MAJOR Google Local KW & City Stuffing - Watch me Nuke This One

[Google Forum Bot]

I found this listing https://plus.google.com/118140462586347233486/about?gl=us&hl=en and the location is just list of towns in Cook County, IL. I'd like to know how to do it because it's seems like a good idea. It might be against rules thou. Any one cares to explain, please? Darek

Curated from the Google and your Business Forum...

 

[Linda Buquet]

LOOK at all the cities stuffed in that address!!!
No Address??? Just a big string of cities???

Absolutely amazing the algo even allows it.
The address should be done like MM, so this crap can't happen!
Many of the others I'm investigating are still getting away with UPS addresses too.

Title is major stuffed too. (AND THE SITE LINK DOES NOT EVEN WORK)


I'm PRETTY SURE I know the spammy agency that did this. I'm investigating a bunch of other similar listings. They have THOUSANDS of clients and you guys all have to compete against these scum bags!
And they have HUNDREDS of SMB scam complaints because they also threaten SMBs that
have not claimed listing - "List with us or we'll DELETE your listing!"

Below is screen shot so you can see it before I get it NUKED.
Then I'll report them and track how long it takes Google to shut this one down.

​

G+ L Link: https://plus.google.com/118140462586347233486/about?gl=us&hl=en
MAP link: Google Maps

USING THIS AS A LITTLE MINI CASE STUDY...

I'm going to report now right on the listing (not personally escalating to my Google contacts) and then we'll track how long it takes the map team to nuke it.

Andrew/Gregg, please don't help. I'm testing turn-around times on natural edits without any help.

Business Owners - Be Wary of Who you Work with and Check out their Reputation!

 

[Linda Buquet]

OK here is notes from my Report a Problem ticket.

Thanks for your feedback about Shower Renovation Bathroom Construction/Design/Remodeling

Name is incorrect: FAKE KW stuffed Name. (This is Linda Places TC)

Address is incorrect: HOW can a string of cities like this, instead of an address, even be allowed by the algo???

Website is incorrect: Link does not even work

Comments: Total spam and bogus listing.

I'll report back and let you know when Google maps reacts and what they say.

 

[Phil Rozek]

Gnarly. I haven't seen a Google listing that bad for a while. I'm glad Google is making progress in other areas, but this really is the final frontier.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Ya Phil. I just can't get over all the cities in the address field. Seems the system would choke on that. I would think they had to pull some type of trick to do that because I really think it would say address invalid and not even let you hit submit.

BUT I'm wondering if address was hidden. And in the top service area field they put all the cities in there??? That may work!

My listing is merged so I can't edit in dash to test it out.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Just following up with this case study. Got the Maps autoresponder.

Thank you for notifying us about an issue with Shower Renovation Bathroom Construction/Design/Remodeling! We appreciate your taking time to share your local knowledge to make Google Maps better.

It can take us a few weeks to verify the information and publish changes.
We'll send you an update as soon as we're done.

Please note that this business is owner-verified, which means the owner who manages the listing can make changes directly to the business. (If you are the owner of this listing, please visit:
http://www.google.com/placesforbusiness. For trouble-shooting changes to your listing, use this:
My listing has incorrect information..)

Regards,
The Google Maps team

 

[Flash]

I'm curious to see if you get any results. When I use that pathway, the normal response back is that it's Places verified and thus it must be OK; ie. no further action taken.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Yep Gregg, so far that's the reply I got.

But I've done this before on blatant violations and they've done the edits in about 2 days.

(NOTE: Not doing this because I'm a vigilante, more so just for the exercise, case study and to test turn around times on map edits.)

So if they don't do anything and I want to push this further. (Without your help, just for the experience.) Would my next step be to edit in MM? That would probably be good for me just to get over my fear of doing edits in MM.

 

[Flash]

Yes, sometimes it works, but more often than not on Places claimed listings you get the most ridiculous answers. The timeline can also vary like crazy, I've had Report a Problem items finally worked on a year after I submitted it.

Even the spam team can be frustrating. I have a network of "luxury apartments" right now that we're having trouble convincing them to take down. It basically works that if you own a strata apartment that's available for rent, you sign up with this company and they will promote it as an executive suite (single apartments, not entire buildings). They put a marker on every apartment across the nation. The spam team is fine with this because they've been Places verified and thus must exist. We're giving them one more chance and then it goes to a different team; we have multiple options.

But back to what you would do next, yes, next is Map Maker. If it was just keyword stuffing the name, you would fix the name. But this is complete spam, so use "Delete" and under the options choose "Spam/Abuse".

 

[MiriamEllis]

Agree with Phil. That's one of the most egregiously spammy listings I've seen in a long time. In fact, it's so bad, it almost looks like an error. Any chance of that?