Linda Buquet
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- Jun 28, 2012
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Now that +Local Search is gone I needed a new research tool for local ranking troubleshooting, duplicate discovery and spam research.
I had used Michael Cottam's Google+ My Business Page Finder a long time ago, but at that time we had tools that worked like Classic maps and +Local Search.
Now that we are left with Map Maker - and it's such a terrible solution for dupe and spam research...
I finally made time to try Michael's tool again.
MAN am I glad I did. I have a new best friend!
Let me illustrate why this tool is so much better than Map Maker.
EXAMPLE: A Chiro comes to you and says "I have a great G+ Local listing and good onsite SEO, but I'm still not ranking. Can you help me?"
The 1st thing I would do (if I still worked with clients, which I don't) before I even had his initial initial consultation, would be a quick audit to check for dupes or violations to gauge if extra work would be required or see if he was too spammy for me to want to work with.
Wow what a mess! FYI I've used this guy as an example before and turned him in for spam a couple times to no avail. Many, many violations!
I would not touch this one with a 10 foot pole. However, if you were going to consider it you'd want more info right? You'd want to see if they were all using the same site and landing page. Would want to check phone #s. May want to click through to see the G+ L page to see if all are claimed or if some are maybe just unclaimed scraped dupes, right?
Well you can't do ANY OF THAT from Map Maker. Not without multiple clicks, drags, copy & paste.
GO TO THAT PAGE IN MM.
You'll see that the links in screenshot don't take you to the G+ L page. The 1st click does not even show you website or cats. Only shows NAP. If you click #1 to check further you can see phone, but you have to click again to see site.
Then have to go back and look at #2, all those same clicks. But you can't see everything on the same page, only 1 at a time. So then by the time you are down to #5 if you are old and spacey like me you think - "wait, which one of those 1st 4 had a different website?" You can't see without making 2 clicks per listing and have to go back through them all.
THEN if you want to go investigate the G+ L page you have to copy name to maps then copy phone to maps to try to get that specific fake name listing, because maps won't show you all these listings so you'll need to do a very specific NAP search to pull up the one you want.
PLUS he has other listings under a different phone # so you need to do a search by Chiro address or the other phone and do all those extra clicks to research all those as well. NIGHTMARE!
It would take 100 clicks and a TON OF TIME NONE OF US HAVE TO WASTE! Can you tell by all the red in this post how much Map Maker for research just makes my blood boil???
Check out Joy's post below to see all the steps needed to do this research in MM:
<a href="http://imprezziomarketing.com/seo-blog/google-2/step-by-step-guide-to-finding-duplicate-google-plus-listings-on-mapmaker-part-1/">Step-By-Step Guide to Finding Duplicate Google Plus Listings on MapMaker</a>
Shows ALL the same listings but...
- FULL NAP+W shows, so don't have to do extra clicks to see phone or web site
- Can see all details of all listings at a glance (Without clicking)
- Direct links to G+ L page AND directly to landing page
If I had time & carpal strength, I would do a comparison of how many clicks and how much time it took to thoroughly research all these listings. It would be crystal clear how much of a time saver Michael's tool is.
Check it out and see what a huge time saver it is!
TECH NOTES & TOOL TIPS
When I 1st tried this tool a long time ago I didn't like it because it pulled a lot of unrelated results that needed to be sifted through. He added some GEO coding that greatly improved the results. Since it uses the Places API, in the limited tests I've run it pulls the same results that MM would show.
He explains above that you can do Phone # search in the biz name field. Since that's the 1st pass most of us make when dupe hunting, just wanted to mention phone search works perfectly. And as you can see in the example above, it pulls the same results that MM would.
I just reached out to Michael with some ideas for making this tool even better. He's traveling to conferences the next couple weeks, so we'll collaborate when he gets back.
I'll keep you posted and just may have a treat in store. We shall see...
Try it! And please let us know what you think???
<meta property="og:type" content="article"><meta property="og:title" content=""><meta property="og:description" content="">
<meta property="og:image" content="http://marketing-blog.catalystemarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/DupeSpamPageFinder.jpg">
I had used Michael Cottam's Google+ My Business Page Finder a long time ago, but at that time we had tools that worked like Classic maps and +Local Search.
Now that we are left with Map Maker - and it's such a terrible solution for dupe and spam research...
I finally made time to try Michael's tool again.
MAN am I glad I did. I have a new best friend!
Let me illustrate why this tool is so much better than Map Maker.
EXAMPLE: A Chiro comes to you and says "I have a great G+ Local listing and good onsite SEO, but I'm still not ranking. Can you help me?"
