[Allan Simmons]

Hi Guys,

It appears our one of our Google places sites has been suspended, it has the "Pending" and symbol on the listing.  Having searched through help files it says they are reviewing the listing and this may take up to four weeks.  All our places for our three sites have been running for years, updated regularly and have never had this problem.  I found on one 'forum' someone said it may be that someone has reported the listing.  It seems a bit harsh to suspend a listing immediately based on one report, if that's what's happened.  We had a problem last year when Yell  claimed an address "by mistake" but that was resolved very quickly.  We also had a problem where Google kept changing the address to an old address automatically, but again that was resolved quickly.  I can't see anything on there that may have caused this.  Has anyone else ever experienced this?  It appears I just have to sit and wait for Google to do their thing and reverify it, or does anyone know different and can recommend something please?

Thanks in advance,

Al.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Yes I've got this problem and it's not been resolved yet after emails apparently google want us to have just one address only they are trying to get rid of as much free stuff as possible I think.

Shaun

Ps I love my iPhone but it isn't half hard to type without my gigs on!

[Allan Simmons]

Thanks Shaun, it's no real comfort it's not just me though.  I'll try to contact Google again, but they make it so hard to get in touch to report anything unusual.  We also have an old address that just keeps reappearing even though we've told them it's closed.  Automation aint perfect I suppose.

Al.

[derek west]

your only allowed one listing, i ditched my other before this happened, google likes fairplay and also wants to give its searchers variety, surely you can see that, last thing i want to do is search for something only to find the same company just in different guises.

[Mike Halliday]

mine was suspended 4 months ago. i was emailed last week.....

  
Hello,


Thank you for contacting Google. Your listing was experiencing issues due to quality violations. Specifically, businesses that operate in a service area, as opposed to a single location, should not create a listing for every city they service. Businesses that operate in a service area should create one listing for the central office or location and designate service areas.

You can do this by logging into your account, clicking 'Edit' underneath your listing, scrolling down to 'Service Areas', and checking the 'List of areas served' button. Then, you will be able to add each individual area code or city that you service. This is less limiting, as it will allow one listing to cover a broad area. There are further instructions in this help center article:

basically I have 2 business each with its own entry so they deleted one, but they deleted the one with 35 reviews and was totally completed with videos & photos and left the one that had no details and was just basically just a name at the top for my powerwashing.


I tried to explain this to them and this was there response....

Hello,


Unfortunately, once a listing is removed from an account, it can not be reinstated. You will have to update the information for your remaining listing using the method I previously described.


Thank you for your understanding.


Dane
The Google Team


do you know how hard it was to get 35 reviews??? all totally lost.... 4 years work, luckily my website shows abow google places anyhow so I don't lose out

[Garyj]

If someone reported you you would lose them all, you are only allowed one listing on Google Places.

Are you saying you have the backing of a national franchise, Joe Polish marketing, mulitiple
Google Places listings and Get Booked Up behind you and you are worried about losing one
listing on Google?

That is a worry!

[Garyj]

AND text marketing  

Jeez, do you do Adwords as well?

[Allan Simmons]

Sorry Gary I didn't make it clear.  We have three physical registered addresses for the three different named businesses we operate, one Doncaster, One Rotherham, one Sheffield.  So they are three entities with three real offices/workshops.  It's not a friends address in the area to make us look local, they are all legit local BUSINESS addresses we operate from, collect mail and drink tea at.

Our master franchise has NO more clout with Google than we do, so i might as well sort this myself to be honest.

We don't have multiple Google place listings in the same town, we only have one per area.  We don;t even have multiple domain names in the same area so we can try to have two Google places at two different addresses, so we're as 'legit' as can be I believe.

Anyone should be 'worried' (if that's the right word) about losing one Google place listing when it removes you completely from the organic places listing.  If you look at your stats for the clicks though and conversions from Google places you'd see that it's cheap as chips, effectively free jobs, so yes I am 'worried'.  Obviously it won't bankrupt us but I'd rather have that additional 'free' work, wouldn't you?  We believe in having many streams of income into the business, that way you're not reliant on any one of them, but when one which was working so well as Google places changes you have to look at fixing or replacing it dont you, not just think ah well?

And yes we do do Adwords, just another one of the drip, drip, drip, drip, drip, drip feeding of jobs into the business so we're not reliant on any one or few sources.  I thought that's what businesses that move from good to great do, build multiple streams of income to reduce their exposure to any one?

[Garyj]

Did you use the same phone number for each? That is a big no no in Google Places.

Somehow Google has rumbled you or (more than likely) a competitor has reported you, but saying that, if it was
a competitor you would have lost all of them.

There must be something that connects all these businesses together for them to delete one.

[Allan Simmons]

Gary they all have different phone numbers for each address, the only link is the owners, but that would almost be like saying Next can't have a listing in each town they have a shop.  They all clearly state we cover just that town too.  We're not trying to have multiple listings in one town, we just have (had  )one in each.

