Incorrect Business Names/Duplicate Listings - When To Escalate To Spam Report?

[ianscott]

I have three different clients who have spammy competition as far as GMB listings. One huge example are Benjamin Moore paint dealers. Many of them, in their GMB listing have their business name listed as something like:

My Great Paint Shop / Benjamin Moore Orangeville.

There are dozens of these types of listings - the business is legitimate, it exists, but that is NOT their official business name.

I've tried the "suggested edits" and remove the Benjamin Moore Local Place - in some cases, my edit has been accepted immediately, only to revert back a few days later or still shows as pending, several days later.

I've also seen this with a dental clinic that has multiple locations - they add the local city name after their official name, for each clinic.

Am wondering if it would be reasonable to move on to the official spam report form that Google has when edits are not showing up or are being reversed?

Any thoughts on this?

 

[StephanieNewton]

Hey Ian,

If you're referencing the Business Redressal form, Google no longer accepts keyword stuffing complaints through there sadly.

Have you tried contacting GMB support via Twitter? If I were you, I'd compile a list of the businesses that are keyword stuffing and provide info on when/how frequently I'd suggested edits, and send that to GMB support. If you can get photos of the business's location to show they're using a different name on GMB to in real life, that should help too. If you can't access the locations in person you could even look at the business on Street View to see if there's any contradictory signage and take a screenshot of that.

It might also be worth sharing this info on the GMB support forum, as a Product Expert could possibly help you out and/or escalate the claim.