So, here is the scenario…
I have a chat with a friend about SEO (not a true reflection of the rock-n-roll lifestyle that I usually lead) and am advised that their Google Maps listing is currently not displaying in the search results; so I type into the “Maps” search results their company name and postcode and nothing appears, I type in their website address and postcode and nothing appears.
After discussing this with them a little further it ended up that they had previously had several listings displaying. One for domain name, one for company name (and I think there was a third listing as well but can’t put my finger on what it was from memory, most likely a duplicate of one of the aforementioned).
So my initial thoughts; which I kept to myself, were that there may have been a suspension of the listing(s) based on identification of multiple listings. I feel I need to caveat this to say – unwarranted multiple listings is something that really isn’t worth looking to do. There really isn’t longevity in any strategies that are spammy or trying to take more than your fair share of advantage from a search niche.
BTW – deliberate multiple listings wasn’t even the case for this person or scenario.
Actually, as with most areas like this it seems perfectly logical that a listing not displaying might just require a new one adding. And before you know it you have two or three listings (having stuck to that mindset and maybe dug a minor hole) and then have none displaying. At this stage your first thought stems back to your initial problem resolution strategy (adding another listing) and you now think that you may have been suspended from local search results (in the form of a local listing in Google Maps) because of this.
Having a great local listing with images, details on opening times, your company’s main USPs and coverage areas are great and add real value not only for SEO but for your business and presence in your local area.
So what’s next?
Before any other un-verbalised thoughts could creep into my subconscious mind I did the logical thing and asked for their login details so I could remove any ambiguity and follow a logical path to resolving this.
Their account told me several things, there was indeed several listings; one that had been suspended which could be ignored, one that hadn’t been activated (a duplicate submission attempt) which could be deleted from the account and interestingly enough, one that was detailed as being active.
So clicked on the “See your listing on Google Maps” link for the active account and was faced with the following message form Google – “We currently do not support the location”. Hmm, what does this mean and how many other people have posted about this message?
I did what I always do in this type of situation and did an exact match search for the error message and saw 120,000 Google UK results pages. Let’s put this into context; typing in “house prices Hampshire” brings up less than 50% of this level of SERPs, so based on this I’m confident that I can find some success stories out there on how to resolve this.
So what do you need to do if you’re in this situation?
Right-click on the “See your listing on Google Maps” text from within your Google Places account and select “open in new tab” – wording will vary from your browser type, computer setup but basically do whatever you have to do to open the link in a new window.
The address bar will display something along the lines of – http://www.google.com/local/add/ with a query string appended to it unique to your account.
In the top right-hand side of the screen you will see some prompt text offering you to “share an update” on your Google Place page.
Add in any relevant content into the freeform text area box and press the “share” button.
BAM!
You are up and running again.
Go and check your Google Places account again, test the “See your listing on Google Maps” link and everything will be back to normal.
If you still think that it’s too good to be true, go through a second phase of testing directly through the Maps vertical search and pat yourself on the back and have a cup of tea – “Jobs a good’un”.
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