In early October I wrote a post about achieving a “an automatically expanded Plus Box” for a client on a valued search phrase (Vacation Rentals Ellicottville NY) BUT having the url Google had associated with the listing pointing to their competitor. After postulating conspiracies and incompetancies on the part of all but myself I determined that I had neglected to enter the client’s URL in the Local Business Center and Google, in its best guess, had made a not so harmless assumption.
I immediately attempted to fix the problem by:
-Correction the local listing in the Local Business Center
- Submitting to Google on their Dissatisfied? Help us improve link.
I didn’t report the aberation to the client preferring the wait and see chicken approach. From experience I knew that local updates might take 2 to 3 months which would have meant that the client would have missed the bulk of her rental season sending visitors to her competitor site. Fortunately, yesterday (and perhaps sooner) Google rectified my mistake and their best guess and associated the listing with the correct url. It took something less than 3 weeks.It appears that the “fix” was affected by Dissatisfied? Help us improve link as the Local Business Center still notes awaiting next update. It is comforting that Google which seems so algorithmic and distant actually has someone reading their email.
[...] Several notes: Even minor differences in the business title will cause Google not to use it. And Google sometimes just gets it plain wrong (see my post on just how wrong Google can get this) [...]
Pingback by Understanding Google Maps & Yahoo Local » What does a link campaign look like for Local? — December 21, 2006 @ 12:03 pm
Thanks for the tip! The same situation is happening to one of our clients right now. I used the “Help us improve” form – I hope they are as responsive to us as they were to you.
This post of yours might get a bit of traffic in 2007 as Google injects more Local into the SERPS and more people notice inaccuracies
Thanks again for sharing your experiences and have a happy new year!
Comment by markus941 (5 comments) — December 29, 2006 @ 8:25 pm
Thanks for stopping by the blog and leaving your comment about the difficulty ou were having with Google Maps.
Please let me know how you make out ..
Did you also update the local record in the business center?
Would you be able to update the blog comments when you have results? Love to see how long it takes and what comes of the problem.
Mike Blumenthal
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (2009 comments) — December 31, 2006 @ 2:24 pm
[...] I have seen and written about this happening before (see Redemption in the Gilded Google Age and The road to Google Maps Nirvhana is paved with good intentions). I too, at first, assumed evil intent. Usually though, it is caused by Google’s attempt to establish an authoritative website when none has been specifically entered. Bill Slawski has written about Google’s patent on this area in his Authority Documents for Google Local Search. Google’s guesses are mostly pretty good but as you can see from my experience, when it goes wrong, it goes really wrong. In their defense they fixed it reasonably quickly. [...]
Pingback by Understanding Google Maps & Yahoo Local » Beware: Competitor Hijacks Google Local Business Listing? Maybe, Maybe Not! — February 8, 2007 @ 6:26 pm
[...] have written about this problem in the “archeological” past (here and here) and noted that this assignment of URL’s was an artifact of an over aggressive [...]
Pingback by Understanding Google Maps & Yahoo Local Search » Google Maps and the wrong URL | Developing Knowledge about Local Search — July 31, 2008 @ 10:01 am
Do Google really read their emails?
Comment by Jonas (7 comments) — March 27, 2009 @ 5:51 pm
[...] Taking MerchantCircle’s words as truth this points to Google Algorithm. Mike Bluementhal has outlined several times how Google has been attributing the wrong URL to business. These examples point out [...]
Pingback by Local Search and Website Copyrights | The Musings of Nicholas Reese — April 21, 2009 @ 1:11 am