Comments on: Guest Post: Dan Austin on Google Mapmaker Categories

By: sherry

sherry — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 05:20:03 +0000

Take a drink every time Dan uses the word, “category” or “categories.” Bah ha ha! (42 times…)

By: Dan Austin

Dan Austin — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 17:50:21 +0000

Hi Andy,

I should have prefaced, ‘if’ they approve them. If you can catch a human moderator, then the changes will (usually) get pushed through, but it can be hard to figure out what changes will be approved by a person, and what will be approved by the Mod Bot. The Mod Bot algos are not so good, even as Google has become increasingly dependent on it to carry out a lot of low level approval work. In Map Maker, if you don’t get the desired results by direct editing, using Report this will send the report to a human, and the turnaround times have gotten much more reliable than the recent past (their previous response has been sometimes to never). I can’t speak very highly of Report a problem on Maps, even though I’ve made extensive use of it–it’s just not a very reliable way of dealing with problems, for a variety of reasons–listings are buggy, edits can create unexpected changes, changes can be ignored or denied for the wrong reasons, etc., so I try to avoid it unless I can’t affect the desired changes in MM. There’s use case scenarios that make it easier for dealing with one UI or the other, and it’s dependent on the outcome you’re trying to achieve as well as how persistent you’re willing to be in reaching the end goal. I’ve found that with Google Maps products in general, you have to be willing to hack it because of the many bugs teeming there, and be extremely persistent in reaching your end goal–it’s rocky terrain, with many unexpected and unpleasant pitfalls. Knowing the general public’s attitude, if it doesn’t work the first time, it’s their last time.

Incidentally, Canada is currently using a slightly simplified Map Maker UI for Maps edits (Report a problem/Edit Details), which solves some problems, but brings other problems, as it orphans some listing data that can only be fixed through Support or the old UI, since Maps uses a different database/dataset than MM. I haven’t figured out the solution to that problem yet, other than to hope that they unify and sync their databases to a greater degree so that changes in one will propagate to the other, and what you see is what you should see, not just one aspect of it.

By: Andy Kuiper

Andy Kuiper — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 15:33:28 +0000

Thanks Dan *I’m in Canada
I will continue to do this, although lately, when pointing out spammy listings, I’ve noticed several denials via “Google Automated Moderator”? These are legit ‘corrections’ that are clearly explained?

By: Dan Austin

Dan Austin — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 21:52:24 +0000

You simply type them in, and GMM will approve them. I usually try to find a category that best fits using the current scheme, but there’s essentially no limitation to what you can type in there (and I can see that from all the POIs coming from Places, that Google Places approves almost anything). I also avoid keyword type spam, which as any good SEO can tell you, you know it when you see it, but it can be hard to explain. The only hard ‘rule’ you have to follow is that some categories are not available as Primary categories, so you simply type in Establishment/Point of Interest (which is invisible on Places, and is basically a non-category) and use whatever category you want as an additional category. Finally, use up that space as much as you can (with standard categories first, then custom categories), and if you need more space, add more categories beyond the original five.

As for the sunsetting of custom categories, I don’t know if it means:
*Your POI is going to be flagged and suspended (worrisome);
*The categories won’t appear (possible, but at present the categories are still searchable from my tests, even if they’re not visible on the Google+Local page).

What I don’t know is how exceeding the five category limitation affects what’s in the Dashboard under the current (or future) scheme. Some experimentation is in order.

I also don’t know why Google is sunsetting custom categories if the current category scheme is so inadequate and if there’s no clear process for submitting new categories that Google can add to the present list. Without that process, SMBs and SEO experts will just find another way to keyword stuff the rest of their listing or website with the necessary content, and given the current state of Google’s spam detection algos, it would stand to reason that you have a good chance of not getting caught.

By: Phil Rozek

Phil Rozek — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 13:35:44 +0000

Great stuff, Dan.

I’m wondering the same thing Andy is wondering. Also not sure how your advice regarding custom categories dovetails with (what seems to be) Google’s retirement of them.

By: Andy Kuiper

Andy Kuiper — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:12:57 +0000

@Dan
It sounds like you’re suggesting it’s a good idea to seek a few more categories beyond the ‘standard’ ones to enhance Google’s ability to to find a listing when the business offers a varied array of services? If so, what is the best process to have these mods implemented in MM?

This is regarding your point: …and then build out custom categories that exceed the five category limit if the listing mandates it. Since all those categories are searchable in Maps, even if they’re not visible, it can enhance a business listing’s ability to turn up.

Thanks