Comments on: Google Updates Places Time to Live for Dashboard Data

By: The Worst Kept “Secret” in Local Search: My Thoughts on the Impending Plus-Places Merge | Mihmorandum

Mon, 14 May 2012 13:31:12 +0000

[...] Google completed a major backend infrastructure update this Spring, presumably in preparation for the near-real-time activity that a Plus page [...]

By: Bruno

Bruno — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 20:52:32 +0000

Update….I just captured a client Place Page, and it worked within 5 minutes, including the google headline. I am however still waiting for other client pages to optimize with pictures etc. from several weeks ago. Any suggestions on those pages that still haven’t shown up with new pictures and info? Thanks…Bruno

By: Jeffrey

Jeffrey — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 08:17:54 +0000

Well, the “time to update” for us was 7-8 days and now everything is fine. In once case however – the listing was “rejected” and is now “pending”. There is nothing out of the guidelines ~ so that’s a bit odd.

As for the Post Card time frames, they’ve always been erratic but has anyone else noticed a steep decline in performance at the good ole USPS? Yikes!

@VWD – 6 weeks is too long – you should re-submit.

By: Chris Gregory

Chris Gregory — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 11:47:33 +0000

The time frame for post cards has been all over the map (pardon the pun) for me. One client it takes 2 weeks and another it takes 4 all in the same city. Hopefully they will address this soon. Where possible I use the phone verification.

By: VWD

VWD — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 08:11:30 +0000

I still haven’t received my postcard from Google for 2 different customers at different addresses, it’s been 6 weeks! Have you heard of that?

By: Mike Blumenthal

Mike Blumenthal — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 02:17:14 +0000

@Daryl

It appears that the duplicates are an artifact of the “some work on our backend, cleaning up the pipes in order to make more improvements to Google Places over time”. It appears to have resurfaced old listings for some reason.

I would be on the look out for then and use the Report a Problem to get them cleaned up. I think once they are gone they will stay gone and the index will be more accurate and robust going forward.

By: Mike Blumenthal

Mike Blumenthal — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 02:10:50 +0000

@Mike
Yes, I have heard, but have not tested, that going into the Places Dashboard from that same IP will also cause a problem

By: Mike Stewart

Mike Stewart — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 00:38:14 +0000

Mike, thanks for sharing.

It seems as though supportive citations and local listing optimization helps new listings fly through the radar and I have found the best way to mess it up is to have multiple location reviews for multiple locations from the same IP account. Silly cheaters only suffer when they get caught. Google is getting smarter. I am having so much fun training this new client!

By: Daryl Osswald

Daryl Osswald — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 00:11:20 +0000

Not only is it taking long for any updates to be….updated, if you work within Google places as much as me, you’ll notice that there are a ton of new listings that have popped up. Well, not new, but actually old.

In my industry (bail bonds) there are a lot of companies that have 100′s of fake listings. Google and Map Maker reviewers over time delete these listings, then the bad companies repost new fake ones and so on.

What I’ve seen lately are some of the old (deleted) fake listings popping up. It seems like Google is resubmitting listings to the public to see what kind of feedback it will get.

imho, this is what Google has done from the beginning, throw all these listings out there, and see which one’s stick.

Meanwhile my listing for a company that has been at this very address since 1948 keeps getting merged, hijacked, et al and the “updates” that I provide are now taking much longer.

One of the reasons for this dilemma is that the DBA for the company has geo-modifiers and the keyword in it. Van Nuys Bail Bonds. There are 30 or so other companies that are gaming for the same Google 7 box (3 box, one box, never know these days) and they plug all their keywords+geo-modifiers in there and voila! The merging goes on…..We’ve been fighting this merging/hijacking war for almost 2 years.

The only technique that has gotten a timely (shortest was one day) response was to start running adexpress on the Google Places listing. That way if/when it get’s merged or screwed up, we call adwords and speak with an adexpress person and complain about how we can no longer spend money on this listing because of the major problems.

Oh well, I guess it keeps me employed….any insight from any of you is greatly appreciated.

By: Bruno

Bruno — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 21:02:05 +0000

This has been a real nightmare, lots of my clients are having major
issues. The “Google Headline” is definitely NOT updating, not even after a full day. We have been waiting for pictures for several weeks.

Thanks for the post!!

Bruno