Google listing "Pending Status" Help...

by 123xyz
21 replies
I just recently set up two new clients local listings in Google and have received the same pending message for both: "The listing needs to be reviewed further before appearing on Google. Please allow several weeks."

I am aware of the Google TOS and the usual things that would cause a problem and pending status but after searching through a number of threads on the exact same issue on Google support I am at a loss.

Anyone else experiencing the painful "Pending" status? Any luck dealing with it?
#google #listing #pending status
  • Profile picture of the author Kung Fu Backlinks
    It seems to be epidemic these days. I find it helps to have the listing filled out as minimally as possible when initially creating the listing and waiting for a postcard. That means NAP, URL and 1 category.

    You should also Google the business Zip code to make sure Google sees the business location the same way you do.

    Now when I get stuck in pending review, I send off a support request right away.

    Here are some instructions:
    =========================

    Go here: My listing has incorrect information. <br /> <h4>Go through our step-by-step troubleshooters to find Help articles that can assist with your issue. And if we still haven't answered your question, fill out the short form at the end of the questions to

    Select: "My listing no longer appears on Google Maps or is incorrectly marked as closed."

    And send them a message like so:

    Hello,

    My name is NAME. I work at COMPANY.

    We setup our Google Plus Local listing and have review the guidelines found here: Google Places quality guidelines - Places for business Help

    And have followed all instructions here: Google Groups

    Our listing was recently verified and it immediately when to "pending review."

    Please advise.

    Thank you,



    Be sure to enter the correct account email and the full business name, address and phone as they request in the form.

    You should receive a response within a few days, so keep an eye on the email that is used to manage the G+ Local listing.

    I hope that helps!
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    • Profile picture of the author 123xyz
      Kung Fu, Many thanks for the information. I will give it a try as you have outlined and report back in a few days. Thanks again for the help.
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  • Profile picture of the author stone2010
    Google seems to go through stages with this... sometimes it wont go under review right away and a lot of times (lately) almost all listings once you input the PIN it goes under review. Usually comes out of review in 3-4 weeks unless there is a problem with the listing. Poke the listing a few times without making any changes and as Kunfu Backlinks said send out a support letter to Google. Good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author Kung Fu Backlinks
    Ah yes! The "poke." I had that work a few times only for it to go right back to review status a couple of weeks later =\ It's getting very frustrating these days.
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    • Profile picture of the author 123xyz
      After a little further digging I noticed there is a duplicate listing for one of the companies that is not claimed and has the incorrect spelling of company name, incorrect address and phone number. My guess is that it would probably help to delete this one to eliminate any confusion. From what I have found while trying to fix the problem, this pending review thing seems to be an issue shared by many.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kung Fu Backlinks
    Yeah, just report the dupe to Google and let them handle it. Be sure they know the info is wrong and even point them to your site's contact page as proof. Be sure to review guidelines to make sure you're inline there, too. There may be something there that's tripping a filter.
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    • Actually Pending Review is the new NORMAL currently so don't worry about it.

      After about a week if you can find the listing with a direct phone search in maps, then the listing is just fine. That pending message in dash is just lagging lately and can last for a few weeks but normally means nothing.

      Of course always double check to be sure you aren't violating any guidelines or any of the many unwritten rules. But if you are sure the listing is clean, then pending is nothing to worry about.

      I would not POKE new listings and would especially not keep poking over an over.

      A poke can sometimes pull out a listing that's stuck in pending. HOWEVER again pending is normal these days for a few weeks so it's not stuck if it's new. As long as listing displays fine, just ignore it.
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  • Profile picture of the author 123xyz
    Catalyst, I hope you are right about it being the "new normal" because it seems a lot of people are getting the same pending status but some of them are saying it is taking months and still stuck in a pending status.
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    • Stuck in pending for a few weeks is normal. I'd say up to 6 weeks after verifying is currently normal.
      BUT Google says it's just a temporary data pipeline back up.

      Stuck in pending for months indicates either a violation that needs to be cleaned up or the listing is just stuck.

      Check for violations or even just little things like bad grammar, caps, superlatives, words that could be tripping the nanny filter, etc. Clean it up. Then do a poke. Wait 5 days and see if that clears it.
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  • Profile picture of the author 123xyz
    KungFu, I did as suggested and funny enough both of the listings now appear. However, the dashboards still show the same "pending" status. Weird. Not sure what to think of it. I do need to go back in and fill out the rest of the information to get 100% complete but not sure if I should do it now or let it sit until "pending" status is removed?

    Additionally, on the listing that had the duplicate which I requested to be removed, they removed it and the listing with the correct address, phone number, etc appears. However, they (Google) put the full word of "Corporation" on the end of the company name instead of "Corp." which I entered for the business name. Weird. So, I guess I will stick with what they entered as the full company name (adding Corporation vs. Corp.) and use that for all citations, etc. moving forward.

    Any experience with any of that? Thanks in advance for you information as it obviously did help get things moving along.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kung Fu Backlinks
    Glad things seem to be progressing. Linda is great with tackling these NAP issues like the Corp VS Corporation. So Linda jump in and correct me if I'm wrong:

    If Google is presenting something other than what you entered in the backend, it could be a number of things - dupe, inconsistent citations online, etc. In this case, the use of the full "corporation" instead of "corp." is negligible, so to avoid headaches I would get really busy tracking down all citations and fixing them to match what Google has come up with. I would not change it in the dashboard, either. If it ain't broke...

