More threads by racebum

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If you've been around awhile you have probably seen countless threads from plumbers, carpet cleaners and HVAC owners that say something like "one day this telemarketer {which was really google} called from 650 253 2000 and we hung up on them, then, our page disappeared! Well, guess what, you're not alone and there is a process to get re instated once you meet the terms of service.

on december 7th 2012 our place got caught in an address sweep that took down my metro area for residential zoning locations with an address displayed. this morning our page went live again in place and did so at the exact position it got dinged from. on top of that all our reviews are intact

the step by step process to get re instated. goes something like this

1. fix your TOS violations
2. submit to google at My listing has incorrect information. - Places for business Help

saying my listing no longer appears on google places. wait two weeks, see what happens then call places tech support via the callback method if you live in the USA. your SOL if you live anywhere besides 'merica

blumenthals has a complete walk through of how to do this at https://www.google.com/url?sa=f&rct...qPLgCg&usg=AFQjCNHGb5C8gAwOJ5ci6Kg2HiD4IqDe8A

speak with a customer service rep and explain your situation. from the time you do this you should be live again in 2-8 weeks provided you have no TOS violations and the rep gets you in the que with a map maker team

now, what you should not do

1. deleted your places listing and start over. all this will do is make sure you lose your reviews and go to the back of the bus. you'll have a new listing with the courtesy 2 month sandbox when it finally does go live

2. submit your places request at multiple addresses and see which one works. doing this will cause citation conflicts and put you in violation of TOS if you do wind up with more than one that's live

other worthwhile notes:

1. do not display your address unless you have a property that's zoned commercial. that's the be all and end all of it. a google employee may check to see the building in google earth and it better look like a storefront and be zoned as such.

2. some people who have felt hopeless try another listing with the same information and under a different email to get a new listing live. it has worked for some. if you're daring and do this do not delete your old places account just yet as this may not work, remember back of the bus. if you do get a new listing live and want to keep it delete the other one only then to prevent dupe content. this is a do at your own risk type thing and i personally suggest just doing what i did and troubleshooting with google

i'm sure i've forgotten a few things so feel free to add on to anything i've missed, with any luck this will be a good help thread for anyone who's looking at their screen and thinking wtf does we do not support this location mean?
 
Re: service business that got deleted from places? here's what happens

Congratulations! Sounds like things are on their way up.

I would simply stress the importance of developing an actual marketing system that generates leads so you are not dependent on Google for your survival.
 
Re: service business that got deleted from places? here's what happens

Congratulations! Sounds like things are on their way up.

I would simply stress the importance of developing an actual marketing system that generates leads so you are not dependent on Google for your survival.

Absolutely agree with keenan on this, and it's something I (and others) say to clients all the time. All this Local SEO stuff should be done in addition to other marketing.
 
another update on this. for those of you who follow this outline and get your places page brought back. wait a couple days and search your phone number and business name in maps specifically. when google brought back my places listing, they also brought back an old location. sure enough google india called being weird as ever and hanging up on me the second i said "what was that again?"

thankfully flash took care of the problem and mentioned seeing it more than once this week.

so, when you get revived, make sure it's the only thing that was resurrected

yes i know there are typo's in my first post and no i can not correct them :)

also be warned their calls don't always come from 650 253 2000. this one was an 011 with the india country code
 
That is the first time I have ever heard of the calls coming from anywhere other than mountain view. Great warning to have.

same here and if i wasn't so tuned in from what's happened i may have blown it off. the specifics were the "hi this is so and so from google maps" then using the word storefront and looking on maps and mentioning the gravel road the old location was on.

the fact i heard all that and the old location came back, address and all were pretty solid tells that it was in fact the google deletion team
 

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