How to report website to Google that violates Google Places policy?

by 18 replies
22
I'm helping my nephew to rank his Google Places page on the first page.
He has a driving school in the Netherlands. When I was checking his competition I noticed that one Google Places listing is from a Lead-generation site. On further research it seemed this website has multiple GP=listings in various towns. All the listings are claimed with addresses of local driving schools and then customized for their website.

How can I report this site to Google? Cause this is a violation of their policy.
One less competitor for me on the first page, right? :p

Thx for any help you can give me.
#offline marketing #google #places #policy #report #violates #website
  • I don't think there is a thing you can do about it. I mean there is something you can do, like report the listing, but google places is a nightmare to deal with.

    Let me repeat that: N-I-G-H-T-M-A-R-E

    The only thing you can really do, wouldn't be ethical, so I won't recommend it.
    I have been trying to get in contact with google over my google places for 6 months now, to make ONE CHANGE, and nothing has happened yet.

    I uploaded some videos (that I made myself) and my account went into "pending review" status. There is nothing wrong in the listing, I've posted on their help forum multiple times, but google places support simply doesn't exist. The "help" I always get on their forum, is a link to their guidelines, of which I've already practically memorized. When I upload pics of my account, nobody knows anything. You have to live in 1 of 4 major cities (san diego and 3 others) to call them, and if you don't, they never return your call (I've tried numerous times).

    We've done a ton of work on our site, seo, but our google places has always had problems. At one point we had duplicate listings, NONE of which I made, it took like 2 months just to get rid of them (even after deleting them from my account, they would come right back for some odd reason). Then one day I had to make an edit, that took like a month just to do.

    Then this latest "pending review" issue thats been going on for 6 months. I hate google places. Sorry for being so negative, but they suck.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Redshifted - there is support if you know how to get it.

      There is INSTANT phone support right in your Google My Business dashboard.

      You can't call the phone numbers you see on the web or their site - that is not how you get to support. You have to use the online form and they call you back right away!

      You'll get someone on the phone usually within 2 minutes and often they can fix problems right over the phone.

      Try this: https://support.google.com/business/...&topic=4539639

      Be sure to be signed into the account in question and Google will call you back.
      Click the call us button Monday - Friday, 6 AM - 5 PM PST
      (If you do it outside those hours the call us button does not work.)

      But it sounds like you've had violations. If you had more than one listing claimed in your dash then that's a major one that can cause problems.
  • SNITCHING to knock down a competitor? I don't think that will work.
    • [2] replies
    • Snitching? Seriously? What are you? Five?

      @ OP

      .Report them. It's a violation of TOS. There should be a level playing field for all of us. You can't expect the system to work if you don't use it.
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
      • [4] replies
    • It does. At least if you report with a real issue. I've done it. It took them 2 months to do anything, but they did.

      They took longer to accept changes I made to my own Google page. I guess, the same as Red Shifted's experience.


  • I have seen that when you are claiming your listing you can choose either to have a postcard sent or use phone verification. Maybe this person is using the phone method to receive the code from google?
  • Visit Google Map Maker and login with your gmail and password.

    You have quite a few options to offer your opinion of what you think it in error.
  • I have found a few lead gen businesses online that offer a Lead Gen Service that runs along side the business own business website, Places, G+ etc pages. So the lead gen business sells the service to the client, the client gets a lead gen website. Then the lead gen business sets up Places, G+, FB, etc etc and attaches to the Lead Gen site all with the approval of the business owner, so the owner of the legitimate business allows the lead gen site to verify the location for Google Places.

    Now the legitimate business can allow the lead gen business to use what ever means possible to rank and bank leads without anything affecting their legitimate business website, places, fb etc.

    So it is possible that the driving school lead gen company is working in cooperation with the businesses and it is using a sort of loop hole to get more Places pages to ensure that they dominate the first page of Google. IF this is the case, you are probably screwed unless you just simple out rank them.
    • [1] reply
    • Thanks Linda, very informative and strait to the point. Will keep this for future reference.
      • [1] reply
Join the discussion

Next Topics on Trending Feed

  • 22

    How to report website to Google that violates Google Places policy?

    I'm helping my nephew to rank his Google Places page on the first page. He has a driving school in the Netherlands. When I was checking his competition I noticed that one Google Places listing is from a Lead-generation site. On further research it seemed this website has multiple GP=listings in various towns. All the listings are claimed with addresses of local driving schools and then customized for their website.