Google is not your friend

[Andy Black]

Get your listing and move on. It’s the eyeballs on Google that you want a relationship with, not Google.

 

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[Real Deal Denver]

Man, have I been going back and forth with Google. First of all, they don't want to be found, nor communicated with. I did manage to connect with them through a help feature. And then the game began.

I'm trying to "verify" my business website. Once it is verified, I can adjust the details of my company, such as add photos, add hours of operation, etc.

Get ready for this. The way Google does this is by mailing you a postcard with a 5 digit code. Once you receive that, you enter the code into "Google my Business" - and your business is then verified, and thus listed by Google so people can find it.

A post card. They say it usually takes 5 days to get the postcard. I requested it on 12/7. On 12/23, I requested it be sent again. Never received the first one, which as been 22 days and counting. That may not have been Googles fault - who knows what happened. Fine. So I asked them to speed things up because I have waited weeks, and I don't want that to turn into months. I plan(ned) on using AdWords. Now I have a bad taste and might not use Google any more than I have to for anything. So they speed up the process. IF I go to my office at a set date and time, they will call me with a video call and I can walk through a video tour showing them all the parts of the office, so they know it does exist. We did all of that on 12/27.

On 12/28 they send me an email that they want me to change the core identify of my company to reflect my name only. Right now it is a "team." I'm in real estate. Teams are among the most successful people in the business. I have had my website and my team in place for over a decade. This is not new. My office has been in existence for well over 20 years. If you want to know anything about me, my team, or my office, guess what? You can GOOGLE IT!

I answered their "request that I consider" changing my identity in everything I do and how I do it - for well over a decade now - with a firm NO. I told them they will NOT dictate to me how to run MY business, and I am furious that even THINK they can do something like that.

So I might not work with Google after all. If that's the case - I will spend the next DECADE or so directly attacking them on all fronts in the media and any other way I can conceive of. Don't think that's effective? Let's visit our friend, Mr. Math to see some cumulative (compound) math. Tell 5 people a day, and each of them tells 5 people a day, and so on. Every person tells ONLY 5 people and then stops. Day 1 is five people. Laugh at me! Day two is pretty impressive, as it grows to 30 now! Still laughing? In 9 days the results will be something like 2,441,405. On day 10: 12,207,030. Day 30 - the universe as we know it.

In other words, one person can do a lot.

The purpose of this post is twofold - one to see if anyone has ever been toyed with by Google like I have been. Number two, to prepare one of my launching pads when I implement the power of 5 divide and conquer method of getting Google's attention. And I haven't even gone into the talk show circuit! I think 20/20 might be interested in a story like this too. Could be interesting.

Be careful where you step. That little plant you smash down might be a thistle. All it takes is one prick to make you jump up and take notice! Love the analogy - don't you?

 

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[Andy Black]

I agree. Wish "they" could do their jobs, and then everyone would be happy.

It's been 3 weeks. That's way too long. Remember, I spent 3 months putting all my marketing methods in place. Made everything from scratch. It was a huge amount of work. So now I'm ready to launch, and I have to deal with idiots? I played along - spent a few hours playing the video office tour game, which is ridiculous for me, having this website (not in its current form) for over a decade. And my office being "verified" for over two decades.

If they want to see who I am - that is the purpose of my website. GOOGLE IT! Then anyone smarter than a turnip can see exactly what it is all about. I'm an agent, that is part of a team, working for XYZ Real Estate. There is NO room for misinterpretation. Unless you're an idiot, of course. Example - they wanted me to show a utility bill to the camera on the video bill with my name on it. They couldn't fathom that this is not my company - but I do work there... I know - it is hard if you're not a genius.

And they pay these people? Pffffffffff.

They’re trying to stop spammers.

Think positive. All these problems are barriers to entry when you overcome them.

Now then. Have you listened to the call with Contrarian in my signature? I always wonder if people spend too long building before launching...

 

[Andy Black]

I meant don’t get het up about it. You’re dealing with a big business outsourcing tasks to call centers. Don’t waste more energy than needed to get over this hurdle.

 

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[Andy Black]

Thanks for the insight.

Let's go with two things that I will do.

1) I have a landing page with the EXACT keyword phrase that is searched in this market area 320 times a month. I've researched this. The CTR rate is $2.50.

2) If I set up Google ads for that EXACT keyword phrase, and pay them $2.50 for each click, I WILL be in the number 3 spot when that EXACT keyword phrase is typed right?

Seems simple to me. Hope I'm right.