The 1st thing I would do (if I still worked with clients, which I don't) before I even had his initial initial consultation, would be a quick audit to check for dupes or violations to gauge if extra work would be required or see if he was too spammy for me to want to work with.
PLUG HIS PHONE # INTO MAP MAKER for a QUICK CHECK
tl;dr Version - No phone#, no website, on 1st search page & no link to G+ L at all!
<img src="http://marketing-blog.catalystemarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/DupeSpamResearchMM.jpg" alt="DupeSpamResearchMM" width="55%" />
Note: The link you see does not go to G+ L or even show website, only shows NAP.
tl;dr Version - No phone#, no website, on 1st search page & no link to G+ L at all!
<img src="http://marketing-blog.catalystemarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/DupeSpamResearchMM.jpg" alt="DupeSpamResearchMM" width="55%" />
Note: The link you see does not go to G+ L or even show website, only shows NAP.
Wow what a mess! FYI I've used this guy as an example before and turned him in for spam a couple times to no avail. Many, many violations!
I would not touch this one with a 10 foot pole. However, if you were going to consider it you'd want more info right? You'd want to see if they were all using the same site and landing page. Would want to check phone #s. May want to click through to see the G+ L page to see if all are claimed or if some are maybe just unclaimed scraped dupes, right?
Well you can't do ANY OF THAT from Map Maker. Not without multiple clicks, drags, copy & paste.
GO TO THAT PAGE IN MM.
You'll see that the links in screenshot don't take you to the G+ L page. The 1st click does not even show you website or cats. Only shows NAP. If you click #1 to check further you can see phone, but you have to click again to see site.
Then have to go back and look at #2, all those same clicks. But you can't see everything on the same page, only 1 at a time. So then by the time you are down to #5 if you are old and spacey like me you think - "wait, which one of those 1st 4 had a different website?" You can't see without making 2 clicks per listing and have to go back through them all.
THEN if you want to go investigate the G+ L page you have to copy name to maps then copy phone to maps to try to get that specific fake name listing, because maps won't show you all these listings so you'll need to do a very specific NAP search to pull up the one you want.
PLUS he has other listings under a different phone # so you need to do a search by Chiro address or the other phone and do all those extra clicks to research all those as well. NIGHTMARE!
It would take 100 clicks and a TON OF TIME NONE OF US HAVE TO WASTE! Can you tell by all the red in this post how much Map Maker for research just makes my blood boil???
Check out Joy's post below to see all the steps needed to do this research in MM:
<a href="http://imprezziomarketing.com/seo-blog/google-2/step-by-step-guide-to-finding-duplicate-google-plus-listings-on-mapmaker-part-1/">Step-By-Step Guide to Finding Duplicate Google Plus Listings on MapMaker</a>
ENTER MICHAEL'S PAGE FINDER TOOL
tl;dr Version - Everything you need at a glance PLUS link to G+ L page and lander
<img src="http://marketing-blog.catalystemarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/DupeSpamResearchBizFinder.jpg" alt="DupeSpamResearchBizFinder" width="75%" />
tl;dr Version - Everything you need at a glance PLUS link to G+ L page and lander
<img src="http://marketing-blog.catalystemarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/DupeSpamResearchBizFinder.jpg" alt="DupeSpamResearchBizFinder" width="75%" />
Shows ALL the same listings but...
- FULL NAP+W shows, so don't have to do extra clicks to see phone or web site
- Can see all details of all listings at a glance (Without clicking)
- Direct links to G+ L page AND directly to landing page
If I had time & carpal strength, I would do a comparison of how many clicks and how much time it took to thoroughly research all these listings. It would be crystal clear how much of a time saver Michael's tool is.
Check it out and see what a huge time saver it is!
TECH NOTES & TOOL TIPS
When I 1st tried this tool a long time ago I didn't like it because it pulled a lot of unrelated results that needed to be sifted through. He added some GEO coding that greatly improved the results. Since it uses the Places API, in the limited tests I've run it pulls the same results that MM would show.
He explains above that you can do Phone # search in the biz name field. Since that's the 1st pass most of us make when dupe hunting, just wanted to mention phone search works perfectly. And as you can see in the example above, it pulls the same results that MM would.
I just reached out to Michael with some ideas for making this tool even better. He's traveling to conferences the next couple weeks, so we'll collaborate when he gets back.
I'll keep you posted and just may have a treat in store. We shall see...
Try it! And please let us know what you think???
<meta property="og:type" content="article"><meta property="og:title" content=""><meta property="og:description" content="">
<meta property="og:image" content="http://marketing-blog.catalystemarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/DupeSpamPageFinder.jpg">