[Warren Aldridge]

I've had an account suspended and one pending review.

The suspended one was a while back... you wont get around it. I suggest starting a new account with another admin email.
The pending one is current. A few months back a Google rep contacted me to say that if I am not a location where customers visit then the location icon must not be the little circle/arrow. It needs to be a circle. You can change that in the settings where you specify your business is going out to clients, and you set the radius.

She then deleted the listing.

I signed up for a new one with the correct settings and its been pending review for around 3 months now

[Garyj]

Sounds like you've been bubbled and may well lose some more yet!

Google Places has been a pain since it started, it has been doing a dance with listings coming
and going and when people do as Google ask and put up videos, get reviews and fill in their profile
they still get taken down or bumped down the listings. Also sometimes there are 3 listings, sometimes
4 sometimes 7, depends how Google feels.

The bottom line is we have all been sucked in to Google Places as it is better than Yellow pages and has been free.
They are now rolling out the paid blue listings so sooner or later anyone that is 'free' would lose it anyway. The second
anyone in your area starts paying then the battle of who is prepared to spend most wins. Then you have to weigh up
if you do Google Places or Adwords or both.

Am afraid google is very much of the attitude 'you don't have the right to complain' because it is/was free.
It is only free while they wait for enough people to be relying on it, then they will charge whatever they can.

Personally if it came down to it I would pay as it is a service that is going to be used more and more and has
the most prominent position on the page.

[Allan Simmons]

I'm not sure there is anything to bubble Gary, they are three separate affairs, three separate Chem-Dry licence areas, thre blah blah blah.

Yeah, they'll start charging for Google places too, you can't fault them really.  I'd agree, I'd pay the same as PPC rate to be listed on there.  Then if you got the same level of service and contact as you have with PPC it would be far better anyway.

Thanks Warren, I'll check those setting now and have a fiddle around.

[Garyj]

The problem is your websites are identical apart from the name of the town and the phone number.

With the latest Google Panda and Penguin updates those sites are also going to start slipping
down the rankings very quickly, again you are very lucky they are still there. The new updates
as I am sure you have read on here are all about quality of content and to be seen as compliant
you really need to be looking at over 50% unique content.

When those sites do slip they will most likely never resurface and spend there days in the
depths of page 400 and beyond. It's just the way things are with Google now.

I think on the whole you have been lucky.

[wynne jones]

I agree with Gary it's a complete mess. Probably the best attitude is to be grateful for what you did get out of it and accept that it's gone and you are going to have to pay in the long run.

[garry22]

It's been lonely here on the naughty step 

Alan, Does each "branch" have it's own set of citations or are they all listing the main address? I mean does each separate one appear in local directories under it's own address?

[Allan Simmons]

I feel like I'm sat on the naughty step Garry    Yes each branch appears in local directories on their own, only exception is the printed YP for Doncaster and Rotherham where they share one ad but have the separate names, numbers and addresses listed.  They have to to meet the franchise advertising guidelines too.

Wynne is right, it was good while it lasted, move on to look at what's next.

Garyj, you are right, the sites were identical and slowly we are changing content as approved on each one to make the content different.  I did speak with someone who said they can 'look' the same, as that is the branding, but the content must be 60% different.  We're a long way from that yet I know, but again I was 'advised' that as they are not mirror sites or trying to be copy cat sites, or all the same addresses and telephone numbers etc etc etc that Google are a little more forgiving, they can 'see' its a different branch of the same, offering the same.  The analogy was Nike trainer sales, every website stocking Nike XYZ trainer will be using the same Nike approved marketing speak to describe them, so although it is duplicate content it's not really duplicate content as it's describing the same item.  Who knows, do what we can and see what happens.

Warren, I've gone through each Place and entered the towns we serve, rather than using the radius around setting, ensured the pin is in the right place again and
as it's saved this time the pending has gone and it's gone back as active with a note may take a few days to go back live.  So here's fingers crossed, thanks for the tip.

Al.

[Garyj]

You can have the same pictures, just call them something different, the banner you will get away
with as its only an image probably called 'header' from then on in its a case of rewriting 2 of the sites.

The Yellow pages listing was probably enough to kill your page because I understand that Google used Yellow Pages
to get the listings in the first place  for the UK and Google still checks against it for any irregularities and
it is very much seen as the main citation you can have.

Google will also have checked your Facebook, Twitter  and any other social media pages you might have and I am guessing
you don't have one of those for each site.

[Garyj]

Garry, do you think I have given away enough information this afternoon and anymore
should be invoiced? 

[Allan Simmons]

We have separate facebooks too, we really have to keep them separate for the master franchise too, It would be so much easier if we didn't but that is the cross I chose to carry.

Thanks for the advice, it is appeciated