Here, I want to highlight an issue in Google My Business service I found recently. This issue is nothing but its “Suggest an Edit” feature allowing anyone to update info like address, phone number and other important details without permission from listing owner. Google sends you notification regarding these changes but it depends on how quick you can review it, otherwise the changes are accepted automatically by Google.
I’m saying all this because the same issue has affected one of my friend business badly.
Read the story below:
One of my close friend own Gurdialtaxiservices.com, a local car rental and taxi service based in Chandigarh. He used Google My Business feature to showcase Gurdial Taxi Services in local listing pack to boost the ranking and business in local area. Everything was well managed and he was satisfied with the results. After few months, there was a huge drop in local ranking, making him to lose visitors. It made him to approach me to figure out the reason behind the declining visitor’s rate. After probing into matter, I found that it was the PHONE NUMBER and WEBSITE URL in local listing pack causing all this distress.
Yes, the phone number and website URL of Gurdialtaxiservices.com was edited by someone, and it was replaced with Ola Cab number (Our Competitor) and with a broken website URL (http://gurdialvices.com/). We also found that my friend was notified by Google to review these changes, but he was not able review the notification due to hectic schedule. As a result, Google considered it as acceptance to approve those changes. Somehow, I fixed up the things again by upgrading the details. And you won’t believe what happened thereafter. Someone again changed the website url to http://gurdialtservices.com/.
Please consider the below snapshot for the same:
Competitor Replaced the Website URL with a Broken URL
Competitor Replaced the Main Category with Some Other One
It means, your competitor can change your important Google My Business info anytime to mischief or to reach advantage to their business.
What’s the solution?
There are many businesses around the world might facing the similar issue.
So, you need to check your listing daily to ensure that all details are accurate till Google improves this feature.
What we call this fault in “Suggest an Edit” feature? Is it a bug? Is it ignorance (can’t be expected from Google)?
But it is for sure that “shady” SEO people will capitalize on this issue.
What do you think? Do you have any solution?
Please share with me by commenting below.