Google Places UK – February Problems
After my post about Google Places Help a few weeks ago, I took the plunge, suspended the correct but invisible listing and amended the visible but incorrect one.
Within days, I got emails from Google Places saying that the listing was about to be updated and it was not long before the rogue phone number issue had been sorted – at the cost of my pictures and some time spent re-establishing the correct categories – but without losing my reviews.
Everything in the garden was rosy again.
Until this week when, out of nowhere, the old listing REAPPEARED! Even though it is showing correctly in the dashboard listing, the phone numbers showing on the client’s Google Places page are those of a private individual, not the client.
Again, we have reported this in the community edit AND reported a problem but without any response.
I have checked our citations and can only find the incorrect listing on a minor niche-specific directory so I can only assume this is because there has been some kind of roll back involved with major changes at Google Places UK.
It’s not just my client, poor Lollipop Local has suffered as well. All my lovely reviews have disappeared from my Google Places Page.
But I am not too worried. Invariably what happens is that these reappear after a few weeks when Google Places has finished shaking itself up – as is confirmed by Phil Rozek in the US on Local Visibility System
In addition, we also seem to have lost our ability to make short posts ‘from the owner’. There used to be a box at the top right of the dashboard that allowed you to add in up to the minute news and offers without actually physically using the ‘offer’ facility. Which is very irritating when you have existing offers that are no longer valid.
Anyone spotted anything else? There’s clearly something going on over at Google Places UK so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
Suite 1, 103 Leigh Road Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, SS9 1JL UK
info@lollipoplocal.co.uk • 01702 476517
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March 1st, 2012 at 9:55 pm
Wow…so there’s not even the *box* in which you can write the “from the owner” post (from inside the Dashboard)? I know when there are duplicate-listing issues and you try to add a “from the owner” post, it often won’t appear on your correct listing (or on either one). But if you don’t even have the option in the Dashboard of adding one…now that’s weird!
Thanks for the mention! Although I’m from the jolly state of Massachusetts USA, not Canada
March 2nd, 2012 at 12:11 am
Hey Phil, The ‘from the owner’ box is missing from the dashboards of all the accounts I manage, not just the ones that I am having problems with
And sorry! I really thought you were Canadian! Will go back in and re-nationalise you
March 12th, 2012 at 8:41 pm
It’s almost as if they are getting quicker at catching up with people like us who work in the SEO world. trouble is they are even stuffing us honest guys who aren’t just out to “game the system”. In many ways it’s a damn shame that the Big G is so damn useful in so many other ways
Have you come across any good resource lists that detail a decent set of Anglicised categories Jo? That is one of my main bones of contention with Places – the fact that it doesn’t relate well to our own language flavour.
March 13th, 2012 at 8:30 pm
Hey Ray, It’s so frustrating because the scammers and spammers always seem to win, even when Google tries to tweak the algorithm to weed them out. Invariably, it’s the little people who are just working hard to try to stay within the rules that suffer
Sadly, no, the only resource I’ve seen is Mike Blumenthal’s and, as you say, it doesn’t always match what we are seeing. Physical Therapy for Physiotherapist being one of the most obvious.