Google Search Algorithm Loophole Exploited

David Segal, a reporter for The New York Times recently wrote an article of interest about a locksmith in Seattle WA who is suffering a similar affliction to many other locksmiths across America.

Online Lead Generation Services have discovered a loophole in Google's local search algorithm and they are exploiting it as a result. This has led to a huge distortion in the search results that a user might find, when searching for their service of choice.

Lead Generation services are simply rehashing the ages old exploitation that Yellow Pages and other search directories, suffered from for many decades prior to Google.

'Doug Pierce of Digital Due Diligence, an Internet research firm based in Brooklyn, was asked to look into it. Mr. Pierce found that lead gen sites use some interesting gimmicks to charm and hoodwink Google’s algorithm. Some basically hijack the local addresses of other entities in or near the middle of town.

Other sites, Mr. Pierce found, are just tricked out for maximum Google visibility. In particular, lead gen sites are good at spreading their name, address and phone number — NAP, as it’s called in the search business — around the Web, which is apparently a superb way to curry favor with Google Places.'

Mr Segal wrote, 'Lead gen sites dominate Google results for locksmiths in many cities nationwide, and in more than a few towns. And it’s not just locksmiths. Other service industries, like roofing and carpeting, have a similar problem. If Google is the new Yellow Pages, then lead gen sites have perfected the same game that companies in the predigital age played when they started their names with combinations like AAA1 to land atop printed listings.

But because few people search beyond the first page online, snookering Google might be far more effective, especially because many people assume that the company’s algorithm does a bit of consumer-friendly vetting.

A Google spokesperson, Gabriel Stricker, made this statement recently: “We’re aware of the gaming practices happening in the locksmith industry — practices which long predate Google and have affected the Yellow Pages for decades. We’ve implemented several measures to combat this issue, including improving our spam-detection algorithms and working with the locksmith industry to find solutions.”

Mr Segal wrote, "Thousands of people spend all their workdays devising novel ways to fool the world’s most popular search engine. Fighting this tech-savvy horde can’t be easy.

Yet if the example of locksmiths is any indication, the horde has the upper hand in certain service sectors, and it all but owns Google Places."

(source...)