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How to Tell How a Google Local Listing Became Unverified

Another Google MapMaker Regional Lead was talking with me about a page for a business that recently came unverified and vanished from the search results.

You can see that the Google+ page is unverified because it lost its verified checkmark and just left a G+ page but it’s not connected to Maps so it won’t rank in the 3-pack.
Unverified G+ page

Since this was a recent change I have the advantage of using Google’s cache to see what happened. Here’s the steps I took:

  • Search the URL on Google for the G+ page (https://plus.google.com/+KingDavidPizzaVaughan)
  • Hit the drop-down arrow beside it that says “cached”
  • This will bring up a blank-looking page. Right-click and hit “view page source”
  • Press CTRL+F and search for CID. It will be a long string of numbers and you want what comes in between the %3D and %
    Find CID number
  • Insert the CID into the MapMaker URL format and you’ll end up with http://www.google.com/mapmaker?gw=90&cid=6356679680116645113
  • In MapMaker it will show you that this feature got deleted because someone marked it as a duplicate of another listing.
    Duplicate of Original
  • In order to be able to click on anything you must be logged in to Google. If I click on “view original” you can see the listing that it was marked a duplicate of.

 

As Linda Buquet pointed out on the forum, these are 2 different businesses. King David Laffa & Grill has a different phone number, a different website and, most importantly, a separate entrance that you can see on Street View.

King David

Looks like someone messed up here! Never a dull moment in the Local SEO world.

Joy Hawkins

Joy is the owner of the Local Search Forum, LocalU, and Sterling Sky, a Local SEO agency in Canada & the USA. She has been working in the industry since 2006, writes for publications such as Search Engine Land, and enjoys speaking regularly at marketing conferences such as MozCon, LocalU, Pubcon, SearchLove, and State of Search. You can find her on Twitter or volunteering as a Product Expert on the Google My Business Forum.

This Post Has 4 Comments

  1. I’m not 100% convinced that the restaurant side by side is the exact reason the place was marked as a duplicate – especially considering the different name, website, and phone number. It seems very logical – but I wouldn’t say this is THE answer. What do you think?

  2. Hi Joy – thanks for your tip. When I tried this on my wife’s business google plus search I couldn’t find a CID string that looked remotely like you described when I looked at the page source. However, her business listing is in the 3-pack so I guess I shouldn’t worry too much.

    1. Cliff – if you want to post the URL to her G+ page I can see if it’s there. Is it a local page that’s connected to Google Maps? Those are the only ones that have CID numbers. Brand G+ pages don’t have them.

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