    So make sure the citation on your site matches exactly - put it in schema format, create a KML file: Geo sitemap generator | Create Geo Sitemap and KML files for FREE! submit that geositemap to Google Webmaster Tools after you upload both that KML and the XML sitemap to the root folder on the domain.

    Next, start Googling the business phone number, then Google the business address, just Google anything you can think of to track down all existing citations. Be sure to submit matching NAP to Localeze and InfoUSA; make sure Yelp, Yahoo! and Bing are correct.

    Again Linda has hinted in other places that she has a great system for evaluating NAP problems, so maybe she'll drop a few more pearls
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    • Here's a pearl for finding incorrect citations. Just randomly searching phone, name is hard and you have to do a lot of digging. So do it this way.

      "Incorrect version of name in quotes" "phone in quotes". Don't add address to the mix, there are often several address variations so that will throw things off. Just target the bad name + phone and zero on on the ones that need changing.
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      • Profile picture of the author 123xyz
        Well I did actually do the address search in "address" format and found and old and completely unrelated business that used to reside at the same location/address and it had a scraped place page. So, I clicked edit as a customer (not business owner) and clicked "other" and simply said that the business no longer exists at this location and a different business now exists at the location. Hopefully that gets rid of the confusion with the old business attached to that address/location.

        I am still a little tripped up by the dashboard saying pending and having a different company spelling than the place page that is now appearing. So, the place page that appears shows the word "corp" all spelled out as "corporation" but in the dashboard it shows as "corp". Not quite sure if the dashboard info and the place page that is showing up are even "connected/the same" because of the difference in the company name spelling. So, I am wondering if I should go in and edit through the dashboard or go in to the edit tab on the other place page? Confusing. Trying to do the right thing but the Big G sure doesn't make it easy do they?
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  • Profile picture of the author Kung Fu Backlinks
    Ask Google if they are connected. I think they are. Ask them to check for dupes and even multiple verified owners. I encountered that before. But my feeling is google just changed the formating. This happened to me and Google reps refused to change it as they felt it was the best way to represent the business. Again... I would go with they are displaying instead of trying to correct them. I'd leave the backend alone. You may just complicate things by triggering another postcard or worse. Not worth it since you have nothing to gain by changing the backend in this case.
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  • Profile picture of the author adelaclark
    Listings marked as Pending are placed in a queue to be manually reviewed by a member of our team. While the listing is marked as Pending, it will not show on Google. This is to ensure that only high-quality content shows to our end users.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kung Fu Backlinks
    Ive noticed a few "pending" listings are live and well.
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    • Profile picture of the author 123xyz
      So, the listing that is showing is the one that has "corporation" all spelled out on the end of the business name. I can find the place page through search of the business name and city location. However, it does not display if I go and do a relevant keyword search and then try to find the company/place page marker on the map. So, no market showing on maps at all for their location. Weird.

      So, wondering if I go ahead and edit the listing within the dashboard OR go through the edit tab of the place page that shows when I search for the business online. Only thing is it may trigger a new postcard....

      Decisions, decisions.

      Kung Fu, you think reaching out to Google and pointing it out to them is best or go with the one in dashboard or the place page that is showing when searching the company name?

      One last twist--we are using a tracking number and the place page that is showing up does show the tracking number so they must have picked that up from the information we originally entered in and submitted.

      Kung Fu--Forgot to mention that the other client that was also showing pending is now completely straightened out--so, thanks for the info you provided on that.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kung Fu Backlinks
    On second thought... don't bother Google with it, yet.

    Go to the front-end of the listing while logged into the Google account that manages the listing you created. Then click the "manage this listing" link on the front end to see if you can follow along to the backend. DO NOT make any changes to the NAP, just check to see if it matches everything you put in. Next, check to see if a category is selected and if it matches the category you chose. If all that matches, click submit without changing anything and see if it asks you to verify the listing. If it does - it's a dupe. If it just accepts the changes, then you were just looking at your own listing.

    As Linda mentioned above, you may see "Pending" in your dashboard for a while, yet your listing is alive and well, so think nothing of it.

    Now if you do NOT see a category (typical for Google-generated listings) then you know you have a dupe. I would then take note of the URL and reply to the Google rep that took care of your other stuff and let them know you found the dupe and give them the URL asking them to clean up the listings.

    Finally... again... I cannot stress enough that you have to get the site and the citations correct. Get busy fixing those up. And yes, I would do citations that match what Google has shown you it prefers.

    re: tracking number. Don't tell Google you're using a tracking number. Make sure that is the same phone number that's on your website (at least on the contact page) and in every other citation / business listing you create.

    Glad to hear the other listing is fixed up.
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    • Profile picture of the author 123xyz
      Kung Fu, Did what you said and it is the same listing. I did not edit or add to anything that was in the listing. I originally only filled out the required items so the listing is still only with required items. I hit submit and it did NOT ask me to verify again. It then took me to the dashboard with the "corp." spelling and says "pending". So, I guess it is just a waiting game. In the meantime I will clean up and add to the citations and hopefully that takes care of it. Thanks again for your input--much appreciated and hopefully the info can help someone else that runs across the same or similar issue(s).
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  • Profile picture of the author Kung Fu Backlinks
    That's great news. No dupe and just a stalled "pending" status. No big deal. Again, just ignore the "corp" in the backend and make sure your citations match what Google has put on the front end, you'll be fine.
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    • Profile picture of the author 123xyz
      Kung Fu, Many thanks--your info (as well as Linda) was a BIG help.
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