Google announced yesterday it has ended the “community edit” free-for-all in Google Maps.
In the announcement Google said, “all community edits will be reviewed before they are shown.” For business owners doing Google Places optimization, this means that competitors and spammers will no longer be able to edit your business listing however they see fit, which as been a huge problem in the past.
Regardless of how long ago this should have happened, this is a welcomed news released by Google. We are unsure just how many edits Google Maps get on a regular basis, but it seems as though Google is ready to process each and every one of them manually before any of those edits show up in the map listings.
Even though the death of this community edit free-for-all is taking place, one crucial piece of local SEO advice still remains the same — Claim your Google Maps listing and sync the information found on it with what’s on your website and your other local listings.
Thank goodness. Now I wished they’d make the ever-painful verification process a little easier…