Warning: Google is assuming your outstanding issues are fixed with the latest “Google My Business” branding.

To put it bluntly, Google’s local services, no matter what name they give it, and they seem to be good at changing that on a regular basis has been a mess. If you aren’t lucky enough to have your business show up in search smoothly, which admittedly does happen more often, you get stuck in this strange world where Google says they are trying to fix or help you, but nothing really happens.  I’ve had a number of client experiences in recent years that I have helped with, and Google’s local products have by far been the biggest pain point.

I had a business in Brooklyn show up in Google’s map listings in Trenton, NJ.  The address said Brooklyn, but for some reason Google couldn’t make them show up in Brooklyn.  This lasted for months despite the obvious error and telling Google themselves about it.  At least this business owner had a listing somewhere. I have had a number that just would not get published. I had a client that Google called almost every day for a month claiming to confirm his listing and he told them every day.  Luckily, he is finally published, but these hiccups and pain points continue.

The latest version of Google local, called Google My Business came in while I was at the SMX Advanced search conference in Seattle in June and I didn’t really see much as far as changes, except the name.  I guess the main reason for this post, other than to complain about my biggest stress for my clients in recent years, is to warn business owners that apparently when Google shifted to “My Business”, they assumed all outstanding issues were fixed, so be wary.

I have had an outstanding issue with a client for over a month that the multiple people I talked to at Google told me was their issue and that they were resolving it. I have had no progress and was even called by a Google rep to help me (I didn’t call him), only to not return my call or email when I called him back. I don’t know that he was calling about that specific issue, but I had made several calls to Google support as a certified partner and was looking for help.  Just points to the issue.  I had planned to blog on a separate topic this week but this morning received an email from Google local support basically telling me that they assumed my issue was resolved because of the shift to “My Business” and to let them know if it wasn’t.  If you have an outstanding issue with them about local, call them again today.  It appears they think it is resolved and are putting it on you to let them know if it isn’t.

This doesn’t make me feel any better about local going forward, but if you do need help with Google local issues, give me a call.  Though it isn’t pleasant, I do deal with this every day and have resources to help you get through this stuff.