Vender Hijacked our 7 Pack Listing
-
A dentist I work with contracted with a company called Z O C D O C (ZD). ZD ' S goal is to deliver patients to the dentist. To my surprise, ZD created a domain name called s t o n e b r i d g e d e n t a l t e x a s.com that forwards to the doctors ZD doctor page.
(You can see the Google results listing by Google search: dentist mckinney tx or click this link http://imgur.com/liq05at)
Apparently, ZD calls this their "kick start" program so basically ZD is redirecting traffic from what should have been the dentists 7 Pack listing (which would have gone to the dentist website) to the ZD's doctor page.
So now, the dentists 7 pack listing domain is owned by ZD but ZD has this hooked up to the doctors office address.Issues swimming inside my head:
1. Is there anything that can be done here? I can't really ask them to take their site down since they own it.
2. Even if ZD takes this site down, there is no guarantee the dentists website will replace the one that's in the 7 pack currently
3. I am pretty sure that the dentist site won't appear in the 7 pack because that would mean there would be two listings with the same address right?
4. As a side-issue, looks like Google removed the links to the Google-Plus pages? Not it only shows reviews.Any words of wisdome here? It would be nice that if when somebody clicked on the link to Stonebridge Dental that it would go to the dentist website, not ZD.. like it should be
-
The Stonebridge Dental Plus Page that ZD created is here:
https://plus.google.com/104280204877579676759/about?gl=US&hl=en-US- Notice that it is not a verified listing
The Plus Page I claimed on behalf of the client which is verified is here (which I can log in to):
https://plus.google.com/b/115007218006913673410/115007218006913673410/aboutLooks like ZD purchased a domain which then forwards to the ZD doctor page and then created a new Google Plus profile with my clients address and phone.
I might have to ask them for their contract with ZD and see if there is something in there I'm missing.
-
I did an individual claim. I always claim everything in the clients name. Also, our Google+ listing is verified. (I had the postcard go to client and I entered the code)
I claimed in Places for Business dashboard.
Here is our real Google+ page:
https://plus.google.com/b/115007218006913673410/115007218006913673410/aboutThe client knew about the ZD "Jump Start" program but had no Idea what that meant technically.
stonebridgedentaltexas.com domain is owned by ZD
-
Hi Bob,
When you claimed the client's Google Places listing on their behalf, did you
- bulk claim or individual claim
- claim in the new Google+ dashboard or the Places for Business dashboard
?
-
Bob, what a strange situation. Are you SURE that your client hasn't given permission to ZocDoc to create this page on their behalf? If not, sure seems pretty sleazy on their part.
As far as a tactical fix, I'd recommend that your client (and their friends, and you, and your friends) click the Report a Problem link on the lower righthand side of this page:
https://plus.google.com/104280204877579676759/about
and let Google know that the URL for this listing should be stonebridgedental.com. With enough of those reports, Google should make the edit, although that may or may not solve the problem of having duplicate listings in this instance
-
Hi Bob,
I'll start with the easiest part of this first: question #4. Yes, Google is not typically showing Google+ links in the SERPs anymore. This applies to all businesses, not just your client's, so that is not something to worry about.
Now on to the harder part.
To make sure I have the details right, this is your client:
http://www.stonebridgedental.com/
This is the domain ZD buit with their own branding on it:
http://stonebridgedentaltexas.com/
If I've got this right, the big question here is how your client's +Local listing got associated with the new URL. Is the client in control of their +Local dashboard? Which URL is there in the dash? Did ZD create a new listing? Typically, when one uses the word 'hijacking', it means that a third party has taken control of the listing. Has ZD actually done this or does your client still control their own dashboard?
On the one hand, because of the strategy of ZD, your client has earned both an organic and local listings on page 1 of the SERPs (hard to accomplish). On the other hand, if the client has no control over what ZD is doing, this may be a problematic situation. What happens if the client cancels their account with ZD? Does the client own the domain? If no, could be problematic. Same with any reviews earned. It sounds to me as if maybe neither you nor the client understood what would be involved when you signed up for this. Is that correct?
