Marking a G+ Listing as Closed vs Deleting the Listing?

[russofford]

Hi,

When would it be appropriate to marking a business listing as 'closed' vs. deleting it from Google Places/Maps.

Of course we would all love for Google to just delete a dupe listing or an old listing with an outdated address... but should/can we just 'delete' the listings instead of marking them as closed?

Must we always follow the rule of marking a listings as closed if the business moved or a lawyer left a law firm... or is it worth it to try to get the listing deleted first, and then if that doesn't work, resorting to marking it as closed?

I would like to reference the discussion at SEOMoz that Linda has participated in: The to Delete a Google Places Listing - YouMoz | SEOmoz

Sincerely,

Russ

 

[Colan Nielsen]

It certainly seems that this issue is still up for a lot of debate. At the end of the day, the best practice for a listing with an old address is to mark it as closed. Once it's marked as closed, Google should begin the process of removing it from the index.

Ultimately there is really no way to officially delete a listing from Google Places. Even if you claim and delete it from maps from within the places dash, the listing will still linger as long as there are other citations that can vouch for it. If the listing also happens to be claimed somewhere else, then the action of deleting from maps from within the dash becomes even more futile.

This is a great topic Russ. I'd love to hear what others think about it.

 

[russofford]

Once it's marked as closed, Google should begin the process of removing it from the index.

I'd be interested to hear from others who have previously marked a listing as 'closed'... does Google keep the listing live forever with the status showing 'closed' on the G+ Local page... or does it eventually disappear from the database?

Does Google WANT the info to stay in their database so that searchers can 'see' that the business is closed and can read the old reviews, etc.? If a 'closed' listing stays forever... I can see why trying to 'delete' it first would be better than closing it.


Russ

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hang on, answers and an important new post coming on this within the hour.

 

[Linda Buquet]

does Google keep the listing live forever with the status showing 'closed' on the G+ Local page... or does it eventually disappear from the database?

Does Google WANT the info to stay in their database so that searchers can 'see' that the business is closed and can read the old reviews, etc.? If a 'closed' listing stays forever... I can see why trying to 'delete' it first would be better than closing it.

Yes it will stay live. Maybe not forever. If all citations and mentions of the business all over the net were deleted, it may eventually drop off.

But marking closed pulls it out of the index so it won't come up for KW searches, only a direct name search.

BUT as Colan said, Google will no longer delete listings. Even if you delete/suspend in dash it WON'T go away. Or if you can somehow temporarily delete, it will just come back if there are other listings anywhere on the net at that location.

Basically IMHO the whole reason for the need to close start over AND the reason Google will no longer delete listings (or Dr. dupes) is because their scraper mechanism is out of control and it's futile to fight it! They've realized it's pointless or too much support time to try to keep fixing problems like correcting addresses the bots continuously change back to the previous address - SO instead, we have to jump through hoops and bandaid it by closing and starting over.
(Again simply my opinion.)

NEW INFO - Google finally did an official help doc for how to properly move. I've been asking for this for a LONG time so it would not just be me and a couple other TCs telling folks this, but we'd have something official to back it up. Not very detailed, but better than nothing.

How To: Google FINALLY Releases How to Move Local Listing Help Doc

 

[Dave Cosper]

This is helpful. Thanks! I'm going to distribute this to our team.

 

[Andrew Sawyer]

There is no difference between 'delete' and 'close' as close is just a subset of the delete command in MapMaker. It doesn't actually delete it rather removes it from the public eye. If you 'close' something but search for it, the feature will appear but will display this feature has closed/moved/etc. message. When you delete for spam it gets removed from the public eye, but you can't find those features via a search. I think there isn't much to get hungup on regarding a distinction between closing vs. deleting. Unless there is something specific in the Dashboard.

Regarding the new Places guidelines, they're nothing different from the Map Maker ones that say:

This place is closed: Indicates that the place is out of business or temporarily closed.

• The feature has moved from one place to another (this is only the case when the new location is in a different city/state/country).

It is good that Google is finally providing clarity on the Places side of things.