(CTR is click-through-rate, CPC is cost per click.)

The $2.50 is an estimated bid price for your ad to appear on the first page. It’s an estimate, and I take it with a huge pinch of salt.

The 320 is an estimate too. You’ve no idea the volumes actually out there, and what you’ll get for your bid price.

Launch and learn. Check out the AdWords Posts link in my signature for a thread of that name, and one on how to use AdWords to get profitable or fail fast.

 

[Andy Black]

I only WISH it was a joke.

I waited weeks. Tried to call/email them. Finally got through and arranged this video tour to verify that I'm not an evil spammer, or whatever.

NOW they move the goal posts and want me to change my entire company image. Website - printed material - everything.

Some yahoo (funny choice of words, but true) from India is taking it upon themselves to decide that I'm not a team - or who knows what this crap for brains idiot is thinking - and "rebrand" myself. Cause he "thinks so."

Remember - I've had this site up for over ten years. This isn't new. But it is new in that it has been redesigned.

All I want for them to do is to do their job, for which they are paid for. Since they can't do that - for whatever reason - I simply want to cause someone higher up at Google headaches, like they cause me headaches - for no reason, other than to use their super powers to protect the world from "spammers" that have evil intentions... like me.

By the way, I'm carefully documenting all of this too - so if and when I do make a website showing the world what idiots they are, I am not just ranting - I will have a complete "story."

One more tidbit. Try to google "Google sucks" Of course nothing comes up. No surprise. Go to the bing browser and do the same. Now, lots and lots of hits come up. They can't even let their detractors have a say. Typical predatory business that is way too big for their britches.

What people are saying is you’re spending way too much energy and time ring annoyed about this. Sure, vent. But then move on.

 

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[RazorCut]

This is my business. Kind of important. To me at least. I'm not letting some third world primate one level above an ape get in my way.

Google is going to hear from me in about 8 or 9 hours. They try very hard to NOT be able to be contacted, except through some weak "help form" via their web pages. I'll be "in touch" with them somehow. Even if I have to find someone to pay them an in person visit. I have connections - I can find someone that knows someone...

I feel for you, I really do, I've gone through similar things with Amazon, eBay and PayPal over the years. There is one thing I learnt however. Letting it consume you is a totally pointless and counterproductive exercise.

You think spending valuable time and resources creating an anti Google site will move your needle forward and at the same time hurt them? You are wrong, soooooo wrong. MOVE ON. All it will do is hold you back. Take it from someone who has the t-shirt.

I'm sure you will get your verification issues sorted but don't go full tilt in the meantime.

 

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[Andy Black]

I think your basic premise is correct - Google doesn't care about you. The reason they don't care about you? As a real-estate team, you make them very little money.
This isn't a dig at you, it's a fact. You are selling a targeted product in a targeted area. Your ad spend may be a couple hundred a month? Just a guess here.

I know people spending $40k, $50k, $60k a month on Google Ads (and those are small players). Those are the people Google cares about.

This.

I worked for a company spending €120k+ a day. It didn’t stop Google pulling the plug and preventing them running campaigns - overnight.

The people Google really cares about are the visitors to their search engine. If they get a cr@p enough experience then they won’t return. No eyeballs, no advertisers. No advertisers, no revenue.

 

[CareCPA]

Now I'm one of many little tadpoles. Every one of my fellow agents can get an email in about... oh, six seconds. Every one can notify a handful of other people in about.. oh, a few hours. That could be, maybe 4-5 thousand people in. one. day. Think about two or three days. Oh, but Google doesn't care about a lousy 100,000 peon customers. Fine. They will learn to care then. Maybe a couple million might get their attention.

I think you're overestimating how much other people care about your frustration.
I would be very interested to see the data when you do the experiment. Seriously. Send the email to the other agents and let us know how many of those people actually stop using Google.

 

[jon.M]

I don't know what you mean? That's exactly what I'm trying to do. I have landing pages, for example. I want to do AdWords.

My site is not verified (recognized) by Google at this point. So I can't rank in AdWords. I think... maybe I'm wrong about that?

You don't need to get verified on Google MyBusiness to use Google Ads.

 

[Niptuck MD]

First of all, they don't want to be found, nor communicated with. I did manage to connect with them through a help feature. And then the game began.

LOL. Linkedin is the same way. I just deleted my linkedin. No support no service whatsoever. Pure Rubbish. Google is too big to fail so you have to do as Andy black suggests as it is vital for your service-product.
All i am saying is that duckduckgo is the way I go. (i know its not as high any mighty as google but give it time I am sure more and more people will start using this).

