Today in Digital Marketing - 197: Google Maps Has a Terrible Spam Problem

Starting point is 00:00:00 Today, we go deep into one of Google's biggest spam problems, one that is directly affecting the results of digital marketers in the services industry. Plus, Snapchat launches its first mini-app, TikTok gets caught up in a 5G fight, and it's not just you. Search console data is bugged out again. It's Monday, July 20th, 2020. Happy National Moon Day. I'm Todd Maffin from EngageQ Digital. Here is what you missed today in Digital Marketing brought to you by TrendHackers.co. It's been common knowledge for some time that the easiest way to gain Google's local business search was to name your company after common search terms. This is why if you go to Google Maps and type appliance repair near Me, you'll see companies

Starting point is 00:00:46 apparently with the name Appliance Repair and then your city. Like shops called Appliance Repair Chicago and Appliance Repair Winnipeg, which seems like a kind of silly name for a real shop, right? Of course it is. That's because these aren't real shops at all. They sell the leads, so when you call the phone number, you get sent to like a call tree.

Starting point is 00:01:05 Joanne Hawkins leads local SEO shop, Sterling Sky. She spoke to me a few weeks back. And then, you know, they know that the person wants to get their garage door repaired. So then they sell that to a real business who probably doesn't realize that this listing is competing with them, pushing them out of the results.

Starting point is 00:01:23 It's like any client of ours that's in that industry, every month when we go and look, we find new fake listings. I did a search for appliance repair in my town, Nanaimo, British Columbia, and sure enough, the top listing on Google Maps was a fake shop called Appliance Repair Nanaimo. The Google My Business profile only had stock photography of appliances uploaded, nothing of an actual store because, of course, there isn't one. As for the website, it was heavily SEO'd. It was clear from the HTML code that they knew what they were doing. They were using Yoast, had the search keywords in the file names of all the images,

Starting point is 00:01:57 and the alt tags. The website even had a phone number with a local prefix, 250, which is the right prefix for Nanaimo. And when I called it, reached Silo McLean. Sorry, I missed your call. Your call is important. Please leave your name, phone number, address, and an email address, and we will get back to you with a quote. This mailbox is full. Please try again later. This fake website could be particularly convincing to people because it actually showed an address in town. A real address. And so, this afternoon, I went there. Hi. Is there an appliance repair shop here?

Starting point is 00:02:39 It's not a shop, of course. It was an older ranch-style house. I don't know, actually. The door was answered by a very polite and slightly bewildered Chinese woman in her early 20s. She got a friend on the phone to translate and said, no, she doesn't run any kind of repair store, never has, has no idea why their address is on the listing. This is, of course, a huge problem for people marketing real services businesses. For one, they're getting pushed down the listing by fake companies. But worse, these fake companies are collecting those leads and then kind of holding them for ransom.

Starting point is 00:03:12 This is a problem that local SEO people have been complaining about forever. And today, Google search spokesperson Danny Sullivan confirmed they are working on it, saying, quote, I know the team really is working to better deal with this type of stuff. I do expect improvement should be noticeable in the near future, unquote. But not everyone is convinced. This problem has been going on since before I really kind of jumped into the scene. Joe Youngblood is an SEO researcher in Dallas. I mean, this is probably an issue Google's had since they decided to make local profiles.

Starting point is 00:03:47 And they've made similar promises in the past. And it might be fixed for a week or two and then just goes right back. Of course, if a fix does happen and it appears to be effective, you will hear about it first, right here. Google will soon prohibit ads on webpages that contain debunked COVID-19 conspiracy theories. Theories like vaccines are an attempt by the deep state to genetically modify people,

Starting point is 00:04:13 that Bill Gates created COVID-19, or that the virus is secretly a Chinese bioweapon. But here's the weird thing. This ban won't go into effect for another month. Google says August 18th is the date it'll stop letting ads run on those kinds of pages. It will be page by page for a while, but if they notice that it's lots of pages on a website that have that kind of content, they'll just straight up ban the whole domain, pretty much cutting off all ad revenue for the site's publisher. Google already bans ads on pages that promote anti-vaccine content. And early in the pandemic, they demonetized YouTube videos about it

