Multiple map listing website punished by google
Stop trying to stuff Google with multiple local listings, it won’t work. Google has been converting and integrating their local listings with Plus to create a reliable and verifiable collection of local listings. Their goal is to cut down on internet spam, enhance their social media presence and still offer legitmate local businesses the chance to be a part of the local listing scene on google. As part of their effort to to fight spam they are taking a serious look at businesses and in doing so they have demoted many local listings where they detect that the business may be trying to promote themselves in a less than entirely honest way. Here are some things we think they use as red flags;
- Multiple listings for the same web site or phone number
- Local listings that are in a purely residential neighborhood
- Local listings that are nothing but a drop box or mailbox store
- Multiple businesses listed at the same address
- review that come from the same ip, or come in chronological clumps
This is not to say that we don’t still see listings with decent rankings that clearly violate some of these criteria. However, their time will come, as google is continuously combing the local listing database for these things.
If you are not a retail location, don’t list as one
You are much less likely to get penalized for listing your business in a residential neighborhood if you ckick the box that says “Do not show my business address on my Maps listing.” Most SEO’s will say that your rankings will be hurt by clicking that box, however, when google gets around to penalizing you, it will be a far worse ordeal than most any other penalty on the above list. Additionally, you can encounter trouble with local zoning, your Homeowner’s Association, village and county code enforcement and even encounter legal liabilities pertaining to your business licensing requirements by showing your location in a residentially zoned area.