Google Maps blocked 100 million abusive business profile edits in 2021

Google has shared how it keeps information on its Google Maps platform “reliable,” saying that less than one-percent of the content seen in Google Maps is fraudulent or abusive. Google uses algorithms, machine learning and humans to control abuse, spam and other fraudulent business profile edits. All of this is done why Google saw an uplift of 30% in the number of of business edits and additions in 2021 then it saw in 2020.

As a reminder, last month, Google opened up on how it moderates reviews on Google Maps.

Spam fighting efforts. Google said it blocked more than 100 million abusive edits on Google Business Profiles by “fraudsters” who try to edit those listings. Here is a break down of those efforts as shared by Google:

• Removed over 7 million fake Business Profiles on Google Maps. Google said more than 630,000 of those Business Profiles were removed through user reports.
• Prevented 12 million attempts to create fake Business Profiles on Google Maps.
• Stopped 8 million fraudulent attempts to claim Business Profiles on Google Maps.
• Disabled over 1 million accounts due to policy-violating activity, such as online vandalism or fraud.
• Removed or blocked 95 million policy-violating reviews, over 60,000 of which were taken down due to COVID-related instances.
• 1 million reviews were taken down through user reports.
• Blocked or removed 190 million photos and 5 million videos that were blurry, low quality, or violated Google’s content policies.

You can compare these metrics to the Google 2020 local spam and abuse fighting efforts.

Why we care. Google Maps has historically been an area where Google had many spam and fraud issues over the years. It is good to see Google sharing some data on its efforts to reduce spam, reduce spam and reduce abuse in Google Maps and on Google Business Profiles.

This should help legitimate business and local SEOs do a better in local search and Google Maps overall and reduce overall stress of fraud and abuse on their listings and client listings.

About The Author

Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry’s personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.