Reporting a large spam network

[MaryAnne G]

Hi all -
I recently discovered a competitor of a client who appears to have a very large spam network, featuring:

- Doorway sites on exact match keyword domains - about 100 of them (all linking to their main site - that's what got me started looking)
- Fake GMB listings to match (the competitor has just one physical location)
- Each GMB page has approx 20-30 reviews with very suspicious reviewer patterns

Any suggestions as to how to go about reporting this?

 

[JoyHawkins]

For the last 2, you can create a thread on the Google My Business forum and post the link to the thread here and I can send it to Google for you.

For the first one, I would file a webspam report.

 

[MaryAnne G]

Thanks Joy - that would be great! I'm familiar with the webspam report, reporting this many bad listings to GMB is a new one for me.
What documentation do I need and in what format? I assume the maps URLs of all the listings? Website domains? (Some are only linked to GMB via the same phone number) Screenshots of suspect reviews? Evidence of the relationshp to the actual business?

 

[JoyHawkins]

@MaryAnne G Everything you need to know is here: How to Properly Report Spam on the Google My Business Forum - The Google Advertiser Community - 1608196

 

[MaryAnne G]

Update: Link to forum thread -
https://www.en.advertisercommunity.com/t5/Spam-Policy/Large-Auto-Lease-Spam-Network/td-p/1832139

There are two documents - one is an overview and explanation, the other is a spreadsheet of the 133 spam profiles. I hope this is all the information that's needed!

 

[Tim Colling]

@MaryAnne G please report back here when there is a resolution and let us know how this turned out for you. I have another one myself, that I will get around to reporting soon.

 

[Phil Rozek]

@MaryAnne G and @Tim Colling, if you DM me with info on the fake GMB listings, I'd be glad to send in edits.

 

[MeganR]

I'm curious...what's the industry? Plumbing, Legal, Garage Door Repairs?

 

[MaryAnne G]

This is Auto Leasing.

I was talking about this with our client the other day - so what do they say? "Why aren't we doing that?"

<headdesk>

 

[Tim Colling]

@MaryAnne G and @Tim Colling, if you DM me with info on the fake GMB listings, I'd be glad to send in edits.

Will do, as soon as I complete the inventory in this one case. It's amazing (to me, at least).

Thanks,@Phil Rozek !

 

[JoyHawkins]

I'm very confident Google will remove all the listings. Some spammer somewhere is going to hate you for undoing their work overnight.

I've seen similar sized networks but not normally in such a small radius.

 

[MaryAnne G]

The client is (hopefully) going to love me - some of that spam bumped him out of the pack.

I was amazed at how many sites they were running - and I'm not 100% convinced I've found all of them yet! While matching up sites and GMB URLs I discovered a few that weren't on my original list. Domain registration alone must have cost them a small fortune (especially renewals at Godaddy - ouch!)

 

[JoyHawkins]

They better love you! The impact of getting rid of this much competition should be huge.

 

[Phil Rozek]

Yeah. Another upshot is that a cleaned-up local map can eventually become a deterrent.

Occasionally I see a local map that's so competitive that it's immaculate. Would-be spammers are a little less likely to try something, if it doesn't seem to be the way to get ahead.

Also, I would imagine that some onetime maps-spammers eventually figure, "OK, if I can't get away with spamming, nobody else will," and rat each other out.

 

[BenFisher]

Fantastic documentation @MaryAnne G ! I hope you get kudos from your client for all that hard work and skill! I wish everyone would report with that much data, makes our Product Expert job so much easier.

@Phil Rozek I talk to so many people that say just that, if you can't beat em (because you are doing things the right way) report em.