If the client is still in control of their dashboard and needs to point the URL back to their own website, they may still be able to maintain their local listing, but could possibly lose that second organic listing. It might be helpful if you could provide further details on this. This is the first time I've heard of ZD, so I'm looking at the situation without having encountered it before. If you can explain more about the situation, I'll be happy to read.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Canonical question for cross-listed product listings
We have products that are listed across multiple categories. This results in muliple urls for the PDP, for example: mystore.com/shirts/shirt-101.html mystore.com/shirts/pink-shirts/shirt-101.html They make use of the canonical tag and point back to only one product listing url, however Google has indexed both urls in some cases. Has anyone else run up against this and does anyone have advice on how this should be handled?
Technical SEO | | LivDetrick0 -
Best directories for a new(ish) hospital to be listed on?
Just thought I'd throw this question out to the Moz community. Anyone have leads for good, credible directories where I could get a smaller, local hospital listed on? (besides the obvious ones like HealthGrades, etc.,) Thanks!
Technical SEO | | TaylorRHawkins1 -
How to remove the specific link from Google Listed Index?
I am working on SEO for an e-commerce client. When I search for brand name in the Google it displays the top link with tabular index of categories. Whereas I want to remove the category called Coffee from the tabular index because it redirecting to the Home page which is not relevant. For your ref. attached is the screenshot. pXjdaCH.png
Technical SEO | | mountain.penguine0 -
Best way to manage SEO for a massive events listing website.
I run a website that tracks entertainment for the entire state of South Dakota. While I've made some fantastic strides in gaining traffic, I feel lost on how to manage all those entries in an SEO friendly manner. I have a TON of errors showing on my crawl diagnostics and I just don't know what to do. The nature of the website is such that there are going to be duplications all over the place. I know that I can help some of this by getting my canonical links setup properly (that's coming in my next version of the site's theme), but what else should I do to make those event listings friendly for the SE's?? http://www.entertainsd.com
Technical SEO | | jcherland0 -
Listing Categories on each page versus in the drop-down navigation; which is better for SEO
My client, www.warehouse-lighting.com, has all the links to its category pages on a left-side navigation structure. Their competitor, www.prolighting.com has all of its category-page links listed under the drop-down menu of the top-level navigation. I’m wondering if one way is better than the other for SEO and why?
Technical SEO | | TopFloor1 -
SEOMoz is indicating I have 40 pages with duplicate content, yet it doesn't list the URL's of the pages???
When I look at the Errors and Warnings on my Campaign Overview, I have a lot of "duplicate content" errors. When I view the errors/warnings SEOMoz indicates the number of pages with duplicate content, yet when I go to view them the subsequent page says no pages were found... Any ideas are greatly welcomed! Thanks Marty K.
Technical SEO | | MartinKlausmeier0 -
How to 301 redirect via OpenCms/7.5.4
Hi everyone, My programmer told me it is impossible to do a permanent redirect from www.website.com/index.html to www.website.com due to cms technical limitation which I do not want to believe hence is it possible / is there documentation available instructing on how to do a proper 301 permanent redirect on OpenCMS 7.5.4? Thanks a lot! Steve
Technical SEO | | sjcbayona-412180 -
What do I do about multiple listings for doctors on InfoUSA?
I'm doing local SEO for a chiropractic clinic that has four chiropractors. On InfoUSA and therefor on CitySearch, Insiderpages, Healthgrades, etc, there are individual listings for each chiropractor with the clinic's name, address and phone number. Google places pulls reviews from those other sites and I don't think they will make the connection on the listings. The tricky thing is that health-care review sites such as healthgrades.com have reviews for doctors and not for clinics necessarily. What's the best way to organize this? Should I get all of these listings consolidated into one listing for the clinic in general that has the same info as the Google Places listing? Should I get the individual chiropractor listings deleted?
Technical SEO | | jargomang0