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Google is not your friend

Marketing, social media, advertising

LuckyPup

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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?
While I understand your frustration and share your disdain for Google, your math sounds like every MLM pitch I've ever heard: "Just get five people, who get five, who get five..." Unless there are more demonstrably superior alternatives, convenience will always trump righteousness. People are lazy, and unless they find themselves directly negatively impacted by Google, they'll continue to use it. Frogs will be frogs and the water temperature will continue to rise.

I also agree with everything Andy Black wrote.
 
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Real Deal Denver

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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.
 
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CareCPA

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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.
 

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Real Deal Denver

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That goes both ways though.

They get to run google how they like also.

I PM'd you my website Fox, so you can see for yourself. My identify is a team. Nuff said on that. You can see it as the main focal point of my website for yourself.

Now, let's make this more personal. What do you call yourself? A web designer? No you're not. You're an advertising or marketing assistant. Why are you NOT a web designer, even though you have a website clearly identifying you as that? Because I said so.

You do things the way I say.

Yeah, I didn't think you'd like that either. So we may be on the same team after all. I run my business the way I want to. You do the same. Think before you drink the kool aid and fall in line with the other troops. Think about who is in charge of their/your business. You're selling the great dream of owning your own business and being in charge of your own destiny. Oh, unless Google says otherwise, right?

Look what I got in my email today... The perfect gift at the perfect time. F*ck Google.

Free help.JPG
 

Real Deal Denver

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

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.
 
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Xavier X

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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.
 

Real Deal Denver

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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.

Ok you win the dick measuring contest. I'm never going to get anywhere close to 20K. But I don't want to.

I'm in real estate. Here's how my numbers "work." Four deals a month at $15K a deal is $60K a month.

That's all. Simple, isn't it?

To my original point, in a bit more detail - I have six landing pages that are keyed to exact ad words. All nicely designed and ready to go. They each get 300+ hits a month. Do the math. But Google has stepped up in my face and won't verify my biz. Kind of an issue. Good thing Google isn't the only game in town. From what I've been reading, they are also not number one in lead generation for my line of work either.

I might get a lot of friends/viewers someday, as I have an interesting blog that has something for everyone. Good information that is hard to come by. All free, of course.

But I'm not after a fan club. I'm after four sales a month. There's a lesson in there somewhere.

And I'm not new to my line of work. Been doing it full time since 2001. I am new to Google however, and I will also admit that I do have a small dick. You win on all counts there.
 

Telamon25346

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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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Real Deal Denver

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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.

Thank you for some of the sparse constructive feedback.

I am aware of that method. They also have a call method available. But those methods are only available if they choose. Since my website has been up for well over a decade, I should have very little problems. And more so, since I did the video tour for them, this should have been resolved by now.

Their phone call that was scheduled to take place also did not happen. I'm not surprised.

Google is just a bully. And I've had my fill of bullies a long time ago.

Interesting side note - I also do video production. I should really be thanking them for this juicy topic that I will be producing and releasing. I'm not in it for the money. I just want to hurt them. Those are the worst kind of enemies to have. They don't go away. I also have a lot of evidence as every phone conversation I have is recorded. Surprise Google! Now you will get to hear first hand how you handle things! Along with the rest of the world. They are not going to look good to their legions of gullible followers - too many of which are here. My payback, however humble and ineffective it may well be, will be a stain on their flawless image.
 

PizzaOnTheRoof

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Real Deal Denver

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@Denver, have a look into headspace - you need it.

Google is almost impossible to reach. Almost. Here is the impossible to get phone number to the "verify my business" idiots. This is highly confidential information. Or, was, I should say.

844-491-9665. They are based in the Philippines. Nobody has gotten as far as I have. And I'm just starting out. This will go a few more rounds.

But you know what? Nobody here will ever know how it turns out. Why is that? Because I'm kind of sick of me being blamed for being bullied. So this will be my last thread to the fine community here that has been, by and large, unhelpful. Thanks to the few that did offer some constructive advice.

So with the headspace comment, I bow out - wish you all well - and you can guess how this will turn out. In short, if you're not for me, you're against me. And I don't feel the need to entertain or inform anyone against me. I only provide the phone number as a gesture of good will for anyone else facing this situation - and to show that I am making a lot of progress. Signing off this thread...

And for all the know it all folks here - toodle ooo

my-reaction-when-someone-tells-me-to-shut-up-in-an-argument_o_2285883.jpg
 

loop101

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I'm not for or against you, but it sounds like the issue is with Control (CENTS). It also sounds like you are doing the right thing by looking for other ways to grow your business. If you can succeed on the web without having to deal with Google, that is quite an accomplishment. If you can do well without them, you could write an article about it on Medium, and Google would probably call you with your verification ready to complete.
 

GSF

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But you know what? Nobody here will ever know how it turns out. Why is that? Because I'm kind of sick of me being blamed for being bullied. So this will be my last thread to the fine community here that has been, by and large, unhelpful.
 
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PizzaOnTheRoof

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First Morpheus and now agent smith? They’re dropping like flies!

In 10 years you’ll realize how childish your little conquest is.
 

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