There are a variety of misconceptions that have polluted the SEO landscape since the dawn of digital marketing. However, with this post, we are putting many of these myths to rest.

• When listings from Google My Business are removed, they are deleted from Google as well.

Business owners frequently question that how they will remove duplicate listings on Google. One of the most common solutions to this query is by claiming the duplicate listing, and afterward deleting that (listing) on the Google My Business (GMB) dashboard. However, as soon as the listing is deleted, there will be a scary message asking to reanalyze the decision.

The truth, however, is not scary at all; that is, whenever a listing gets deleted from the GMB dashboard, it just becomes unverified. The listing, nevertheless, will be on Google Maps and will even rank provided that not all the categories or details are cleared before deleting it. (One tip—the only time businesses would want a listing from their GMB dashboards to get deleted is the time when they cannot continue managing it.)

• Any delay in claiming the page means the business will struggle to get a rank.

Many business owners have jitters whenever they get they receive a phone call from an unverified number. The caller politely says, “If your business is still unverified, it’ll vanish from Google’s SERPs if it’s not claimed, now!” The phone number probably belongs to a wannabe digital marketing company. (Every leading SEO company in India, however, does not identify with such unscrupulous behaviors.)

First, just recheck the authority of the caller; there is a dearth of digital marketers who are aware of the true nitty-gritty of the digital marketing realm. (That is because no expert will rely on robocalling or cold calling to get businesses.) A verified business’s listings let it make an impact on Google’s 3-pack. However, many business owners (out of sheer desperation) add tons of data to the listing so that their companies get verified soon. The fact is a far cry from this, anyway; that is, if the business listing is left as it was before verifying, it will (most probably) not affect the verification status at all.

• Any Practitioner/Professional listing on Google is considered duplicated and can be removed.

Google, by and large, creates special listings for customer-facing professionals (such as realtors, doctors, lawyers, and dentists). However, some owners want the listing to be removed from Google. The search engine, nevertheless, will remove such listings in different cases; two cases are mentioned below.

The professional does not have to face the public

This category of staff generally includes paralegals or hygienists; it does not qualify to have a professional listing on Google. And then only the search engine will take the necessary steps to remove such listings.

The business has only a single public-facing individual

For instance, if there is a law firm that has a single lawyer, Google will consider the lawyer as a “solo practitioner,” and then it will merge the professional’s listing with that of the office. In such cases, Google’s guidelines say to make a single page that is named after using the following format: [brand/company]: [practitioner name].

If, however, the customer-facing professional has left the office, or has retired from the industry, or is no longer working in the industry, the list needs to be marked as moved. (This specific move will cause the listing to get vanished from Google, but it will exist in the search engine’s back end.)

• Setting huge service areas means the business will rank in every listed town.

Google always allows service-area businesses to set radii around their addresses; this exercise basically demonstrates that how far is the business willing to travel (for serving its customers). Business owners, by and large, set this area to far-off regions.

This is basically done by the owners because they believe that if they set their businesses’ operating radii expansively, they will be ranked higher whenever local searches are done. This, however, is not the case as the company will be ranked only in the place where it has its registered address.

•  Google Maps optimization is something that is entirely different (and separate) from the organic SEO.

Small- and mid-sized business owners often inquire a company offering SEO services in India, “Hey, my business’s internet marketing team implements good organic SEO techniques that let my business site to come on the first page. However, my business is nowhere to be found in the local pack. Can you do the Google Map optimization while the other digital marketers can focus on the organic stuff?” The answer to this is a plain and emphatic “No.”

Map optimization is a part of organic SEO only; in an event that focused on local searches, it was revealed that close to 75 percent of the rankings in the local listings rank organically on the search engine’s first page, too.

• The folks at Google are the highest authority and can crumble a website’s ranks easily.

Google employees are knowledgeable enough to offer great insights into a range of topics related to digital marketing. However, these employees really do not have any incentive to disclose a really classified piece of information (about how to get a website to top the SERPs).

Plus, not every Google employee gives the best of advices; some of the examples of advices that were shared by Google employees that do not hold water are as follows:

• Duplicate listings can easily fix themselves with time.
• Phone support reps at Google shared the advice that posting on Google+ can improve your ranking.
• If a business wishes to appear in the local 3-pack, it must alter business descriptions.

Instead of trusting these myths, the business owners must completely rely on companies that offer cutting-edge SEO marketing services in India and worldwide. These companies have a lot of case studies and carry out many surveys that can provide valuable insights into the upcoming trends and realities associated to SEO and digital marketing as a whole.