No matter what you do online, spam is inevitable to a certain extent. Whether it is in the content of your website (which is never okay) or in the Google My Business forum, it is everywhere. Our partners over at Google decided to do something about the ever-increasing number of user complaints they receive about fraudulent Maps or GMB listings by creating a new complaint form. What do we know so far? We will review that in today’s 411 Locals blog!
Before the Form
How did people report their concerns that a certain listing is leading to fraudulent activity before the new form? You had to go to the Spam board on the Google My Business forum and create a new thread explaining your concerns so someone could, ideally, look at your issue and help you. Well, Google has now closed this board, and you can see what the new form looks like here.
After the Form
The idea of the form is to track misleading information and fraudulent activity related to the name, phone number, and URL of a business. Google explicitly states that filling out and submitting the form does not guarantee your request will be processed and actions will be taken.
How to Use It
The first three fields are for the name, contact email address, and the organization or entity that are being impacted by said fraudulent activity. The second part of the form is about the nature of the complaint. You have to select the type of malicious content you have come across — title, address, phone number, or website. You then have to supply the public URL for the location. Of course, you have the option to upload many URLs at the same time (10-100) to speed up data processing. The last thing you have to do is explain in detail why you believe this content is malicious and should not be on Google Maps. And then, you submit!
If you are entirely new in the world of local business listings, do not panic. Turn to a professional SEO company like ours, and leave it to our SEO experts to handle your online presence.
Stay tuned for our next topic!