"Your google listing is about to be removed"

F

firehawk

Veteran
I keep getting phone calls supposedly from "google" regarding my google online listing. They either say information is missing, it's not validated, claimed or flagged and about to be removed.
So when another phone call came today I went ahead and talked to a rep who said he worked at Local Listings in Utah.
So it appears they are an intermediate company that for a fee will maintain your google listing.

Several months ago I set up my google business listing and confirmed it via the PIN they mail out on a postcard, added photos, phone #, website etc. It shows up in the searches for video production companies and I thought it was good to go for a while. But the guy said it has to be maintained or will be removed.
So what is the deal? What really has to be done to keep your google listing?
 
firehawk said:
I keep getting phone calls supposedly from "google" regarding my google online listing. They either say information is missing, it's not validated, claimed or flagged and about to be removed.
So when another phone call came today I went ahead and talked to a rep who said he worked at Local Listings in Utah.
So it appears they are an intermediate company that for a fee will maintain your google listing.

Several months ago I set up my google business listing and confirmed it via the PIN they mail out on a postcard, added photos, phone #, website etc. It shows up in the searches for video production companies and I thought it was good to go for a while. But the guy said it has to be maintained or will be removed.
So what is the deal? What really has to be done to keep your google listing?
Click to expand...

Sounds like a phishing scam to me. Call Google and ask them about your account. But don't use a phone number supplied by a third party. Use what you already have from Google, or look it up fresh. And don't give out personal information, especially credit card numbers, to anyone who calls you from the outside. Be damn sure you know exactly who they are and that they are ligit before you give them even the barest scrap of information -- even "verifying" your address, etc.
 
I manually set the listing up on google and thought it was all done. I figured all these "google" phone calls are companies trying to squeeze money or scam.
I just logged into my google account again and looked and it says verified and complete.

Does google remove you if you don't log in or update your listing within a certain amount of time?
The reason I ask that is because around 5 years ago I think I set up my google listing but several months ago noticed we didnt' show up in the google listing anymore so I apparently had been removed and thus I manually set it all up again.

I'm going to try to contact google as you said.
Thank you
 
It will remain as long as it meets Google's criteria. But it won't be maintained at the highest level unless you actively do things. Best thing you can do is to make fresh content to your website on a regular basis. Also you can take out an adwords account and pay Google for higher listing, pennies per click and up to make sure you are higher in the search results. I would read up on what Google wants to keep your listing high in the results, it will all be spelled out pretty clearly.

You can also tell that company to go !@#$%^&*()_ themselves, the worst they can do is negatively attack your rankings and if you can prove this, Google will take care of fixing things for you (rather permanently) to put them out of business. Google hates companies that will elevate search results for pay (unless you are paying Google), they may clamp down on this practice like Amazon and then your money could be wasted.
 
It's a scam. Tell them to F off.
What they're trying to sell you is SEO that isn't worth anything.
Tell them your number is on the do not call registry and you will be reporting them. That usually gets them to leave you alone.
 
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