The local Wickes store on Google Maps is listed in the middle of the road near to the store. I have repeatedly edited the listing to the correct building (next to the Currys) and then edit is accepted, however after a few days (or even hours sometimes) the listing goes back to the middle of the road. Any ideas/help appreciated.
I see this again and again. Yesterday I got almost 10 email notifications in a row of accepted edits, but they were reverted even before the mail system got around to generating the mail notifications. So the old and incorrect names were mentioned in the subject of the email notifications.
No one seems to be interested in fixing this even though it is very demotivating. And a data quality issue.
The problem is that the Experts on Maps Support Forum has no tools to communicate such systematic/programmatic issues to the relevant team. They deal with data issues only. I guess we are left with sending feedback from inside the app. And this never gets replied to or fixed as far as I can recall.
Maybe, @DeniGu can suggest what needs to be done to document this further and how to reach the responsible team.
The link you shared seems to be fixed now. Keep in mind that it can take some time for all the servers to get synchronized, so it is best to wait 24 hours before checking.
The real issue is that Business chains update the data of all their listings in Google Business Profile in one shot, by uploading a spreadsheet with all the data of the shops, as explained here: Import your bulk upload spreadsheet . This includes name, address, phone number, website, etc., just to give you an example. Some business do this very often, just to avoid edits made by others (e.g. scammers) but it is of course also involving legittimate changes made by Local Guides, like the one that you are trying to do, by moving the business away from the center of road, or the name mentioned by @MortenCopenhagen , that frequently is not following the guidelines about naming a place.
The issue in not that “the Experts on Maps Support Forum has no tools to communicate such systematic/programmatic issues to the relevant team”, @MortenCopenhagen , the issue is that a different department (Google Business Profile) should have an algorithm to prevent the use of inappropriate names, and a verification option about the position of the PIN that, as you well know, should be in the center of the business.
I moved a business for weeks, @jackgibbs66 , and it was constantly moved back kilometers away from the right position, to be finally removed by a huge amount of edits, all flagging the POI as “non existent”. Here is the story: What to learn from the mistakes of a Claimed Business Owner .
I believe in this king of issue related to the position of the pin the solutions are only 2:
Contact the manager of the branch and show the issue, for the manager to escalate it internally to the person who is managing the spreadsheet
I have been hesitant to get involved with the chainstores making bulk sheet uploads. Partly because the responsible person is difficult to locate. The branch manager have no clue and does not know who is responsible. It is often some assistant in the marketing department.
From my conversations with SEO experts I understand there are also
List management software available to patrol and remove out edits asap. Those are crawlers or macros checking constantly.
I could not agree more that the best solution would be a simple input verification rutine to automatically remove or block All Caps names, registered trademark symbols, and location and category stuffing. What should we do to advocate for this? It seems that Google decided to be more relaxed on in forcing the naming rules to those businesses buying the square logo directly on the map. So maybe there is a path!
The business owners have the possibility of accept or deny an edit, @MortenCopenhagen , as you can read in Manage Google updates to your Business Profile : “You can choose to accept, discard and replace, or edit Google updates. Different types of updates show in different text colors in the profile editor.”
So you don’t need a special App to track and find modifications of your business. Google is providing the info directly on Your Business Profile. But of course every SEO person is trying to say that you need an expert for managing it