Shutting down rogue G+ Pages
-
We are helping a client clean up some past agencies SEO work in G+ and needed to figure out the best way to shut down duplicate G+ pages.
The pages were created with post office boxes, household addressed, etc to create a location in multiple cities. What is the most efficient way to shut down 40+ pages in 5+ cites? Do we need to get usernames/passwords for all of these to shut them down?
Has anyone had luck getting Google's help on mass cleanup like this?
Signed,
Exhausted already!
-
I figured, but was hoping for some off the wall genius!
-
Thanks, SEO 5 Team. Appreciate the kind words!
-
Awesome response Miriam. No short cuts on this one Jake
-
Hi Jake,
Oh, my, that sounds like a really bad situation! Yes, you've got to get rid of these. If these listings are duplicates of an accurate, honest listing with a genuine physical street address, then the best thing to do is to use the 'report a problem link' on each page. Do not claim these listings! But do be logged into the client's authoritative account while you report the problems. Click the 'place is a duplicate' box and describe as best you can. In the description field, include the URL of the single, accurate listing. State that you are the business owner and are attempting to clean up spam created by a previous SEO company. Be as detailed as you can.
Now, once you've accomplished this, you need to engage in a citation cleanup campaign, searching the web for all possible references to these bogus addresses associated with the business name or phone number. These also need to be cleaned up to try to clean up Google's data cluster about the business.
Nota Bene: Before I touched this project, I would let the incoming client know that, while I will make my best effort, this level of spam is pretty egregious and I cannot guarantee results here because of this. The business may already be penalized. Bad citations may continue to auto-populate for years to come. It's really a mess. So, I would do my best, but 40 spam listings in 5 cities is a scarily tall order for anyone to clean up.
Hang in there, Jake. I'm not surprised you're already exhausted!
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
-
Is it still true that when your video is shown in a Google Video Carousel your page is not shown in the normal SERPS?
Hello everybody, I'm trying to decide whether it's worth it to invest time in optimizing my video's to appear in the video carousels on Google. I read that once your video is in the carousel, your normal snippet in the SERPS is removed. Is this still the case? Thank you for helping out!
Image & Video Optimization | | klaver1 -
Why is my image Alt Text showing up under my URL and title on the Google results page?
I just realized this happened 😞 I optimized this page over a week ago. I changed out the old image on the page, along with the Alt Text. Now I see this when I do a search for it. No Beuno. Can some one please tell me how I get rid of the alt text in the result. many many thanks in advance. http://thumannagency.com/business-insurance/contractors-insurance Contractors Liability, Work Comp Insurance in Dallas, Texas ... <cite class="_Rm">thumannagency.com/business-insurance/contractors-insurance</cite>Your page is not mobile-friendly.Dallas, Texas Contractors Insurance. Contractors Insurance Quote. General Contractor working on a roof in Texas. Thumann Agency specializes in providing ...
Image & Video Optimization | | MissThumann0 -
How much can our page title, URL and alt-tag differ without negatively affecting SEO?
We are a bridal store selling wedding dresses and bridesmaids dresses. We are wanting to know how much our URL and page title can differ, whilst still optimising SEO. For example, for the category Wedding Dresses, the URL contains wedding dresses, so can we use " the best wedding dresses in Sydney" in the page title? For the bridesmaid dresses (URL is /bridesmaiddresses/) can we use " buy best bridesmaid dresses online in Australia"? Can we use terms such as "buy best black dress in sydney", "buy online in australia" or "shop online in sydney" in the alt-tag, additional from the page title .i.e. adding extra keywords in the alt-tag that do not appear in the title? Would this be classified as keyword stuffing? In our main categories .e.g. Wedding Dresses, can we add "best wedding dress store", "buy wedding dresses from best wedding store in sydney" in the alt-tag? Thank you.
Image & Video Optimization | | CostumeD0 -
Identical pages with different URL's
Hi All,I have a page with the titleFunny charactersanother page as Funny Characters/VideosAlmost all data is same in both URL's except the videos page will have 20+ video thumbnailsHow can i set Google not to index the images only on this page and consider both pages as identical and not create any issues but yet scan the videos.Thanks
Image & Video Optimization | | jomin740 -
Local SEO Question: Domain Wide Vs Specific Page
Hey Moz Community, Question about Local SEO authority and how it applies to a domain vs. landing page. Let me elaborate... Company is launching a new local out reach sales channel and merging it with our inbound sales channel under one brand. The plan thus far is to create a targeted landing page for local customers/leads. I have been tasked with creating the written content and making sure we are optimized as much as possible for this landing page to show up for our city. Funny enough for a lot of relevant terms we are already in the top 10 with little optimization (Also due to low competition for most of these terms) Two questions: 1. Should the whole site be optimized for local - appropriate schema markup, G+ business local set up, contact page with correct address formatting, building citations/local links etc.? To accompany our targeted page? 2. Will taking a local first initiative hurt reaching our non-local target market? If so will a very targeted landing page for local customers do the trick minus rest of local optimizations ? I guess what the question really boils down to is will optimizing for local hurt our broader inbound search reach/ranks in the long run? I want to be sure we are competitive to our broader audience and local audience on the same site with trying to get into sub-domains or considering re branding what is essentially the same department but for local purposes. Responses and sharing previous experience would be greatly appreciated 🙂
Image & Video Optimization | | paul-bold0 -
Is it considered duplicate contentnt to post a video to youtube then embed that video on our website's FAQs page?
Essentially, I am answering popular questions we are asked and answering them in a video. Once I post it on youtube, I take the video, add it to our FAQ page, and when someone clicks on the question, a new page opens with the question, the video, and the written answer to the question underneath it. Thanks for any advice. watch?v=bwGRmvnCn7w
Image & Video Optimization | | KempRugeLawGroup0 -
Is my Google Places page ok?
Hey everyone, Google Places is incredibly frustrating for me. One day we are listed, the next we are gone. If I am logged in to my Gmail we rank differently altogether. I have a few questions... http://maps.google.com/maps/place?hl=en&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&biw=1421&bih=726&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=pet+medical+center+of+las+vegas&fb=1&gl=us&hq=pet+medical+center+of&hnear=0x80beb782a4f57dd1:0x3accd5e6d5b379a3,Las+Vegas,+NV&cid=13431404354265657899&ei=wbQITujpFpSLsALbuenkDQ&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=placepage-link&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ4gkwAA First off, does the page look to be optimized for the best results? Trying to rank for vet las vegas (ideally. Any tips or thoughts? Are there any sites that will track your rankings in Google Places for different listings? Is my places description ok? How often does Google Places update their listings - find new reviews, update their "find our more about this place" section, etc.? Anything else? Thanks for your help! Brant
Image & Video Optimization | | PMC-3120870 -
Does the location of a citation on a page have any relivance?
We have been working on local SEO quite a lot for our small business, trying to understand why we are consistantly outranked by our competators. I understand there are many factors at play here. I realize that DA & PA, Places page optimization, and on page optimization also play a role, but for the purpose of this question i would like to focus on just one factor: citations. From your experiance with local SEO do you find that a citation that is located closer to the top of the page holds more weight than a citation buried further down a page? Here is an example:
Image & Video Optimization | | adriandg
http://www.yellowpages.ca/search/si/1/Storage-Self+Service/Toronto+ON/ in this case the people paying for the priority positions on that page are right at the top of the page, rather than buried 5 pages into the results. in fact they are right at the top of each page of the results, so over and over again they are above the free listings. I have heard that google considers the value of a link based on its position on the page. So would it be safe to assume that google also considers the value of a citation based on its position on the page? Thank you for your time,
Storwell0