Privacy and service go hand in hand these days. I urge everyone to get on the TOR and use NORDVPN as well as mail services like protonmail (incredible service) and search engines like duck duck go. Trust me folks.

Just waiting for south park to make a mockery of google like they did with apple when the ipad came out @Raoul Duke remember that lol

 

[RazorCut]

Sorry but that sounds like full tilt to me.

 

[redrenegade]

Hmm that's quite bizarre. I do SEO and have had to verify my clients' businesses and have never encountered that before. I have had to do a video verification call for a real estate agency here and it was fine.

That said though, your mileage does vary between different reps. Some are fairly easy going and just need to call you to make sure you're legit, and others like the real estate agency I mentioned had the video call and I had the licensee on the line at the end as well so the rep approved it right away. But none of them have ever asked to change a business name.

If you need help I can try and see if I can do anything to get it actually verified.

 

[Andy Black]

Sounds like you want to appear organically for an exact match search. That’s SEO.

(It also sounds like your domain name could be a bit unwieldy?)

Google Ads (they’re no longer called AdWords) gets you to the top of the listing quicker - if you bid enough and get a good enough CTR on your ad.

You can’t make sweeping generalisations that Facebook Ads are better than Google Ads, or vice versa. It depends.

 

[Real Deal Denver]

Hmm that's quite bizarre. I do SEO and have had to verify my clients' businesses and have never encountered that before. I have had to do a video verification call for a real estate agency here and it was fine.

That said though, your mileage does vary between different reps. Some are fairly easy going and just need to call you to make sure you're legit, and others like the real estate agency I mentioned had the video call and I had the licensee on the line at the end as well so the rep approved it right away. But none of them have ever asked to change a business name.

If you need help I can try and see if I can do anything to get it actually verified.

Two items to note:

First, Google seems to have trouble understanding that I am NOT ReMax (I am only using that as a well known example to make my point) but am an agent (team actually) working withIN ReMax. Who doesn't know that much? Any 6th grader.

Side note - maybe Google isn't smart after all - maybe they're more like a librarian putting books on shelves in a certain order to be organized - but they themselves know little to nothing. That's why the BOOKS are there.

Secondly, the two people I've talked to have extremely thick accents. I know and work with many people from different cultures. I have very little trouble understanding them. But not with Google. I think they outsource this to some third world country - and those people are doing their best to make it LOOK like they're doing something important. Their lack of basic understanding and business sense is costing me time and money. I have no tolerance for that; ESPECIALLY from a so called business leader that makes the RULES on how business will actually be managed/perceived for the masses. With awesome responsibility comes awesome expectations. But I'm easy to get along with - just get me a 6th grader.

I'm glad you had experiences with this earlier. I need references for the movie version of this. May I call you Mr. Brando? Has a nice ring to it...

 

[redrenegade]

Two items to note:
Secondly, the two people I've talked to have extremely thick accents. I know and work with many people from different cultures. I have very little trouble understanding them. But not with Google. I think they outsource this to some third world country - and those people are doing their best to make it LOOK like they're doing something important. Their lack of basic understanding and business sense is costing me time and money. I have no tolerance for that; ESPECIALLY from a so called business leader that makes the RULES on how business will actually be managed/perceived for the masses. With awesome responsibility comes awesome expectations. But I'm easy to get along with - just get me a 6th grader.

I'm glad you had experiences with this earlier. I need references for the movie version of this. May I call you Mr. Brando? Has a nice ring to it...

You can call me Ms Brando. ;-)

Yeah they're all from India. The reps are so different and have different 'personal rules' or 'personal systems'.

What you can try is to verify it under your name/team name and then when it is done, you can change it to ReMax Real Deal Denver Team.

 

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[GoGetter24]

It's more an issue of the size of the company (which to be fair, is also why you care so much about getting listed on their service).

It's not possible for a big company to consist solely of bright and efficient people (as much as they try to get as many as they can), and it's not possible for a company of their size to provide good quality customer service -- their customers are in the hundreds of millions region.

For this reason, any customer service you get is more likely than not going to come from some useless bottom-rung moron who most likely makes $5/hour and can barely understand English.

So it's more "big companies are not your friend" rather than Google specifically.

 

[poseidn]

Relax. I really hope this post is a joke. Google doesn't have anything against you. They are so big they are bound to have issues like the ones you described.

 

[ZCP]

How many have you sold since 12/7?
Time to shift focus and let the admin call them......