Starting point is 00:04:49 so that creators would stop capitalizing off of the virus. In the last few months, Google says it's already taken down more than 200 million ads related to COVID-19 that went against its policies. Still ahead, it's the interactive mobile brand experience that doesn't require your audience to download a separate app,

Starting point is 00:05:10 an update on Google's agency program, and some welcome updates to a major B2B marketing platform. That's in a minute when Today in Digital Marketing continues. Studies show the most important factor for a successful business is timing. Thank you. check out trendhackers.co. That's trendhackers.co. You won't regret it. About a month ago, I reported that Google was closing its Partners Rewards program. That's the incentive program for digital agencies. Basically, when you hit certain milestones, like getting new clients or getting your team certified on Google platforms,

Starting point is 00:06:21 they would give you points that you could buy things with. Typical kind of rewards program. And back in late June, they emailed agencies to say they were sunsetting the Google Partner Rewards Program, but didn't really have any details on its replacement. Now we know the replacement, and it's called the Google Partner Rewards Program. Yeah, it's back now, apparently. Some partner is getting an email today announcing the program is returning or staying or something. Anyway, it seems like they're not going to close it after all, at least not yet anyway. If only they would change their mind on Google Reader. Snapchat's first mini has launched. A mini is a kind of micro app that you can build for your

Starting point is 00:07:03 brand that lives inside Snapchat. One of the big benefits being that you can deliver an interactive brand experience without requiring that your users download your app. If they already have and use Snapchat, they'll be able to access yours inside there. And the first one is a mindfulness and meditation tool from Headspace. Interestingly, this app uses the chat integration that minis provide. People do a kind of group-guided meditation with their friends by starting a group chat inside Snapchat. Once someone joins the group, they get offered a choice of brief meditations with titles

Starting point is 00:07:35 ranging from Just Breathe to Get Out of a Funk and Kick the Panic. Quoting social Media Today, combined. And while that seems extremely high, the fact is that Snapchat does have audience reach that many developers and businesses would love to connect with. Which brings us to the lightning round. Some people reporting that Google search console data is lagging again. Twitter is full of people today reporting that the last data they can see is from a week ago. So if you're seeing that too, it's not something that you did wrong. Still no fix for the Sprout Social mobile app. For more than a week now, some customers haven't been able to send any messages or reply to any comments or reviews or posts using the app.

Starting point is 00:08:38 This, of course, is a huge bug. Last week, customer service reps said they expected a fix that week. Today, they're saying maybe sometime this week. TikTok is pulling back on its plan to set up a new global headquarters in London. This is because of a fight the UK and China are having regarding 5G infrastructure. And some nice additions to B2B lead marketing tool Marketo Engage, including improved bot blocking on forums, greater control over call recordings, and they are dropping support for Internet Explorer 11. I wish I could tell you I did lots of stuff on the weekend, but I mean, you know, I played video games. It's getting hot

Starting point is 00:09:18 out there, though. My wife, who's been working from home since this whole COVID thing, had to stop working outside on our deck because it was so hot, her laptop shut down. I'm not complaining. Special thanks to TrendHackers.co for sponsoring today's episode. I'm Todd Maffin. More from the world of digital marketing tomorrow. Talk to you then. We'll see you next time. jackets and boots. So when you do, always make sure you get cash back from Rakuten. And it's

Starting point is 00:10:05 not just clothing and shoes. You can get cash back from over 750 stores on electronics, holiday travel, home decor, and more. It's super easy. And before you buy anything, always go to Rakuten first. Join free at rakuten.ca. Start shopping and get your cash back sent to you by check or PayPal. Get the Racketan app or join at Racketan.ca. R-A-K-U-T-E-N.ca.

Today in Digital Marketing - 197: Google Maps Has a Terrible Spam Problem

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