Tips for avoiding the Hall of Shame and the wrath of the SEO Police?

[HunterP]

Hello All,

I totally understand the frustrations involved with trying to honestly market ones business and dealing with the cheat marketers that will do anything to get ahead.

Many seem to relish in the action of "busting" a business that either actually does or appears to Keyword stuff their Name/Location.

My question is about businesses that have legitimate names (many times older or the original business in an area) that APPEAR to have keyword stuffed.

They may ACTUALLY be named "Toronto Condos" or "Pittsburgh Locksmith" or named their business long before anyone ever heard of the term keyword stuffing.

Is there a place or process that one can go through to list or post all the pertinent facts, pics and documents BEFORE the DO-good police erroneously get ones legitimate business demoted?

It is easy to post a pic of the front of your B&M business showing the sign (maybe not so much if your "sign" is a listing on the reader-board in your buildings lobby) but makes no sense to post your business license, bank account info ect on your site or other public place.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hey Hunter. Great discussion topic. It's quiet here on weekends tho. I'll try to remember to bump this tomorrow to get some feedback started.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Hey Hunter, great question. If it is a legit business and it legitimately has those types of names than I wouldn't worry too much. Google rarely takes stuffed name businesses down and the volunteers such as Map Maker regional leads are good with their due diligence. So if there are records of that business being legit than it won't get taken down.

Worst case scenario, there is a listing reinstatement option with Google or you can post the case at the GMB Forum and one of the TC's can escalate it to the Google Community Manager.

 

[JoyHawkins]

I would probably suggest taking photos from the street showing the sign of the business so you can tell it's not photoshopped (yes, spammers stoop to that level). I know lots of mappers rely heavily on Street View so if the business is legitimately named that, you have nothing to worry about.