31 Words That Will Cause Your Google Posts to Fail and Filter Your Google Reviews.
Google My Business has a system in place for quality purposes that automatically filters out content that contains certain “trigger words”. This is often referred to as the Google Nanny Bot and is designed to help filter out inappropriate content. There are a couple things you need to know about this filter:
- There only appears to be one list of words that apply to all content across Google My Business. This means that the same words that cause your Google Posts to fail will also cause reviews your customers wrote you to be filtered. Interestingly, some of the GMB Product Experts have experimented and found that the bot scans the content of Google Posts but not the title (this might get corrected over time).
- The list of words doesn’t appear to vary across different languages.
I have to send a huge shout-out to Helmut Geisser for this list. He is one of the other Google My Business Product Experts who has helped me compile this list by bringing up countless examples from threads over at the GBP community. This is one of those posts on my site that I will be updating frequently.
The List of Words to Avoid
- Anus
- Bite Me
- Circumcision
- Coon (as in “Coon Rapids”)
- Dick
- Dmexco or Dmexico
- Doos
- Frolicking
- Hoe
- Jerk or Jerking
- Kink
- LGBTQ (Disclaimer, I think this one will be corrected)
- Oestrogen
- Penis (shocker, I know)
- Poof
- Poon
- Queer Influence
- Schmuck (the word for “jewelry” in German)
- Sexiness
- Spatchcock
- Spook
- Squirting
- Stripping (as in “weather stripping”)
- Suck it up
- Tool
- Transvestite show
- Urination
- Unscathed
- Vise Puta
- Yoni
- Yuk
As you can see, the vast majority of these words have some type of sexual definition (lots are slang) but it can cause some issues when you’re using it in another context. For example, there is nothing sexual about referring to weather stripping, Coon Rapids, MN or when I used the word “tool” describing why I liked the tools GatherUp created in my review for them on Google (which remained filtered until I removed the word “tool”).
Have you found other examples? Let me know in the comments and I’ll add it to the list.
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Funny stuff, Joy. Nice work.
I’m not sure all works are nixed all the time. My guess is some of them are contextually OK. Like “tool,” as seen here: https://www.google.com/maps/contrib/108396111089781801150/place/ChIJuRFWPFQfoFMRsZazyDaayTA/@45.0612031,-108.2220985,5z/data=!4m4!1m3!8m2!1e1!2s108396111089781801150?hl=en-US
As I’m sure you know, Mike Blumenthal did this post on the Nanny’ Bot’s Naughty List:
http://blumenthals.com/blog/2010/12/15/compendium-of-banned-words-in-google-places-terms-not-allowed-by-the-nanny-bot/
I’d be interested to know how that dovetails with this list (e.g. which words from the older list are OK now).
So ironic that we were both talking about the same thing but my instance of “tool” somehow wasn’t appropriate (eye roll). Mike’s blog was part of my inspiration for writing this because I used to reference his list all the time but wanted to add some recent examples and create a resource that I could keep updated! I’m sure my list of 25 will likely turn into 100 in another year or so.
Yeah, I don’t think the list will get any shorter. Also, I’m surprised at how few racial slurs (explicit or potential) are on there.
It sure seems there is a contextual factor at work. Another example: at least one review here mentions “Coon Rapids” (MN): https://goo.gl/maps/EGW4XD3iW1q
Yeah I’m sure there are lots of racial ones I’ll add to the list as I come across examples. Here was the Coon Rapids one: https://www.en.advertisercommunity.com/t5/Basics-for-Business-Owners/Why-was-my-post-rejected/m-p/1788724#M85929
I definitely think context matters. I also know that for a lot of the threads on the GMB forum where this comes up, the Google Product Experts will alert Google about it if it doesn’t make sense so it’s likely that Google will update their system over time to make some of these okay under proper situations (like Coon Rapids or weather stripping).
There go 50% of my Posts… 😉
This boggles the mind! Shouldn’t the context factor into whether or not it gets filtered? I mean LSI and all that jazz…
It does! Most of the examples I gave were sent to Google to help them fix the misunderstanding of context so I’m sure this list will change over time. I’ll be updating it.
no because it is bots, not humans that are suppressing and deleting.
I am unreasonably entertained that spatchcocking is on that list.
Yea, it’s Friday afternoon.
Thank you Joy! Never crossed my mind there would be a word list. So glad I read your article as it makes me more aware of words that could have a different meaning.
You can add the word toilet too. Found out when posting a project for one of our plumbing contractors. Kept getting an error on submission. Took the word toilet out and it posted. Go figure.
I tried it just now on a listing and it published. What was the exact sentence?
It has been a while. I don’t remember the exact wording.
Looks like “scat” should be added to the list! See here:
https://www.en.advertisercommunity.com/t5/Spam-Policy/Event-post-taken-down/m-p/1898910
A doctor posting GMB post for Piles titles having your S.No. 1 item( Anus).
Technically it is valid to include but due to GMB T&C, our post was not permitted, could be a probability of our GMB listing suspension.
This is unfortunate for people with a first or last name of Dick.
C’mon Google. I heard you have algorithms and stuff?