E361: People are gaming local SEO with this Google Business Profile hack.
BUT… it’s super dangerous.
While it can get big results for a services-based business, it can also get an account banned.
AND… it can even be used to mess with competitors.
I’m not advocating this, but this is what’s trending in the world of SEO. So it’s important to know about.
As mentioned in the episode, here’s Darren Shaw’s post sharing this: https://x.com/DarrenShaw_/status/1806342610514264333
00:00 Episode Context 00:36 The Controversial Google Maps Hack 00:53 Step-by-Step Guide to the Hack 02:03 Risks and Community Reactions 04:24 The Reality of This Hack Against Opponents 05:58 Conclusion and Sign-Off
#localseo #blackhat #seo #digitalmarketing
The Edward Show. Your daily digital marketing podcast: https://edwardsturm.com/the-edward-show/
All right, this is gonna be one of those episodes that I shouldn't share, but look, I need content. And so I'm gonna talk about this. Some crazy local SEO, Google Business Profile hack that I saw on X, on Twitter. And then I tested a little bit, but I didn't follow through because I don't wanna get my account banned. And I shouldn't talk about this, but I'm gonna share it. 'Cause I do this show every day. This is episode 361 of my Daily Digital Marketing Podcast, and I need some content before I go to a family lunch here in New York, New York. This is the hack. This is the hack that I shouldn't talk about. Very simple. You wanna mess with a competitor's business. You go to Google Maps, you click Suggest and Edit. You move the pin. Now, before you try this, just finish listening because I don't want you to get banned. You click Suggest and Edit, so you just have to scroll down. You'll see that under Add a Label, Suggest and Edit. Then you click Change Name or Other Details, Edit Name, Location Hours. You click Edit Map Location, and then you can put the business in a new location. And then you click Save. But don't click Save. I'm not clicking Save. I haven't clicked Save when I have tried this. So if you wanna mess with a competitor's business, change the location to make it hard for people to get to them, you can do that. If you have a service-based business and you wanna change the location of your own business to be in a more central area, so you get more inbound, you can do that too. Though if you have a services-based business, I suppose you could've lied in the first place. All right, so that's a hack. Basically, people are messing with competitors' businesses. We're changing their own in order to get more traffic, messing with competitors so they get less traffic, and this is happening actually a startlingly high amount. Google Maps is collaborative. That's how they have so much amazing information, and that's why they have features like this. They want to keep listings up to date. Now, this was originally made popular. This hack was originally made popular by this guy Darren Shaw on X at Darren Shaw_. Let me read some of the comments in this post where he shares this. Top comment, user account level suspensions incoming. We already get enough people who don't understand why their Google business profile got suspended. I think going to add fuel to the fire and not actually be helpful. Another person I'm too scared to get penalized, that's good. Someone else, yo, someone did this to my listing and messed up my rankings. Another comment that I liked, very risky for short-term gains, you can get account level ban. So don't try this, don't try this at all. But here's how I bet people could abuse this. Pretty easy, actually. You go to a library or an Apple store and then you go to Google Maps, you create a new Google profile, and then you do this. I asked Chach EPT, 'cause actually, I don't know the answer to this, and according to Chach EPT, and Chach EPT hallucinates all the time, but I said, can a new Google account edit a business profile in Google Maps, like change the location of a business? According to Chach EPT, it can. If I was Google, I wouldn't allow that. I would only allow more established accounts to make changes to businesses. But if that's possible, that's crazy. And so you could go to a place, a different IP address, on a different browser, on a different computer, and then you can mess with Google Maps. But I'm not recommending it. This actually did blow my mind. I didn't expect it to blow my mind. The reason that I found it was Rand Fishkin, who exposed the Google leak, commented on this, and he said, whoa, that's crazy. And he brought it all this attention. And I think what happened, 'cause I think he deleted that comment, 'cause he realized that he had brought this bad thing way too much attention, so he deleted his comment. 'Cause I don't see that comment here anymore. But it is crazy. And so that's what I wanted to share on this episode of the podcast. Don't try this. This is a hack. It's a bad hack. It's an evil hack. It's risky. I'm not doing it. I actually know people who have done it. I'm not doing it. Don't do it. It's so risky. Definitely don't do it with any main account or main IP address or main computer or anywhere near you, but it is wild that this exists. But here's what, look. Here's, at the end of the day, here's the reality. Here's the reality of what will happen. Most likely what will happen is, the business owner will get an email and say your location has been changed. Maybe the location change will be accepted immediately, but then the business owner will get an email, say your location has been changed, is this true, and then you can say no, and then you can fix it back. And then once the business owner fixes it back, then the account that made the false recommendation is either flagged or banned. Though I could definitely see use cases where people would want to do this. For very short-term use cases, I could definitely see that where you want to get leverage for some specific opportunity or reason. It is one of those internet things that I just find so fascinating that this is possible. And so I'm like, if I find it fascinating, well, I think my listeners will find it fascinating too. You can go and test it. You don't have to click save. I would recommend not clicking save. And you can just click edit a map location, drag a pin, and then you'll see the option to save it. And you'll be like, wow. And here's what happens when you actually save it, because the guy does it on the video. It says, your edit to so-and-so has been accepted. Note that some changes might take up to 24 hours before appearing on Google. And the person who did this tested if it actually made a difference. And he was ranking for the top 10 keywords, for his top 10 keywords in the new zip code, in the new location. So this is crazy. I don't know how long this will last. It is very risky, but yeah, I wanted to share it. I think it's just so wild that this exists. And that's the hack for this episode of The Edward Show. This is my daily digital marketing daily, growth hacking daily, growth marketing podcast. Gosh, this one is wild. Thank you so much for watching. Thank you so much for listening. I will talk to you again tomorrow.
