Multiple Google Places listings under review

[EssexGirl]

I have a client with a waste removal business who had multiple listings on his Google Places account for different service locations.

Over the last four months I have been creating separate listings for each separate service location, each under a different Google account and with a unique business name, address, phone number and website URL. They have all been verified by postcard and listed separately in local directories so that they have citations. As I have been creating the new listings I have also been deleted the old ones to make sure they are not flagged as duplicates.

2 months ago all the listings in the client's Google Places account were placed under review. I made some changes and submitted it for re-review but no go with Google.

Now all the new listings I set up have also suddenly been placed under review.

About a week ago I noticed that information in two separate Google Places listings was being mixed up - for example, the website URL for one listing was being shown in another listing. There is no connection between these two listings other than that they were both set up from the same IP address so this seems very strange. I reported this to Google and asked them to sort it out, then all of a sudden I found that ALL of the new listings had been placed under review. So now my client has no active listings at all.

He can't afford to wait another 2 months for Google to review all the listings again so I am wondering whether the best course of action would just be to delete everything and start over.

Any advice would be most welcome!

[EssexGirl]

Just to pick up your point about keywords in the title. Yes, all the new business listings have keyword rich titles - e.g. Dagenham Waste Removal, so you could be right about that being the source of the problem.

[EssexGirl]

Thanks for the reply.

I hear what you're saying about not creating even more confusion but this situation requires some form of human intervention to unravel and getting someone at Google to respond is nigh on impossible.

Just to be clear, all the new listings I have set up are on separate accounts. They have all been verified by postcard and up until recently were appearing normally in Google Places.

The other suggestion that has been made is that I should set up service locations on the main listing rather than separate listings for each location but as the main listing is suspended I can't do that. It does appear to be a catch 22 situation.

[EssexGirl]

Thanks for your reply Robert.

Google doesn't appear to offer the option of phone verification in the UK so I have been forced down the postcard verification route.

Each of the listings has a different business name based on the locality (e.g. Dagenham Waste Removal, Romford Waste Removal) physical address, phone number and website URL.

The reason why I set up separate listings for each service location was that the consensus on the Google forum was not to put all your eggs in one basket.

[RobertFisher]

Jan, we have several clients with multiple locations and have not run into this problem. Your issue begs a few more questions, so sorry for the long answer.

Your client is in waste removal and I am assuming your multiple locations are in the same city. I wonder why you are using post cards as opposed to phone numbers for your verification given that using phone numbers is near instantaneous for verification? In highly competitive industries/keywords like brick and mortar dating, etc. my experience has been that Google is a bit more sensitive. Waste removal - is a highly competitive term so, likely more 'watched.'

You stated the URL was different for each listing, do they have common phone numbers? The problem with this is Google really doesn't like call centers for Places. They seem to prefer differing phone numbers.

Currently within Google's known issues on Places is Inability to request reconsideration of a Places listing: Google Places › Help articles › Google Places Known Issues. While this is not your exact issue, you may be better off following the advice there and just start over. Given that this has now been two months....I would start over.

First, I would go into each account and delete it from appearing. I would then create a new Google mail account for each location (again assuming they are real locations and not PO boxes or UPS boxes with 'addresses'). I would insure that if I am using the same domain name in the URL that each location had its own page with address and a distinct phone number and I would verify using that number. 
I would also not take months but do each and every one asap. On categories, where possible if a differing service is offered I would certainly show it. Lastly, if the problem is there is one location and multiple service areas, you need to use one account and then show your service areas as opposed to trying to list each.

[Bevelwise]

I don't think you're going to like the course of action here, because it is be patient.  Google's database that runs Google Places has had issues with duplication and mixing up listings going back a long time.  They have gotten better over time but are not perfect.  I would not continue deleting and recreating things in their database because I think it will only cause more confusion.  You could go to the Google Places forum and try to get some assistance there if you have not already done that.  They are mostly moderated by the community, but some times you'll see Google employees responding to posts and expediting.

Was there anything in the listing that flagged it for review?  Often times people try to use keywords in the title of the listing because it has improved performance in the past, but they do not like that.  Moving forward if you want to make changes to a current listing I would just make sure that listing is verified and then process changes as opposed to deleting old listings and creating new listings on top of them, which is what it sounds like is happening, but correct me if I'm misunderstanding.