In last week’s article we discussed various actions you can implement to enhance your company’s position in Google Maps. Now in order to have the complete picture we will go over some things that you should avoid. Some are minor and won’t cause you to loose any ranking, and some can cause you to be pushed down and out of sight.
1) Having multiple addresses on your contact page and or template boiler plate. As you can imagine the purpose of Google Maps is to feature the physical location of one business, and if your website is indicating multiple or conflicting locations then it will confuse Google. If your business does indeed have multiple branches you can specify all of those in your Google business account and thereby avoid this issue altogether.
2) Using a 1-800 phone number. Since Google Maps is about being ‘local’, you should do everything you can to fortify that. One way is by using your local phone number (with the local area code), and avoiding an 800 number.
3) Negative customer ratings and reviews. Of course you can’t stop people from writing negative reviews but you can certainly get pro-active about it and whenever you do get a negative review go out of your way to get 10 more positive reviews in order to dilute the negative effect. You can do this by soliciting loyal customers.
4) Multiple listings with the same business name, address or phone number. If by some chance your business has multiple similar entries in Google Maps, you should take it upon yourself to report them to Google so they can be deleted or consolidate them (if you are in control of them) into one.
5) Avoid schemes. Only put up a business location if you do in fact actually have a business at that location. If you want your business to do well in Google Maps that means following the terms of service and building up a good repute.
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