Fighting spam on Google isn’t as tricky as you might think. All you need is to sit down and dedicate a little time each week, following these steps and tracking your results to help improve your local ranking. It’s important to get notify Google of duplicate listing, as well as those that are fake, and you can easily do it yourself.
Tracking what happens after your session of spam fighting will help motivate you to keep going, as it can sometimes feel like what you’re doing isn’t having any effect. We promise you though, that this is a simple process and your business will reap the benefits in future Google searches. Here’s what to do to fight back spam.
Start With A Search Of The Keyword You Want To Improve
You need to be performing this search in the actual location of your business. Then, press ‘more businesses’ under the results list to view the Local Finder. This expands on the results Google shows you for location, and you can see where your business ranks and who you need to get ahead of.
Make a spreadsheet to track the current rankings of each of your competitors above you, and put your listing in there as well. Note down the name, phone number and address, and their current position.
Find The Results That Are Clearly Spam
Getting the obvious results out of the way first is the easiest way to spend your first spam fighting session. What you should do first is use Google Streetview to see what appears for each business’s listing. If it’s anything other than what matches the actual listing, which is common for spam listings, you need to note this on your spreadsheet. You should also jot down those competitors that use the same phone number or address. Another thing to note is any businesses that have names that are similar, or seem to be keywords instead of actual names of businesses.
Now that you’ve identified some businesses as being possible spam, you need to call them and see if the number is still connected, as well as whether it’s actually the number of the business. Then ask them where they’re located, to see if it matches the Google results. If any numbers aren’t connected, or the location they tell you doesn’t match their listing, note it on your spreadsheet.
For the business listings that still seem to be spam after these investigations, you should visit their websites. If the site seems dodgy or the name doesn’t match the listing, make a note of it.
Report The Spam Listing To Google
Now that you’ve done the above two steps, you should have identified the duplicate and spam listings on Google. We recommend highlighting these so that you can report them easier.
Go to the first listing you want to eliminate, and click ‘suggest an edit’. Choose the most applicable option for the spam listing, whether it’s to remove the place altogether or suggest a name change, then submit your changes.
Make a note on the spreadsheet of what you did for each listing, so that you can keep track of your actions.
Document The Outcome Of Each Report
Google is usually pretty quick to assess reports and accept or reject them. You’ll get an email for each listing that they’ve taken action on, so record the outcome on your spreadsheet. This is important, so that you can accurately see what your reports have done to the rankings of the competing businesses, and therefore your own. Note these results down as well, so you can see how your spam fighting session went.v
MacZin Digital Marketing Will Help Improve Your Local Rankings
While this is a simple process, we understand that sometimes you don’t have the time to spare, or would rather leave everything to do with rankings to the experts. Luckily, that’s what MacZin Digital Marketing does best!v
Get in touch with our digital marketing professionals today to see how we can help you rise above your competitors in the local rankings.
