Being a Local Guide for more than 7 Years, I’ve seen many people participating in this program for different purposes. For some, it is just a hobby. Those people contribute their time to be more productive, positively impacting society.
At the same time, some people put a lot of effort into making the maps better, acquiring more points, and even trying to be on the list of the top 100 Local Guides leaderboards.
For those who don’t know, there is a leaderboard built by a fellow local guide Adam GT, where you can see the people who earned more local guide points worldwide.
As an active contributor, I do have a fair amount of views for my contribution. While comparing with the leaderboard friends, my 1.4 Million views are nothing but just a number.
In this post, I’ll share some insights and best practices to perform better in the Local Guides program. These tips will boost your Local Guide points and improve the maps.
Closing private space
- Adding our home to Google Maps is everyone’s dream. So your cousins and friends can easily come in front of your gate.
Unfortunately, adding private space is against Google guidelines. This is a good opportunity for local guides to clean the maps by reporting private homes that are not open to the public.
Search for “house” and “home” and remove all the private homes in the world. As per Google’s policies, only businesses with physical locations can get a Map listing. I asked the same question multiple times and got the same answer. No!
Fight Spam
Nobody can ignore the fact that Google Maps has a lot of spam content. Even though Google is coming up with strict policies, spammers are finding loopholes to expand their business.
As a local guide, why not help Google to remove spam listings? Here’re some methods to identify fake and spam business listings on Google Maps.
2. So many businesses and agencies add keywords and other details to the business name. As a local guide, consider this an opportunity to improve the maps. Before editing the names of businesses, I recommend you read the best practices for names.
3. This is another form of keyword stuffing I’m seeing these days. Some people add localization keywords to get more reach. To remove such incorrect names, search for “Near Me” or “Near” and fix all the business names containing the word “near”.
Adding location information to the business name is against the guidelines. For better results, add a space before the word Near.
4. Google doesn’t recommend business owners add containment information on the business name. Some businesses use the word “at” to show the name of the building where they are located in. This is not a best practice according to the guidelines. Search for the word “ at ” and edit irrelevant business names which contain the word “at” along with the place name or anything else.
While fixing these names, make sure you add the building name in the section called “Located within”.
5. Similar to the previous point, do a map search with the word “opposite” to trigger all the businesses which used the word in the title. According to the guidelines, adding containment information to the business name is not a best practice.
6. Adding website URLs to the business name title is against the guidelines. Search for domain extensions like “.com” , “.in” etc, and edit all irrelevant names. Adding website addresses to business names is quite common these days. I don’t know the intention behind the people doing this. I’m praying this is not someone’s backlinking method.
As a local guide, this is the best opportunity to make the maps better and clean. Search for the domain extensions that I mentioned above and rename all the business names.
7. Adding phone numbers in the business name field is another common activity that is against the guidelines. Finding such businesses is a bit tricky, but I found a workaround that works to some extent. Search for numbers like 123, 456, etc., and you will find many listings containing random digits or phone numbers.
8. According to the maps guidelines, adding a place name is sometimes unacceptable. Follow these methods to find such business listings,
– Search for a place name and add a space before it.
– Add the word “at” before typing a place name.
– Add the word “in” before typing a place name.
When you perform these searches, all the listings which added place names to the business will appear. This is a best practice to clean up the junk in Google Maps.
9. Search for the symbols “™” or “®” and change any names that have these symbols attached. According to the guidelines, adding these special characters is not acceptable.
10. Adding working status of a business in the name area is against Google’s business guidelines. Search for “Closed” or “temporarily closed” and properly take action on all the listings that have those words in their business name.
If you come across businesses that contain the word “closed”, you can remove those listings. On the other hand, for businesses that contain the word “temporarily closed,” you can rename them appropriately and utilize the temporary close option. This allows you to indicate to users that the business is currently not operating but will resume its services in the future.
11. Removing irrelevant business names is always a best practice to improve the reliability of Google Maps. You can search using keywords like “Unknown” or “Unknown Place” to find businesses that have added such names to their business name on Google Maps.
This will help you locate listings that may require further attention. You can remove all those listings if you find them anywhere in your research.
