If I were Google I would...

[Dan Foland]

There's a lot to love about Google, and most of us that work in the industry also have a wish list of improvements. I thought it would interesting to see what everyone else would do if they were Google.

I'll start- If I were Google I would penalize businesses that continually break GMB's guidelines (keyword stuffing, fake reviews, fake offices.)

 

[BenFisher]

They do at certain points Dan. It takes continued abuse and large quantities of provable data. Cannot get into numbers or techniques that can trigger a ban (Dang NDA). But, one thing that is important to know is that Google can see repeated edits (say for name spam) and never gets rid of any data.

Also, escalating at the advertiser community forums is always a good idea since that helps create a record of abuse as well.

 

[Dan Foland]

@BenFisher Interesting. Does the penalty go further than a soft/hard suspension? I've seen both happen, but eventually they're right back where they were.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

@BenFisher you forgot to tell us your "If I were Google..."

 

[BenFisher]

@Colan Nielsen If I were Google I would lift the NDA so I can answer the question!

But really, if I was Google...I would...have a 3 strikes and you are out for 6 months policy