suspect Google buys data from lots of sources (like the Chambers of Commerce), and sources lots of data from the public, to build accurate offline overview.
 
I suspect Google buys data from lots of sources (like the Chambers of Commerce), and sources lots of data from the public, to build accurate offline overview.

Google definitely just scrapes the web too. We happen to use a company directory to create additional presence for, and we've seen google create GBP duplicates using the name in the directory (not used anywhere else online), when it didn't match exactly the GBP title. This why I will always repeat that yes there is still some import to NAP consistency!

Wait, Jason has been banned?? WTF.
 

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