Generally the folks that are engaging in rebranding are also engaging in “location stuffing” as Will points out. For a number of reasons that is not sustainable in a directory product either from Google’s or the end user’s point of view.

I understand and engage in Local “rebranding” but it needs to fit into the overall marketing plan of a business, reinforce or be compatible with their local brand, can’t be abusive of their Maps listing privileges and needs to clearly communicate to the customer/end user who/what they are.

In the end though the types of name changing/location stuffing you are seeing above are doomed as Google gathers more relevant information about these businesses from other web pages, reviews, descriptive text, geo-referenced data. When that happens my prediction is that Google will either punish or diminish the value of business title manipulation.

Or if Google doesn’t self regulate, the government will step in an do it for them.

Mike

@Gab, I think where it is perceived to be crossing the line from good SEO to potentially spammy is when the same URL, phone number and physical address have 15 business names all keyword rich none of which is reflected on their logo or business cards.

I mean, if you own the domain name TeethWhiteningBeverlyHills DOT com then clearly your map result should say that.

There’s one plastic surgery directory in LA that is really submitting AAA something or other to maps.

Also, I have to disagree about the contention that these naming practices are spam. It’s pretty standard in the SEO industry to name a site with keywords in it, and that’s why, from an SEO perspective, generic domain names are more valuable. The incoming links you get tend to feature your name, and thus your keywords.
Back when people still used yellow pages, companies bought listings as 101 AAA corp to be spotted #1. Not really a big deal, imho.

What is sketch though is the breast augmentation guy also doing teeth whitening. It’s like “yes, have some augmented breast milk to whiten your teeth…”

You mean to say that they may have some automated spam removal? Jeesh I may be out of a job.

I assume since the coupon is on the website as well, it is strictly a tracking offer not a “real” discount. Be interesting to find out.

And no, I have no idea what plastic surgery costs but if eggs are $2/doz and gas is $3.89/gal it has got to be expensive. I mean those plastic surgeon’s have to eat, no?

Glad you like my rebranding phrase but I just read that Branding is Dead; Long Live SEO so maybe I will need to rebrand my rebranding of mapspam business title keyword stuffing effort sooner rather than later.

Mike

Do you know how much plastic surgery costs? 20% off is a pretty significant chunk of change.

Will

I could tell you but I’d have to…

The exact condition I’ve seen is a couple instances where it was clear a bulk upload had been used with variable “rebranding” (@Mike B: love it! Sounds much nicer than Key Phrase Mapspam).

So in other words, like the example above they have initially have authoritative one boxes for “blue widgets phoenix”, “red widgets phoenix”, “green..”, “teal…” etc.

Then after some time all but one of the above go away leaving only typical organic results for blue, green and red and an authoritative one box for “teal widgets phoenix”.

It’s as if either algorithmically (or with human review) Google maps decides only one of the X is for real and they dump the rest.

And, all the rest of them are also gone from the maps result when you do as Mike B did and search by domain name.

Or perhaps they just roll them all up to the first on the list. I don’t know the specifics of the bulk upload.

So, based on what I’ve seen I wouldn’t be surprised if the “teeth whitening”, “breast augmentation”, etc. don’t get rolled into one listing.

Or even worse, perfectself DOT com which is an old, authoritative domain with a reputable practice attached might get themselves whacked right out of the maps like Dog Bite Lawyer did.

Everybody needs representation but a legal system that is predicated on this method for finding lawyers is doomed to not provide adequate representation. In fact it might rise to the level of negligence on Google’s part to offering them up this way.

I have been seeing a general trend to return the OneBoxes less as well. I have seen fewer displays of the Authoritative and the 10-Pack. I had assumed it was tweaking of the organic serp on some sort of quality indicator.

Hey, do you think he has had any success with the coupons?

Mike

Meanwhile, I have to admit the spam phrases are pretty astonishing.

Will, could you redescribe in simpler terms what you are seeing with one box results being reduced and rolled up into 10 pack results.

I find that fascinating.