Local Spam Update on Google Business Profile

In August 2022, Google has announced what it considers to be spam when it comes to Google Business Profile posts. Businesses gain numerous advantages on Google business profile posts such as,

• Allow you to communicate directly with local customers.
• Highlight your Google local listing and improve customer experience through timely information about your business.
• Encourage customers to leave Google business reviews and boost your online reputation.
• Enhance your Google business listings and boost customer engagement through enticing photos and videos.

Before the update, Google Spam policies covered the following topics,

• Distracting content
• Misspellings
• Blurry images and video
• Gimmicky characters
• Adding malware and harmful software links
• Links to irrelevant sites
• Phishing scam

But after the update, it has added a new line under the avoid section says “examples of such content that is not allowed include “duplicate photos, posts, videos, and logos.” so if our post is caught with duplicate photos, videos etc it will be rejected or removed from Google Search and Google Maps.

How to Avoid Penalties?

• Avoiding Video Spam
• Preventing Image Spam
• Image Attribution
• Accurate Information
• Avoid Overusing Your Company’s Logo
• Add Variety to Business Profile Posts

So with the local spam update, businesses’ posts on their Google local listing can be removed. It is important to note that having your posts marked as spam won’t immediately result in a Google My Business or Google Business Profile suspension or reduce local business citations. However, if your posts are reported as spam, you will lose the benefits associated with them, which can negatively impact your company’s local SEO strategies.