Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Can a competitor close your business on Google Places?
-
One of my listings says it has been closed and the business is not closed. On Google + / Google places there is a field that allows users to check that claims the business is closed. Can they actually close it?
Your Google Places listing has been updated Dear Google Places user,
Google has updated your listing data on our consumer properties such as Google and Google Maps to more accurately reflect the latest information we have about your business.
We use many sources to determine the accuracy of our listing data and to provide the best possible experience for business owners and consumers who use Google and Google Maps to find local information.
Based on our sources, the following listing has been marked as closed:
Company info...
If you disagree with the changes we have made, please visit your Place Page to edit your listing.
Note that if you are an AdWords or Boost customer, your ads will be unaffected by this change and will continue to display the listing information you have provided in Google Places. To manage your online advertisements, please sign into Google Places or Google AdWords.
For more information about updates to claimed listings, please visit:http://www.google.com/support/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1318197
Sincerely,
The Google Places Team|
-
Oooh...be careful, Donnie.
-
Yeah it's not fun... I have been contemplating a $5 Fiverr deal for 25 good reviews on G+ just to cover up all this spam. I don't like cheating/lying/spamming however I want to cover up all this spam...
-
I feel the headache you're experiencing, Donnie. So sorry about this and I couldn't agree with your more that Google's review process leaves much to be desired. But then, I don't know of a review entity that is perfect. Yelp has certainly come in for their share of public complaint for their policies. Google just tends to get the most heat because they are just so darned visible and powerful. What happens on Google directly effects the bottom line of the business owner, and there are no two ways about this. Over the years, I have written rather extensively urging Google to take serious responsibility for the effect they are having on businesses, especially on account of the fact that they initially populated their local index without owner consent. Suddenly, all local business owners were tossed into a sea of publicity, scrutiny and reputation management which few of them had the skills to handle. So, these days, to run a local business you've got to have the time to learn about Google because of its power over your presence and you've got to have good luck when coming up against the weaknesses and bugs of the system.
Google offers superb chances for visibility, but there are definitely big risks, too.
-
Actually all these spam attacks were done after the migration, people can just use a proxy and create ten Google accounts on 10 IPs. IMO Google should send a letter to every users house for verification (At lease the people who are interested in leaving reviews) and a company should be abe to rebuttal a fake review or report a review from a user they were never associated with.
-
Hi Donnie,
Wish I could guarantee that, but I've stopped underestimating the havoc evil-doers can cause in Google's Local entity. What is supposed to get better in the new Google+ Local environment is the spamming of reviews, because reviewers are now required to have a real ID. Assumedly, then, Joe Jones at the competing pizza house in your town isn't going to be able to go trash your pizza place anonymously because his name would be right on the review. We'll see how that plays out, but my word to the wise is that you should never consider any Google-based listing immune to anything. Maybe someday!
So glad my response was helpful, Donnie.
-
Thank you for this helpful answer. The listing was being spammed and Google is placing the listing back up. Now that Google is going to place the listing back, do you think it will be more immune to being attacked again?
-
Hi Donnie,
Unfortunately, yes, competitors can report your business as closed. Here is a legacy thread on this from Mike Blumenthal's copy of the old Google Places Help Forum which he saved when they shut it down:
http://places.blumenthals.com/threadb6b9.html
And here was a highly visible article from the New York Times on this problem:
Mike Blumenthal was so irked by this that he actually closed down Google's own listings in Places with a couple of clicks: http://blumenthals.com/blog/2011/09/14/google-places-now-permanently-closed-with-2-clicks-its-getting-worse-not-better/
Now, these issues were all from last year, prior to the Google Places changeover to Google+ Local, so let's take a look at some very recent reports of this issue:
And pay close attention to Linda Buquet's advice on this thread:
And here is a thread that actually got a response from a Google employee:
Basically, Donnie, if your business gets labeled with the closed label, you are going to have to try to appeal to Google either through the forum or their troubleshooter. There is a long, long history of issues with this, as you can see. Sometimes, this issue stems from competitive sabotage, and other times, the root of the problem can actually be duplicate listings or other problems.
I really hope the links I've provided will bring you up-to-date on this troublesome topic and point you in the right direction for resolution!
-
I don't think anyone can change it except the verified owner.
This makes me wonder though about Google needing to deal with the issue of businesses that may be owner verified and then go out of business. In most cases my guess would be that owners of failed businesses are not going to go in and close out their page or mark it as closed. So Google may have some need to close out claimed pages if they are getting data from different sources stating that the business is closed since they want to provide accurate information about businesses.
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
-
How to rank my website in Google UK?
