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Competitor hijacking our google results
I’m not sure if this is the right place to ask this but I was wondering if anyone had any insights on how to fix this issue. We run a business (we’ll just call it Acme Services), and disgruntled ex partner has gone out of their way to sabotage our business and confuse clients over the years. After they left our business, they sort of stole our business name and named their office “Alex’s Acme Services”.
When you search “acme services” or “acme services location” it was always our business that showed up on the right side of the google search page — Im talking about that large section that shows a picture of the business, their reviews, location, map etc.
We don’t show up in the “people also search for” either at all. Its like google doesnt realize we exist anymore.
I believe this was deliberate because of the past history with this person (they’ve done far, far worse to deeply hurt our business and family personally than anything mentioned in this post, but I cant go into those details), and because once before google had our business marked as closed, which was suspicious, and we think the competitor was behind that too.
Not sure if this is connected but I also noticed that our name has changed on our Yelp listing, and we werent the ones who did that, so Im not sure if this is connected.
Is there a strategy to fixing this? Im familiar with basic SEO but Im not as familiar with how that business box works. Any help or input would be greatly appreciated!
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4 Replies
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Its called “Google My Business” and you should claim yours if you haven’t already. They’ll send you a postcard with a code for verification, typically.
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Beyond the SEO aspects, do you have a trademark or service mark on your name? If you did, you’d have more legal leverage to stop your ex partner from using a confusingly similar name
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Make sure your GMB and website are optimized so you outrank them.
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Mark their GMB as permanently closed.
I never play dirty. Until others start playing dirty
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