12. This is a huge opportunity to make the maps better. There are a lot of fuel stations all over the world which doesn’t follow the best practices. You can find them by searching for the word “pump” and renaming those business names according to the naming conventions specified in the guidelines.
13. According to the guidelines, adding irrelevant legal terms to the business is unacceptable. Search for the following words and remove them from the business name.
– LLC
– LLP
– Pvt Ltd
– Pty Ltd
– PLC
– Ltd
– limited
– Inc
– Corp
– GmbH
– Co-op
– Sole Prop
While editing business names, ensure you do it correctly, and your activity is right according to the guidelines.
14. Search for the term “ATM” and delete the location name if it is mentioned in the title. According to the guidelines, it is not allowed to include information about the ATM’s location in its name.
15. Search for the phrase “Store at” and correct all the business names that have added extra information, like a location name in their titles. According to the guidelines, including additional information in the business name is unacceptable.
16. Search for the phrase “Since” and rename all the business names where they added the word in the title. As per the guidelines, adding business hours in the name area is not accepted. The word “since” is similar to this, so it is unacceptable.
17. As per the guidelines, properties that are available for rent or sale cannot have a business profile. Search for the words like “rental”, “rental house” “sale,” “for Sale,” “buy,” or “discount” to identify such listings and make the necessary corrections.
18. According to the guidelines, adding a business location for a year or a venue for a particular program is unacceptable. Search for “2023”, “2022” or “venue” to find the temporary listings created for a one-time purpose.
Improve Accuracy
19. Adding place names to Post Offices all over the country. There are many places where no place name is added to the post office. Adding the place name along with the post office name would help reach out to the right one.
20. Including additional details such as opening times, closing times, and other relevant information is important. Google provides a support guide outlining best practices for managing place listings.
21. Adding unlisted places in your area is another good opportunity. When you add a new place, you will get 15 points per place added. Let it be a newly opened local business, attractions, or other points of interest that may not be currently listed on the maps. If you live in a village or a less populated area, you have a lot of opportunities to find unlisted places.
Dominate with Media
22. Add Food photos. We all eat food from outside. Why not multi-purpose it? Google Maps love getting food pictures. They even ask for the dish’s name to add to the restaurant menu. Make sure you add a good caption to all images. For every photo you submit, Google will reward you 5 points per photo. While adding photos, please ensure you’re not adding the same image in different locations.
23. Aim for a featured image. In one of my research, I found that outdoor images have more chances to get featured.
24. Add vertical videos of everything. Nowadays, Google Maps is giving more importance to videos, especially vertical ones. Based on my research, one in 5 content in a listing is a video. You will get 7 points for every video you submit on Google Maps.
Explore Places Where More People Live
25. If you reside in a village or a sparsely populated area, you may have limited opportunities to contribute to Google Maps. However, you can still make valuable contributions by exploring and focusing on more densely populated areas. You can do this by scrolling to crowded places on the map, using a VPN, or adjusting the location coordinates within the browser.
If your contributions are according to the guidelines and best practices, any of your edits will help to improve the overall accuracy and usefulness of Google Maps for users in different locations.
26. You can earn double the points by providing a detailed review on Google Maps. Google rewards users with 10 points for each review they write. However, if your review exceeds 200 characters in length, you will receive an additional bonus of 10 points. So, take the time to craft detailed reviews, sharing your experiences, insights, and recommendations, and you’ll be rewarded for your efforts with extra points on Google Maps.
27. If your edits and other activities are in a place where more people live, chances for getting likes for reviews and photo views are higher.
Verify information and suggest edits to Google Maps.
One of the easiest ways to earn Local Guides points is by verifying information and suggesting edits to Google Maps. This can include updating business hours, adding photos, or correcting the location of a place.
Simply click on the “Suggest an edit” button on the Google Maps listing and make the necessary changes. Once your edits are approved, you’ll earn points and help ensure accurate information is available to others in your community.
That’s all about the topic. Follow me on Twitter to get notified about further updates on this topic.
If you have any suggestions or if you find any of the methods mentioned on the document is not working, feel free to comment.
Last Updated on January 12, 2024 by Ujesh