Google Places Marketing ? 7 Deadly Mistakes That Can Get Your Local Search Listing Suspended Or Banned
Local Search Mistakes To Avoid
Google Places provides a great way for businesses to get found in local search when someone is looking for a specific business for a specific purpose.
So, when you?re focusing on your local search marketing, play by their rules and keep the following in mind.
Many businesses in their eagerness to get found online will create or modify the title of their business listing on Google Places to do one of the following:
Include their location in the business title
Add special characters to make the business listing stand out more
Give a phone number in the listing title
Provide a website in the listing title
Unfortunately, each of these attempts to make your Google Places listing more visible to local search customers can actually end up getting your listing deleted or banned.
7 Deadly Google Places Mistakes To Avoid
Let?s say your business is a coffee shop named ?Blend In? and the business is a corporation. Let?s also say the name of your corporation is Blend In, Inc. Google may or may not have already created a listing for you on Places.
If the listing already exists, you just need to ?claim? it and verify that you are the owner. If it does not yet exist, then you need to go through the steps to set it up.
Mistake #1 ? Failing To Use Your Official Business Name In Google Places Title Listings
Either way, when you get to the field that is the Title of the listing, you want to use the official business name, Blend In, Inc. or the name of the official business on all of its signage, letterhead, business cards, etc., ?Blend In.?
Google feels that extensions that describe the company or type of entity don?t really help searchers to find the business, so they would actually prefer you just leave that stuff off the listing, but for legal reasons, you may want to include the ?Inc.?, ?LLC? or ?Ltd? extensions if you operate as a corporation or limited liability company.
Mistake #2 ? Adding a Location To Your Google Places Listing
Examples of violations of Google?s Places policies include changing your listing in any of the following ways:
Blend In Coffee House In San Francisco ? It is not okay to add a location to your business listing?s title. Location are included in the Street Address, City/Town and Postal Code sections of your listing.
Google is smart enough to extract this information so that it will display your business in the results for a search for ?San Francisco Coffee House.?
If you want additional emphasis on location, include it in the Description field for your listing. If you?re located in a hard to find spot within an office building, complex or shopping center, then include the specifics about how to find your business in the Description field.
Mistake #3 ? Adding Keywords To Your Google Places Listing
Local Search Results
Similarly, don?t include keyword information about your business in the listing title if it does not appear in the official name of your business.
If you run New England Boat Charters and that is the name of your business, then it?s fine for your business name listing title to mirror that.
But, if you run New England boat charters and the name of your business is Captain Nemo?s, then you?re stuck with that title for your listing.
You could face listing suspension or being banned from search results if you changed your title to ?Captain Nemo?s New England Boat Charters.?
The ?New England Boat Charters? in that case should be placed in the Description field for your listing.
Mistake #4 ? Adding a Phone Number To Your Google Places Listing Title
Even though it?s cool for your phone number to show up in the title of your listing, the only way you can do that and be in compliance with Google Places terms of service is to have your phone number be part of your official name.
This works fine for 1 800 Flowers, but for our boat charter business, you could get your listing axed if you changed it to ?Captain Nemo?s (212) 444-4949.
Phone numbers belong in the Phone number field of your places listing.
Mistake #5 ? Adding a Website Address To Your Google Places Listing
The same applies to websites. While it may be desirable for your listing title to show as ?Captain Nemos CaptainNemosChartersdotcom unless that is your official business name it can get you in trouble with Google?s local search quality team and result in your listing disappearing from search results altogether.
Mistake #6 ? Adding Punctuation To Your Google Places Listing Title
Don?t add cute little punctuations to make your listing stand out more than it already does. Leave your business as is.
In our example, the listing ?Captain Nemo?s? should not be changed to ?!!Captain Nemo?s!!? or ???>Captain Nemo?s<??? or any other variation where you add additional characters that are not already in the business?s name.
Mistake #7 ? Adding Excessive Capitalization To Your Google Places Title
Last but not least, Google is pretty persnickety about adding too many capitals to your listing. So, just as you shouldn?t ?scream? at people when sending e-mails or instant messages by using all capital letters when typing, you also should not ?scream? your business name in Google Places listings by doing the same thing.
So, if you?re Captain Nemo?s, be sure not to change your listing title to all caps so that it reads ?CAPTAIN NEMO?S? as this is just as much a violation of Google?s Places policies as any of the other mistakes described above.
How To Change Your Title To Be More Attractive Without Violating Google?s Places Policies?
So, let?s say that you have a listing on Google Places or are about to create one and you DO want to include some information that is not in the official business name. Is there anything that you can do?
Yes, of course there is. Just change the name of the business to include the information you want in your Places listing. For example, it may not be a bad thing to change your business name from ?Captain Nemo?s? to ?Captain Nemo?s New England Boat Charters.?
This can help you online, with your website URL and in printed Yellow Pages listings to stand out more and help people who see the name of your business know what you do and where you do it.
Be sure to keep all of these considerations in mind when reviewing or creating a Google Places listing. We do this at Done For You Internet Marketing and Done For You Marketing, and you should too. Just follow Google?s guidelines and keep your business showing up in those critical search engine results pages!
here is another post for all pros
googledotcom/support/forum/p/Places/thread?tid=2129603fd5e43ad6&hl=en
