Google Is Always Interested in Quality

Google is very interested in the quality level of the sites trying to get ranked. They have very advanced filters to block out unethical people, so while you may not feel this is critical to you, you need to be aware that your ranks will suffer if you are not conscious of how to play the quality game with Google.

Getting caught with spammy tactics by this guy can ruin your business’s trust with Google.

Essentially, you can’t do things like create more listings than you need, over-stuff keywords, or try to fool them in any way. You can only create one listing per physical location of your company, so do not in any way try to make an end run around this. One common spammy tactic that was wiped out by Google was using P.O. boxes instead of physical addresses. Businesses would do this because it was cheaper to get a P.O. box than to start up a physical location in a new area. They would set up fake businesses with P.O. boxes and take advantage of local search results in that area.

Sometimes what you think may be legitimate may actually be unethical under Google’s guidelines. Just as with organic rankings, Google+ Local has a massive list of items to deal with to get it right. We will cover only the essentials here to get you started.

If you already have a Google Account, sign in with your email and password, and get started on the path to claiming your business listing in Google+ Local from Google Places.

Contacting Google’s Support

A lot of businesses don’t know about this, but Google actually has great support for Google+ Local/Google Places – which is surprising because they lack support everywhere besides Adwords typically. If you have any trouble verifying/reverifying your listing you can contact with them and it usually gets solved fairly quickly. It can be a hit or miss with their support reps and you may need to contact them again for better assistance with your problem.