Hi guys, I own a London based rubbish removal company, but don't have enough jobs. I know for sure that some of my competitors get most of their jobs trough Google searches. I also have a website, but don't receive calls from it at all. Can you please tell me how to rank my website on keywords like: "rubbish removal london", "waste clearance london", "junk collection london" and other similar keywords? I know that for person like me (without much experience in online marketing) will be difficult task to optimize the website, but at least - I need some advices from where to start. I'm also thinking to hire an SEO but not sure where to find a trusted company. Most importantly I have no idea how much should pay to expect good results? What is too much and what is too low? I will appreciate all advices.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | gorubbishgo0 -
How can I stop spam Google Organic traffic?
Hey Moz, I'm a rather experienced SEO who just encountered a problem I have never faced. I am hoping to get some advice or be pointed in the right direction. I just started work for a new client. Really great client and website. Nicer than most design/content. They will need some rel canonical work but that is not the issue here. The traffic looked great at first glance 131k visits in April. Google Analytics Acquisition Overview showed 94% of the traffic as organic. When I dug deeper and looked at the organic source I saw that Google was 99.9% of it. Normal enough. Then I looked at the time on site and my jaw dropped. 118,454 Organic New Users for Google only stayed on the site for 3 seconds. There is no way that the traffic is real. It does not match what Google Webmaster tools, Moz, and Ahrefs are telling me. How do I stop a service that is sending fake organic Google traffic?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | placementLabs0 -
Can we have 2 websites with same business name and same business address?
I have 2 websites with same business name and same business address, and obvious 2 different domain names. I am providing the same services from 2 websites. Is this is a problem?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AlexanderWhite0 -
Page position dropped on Google
Hey Guys, My web designer has recommended this forum to use, the reason being: my google position has been dropped from page 1 to page 10 in the last week. The site is weloveschoolsigns.co.uk, but our main business site is textstyles.co.uk the school signs are a product of text styles. I have been told off my SEO company, that because I have changed the school logo to the text styles logo, Google have penalised me for it, and dropped us from page 1 for numerous keywords, to page 10 or more. They have also said that duplicate content within the school site http://www.weloveschoolsigns.co.uk/school-signs-made-easy/ has also a contributed to the drop in positions. (this content is not on the textstyles site) Lastly they said, that having the same telephone number is a definate no no. They said that I have been penalised, because google see the above as trying to monopolise on the market. I don’t know if all this is true, as the SEO is way above my head, but they have quoted me £1250 to repair all the errors, when the site only cost £750. They have also mentioned that because of the above changes, the main text styles site will also be punished. Any thoughts on this matter would be much appreciated as I don't know whether to pay them to crack on, or accept the new positions. Either way I'm very confused. Thanks Thomas
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | TextStylesUK0 -
Is Google indexing Mp3 audio and MIDI music files? Can that cause any duplicate problems?
Hello, I own virtualsheetmusic.com website and we have several thousands of media files (Mp3 and MIDI files) that potentially Google can index. If that's the case, I am wondering if that could cause any "duplicate" issues of some sort since many of such media files have exact file names or same meta information inside. Any thoughts about this issue are very welcome! Thank you in advance to anyone.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | fablau0 -
Google places keyword variations
Hi all, I have a site that is ranking #1 in Google Places for its main <city><keyword>search... but it does not rank for any of its basic keyword variations, which I find very confusing.</keyword></city> ie (just an example) Chicago Caterer (ranked #1 in google places)
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | x2264983x
Chicago Caterers (not ranked in google places)
Chicago Catering (not ranked in google places)
Chicago Catering Company (not ranked in google places)
Chicago Catering Companies (etc..) How can I secure a google places ranking for these simple keyword variations? Do I build links to the google plus page using that anchor text? Do I get citations that contain that keyword somewhere on the page? Do I optimize for these keyword variations on the actual website itself? (not the places listing). Obviously I don't stuff these keywords into the google places listing. Any help would be much appreciated!0 -
Does Google hate wordpress?
I have my categories pages set to noindex, follow. I deactivated the author and date based archives, and all the /page/2 /page/3 are noindex. Is this the right approach? I had thought about adding some text to the topic of each category page and then changing them to index. I'm using showing recent post excerpts on the homepage. Another other suggestions? I think two of my sites are in panda for no good reason. It seems like non-wordpress blogs in my industry do better than comparable wordpress sites.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | KateV0 -
My own brand name disappeared from google?
Hi, about 20-30 hours ago my own brand name disappeared from google results (We redirected old domain to new one about a month ago) My website is: www.websiteplanet.com If you search for Website Planet in google you will not find our homepage any longer.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Ouzan
Not only that the brand name disappeared but we also dropped in rankings and lost about %50 of the organic traffic we had. It's important for me to say that we have never done any sort of blackhat or even greyhat SEO, at all. I could probably come up with many ideas of why it happened but maybe one of you mozzers already experienced this and could enlighten me. Will really appreciate any kind of response/help. Thanks.0