Some people are lucky, and some people aren’t. Here’s an unlucky person I ran across today. He’s simply known as Robert, and his problems revolve around the keys and locks in his life. As Google will tell you, he’s one hell of an unlucky person who finds himself in need of a good locksmith regularly.
On November 27, 2008, Robert started sharing his history of bad luck with keys, locks and the locksmiths he loves working with. His soapbox: online reviews. Let’s take a look. His problems all took place in Arizona, all ten of them. Here’s a few below:
If that wasn’t enough, just about a week later Robert had more problems with his keys and locks, and more locksmiths to provide feedback on. All the reviews were good, just like the one’s in Arizona. All of the reviews point to another string of bad luck in Seattle. Twenty-eight reviews of locksmiths were all added on December 5th. Here’s a few of the reviews:
Robert has had some really bad luck with keys and locks. But, he’s had great luck with locksmiths apparently. Every one he’s worked with he’s given a five-star rating.
Okay, everyone’s figured it out by now (I hope). There’s obviously something wrong with this user profile. And, in reality, there probably is no “Robert,” so who cares about his reviews on Google.
Well, the reviews actually play a part in a bigger scheme. Who cares about these reviews? Google’s Local algorithm, and the spammers know it. These reviews, and many, many others point to scores of sites that appear to be (to Google at least) different, individual local businesses.
In reality, they are not. They are lead aggregators or call centers that are reselling leads to the locksmiths that perform the actual work.
Here’s what the Google results looks like to a consumer doing a search on Google for “Phoenix emergency locksmith”. Note the local listings specifically (the ten listings accompanied by the map).
They all look pretty similar, don’t they? The only thing that is different is the phone number and web site addresses. The local listings all point to one (or a handful) of companies that are aggregating leads and reselling them to locksmiths.
Leveraging fabricated user reviews are a part of how the lead aggregation companies can secure all, or most, of the local listings Google suggests.
The average search engine user likely never sees the reviews either. You don’t see them unless you click on the link that states the number of reviews. If you do so, and then take a look at the reviewers themselves and see all the reviews that an individual made, the fake profiles and reviews are easy to spot.
If you look back at the reviews we’ve been talking about, the clearest indicator is that “Robert” is reusing the same reviews over and over again. He also signs a few reviews as “Nicole.”
Upon doing a quick web search you can find the reviews repeated again, and again, and again. Different users, different listings, same exact review. Here’s an example. I searched Google for the phrase “He was quick and did not try to sell us stuff we did not need,” a phrase used in one of Robert’s reviews. It returned 105 results. All reviews.
That path I went down to demonstrate this was easy. I’m not bringing anything to light that online marketers haven’t seen in one form or another. It’s been known for quite some time that the local listings for many trades (including locksmiths) are dominated by lead resellers who are taking advantage of the simplistic, under-developed algorithms that rank local search results.
Chris Johnson, Partner at Terralever blogged about the hijacking of Google Local Business Listings earlier this year. It’s not the same tactic I’m speaking of here, but is to achieve a similar end-game. Blogger and Local expert Mike Blumenthal has been talking about this issue for some time. Here are a few posts from his blog:
- 2007: Google Maps being used for Philly fraud update
- 2009: Google Maps vs Locksmith Spammers: Spammers winning?
What’s unfortunate is that, when gamed, both the consumer and legitimate businesses lose. Businesses with legitimate listings cannot compete and get placement in the local results. The consumer, instead of seeing ten different local choices, really only has a few, or just one, depending on the extent of the exploit.
The manipulators who are creating the multiple listings are, of course, winners, as is Google, whose AdWords advertisements become more enticing to the small business who cannot get into the top local results.
Google has reported that they are working on the problem, but its hard to gauge how important it is to them. The locksmith example has been around for quite some time, and manipulated results propped up by spam are still easy to come by.
It is concerning, though. If I can do a few quick Google searches and find irregularities which could easily be handled mathematically, Google’s Local algorithm has some gaping holes in it. We can only hope they’re working the problem and are close to a solution.
