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Update Google Places Listing Or Lose It
Back in February, Google sent emails to businesses telling them to update their Google Places listing or risk losing it. It turned out that this purge of local listings was aimed at Australian listings only.
True to their word, Google started removing businesses who failed to update their listing from Maps. The fallout from that ongoing fiasco can be seen on several threads in the Google and Your Business Forum – including this one. You’ll find screenshots of the warnings and email content on this thread in the Local Search Forum.
New Edit Information Warnings
Google are currently rolling out these warnings worldwide. Sure enough, I logged in my Google Places dashboard this morning for an end of month check to discover edit warnings on mine and a clients Places listing.
Red edit warnings in Google Places dashboard
On clicking View Dashboard and clicking through to the listing, a yellow bar warning is displayed prominently at the top of the page.
Google Places review your information yellow bar warning
While the wording and urgency has been toned down from the warnings sent out to Australian businesses in February – action is still REQUIRED. You do need to review your information and click submit or risk Google removing your listing from Maps.
This warning also appears if you manage your listing via Google Plus Local Pages. Again, you must be logged in and editing the business information to see the warning.
In the video below I walk you through both Google Places and Google Plus Local Pages – where to edit the info and click submit.
Google Edit Information Warnings Video
What you need to do now…
1. Log into your Google local listing (via Places or Google Plus)
2. Check for the yellow bar warning.
3. If you have a warning, scroll to the bottom of the page and click submit – even if you have made no changes!
Don’t risk losing your business listing, reviewing your information takes less than 5 minutes – do it now while it’s top of mind.
Don’t forget – I can help you manage your local business listings. Simply get in touch via the contact page.
Over to you…
Have you received a warning on your Google Places listing? Have you reviewed your information yet?
Google Places (+Local) Edit Info Warnings [Video] by Jan Kearney
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Wow Jan – I must have been living in a burrow or something. I’m in Australia and didn’t see those warnings. I don’t have a Google Places listing but some of my clients do – need to fix this up asap! Thank you so much for this information!
Hi Karen, the first round of warnings were in a red highlight box and often accompanied by mail. Not all Places listings were affected – hopefully your clients are in the not affected group 🙂
Thanks for the heads up, Jan.
I am not using Google Places, but a friend of mine does. I forwarded this page, so that he has the necessary info on hand and not risk losing his listing.
Cheers,
Torsten
Thank you Torsten 🙂
Hi Jan,
Interesting to hear that Google as always are keeping webmasters on their toes and it does makes one wonder whether Google is doing this to update their places / maps database, or whether something major might be lurking around the corner.
Kind regards
Sky
Google are always keeping us on our toes, Sky 🙂 No rest for the wicked and all that! Google local has been in a state of flux for over a year now as they try to bring it under the G Plus banner – it’s a bit of a mess!