The Google Places Null Submit Trick (or sort of a trick)
Google Places | 24 May 2012
I haven’t searched around to see if someone has already covered this (probably @mblumenthal or @catalystlocal) BUT, I think it is time I talk about it.
For the longest time I wanted to post about the Null submit as it has gotten me out of soooo many jams. Unfortunately, I didn’t want it to disappear – so I kept quiet.
Today however I got this message from Google Places support:
“If you sign into your Places account, click “Edit” on the affected listing, and then click “Submit”. Within a few days, your listing should show as “Active” from your account and link to your live listing on Maps.”
So, if Google is telling me to do it, then I’d say it’s fair game to discuss.
The Null Submit is done just as Google explains, but it has many applications. The two applications I have found it most helpful for are: listing disappeared or under review.
I work in a few spaces that are super volatile, and my listings are CONSTANTLY getting attacked by competitors. In fact, I was just talking to Mike over at Nifty Marketing about this. I won’t go into competitor methods as I don’t want to spoil what promises to be a very cool presentation at SMX, but my listings disappear ALL THE TIME.
When my listing disappears from the SERPs but looks totally healthy on the back end I follow the above instructions (by Google) and within 24-48 hours (when Goog isn’t way behind) it’s live again : )
When my listing disappears and shows “under review” on the back end, much like before I hit edit, and submit. Voila, healthy on the back end again. 24-48 and it will be live. I remember when I used to just delete my listings when they went under review – wish I knew about this back then.
Enjoy : )
Related posts:
- Delete or Transfer Ownership of a Google Places Page
- Goodbye, Farewell Google Places Phone Verification…
- Google Places Pending Status Surprise
- Places Optimization: The Ins and Outs
- Google Local in Review: A Series
Hi Adam, great tip, glad you blogged it.
In the forum we call it a POKE and Vanessa and I tell people to poke their listing for a variety of problems all the time. In my Advanced Places training I refer to a Poke as your new best friend.
Doesn’t fix everything but I think of it like rebooting a computer when it gets slow or buggy, sometimes it helps.
Pokes used to work instantly, but now they can take up to a week. So if you have something buggy, you need to give it a few days to see if the poke worked.
A Poke. I like that! Thanks Linda!
For what it’s worth I’ve also fixed these types of problems by using the micro update feature as well. I haven’t had to use it in some time so I am not positive it still works.
Hey Russ – yes, great point. In fact, I too do this for good measure.
Thanks for stopping by : )
I represent several businesses, and having been using the poke/null-submit for about 3 years with a near 100% success rate. Just recently, (2-3 weeks ago), I had 4 listings go under ‘Pending Review’, and poking them will get them off pending to active, but they will NOT go back online, and within a day are back to pending.
Any help/thoughts?
I’ve got the same issue Roman.
It’s been weeks for some of my listings and I have appealed to Google in many of these cases with no results. Google will tell you that this is a technical issue on their side and they are trying to sort it out. They will say 4-6 weeks, but in reality they have no idea.
Unfortunately however, that is all you can do it seems.
Read this post, and use the listed link: https://nightlitemedia.com/2012/01/a-link-every-local-seo-needs/
Thanks for stopping by Roman and I apologize I couldn’t be more help.
Adam
Thanks for the reply & link Adam. Do you think this is indeed a technical issue, or is Google penalizing these listings for some unknown/undeclared violation?
I’d like to believe it is a technical issue, but all of my listings that this has affected are mail boxes…and so perhaps this is there subtle way of bringing them down.