Google Map Spam & How To Stop It

Welcome to our second podcast on our eight-part series on Google My Business. I'm going to try my best to follow the script for our YouTube video that we put out. And I'm going to put those links in the show notes, each one of the links to those. So, if you want to go catch that video so you can see the screenshots and screencasts, it's a lot easier to follow this and to know what's going on.

And to be honest with you, you're going to have to. To, to dig in a little bit. I can talk about this all day long, but until you see it, it's not going to have a lot of meaning unless you've been doing these things. I'm going to tell you what spam is. I'm going to tell you how to fight it, what your remedies are for it.

But, but in the end,  you got, you really need to see it. So, let me start off first by telling you why I consider all of these guys spammers. And the reason I call them all spammers is because that's what they're doing. And it, you know, in my opinion, it doesn't matter. They know it's wrong or not. It's wrong.

It's unfair. And as far as Google is concerned, you can't do it. And let me also state that. If you're doing some of these things, be aware they're spam, and it could get your GMB listing suspended and there are two different kinds of suspensions. The soft suspension and hard suspension. I'll cover those just right quick.

I didn't in the video because of time constraints, but a soft suspension is where they actually, Google's gonna suspend your Google. My business listing is still there. If somebody searches for you or searches in the area, you just won't be able to edit anything until you get the suspension lifting. Now hard suspension is when you can edit anything, and they take it out of the listings where people can't even see it.

Now that's the one you just absolutely don't want. Either one of those can be a pain to get out of. I mean, I've had a couple of, and just to let you know, there's no rhyme or reason why it could happen. I've had three companies of mine that manage that got their GMB suspense. But this year they were all saw suspensions and there was, there was absolutely no reason behind it.

The only thing that you're going to get told by Google is that you violate their rules, quality standards, that that could be anything or nothing. So, in one case, it took me five weeks to get. A listing back for roof crafters. Now I got one back for peak perfection out in Texas within 48 hours. That's pretty quick.

And then I think we had one on cobalt and we may have had one. On one other company and those got fixed pretty quick. So, Google my business. Of course, they were coming out of code and everything. So, Google my business that the service is better, but it kit depending on what's going on in there and depending on yeah.

What level of tech support you got? Then, you know, it could be could take a while to get these back. So, be careful if you're doing some of it, these things, and you, as I'm saying these things, you might be going, Oh, I'm doing the right thing. I'm going to be in the local pack. That's great. For now. So just be aware of that.

I also want to let you know, Google is catching more spam every month and every time we will make some algorithm updates and they make them a lot every week. Excuse me. Yeah. They probably do make them every week. Little ones. So just let you know, you might get away with it now, but once they hit you with another algorithm, right.

Makes it easier for them to find, just be aware that it could become. So I stopped deeper into the several tactics that these guys are using. And the first one we're going to talk about in, in of course I've got a screenshot and everything in the video, but what I got here? And I'm kind of following that script.

So I'm looking at the screenshot in the video here. And the first one that we're talking about is a home. As a location. Okay. When you're looking in the local pack, nothing looks wrong. So it looks completely legitimate. But the thing is guys, there's only three y'all that are going to be in there. You gotta make sure that if somebody is beating you in this location, that they deserve it.

Well, we pull the first guy up and absolutely he's not only is he spamming it. He's got a house which looks abandoned to me. And you know, in the video, I'll talk about that a little bit deeper. But he, it absolutely looks abandoned to me. So either way that is not a legitimate address, nor a legitimate location in the GMB.

Now, when I'm looking at some of these things in the local pack, some of them just jumped right out at me. And it could be that the images that I'm saying it could be the name, it could be. The fact that I don't see anything wrong with it, but they don't have very many reviews. And yet they're baiting somebody with over a hundred is a lot of reviews in roofing.

You don't see that a lot, but you know, a guy with one or two or three reviews. And on top of that, he might be a 2.5 star or a three-point something. And he's beaten the guy with 80 or 90 reviews with a 4.8 or 4.9. So yeah, that's just not happening. And the only way that you're going to get away with this is if.

You've got a market where either I'm not in there or either you've got somebody that doesn't, there's nobody that knows what's going on working for a roofing contractor. But just as soon as somebody that has gone through one of these series either was mine or somebody else's and then it what's going on, they can do the same things to get these spam yeah.

Out of there and get it where it's, everybody's playing on an even keel here. So just remember that. Just because you are not an agency. And just because right this minute, you really don't know exactly what to do by the time you get through this eighth podcast and you jumped back onto the website or either a video or two, and you see some of the ways to get rid of these spammers, you will absolutely be able to get these guys out of your way.

