Imagine you are a Plumber in Seattle.

You’ve created your campaigns, ad groups, keywords and set everything up perfectly. Then you choose to ONLY target people that are physically searching in Seattle.

Why is it that you can be in Chicago and search for “Plumbers in Seattle” and view your PPC ad?

Pretty frustrating after all that work you did and the strategy you employed. Its a good strategy too- local service companies have limited budgets and cannot afford to cater to those all around the country or even the world. Other reasons are that your impressions go way up which makes your click through rate (CTR) go down and your ranking and cost per click are both affected.

Many of the out of city or state clicks may in fact be those occasional people on vacation, those helping out a grandma and calling for them but many of the searchers are 3rd party solicitors who go city to city and find the people who are apt to PAY. These companies find all the “payers” and see if they will pay for another service that may benefit them. Also many times it may just be competitors or looky-loos who are trying to gauge the climate of a business in an area.

So how do I fix this problem?

Google calls it “Search Intent” and if you go into each of your Campaign level Settings tab, under Locations and Languages, you will find “Advanced location options”

The DEFAULT is:

Target using either physical location or search intent (recommended)

Search Intent setting in Google Adwords

if you REALLY want to change it to ONLY show where you said you want it to show, then change the option to:

Target using physical location: Device-based location signals

then click Save.

You’re done. No more impressions outside of the area that you originally specified.

I see what Google is trying to do here but I think it is a good intention that is faulty in its implementation. Yes, they are trying to help you because someone is in fact looking for a Plumber in Seattle. True, why wouldn’t I want to see the company listing since it is so relevant to my search? I specifically added “Plumbers in Seattle” as an exact match or it is triggered by phrase match or what have you. Google is simply adding your result to the mix since it is so relevant to this query right?

I disagree. Having a lot of experience with local service companies and maximizing roi, most of the time (not all the time though) I want to opt out of the Search Intent. Costs too much, hurts CTR, CPC, CPA and helps the competition and solicitors (who clog the lines in your phone room).

And by the way, didn’t I make it pretty clear that I ONLY wanted to display to people physically in Seattle?

Interesting that you have to dig and then go to “Advanced Location Options” to find out how to get it the way you want…

I never thought Id actually hear from a person at Google Places.

I got the dreaded “This listing was rejected because it doesn’t meet the quality guidelines.”

Everyone that has received this message has been frustrated beyond belief since they have no way of knowing what to specifically  fix and when it will be reviewed. One does not even know if it was in fact reviewed and then re-rejected.

So we wait…

Then the clouds parted, the sun came out and a rainbow appeared:

Angie’s List Reconfirmation

Reconfirmation of a review almost 2 years after I wrote it.

So I responded thinking this was just some miscommunication. Of course Angie’s List would understand and keep my 2 reviews- one negative and one positive (I ultimately hired a company and they were outstanding).

The “Data Verification Specialist” had this to say:

Of course I have never had any business relationship with either company.

There are many directories and review sites that have been manipulated by business owners or third parties on behalf of those owners. I thought that the Angie’s List model appeared to have remedied this review spam and fraud for the most part.

Until I discovered this:

I reviewed a service company about a year ago or so. They were absolutely deplorable and attempted to flat out lie in order to sell me on more expensive items and services I did not need. I will not go into the details as to how I am certain of this but trust me, they were very shady and were big believers in the bait-and-switch.

I proceeded to post a negative review on Angie’s List and included great detail so as to share the tactics with the rest of the Angie’s List community.

Forward to 2 days ago, Monday the 11th. I deliberately waited a few days to see if I got a response back from Angie’s List after complaining but no such luck. Here is what I received:

Sweet loophole for any shady company with negative reviews huh?

What if I had deleted my Angie’s List account? What if I had missed the email? What if I did not spend the time to respond to the email?

Reviews have become an extraordinarily important element of not only search engine algorithms but user behavior in online research. If the one company that requires you to actually pay for the service gets rid of their negative reviews then I don’t know who to trust.

In recent months I have been working hard to optimize and fully understand what Google deems most relevant in their map results. Geotargeted marketing must utilize this avenue as part of an overall local based business strategy should it hope to succeed.

However there are problems. I see this being one of a string of future posts on Google Map results as there are many issues to discuss.

First let’s start with basic result quality. Google prides itself in a quality user experience. It will prioritize this in many cases over its interest in making money which is respectable. Other search engines have placed PPC ads in prime real estate and even sold organic placement (i.e. Yahoo!). Further testament to this fact is the very map placement we are discussing is free!

Now why would Google opt to place free information listings in such a prominent location (pushing down the organic results that have taken years in some cases to rank) and compromise on quality of info- in some cases publishing complete garbage listings or those that have absolutely no relevance? Or what about those listings that are considered “map spam” that have manipulated Google’s algorithm? Many of these listings are even black hat seo people who in fact sell their leads since they are so prominently displayed.

Now as I said there will be many posts on Google’s Map results and I am already starting to get off track since there are so many issues here. Quality of results are key as are the rest of Google’s organic results. What we are referring to here when we refer to quality is simply a legitimate result (i.e. a real company who is in fact in business) and that the company is a perfect match to the search query (i.e. able to perform the tasks you are searching for, in your targeted area of course).

There are many searches which result in poor quality listings or just blatantly fake companies looking to redirect or sell leads (try looking for locksmiths!). It appears that Google will be doing a major cleanup in the near future unless they want to be seen as an aggregator of garbage which gets prominent placement. Nothing like scouring the internet in order to prominently display spam!

Next up: Review Sites and their Influence on Map Results