4 ms·
You can probably just check the referrer header and display a giant nag message to people coming from that business listing. "This website is not associated wi
by randombytes6869 6y ago
You can probably just check the referrer header and display a giant nag message to people coming from that business listing.
"This website is not associated with company X which have been misrepresenting themselves by linking to my site from their maps listing."
- federicoponzi 6y agoThanks for the suggestion but: 1. I would need to do that for every referral from google, something which I would avoid. 2. Users might not click on the link and still think we're related. Also, the very same listing is showing facebook and twitter links on which I cannot do much about.
- nullc 6y agoYou could also treat probes from google's address space differently, perhaps if you return 404s they'll automatically delist it.
- edoceo 6y agoIf you try to trick Google Bot different, they find it a punish your site.
- rhizome 6y agoIt's bad luck to return something different to GoogleBot than what regular people see.
- lovemenot 6y agoFascinating use of language. Superstition implies belief in fate / deity. It doesn't surprise to see this written now, even if only ironically. "The algorithm cannot be understood by anyone" - which is a fact. So we summon the fates to describe its expected behaviour. If this comment seems personal, that wasn't intended. I really don't know how people in SEO tend to communicate. But I just heard this kind of language for the first time. So it's just a sign of the times. More like this to come. Surely.
- Kye 6y agoShowing different content to Google and visitors is genuinely against Google's webmaster guidelines. It will get you delisted. It's known as cloaking. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloaking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloaking https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66355?hl=en https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66355?hl=en
- lovemenot 6y ago>> It's bad luck to return something different to GoogleBot than what regular people see. It's [against policy] to return something different to GoogleBot than what regular people see. The facts are on your side, but GP's language choice remains interesting. Not right now perhaps, but down the road?
- Kye 6y agoI can't tell if this is a bit where you play the oblivious pedant, or if you can't tell they were referring to this policy. Either way, I don't think they were suggesting some cosmic influence.
- lovemenot 6y ago@Kye No pedantry from here. I had already understood the policy. So this comment wasn't about the policy, it was all about the language. You seem to wish to understand, so ... It was a pretty wide tangent from the start. I imagine (perhaps incorrectly) that it may eventually become common for people to understand algorithm-lore as say the Runes were once understood. I interpreted the language used here as a harbinger.
- wolco 6y agoGoogle also sends google-bot without the header. If it notices different content it will take the public version as truth. So many people are doing this but not getting delisted. Not sure how solid a rule it still is.
- honzzz 6y agoI am vouching for this comment. The choice of words seems interesting to me too. You don't have to agree with it but I do not see any sign of commenting in bad faith - I think this comment should be unflagged.
- raverbashing 6y agoNot really, redirection from Maps might show a different referral than from Search (you have to test that but it should be pretty trivial to do) Trademarks are a bit more complicated as the issue of brand confusion and geographical areas are involved. But you could always try to contact a lawyer in the area of that company and ask them to write a strong worded letter directly to the business.
- bhartzer 6y agoYou said that it is showing twitter and fb links. Are you sure this is google maps listing and not a knowledge graph entry? Those are two different things.
- federicoponzi 6y agoYep, it's google maps listing. I think that twitter and fb links are scraped by Google though, but the listing is definitely a google maps entry. The owner of the thing is even answering the reviews.
- bhartzer 6y agoOK, so your best bet is to use the Redressal form, Google has it here: https://support.google.com/business/contact/business_redressal_form https://support.google.com/business/contact/business_redress...
- spyder 6y agoI just checked and the referrer from the 'Website' button on business listings only sends the google.com top domain with no tracking parameters.