Google Warns Local Businesses: You Have 3 Weeks to Save Your Places Listing

[DCochrane]

Has anyone heard anything about this Google warning that was supposedly sent to some Google Place owners recently.

The message says:

We are making some changes to Google Places for Business and Google Maps so we can continue providing people with the best experience when they're looking for local businesses. As part of this process, we're asking business owners to review and confirm some of the information in their Google Places accounts so we can keep showing it to Google users. We know this will be a few extra steps for merchants, and we apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your time.

We have sent business owners affected by these changes an email entitled "Action Required: You have 3 weeks to save your Google Places Listing". Source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2327744/Google-Warns-Local-Businesses-You-Have-3-Weeks-to-Save-Your-Places-Listing

I haven't found much other information in the SEO community but I just wanted to see if anyone has actually received this notice or not?

Someone suggested it may just be a test in Australia/Austria. (Not sure which one it is as the comment in the above list references both countries)

Thanks for any information you have on this topic.

[MattAntonino]

It's definitely us down under here in Australia.  The thing I would recommend is getting started on reconfirming your categories and your listing addresses now.  Google has started heavily validating categories and making sure only one of each type of business is at an address (is it possible to have 8 photographers in one building?  Sure, but not likely.)

Just review things now, while you have the chance. We're re-validating a LOT of clients and it's a lot of work.

[vmialik]

Hi Samantha,

It was posted on a Google forum Feb 2nd of some users experiencing this

Picked up by SERoundtable on the 6th, and then by others.

However, I haven't seen anything but this instance of it. It might be rolled out to other areas possibly.

Hope this helps

[CandymanKen]

I had heard this recently as well and saw the post you reference. Not sure if it was there when you saw the post, but there is a comment from someone who claims to have spoken with a Google rep and confirmed that is is only in Australie for now.

Ken