So that's what my goal is in this podcast series. And the video series is to show you one high importance. Your Google, my business is for. Developing leads and prospects and ultimately your, your client list, but how important it is for your money. So let's throw it back on that example that I was using over in mobile, Alabama, where I said that this is spamming on steroids here.

And you know, I'm not going to say the first, well, I guess my one out he's on the screenshot in the video is George bank builders. Okay. So George bank, if you're watching this, you know, we need to clean this up, whether you do it yourself or whatever, but anyway, George Beck builders is an example that I use in here.

And this one's easy to spot. So we've got George Beck builders. So what do you want to do is you see that hyphen and we know that most likely everything past that is going to be spam, right? So we've got a residential roofer. And so he's got an and in their home remodel and roof repair, mobile, Alabama. So this guy has got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

He's got eight keywords that are stuffed into there. And why all of this matters, because he's got residential. Roofer home remodeler roof repair, mobile, Alabama. So Mobile Alabama is important because that's where he's working. So this is just, this is awful. This is one of the of the worst I've seen.

So what you want to do is. You know, typically everybody's going to have, if you've got a website, they're going to have a link to your website. So you want to jump over to the website and you can clearly see in this example, I've got it. Is George Beck builders. It is not all this other stuff you can put, whatever else you want to pass there.

That's not the way it's going to be, but. We jump over it. And we look at the BP they profile and it's the same thing, George bank builders. And you look at the secretary of state. So these are all things in places that you could go to check these guys out, to see what is legitimate. So why is this important?

Because once you start fighting this, you have to prove to Google that these guys are spamming it, or they will not take it down. You have got to prove it to the point. That it is like if you're in a court of law and you're standing in front of a judge and you've got two trial attorneys there and you're, you're debating this back and forth.

Okay, well, Chuck, this is, this is not spam. Oh yes, your honor. It is. And here's why I've got the BBB profile, which Google is not going to look at very many websites out there. For this kind of thing. Of course, they're going to look at the secretary of state, but they also take the BBB profile. So that's an easy, quick place that you could get proof also, the website you're going to need to get that you're going to have to prove to Google that everything passed.

It is basically what's called a modifier. I'm just going to touch on the ways that you can get rid of these guys. You can do it. What's called just an edit yourself. And sometimes that will work. It just depends. But you still have to prove to Google that these things don't belong, whether it be an illegitimate address or whether it be keyword stuffing, you've got to prove it to Google.

So you've got to take a lot of screenshots. If you can physically go out and take pictures of this stuff, especially on addresses. Use a street view is one thing, but it's better. If you can get a picture from your iPhone. To send to them or there's, what's called an in deeper and you know, you'll, you'll need a little help to get to this one.

It's called a redressal form, and that is not a re-address form. It's a redress form. And that's something that if you can't get them out of the way with an edit, then you can use their redressal form. Now I'm a level seven local guide with Google and I have hundreds and hundreds. Of approved edits.

So it's easier for me to get somebody out by just making an edit than it might be. If you've never done an edit before you don't really know what you're doing there, or you're, you're not a local guide. You have no authority built up with Google, let's say yet. So I've been doing this for a long time and I've got a lot of edits approved now before COVID hit.

If it was something like keyword stuffing or an illegitimate address that was plain as day. And I could get some good screenshots in there. I could get those things removed in under three minutes now, thanks to covert. This has made it really fun. It can take weeks to get them out of there. So that's a pain because they're still ripping you off during that time.

And I've seen some that didn't give them get approved. Even that I turned in there just. Blatantly apparent. So you just had to keep on and keep on and keep on. And that's why spam fight. And it's something that you're going to need to do from now, because you could get a competitor this much weaker than you.

They could jump on top of your listing simply because they're stuffing every, okay. I've gone into some things that I didn't go into. In the video simply because of time. And I say that this podcast is already clicking at 11, so, but here's the thing. These are some things that you have to know. If you're going to go fight this spam and get it out of your way.

So. Again, get in touch swimming if you're not sure you need some clarification on things I'm going to have in the show notes, I'm going to have a link to the blog post that goes with this particular podcast. So you can jump on my website and see the screenshots. And if you want to do the video, it'll be there too.

But the screenshots and the screencasts, and that'd be kind of where I'll walk you through it just a little bit. Uh, with a little short video inside of that, those will be available too. So if you have any questions, need to go deeper. What made it look at your market to say who's spamming you? Or, or if you're clean, just let me know.

Check out our website for more information on this digital marketing tactic for roofing contractors and more. 

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