WARNING - New Google Places Penalty - 3,000 Places to be DELETED? See Screenshot

3 replies
Hi guys, short on time, but wanted to post some important info really quick.

MODS I am not in the habit of link dropping, but hope you'll let this post stand. I don’t have time to rewrite everything over here and time could be of the essence.

Spotted a wild new type of Google Places penalty and
3000 Place pages I've found so far are marked "Awaiting Removal"


It would be REALLY smart for everyone to check out some of these listings before Google deletes them so you can try to figure out all the things they did wrong and AVOID them. Lots of kw stuffing and other violations, but I have not had time to fully investigate.

Google Places New Penalty State? Awaiting Removal – WEIRD, See Screenshot


Sorry have to run. Have another important post to finish, part 2 from yesterday.

Let me know what you find out about all the listings that have that new penalty.
#deleted #google #penalty #places #screenshot #warning
  • Profile picture of the author Scott Voss
    Are you sure this is a NEW Google penalty?

    Google removes listings all the time and when I did a quick search on the term "awaiting removal" and "google maps", I came across this in the Google support forum from March 2010:

    Missing Location On Map: Change of address to another already existing location on goggle maps. - Google Maps Help

    In the fourth post on that page, the OP clarified that it was Awaiting Removal. So, this goes back at least 1 year.

    It might be new that they are adding the phrase "awaiting removal" to the listing, but I doesn't look like it is a brand new penalty.
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    • Profile picture of the author dave41097
      I looked a a few of these. They all have recent edits changing the business name, address, etc. Apparently the old place is "awaiting removal" and will soon be replaced with the updated info.
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      • I'm just trying to get through all the comments because a bunch of guys over there did research. I've been too busy today to read it all.

        But from what I've read so far, it's not a Google penalty at all and I don't think Google did it. The guys seem to think it was an EXTORTION attempt by a shady SEO company to force clients to pay. One of the guys even called some business owners and were told that the SEO was threatening to pull the Place pages if they didn't pay up.

        The guys have discovered all kinds of violations, fake reviews and stuff too. I just finished a crazy consulting day so am heading over now to catch up on all the comments.

        Oh and as an aside, in another post today about this giant new "Featured" review deal I just discovered, the Community Manager of Google Places even came over to post. So it's good to know Google is reading my blog. Hope they read the other post too and can do something to that scammy SEO company that's pulling an extortion scam on all these small business people.
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