Common Types of GMB Spam That Can Negatively Impact Your Business

By Chuck Magee, Raise the Rank. 

Generate more leads by learning how to spot fake competitors and draw in customers to your genuine business.  

Competitors will sometimes use Google My Business (GMB) to steal leads through a practice called spamming, this is when less than credible companies will use lots of keywords stuffed into their business name to game the GMB local pack.  

GMB spam threatens the success of credible businesses and your SEO strategy, so read on to learn how to spot GMB spam so that you don’t lose money on false Google business listings. 

Why should you create your GMB listing in the first place and what is GMB Spam? 

Digital marketing is crucial for any successful roofing business today, and Google My Business (GMB) is its pillar. Created by Google, GMB is an amazing tool that doesn’t cost you any money. And, if used wisely, it can help you derive consistent traffic to your business, day in and day out. 

However, GMB spam has been a big issue for a long time. If you’re not using GMB for your business, it can become a blessing for your competitors and spammers. They can steal your customers, and you may lose leads and sometimes even money. This rampant issue has indeed cast a dark shadow over many reliable roofing companies especially the ones that have not claimed their GMB listing yet. 

How competitors are stealing your GMB local pack spot  

There is no silver bullet to spot this shady practice. You must dig deep sometimes to even find it. Do a Google search on a roofing contractor. In the search result with GMB spam, you will notice two things:  

A hyphen in the middle of a business name – the company might be spamming its name. 

A company with one review outranks another one with 74 reviews. 

Well, it could happen because Google search considers a lot of factors. But I guarantee you this company is keyword stuffing its name. 

No reviews beating 100+ reviews  

Do another search on ‘roof repairs’ – One of the most common search terms in the roofing industry that provides roofers with the opportunity to sell a roof or roof repair services. Now, look at how the search results might appear (brace yourself for something worse). A company with three reviews is at the top, and another one with 128 reviews is at the fifth position. And if you take one Google Ad into account, a legitimate business actually ranks in the sixth position. 

Without a shadow of a doubt, I guarantee keyword stuffing is the culprit here as well. Back in the day, Google used to put a small box around the Google My Business ads, but in an effort to blur the line between organic rankings and paid ads, Google pulled out the box. 

A huge percentage of clicks goes to the local pack 

According to Bright Local, “Over 44% of all clicks on the first page of Google results go to the local pack.” So, if you have not claimed your GMB listing, your business does not get the recognition it deserves! 

Learn more about Raise the Rank in their RoofersCoffeeShop® Directory or visit raisetherank.com. 

Original article source: Raise the Rank