 

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[Andy Black]

They’ve been Google Ads for a while now. You can call them what you want of course, but eventually everyone will call them Google Ads, the same way everyone calls them Facebook Ads. I think it was smart and overdue of them to change from AdWords to Google Ads.

We bid on keywords not ad phrases.

Top tip: don’t call what people type into Google “keywords”. SEO guys do that. Google Ads guys should call them search terms.

If you’re going to use Google Ads then be super clear and accurate with the words you use, and use the words other people use rather than rail against it and choose your own.

I don’t understand what you’re saying about CTR being higher than you expected. Have you run a live campaign yet?

If your goal is to run a Google Ads campaign, then what’s stopping you?

 

[CareCPA]

I think your basic premise is correct - Google doesn't care about you. The reason they don't care about you? As a real-estate team, you make them very little money.
This isn't a dig at you, it's a fact. You are selling a targeted product in a targeted area. Your ad spend may be a couple hundred a month? Just a guess here.

I know people spending $40k, $50k, $60k a month on Google Ads (and those are small players). Those are the people Google cares about.

 

[Real Deal Denver]

To all who say that I'm just one little tadpole in the big pond of life. Okay.

I am.

I'm also one of 1,200 agents in my company.

Now I'm one of many little tadpoles. Every one of my fellow agents can get an email in about... oh, six seconds. Every one can notify a handful of other people in about.. oh, a few hours. That could be, maybe 4-5 thousand people in. one. day. Think about two or three days. Oh, but Google doesn't care about a lousy 100,000 peon customers. Fine. They will learn to care then. Maybe a couple million might get their attention.

I'm not in the entertainment business, so I won't explain how bad customer experiences can multiply and take down a business. Google it - LOL.

Very few here, possibly even Google themselves, understand how pissing on your customers can spread like a cancer. Yes, it all starts somewhere - usually one little cell is all it takes.

That's marketing 101. Don't piss on your customer. Ever. Rule #2 is to repeat rule #1.

K-Mart - Sears - Xerox - Kodak - Montgomery Ward - Woolworth's - Atari - Buick - IBM - Nokia - Yahoo - Hitachi - Motorola - Palm - Netscape - Pan Am - Lehman Brothers - Enron - Circuit City - Compaq - Blockbuster.

All thought they had the market by the balls at one time. Many of them actually did.

 

[Xavier X]

My Prediction: You'll be back in approximately four weeks with a similar rant about Facebook.

 

[Xavier X]

Could be. In the meantime, stay in the back with the women and children. You could get hurt up here in the line of fire.

Except I've been running Facebook Ads since 2012. My business's FB page has 20k active people on it. With a smaller page with 5k people.

But sure, wearing camouflage on your couch definitely positions you in the line of fire, while those already in the muddy war trenches need to cower with the women and children.

 

[Telamon25346]

Man, have I been going back and forth with Google. First of all, they don't want to be found, nor communicated with. I did manage to connect with them through a help feature. And then the game began.

I'm trying to "verify" my business website. Once it is verified, I can adjust the details of my company, such as add photos, add hours of operation, etc.

Get ready for this. The way Google does this is by mailing you a postcard with a 5 digit code. Once you receive that, you enter the code into "Google my Business" - and your business is then verified, and thus listed by Google so people can find it.

A post card. They say it usually takes 5 days to get the postcard. I requested it on 12/7. On 12/23, I requested it be sent again. Never received the first one, which as been 22 days and counting. That may not have been Googles fault - who knows what happened. Fine. So I asked them to speed things up because I have waited weeks, and I don't want that to turn into months. I plan(ned) on using AdWords. Now I have a bad taste and might not use Google any more than I have to for anything. So they speed up the process. IF I go to my office at a set date and time, they will call me with a video call and I can walk through a video tour showing them all the parts of the office, so they know it does exist. We did all of that on 12/27.

On 12/28 they send me an email that they want me to change the core identify of my company to reflect my name only. Right now it is a "team." I'm in real estate. Teams are among the most successful people in the business. I have had my website and my team in place for over a decade. This is not new. My office has been in existence for well over 20 years. If you want to know anything about me, my team, or my office, guess what? You can GOOGLE IT!

I answered their "request that I consider" changing my identity in everything I do and how I do it - for well over a decade now - with a firm NO. I told them they will NOT dictate to me how to run MY business, and I am furious that even THINK they can do something like that.

