Question Regarding Multiple Google Places Pages
-
Hello,
One of my clients has about 20 different google places pages at locations that are not real. The previous SEO company thought that would help with local search. My problem is that several great reviews have been written on each page by real customers. I want to close the places pages for locations that don't exist, but I don't want to lose the reviews. Is anyone aware of a solution for this? I have searched Google's forums and have not found anything.
-
Hi Bjolley,
Thanks for coming to the forum to ask your question! I'm glad to see Members contributing their thoughts, but think a point needs to be clarified here.
This is not a case of claiming the 'best' profile and making it your client's authoritative Place Page - it is a case of claiming the CORRECT profile - the one for the business' legitimate location.
At this point, if this were my client, I would not be worrying about losing a few reviews on his phony Place Pages. I'd be sweating whether his account would be penalized before I could report the bogus listings through Google's report a problem link.
Now, that being said, I have seen cases where Google has accidentally displayed the reviews for one geographic location on another location's Place Page, but so far as I know, there is no way to save the reviews. Tell the client they are lucky you are trying to clean up the mess and that going forward, they will need to work on building up new reviews over time to replace what has been lost.
As a final thought, before you report the incorrect Place Pages, why not copy the good reviews and use them as testimonials on the client's website? You might even try doing this with hReview markup code to see if Google will eventually pick them back up again and display them on the authoritative Place Page. But first things first...tell the client you've got to get that record cleaned up as best you can, and fast!
Good luck to you!
Miriam
-
I don't think it would be a good idea to claim all of these profiles. Google will most likely just suspend your account. Claim only the best one with the most/best reviews on it. On all of the other duplicate profiles use the "report a problem" link and choose the "place has another listing" option. In the comments, give Google the direct URL to the claimed profile.
I am unsure how they will handle reviews for this, but at the very least you'll have a starting point with the best profile these previous "SEOs" did.
-
WOW an SEO firm that thought Quantity over Quality is important, NO!!!!!!
I am unaware of any solution for this, as I had a similar issue due to the company i work for has changed names a few times for Branding, so before i got here there were 3 -4 Place pages for each one of our 15 locations. It sucked to say the least especially since Google does not allow the use of extensions for authentication.
I would like to hear if anyone has any ideas, although I do not think it is possible. Especially since in most cases the comments are from 3rd party sources.
Hope you find an answer though!
w00t!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Google.com country redirection
As we all know, Google redirected the user based on location automatically.
Image & Video Optimization | | Moojin
e.g., connect to www.google.com from Korea, google automatically redirected to www.google.co.kr
However, for sometimes I noticed that if I connect to www.google.com, it doesn't redirect to local google anymore. I tested by using VPN, and seems like Google no longer do location redirection. Does anyone have any idea about this?0 -
High Domain and Page trust link building
What is the best way to build backlinks from high domain and page trust sites?
Image & Video Optimization | | WeissToyota0 -
New Google Maps - Does my strategy change?
I am currently in the process of ensuring our 70 locations are accurately portrayed in Google. Does the Google Maps update impact my efforts? My efforts being widespread citations spanning the local ecosystem, G+ optimization via Google Places, and in the future checking Google Map Maker for accuracy.
Image & Video Optimization | | SSFCU0 -
Reasons for store not showing up on Google?
Hi my client has a store which is not showing up on Google search results. E.g. if you looked up store name and store location on Google, all the stores in that particular city show up except one. Also even if you click the: More results near CITY, and State the stores listing still doesn't show up. So for some reason Google has excluded the store from Google search. But if you go to Google Maps directly, and type in the same keyword "STORE NAME CITY" the store is displayed and there. Does anyone know any reason why the store has been excluded from Google search results, but is listed successfully on Google Maps.
Image & Video Optimization | | MBASydney0 -
Google + Local for client with no physical address and multiple phone nos
Hi I have a client who is service-based and goes out to his local customers' homes to conduct his business. He operates from home so does not want to show his home address, he also has a number of local telephone numbers that divert to his mobile. I was wondering which type of category to put his business into, my ideal would be local business but for that I need to add the address the question is can I still hide the address the way you used to in the old format or is there other recommendations to optimise his local placement?
Image & Video Optimization | | AllieMc0 -
Local SEO Issue: Google Places Listing on Page 8
Hello, I'm having an issue with a client's Google Places listing. It's showing on page 8 for one of the main keyword terms but their main site is on page 1. Having looked into competitors' places listings ranking above, I've ruled out the following; lack of citations inconsistent citations incomplete profile incorrect category listing details not matching places landing page incorrect location and any form of keyword stuffing Other places listings ranking above have fewer citations, incomplete profiles, details inconsistent with their main site, one is no longer trading as a business and one has no website! In the past, our client had had two listings simultaneously but we addressed this waaaay back. Is it possible we could still be getting punished? I'm at a bit of a loss otherwise. Any thoughts would be hugely appreciated. Thankyou!
Image & Video Optimization | | jasarrow0 -
Google+Local Reviews have gone? Any ideas?
Hi Since Google switched places to Google+ Local lots of the reviews that were on the listing are no longer showing? A customer of mine brought up the point when visiting the store today, when they are logged into Google they can see their review under Your Activity, however when they are logged out the only review is listed under 1 Review from everyone and the review is no longer being shown? Any ideas on what is going on? Also with local search / places optimisation has the best practice guidelines changed now that is transformed into Google+ Local? If so it would be great to share any links on getting the most out of this new + local service
Image & Video Optimization | | ocelot0 -
Is it a bad idea to include a single keyword phrase at the end of the business name in Google Places?
I'm concerned about this for local SEO and citation purposes. It's not spammy and it flows well, and it sounds like a logical extension of our name, but I'm concerned that it will make it harder for Google to pick up our citations. Any thoughts?
Image & Video Optimization | | greghard0