When Google looks the other way

[Phil Rozek]

In some uncompetitive local markets, it's still the Wild West. Case in point:



Yes, that's the name of the Google+Local page.

Makes you chuckle a little, huh?

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Wow, Phil. Can you say EPIC FAIL.

And if I can interpret the Map Maker history correctly (and I most likely can't), it looks like it's probably been that way since 2011.

 

[Phil Rozek]

Wow, Phil. Can you say EPIC FAIL.

Sure can, Colan. If there was a person at Google who's in charge of local QC, his/her mugshot would have that caption. It's an epic win for the business. Hey, he has a one-box Google+Local result.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Knarly! You would think ones like that would trip a filter and be easily caught by the algo!

 

[WineCountryCarpetCleaning]

Is there any way that is a blended result and that is his page title? Still a pretty spammy page title.

 

[Colan Nielsen]

No, it is unfortunately the actual business name on the G+ Local page itself. Just do a search in maps for the phone number.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Plus the URL is plus.google.com not site.com

 

[Phil Rozek]

+1 what Colan and Linda said. Also, if you just click on the Google+ link, you'll see that the page itself is named that. I originally didn't want to post the query, because who knows how long they'll be listed, but here goes: Google

 

[WineCountryCarpetCleaning]

Its interesting that they spammed the crap out of the title but didn't spam the categories, or the description.

 

[MiriamEllis]

Phil,
This made me laugh out loud. Classic. Thank you for the chuckle.

 

[Phil Rozek]

Its interesting that they spammed the crap out of the title but didn't spam the categories, or the description.

Indeed. What I find even more amazing is that there's no website. Any self-respecting spammer / ignoramus has a website that's every bit as keyword-stuffed as his Google page!

 

[Nick.SEOSpark]

Good find Phil! It's really irritating when those things fly under the radar.

Has anyone reported this yet?

 

[Linda Buquet]

If not, we should do a gang reporting and track how long it takes.

 

[Andrew Sawyer]

If not, we should do a gang reporting and track how long it takes.

It only took 3 hours from when I modified the name, address, and website, and subsequently deleted for Spam/Abuse for being a SAB and not hiding the address.

 

[Phil Rozek]

It only took 3 hours from when I modified the name, address, and website, and subsequently deleted for Spam/Abuse for being a SAB and not hiding the address.

You da man, Andrew.

 

[Jo Shaer]

Yup, we had a similar good laugh when we were researching another client's competition recently. It's astonishing what people are still getting away with... as well as extremely frustrating.

One competitor had two listings in the top 7, both with titles in a similar vein to the one Phil has highlighted - one where they had an office address AND one where they had listed themselves at a Flat! (Apartment to my US colleagues)

How do people feel about reporting this type of thing? I always get a bad karma feeling...

And we still don't have MapMaker over here