So I might not work with Google after all. If that's the case - I will spend the next DECADE or so directly attacking them on all fronts in the media and any other way I can conceive of. Don't think that's effective? Let's visit our friend, Mr. Math to see some cumulative (compound) math. Tell 5 people a day, and each of them tells 5 people a day, and so on. Every person tells ONLY 5 people and then stops. Day 1 is five people. Laugh at me! Day two is pretty impressive, as it grows to 30 now! Still laughing? In 9 days the results will be something like 2,441,405. On day 10: 12,207,030. Day 30 - the universe as we know it.

In other words, one person can do a lot.

The purpose of this post is twofold - one to see if anyone has ever been toyed with by Google like I have been. Number two, to prepare one of my launching pads when I implement the power of 5 divide and conquer method of getting Google's attention. And I haven't even gone into the talk show circuit! I think 20/20 might be interested in a story like this too. Could be interesting.

Be careful where you step. That little plant you smash down might be a thistle. All it takes is one prick to make you jump up and take notice! Love the analogy - don't you?

I run an SEO agency, and although I don't do the SEO myself, I still know full and well how to do it and there's been a few times where I've had to step in.

when working with google mybusiness, I remember that instead of a post card, there is an option where they send an email to an address connected directly with the domain of the website.

for instance mycompany.com would have the verification code sent to info@mycompany.com if the site doesn't have this email, You can pay for it through your hosting service, on godaddy there was a package where you could pay for this email to be added to your domain.

i'm not sure if this solves your problem, Or if for some reason you're prevented from doing this, but it's always what i've done.

 

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[PizzaOnTheRoof]

stay in the back with the women and children. You could get hurt up here in the line of fire.

Cute

 

[Real Deal Denver]

I'm heavily studying Facebook. By many accounts, Facebook is a much superior way to market.

Even if Google gets this straightened out, I have strong feelings about who I associate with. They are borderline back stabbers. But, for now, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and presume that I stumbled upon idiot buck fifty an hour employees that have no understanding about how business interacts with what Google does.

It is going to get interesting. Never touch another man's Rhubarb. If you remember that quote - and you should - you're a big Batman Fan. (The Joker, played by Jack Nicholson, said that just before he shot Batman)

 

[Real Deal Denver]

Get your listing and move on. It’s the eyeballs on Google that you want a relationship with, not Google.

I don't know what you mean? That's exactly what I'm trying to do. I have landing pages, for example. I want to do AdWords.

My site is not verified (recognized) by Google at this point. So I can't rank in AdWords. I think... maybe I'm wrong about that?

 

[Real Deal Denver]

You don't need to get verified on Google MyBusiness to use Google Ads.

Well that's good to hear!

How about all my landing pages? If my "business" is not verified as a business, then will my landing pages come up when searched? So far they haven't - and I do an EXACT match of keyword phrases. They are not anywhere to be seen. Only TWO pages come up with that exact keyword phrase - so I would be the third one that has that phrase - as my page title! Can't get more exact than that! My page name is the keyword phrase.

As far as I can see, the only way to find my landing pages is to type in the URL exactly - and it's lengthy, so nobody is going to do it. The keyword phrase is 7 words, separated by hyphens - and after my domain name - so you can see it's really a sentence in itself. But the other two pages that have that "exact keyword phrase" come up in positions 1 and 2.

Not knowing this, if I pay for this exact keyword phrase am I guaranteed then to come up as at least position 3, since I am an exact match?

Thanks for the insight. I'm hacking through this jungle one step at a time.

 

[Real Deal Denver]

I meant don’t get het up about it. You’re dealing with a big business outsourcing tasks to call centers. Don’t waste more energy than needed to get over this hurdle.

I agree. Wish "they" could do their jobs, and then everyone would be happy.

It's been 3 weeks. That's way too long. Remember, I spent 3 months putting all my marketing methods in place. Made everything from scratch. It was a huge amount of work. So now I'm ready to launch, and I have to deal with idiots? I played along - spent a few hours playing the video office tour game, which is ridiculous for me, having this website (not in its current form) for over a decade. And my office being "verified" for over two decades.

If they want to see who I am - that is the purpose of my website. GOOGLE IT! Then anyone smarter than a turnip can see exactly what it is all about. I'm an agent, that is part of a team, working for XYZ Real Estate. There is NO room for misinterpretation. Unless you're an idiot, of course. Example - they wanted me to show a utility bill to the camera on the video bill with my name on it. They couldn't fathom that this is not my company - but I do work there... I know - it is hard if you're not a genius.

And they pay these people? Pffffffffff.

 

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