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{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
It was really a nice story i got attention towards it & now from this time i will make my self bewared!By the way Gareth is right it is very difficult to keep away from these things!
in this Economic era of the world we get the true value of the info in a very difficult condition & that is the reason that no one trusts on the true posts also & they just say that they will try on it but they dont do so because they scare of those methods & tha's why the info which they are getting remains of no use but in my point of view the info which we get from the posts like of yours should be use as a first trail on some of the trial sites & if we get the good results from that then feel free to use on the originals one!
nice post i completely agree with harry s.its not easy to prevent these kind of spams…Google only promises to work on the problems but as such i ve not seen any response from them hopefully they ll get the solution sooner…
i am very serious about it as it affects on our hard work done by us & we dont wanna the google to just give us a fake ray of hope!i have been one of the victims !i wait for it that there would be some solutions in the meantime otherwise there are lots of people who are angry on it!
I have had someone (intuitivefitness.com.au) do this to my business http://www.fitnessenhancement.com when you google personal trainer gold coast. They have somehow stolen/merged their lisitng with mine so my listing links to their site, not mine. They also have ove 100 fake listings! How do I fix this? I have reported it to google but will they actually do anything? Thanks for any advice!
A well written eye-opening post. Thank you.
Some of the comments here appear to be spam, btw.
As a heavy adwords advertiser, this is just one more stupid gaming-the-system problem I now need to be aware of. Until google fixes it, of course. That's the good thing – we KNOW they'll fix it.
Excellent post! Our company has done a lot of research along the same vein.
Sadly though, I don’t think Google is making any headway on the problem. My legitimate, and verified, listing got removed. In its place were new listings that didn’t exist—one right across the street from our shop. I’m seeing new listings show up nearly daily that don’t exist (they’re empty lots, residential addresses, or other businesses). Google needs to just get rid of the “local” maps product (as does Yahoo and Bing) or start charging such outrages sums no one could afford thousands of posts. I just don’t see how they can fix the problem without further damage to the legitimate companies.
You can read what we’ve learned about Phoenix Locksmith Fraud by visiting the Knowledge Center on our website.
@scovert – sorry for the late reply. I'm pretty disappointed with my commenting system's spam handling, but I finally got around to cleaning things up a bit. Google will (hopefully) eventually clean this up; its unfortunate that it is so gamable–there are sites that are going far against the posting guidelines and common sense for spam detection but still easily making it onto map listings.
@acmelocksmith – I read your Locksmith Fraud info on your site. It was after I posted some of my findings/frustrations above, but before you had commented. I believe I also saw some of your frustrations aired on the Google Maps Group also.
I sincerely can't believe how little has changed with so much light on the topic. I actually read that Google's AdWords team (I believe it was the AdWords team, not the Maps or Local team) was thinking of new ways to monetize local search results. That's a tough nut to swallow for the little guy. The cards are stacked against you, and Google's answer is to find a paid advertising scheme out of it.
I don't think that Local should go away. In many ways Local is a foregone conclusion with mobile really taking hold. Ultimately, Google, Yahoo and Bing will clean things up; it just can't happen soon enough!
It is unfortunate with how hard it is to get in organic results that it is so simple to get into local search with basic tricks. Try to play by google's rules with link building etc and maybe 10 years later you might actually place well. We have a fantastic marketing company and brilliant website but because we have not paid for link exchanges or spammed the review section of local search, we don't rank as well as we should. I remember hearing the same comments 5 years ago, it will get better… Has it really? Never could figure out why replying to blog articles makes your website rank better. Sure I get it but does it make any sense? It still is not natural placement. No different than maps.
I'm in Australia and haven't seen this happening over here yet, but have no doubt that it will, unless Google does something about it. It's a shame that so many sections of the Internet are completely filled with fake reviews for SEO/link purposes. It's turning some sections of the net into one big pile of junk mail.
This is an example of how it is becoming harder and harder to sift through information to get to what is real and valuable. It is good to know about this since I use google so much to search for pretty much anything and everything. I like to support local businesses. As a consumer, what can I do? Skip to the third page of google listings? I guess in some ways it is still better to rely on talking to my neighbors to find out whose services to use. It seems that as soon as a new technology is introduced, the best way to manipulate it for self serving purposes is not far behind.
It's a bit unfortunate that there are loopholes in the system. We have submitted our details but we don't even show up when you put in our exact company name. I know there is no duplicate of our listing
Thank you for that nice post. Our company has done a lot of research along the same vein. Sadly, I don’t think Google is making any headway on the problem.