Google Search

[duzzie]

Hi all,

 

We have had a few phone calls this morning asking if school was open as it says it is shut on google. When you google our school (or others as I have checked) there is some info on the right hand side, school address, opening times, phone number etc. This has the incorrect opening times which is where the parents are getting the info from, unfortunately it looks like anybody can suggest an edit and google will update it. Has anybody else come across this and is there a way to stop it?

 

I will try contact google but thought I would check here first.

 

Thanks

[kennysarmy]

Haha - someone once changed our name to something very amusing!

 

Good old Google.

[DrBeaker]

Seeing as you have no direct control over search results, other webpages or whatever google decides to index - surely the authoritative source of information should be the school's own website? Or am I overthinking it?

[howartp]

Seeing as you have no direct control over search results, other webpages or whatever google decides to index - surely the authoritative source of information should be the school's own website? Or am I overthinking it?

 

Our school holidays are often wrong on myschoolholidays.com and termdates.com - it doesn't matter how many times we tell parents, or email then during the week running up to holidays, they still use these two websites (which appear 2nd and 3rd on Google when you search our holidays, behind our own website which is 1st) as the authoritative source.

 

Peter

[duzzie]

Seeing as you have no direct control over search results, other webpages or whatever google decides to index - surely the authoritative source of information should be the school's own website? Or am I overthinking it?

 

We do advise parents to only use the school website for correct up-to-date information but unfortunately some don't seem to take any notice.

 

We are going sending out another reminder today.

[paulkerton]

You will need to register for Google My Business.

 

They'll send a postcode to the registered Business Address with a verification code, and then you'll be able to control that right hand information panel that appears when you're searched, and control information like your opening and closing times.

 

https://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/business/

[duzzie]

You will need to register for Google My Business.

 

They'll send a postcode to the registered Business Address with a verification code, and then you'll be able to control that right hand information panel that appears when you're searched, and control information like your opening and closing times.

 

https://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/business/

 

Thanks Paul, I will give that a go.

[howartp]

You will need to register for Google My Business.

 

They'll send a postcode to the registered Business Address with a verification code, and then you'll be able to control that right hand information panel that appears when you're searched, and control information like your opening and closing times.

 

https://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/business/

 

Thanks Paul, I will give that a go.

 

I'm just trying this, and it's letting me own the business, but I can't verify it as there's a duplicate location already on Google Maps.

 

I've had to request access from the current owner - if they don't reply in 7 days, I can provide evidence of who I am to Google and they'll kick the other person off.

[ITGURU]

We had an issue where students kept making suggestions on our school name and it got changed! apparently it's done on votes so if enough users submit the change Google changes it. Although we had registered as a business and got control of the account, we had to get google to monitor the account and put a block on any suggested changes.

Since then, we've not had any smart kids!

[Duke5A]

Haha - someone once changed our name to something very amusing!

 

Good old Google.

 

I'll do you one better: our high school in Yahoo's business listings features a sexually explicit image of two Disney characters. Since Yahoo farms out their business listing management I have no idea how to remove it. I've called their support, sent emails, etc and have been ignored. I'm sure they would listen if we paid for their premium listing service though.

[mrstrong]

I was going to do a sepearate post but since this is similar I thought I'd chip in here.

 

We have issue with a google search for school brings up inappropriate photos on RHS.

 

I have managed to register via "My Business" but still have no control over the photos.

 

There is an option to report the photos for google to investigate but my issue is the

photos that appear under the search results are not shown on our "My Business"

page so there is no way to report them that I can see !?

 

Logged support call with google, got 1 Reply so far of no help just a paste of

online help . Very frustrating.

[StevieM]

I'll do you one better: our high school in Yahoo's business listings features a sexually explicit image of two Disney characters.

That's just taking the Mickey!

[hardtailstar]

Hi all,

 

We have had a few phone calls this morning asking if school was open as it says it is shut on google. When you google our school (or others as I have checked) there is some info on the right hand side, school address, opening times, phone number etc. This has the incorrect opening times which is where the parents are getting the info from, unfortunately it looks like anybody can suggest an edit and google will update it. Has anybody else come across this and is there a way to stop it?

 

I will try contact google but thought I would check here first.

 

Thanks

 

Why are the parents searching Google for school closures? Surely you'd check the school website or app if the school has one!

 

We recently had a whole load of parents book holiday when the school was still in term. The parents all searched the term dates and the first link wasn't the school site and they went with those incorrect dates!

 

To me i'd be checking the school website or is that too simple?

[Opendium_Steve]

To me i'd be checking the school website or is that too simple?

If you want accuracy, yes, but Google has the advantage that the information is always in the same place/format and easy to find (and _usually_ correct), rather than having to find it on each school/business's website (which might be unfamiliar or badly designed) every time you might want some info. I suspect most people don't understand how Google works and expect them to be infallible...

[djm968]

I was going to do a sepearate post but since this is similar I thought I'd chip in here.

 

We have issue with a google search for school brings up inappropriate photos on RHS.

 

I have managed to register via "My Business" but still have no control over the photos.

 

There is an option to report the photos for google to investigate but my issue is the

photos that appear under the search results are not shown on our "My Business"

page so there is no way to report them that I can see !?

 

Logged support call with google, got 1 Reply so far of no help just a paste of

online help . Very frustrating.

 

Had exactly the same issue, nothing you can do except report images to Google and add your own appropriate images which moves the undesirable images off the results page.

[mrstrong]

Had exactly the same issue, nothing you can do except report images to Google and add your own appropriate images which moves the undesirable images off the results page.

 

But how do I report them ?!

 

Google help says:

Request removal of customer photos in your account
Sign in to Google My Business.
If you have multiple locations, open the location you'd like to manage.
In the menu on the left, click Photos.
On the photo you'd like to flag, in the top right corner, click Flag Report a problem.

 

but the offending photos are not listed here. From what I can work out looks like the business listing is

pulling photos from an unofficial facebook group named after the school somebody set up.

 

Also if you click on photos there's 100s!, not appropriate/relevant

Edited February 13, 2020 by mrstrong
added more info

[markwilfan]

But how do I report them ?!

 

Google help says:

Request removal of customer photos in your account
Sign in to Google My Business.
If you have multiple locations, open the location you'd like to manage.
In the menu on the left, click Photos.
On the photo you'd like to flag, in the top right corner, click Flag Report a problem.

 

but the offending photos are not listed here. From what I can work out looks like the business listing is

pulling photos from an unofficial facebook group named after the school somebody set up.

 

Also if you click on photos there's 100s!, not appropriate/relevant

Even when you claim the business it's still difficult to remove stuff. At one point we had a picture of a cat that was tagged as our school. Used to pop up on all calendar entries that had our school as the location. Much lolz

[mikeprice]

people who are asking why parents use Google or other non school website to get school holidays etc

 

Have you met parents???

 

or - at least - if you have met parents then you have maybe not met 'those parents' from the schools where I have worked long term!

Honestly - you think the teachers and kids are bad - try SOME of the parents!!

 

 

and, of course, I am not saying the parents are stupid - have you considered that maybe if they find that the school website says the hols start on xx/xx/xx and $othersite says they start on yy/yy/yy but it turns out that the price of the holiday on yy/yy/yy is £z00 cheaper - a quick screen shot would be enough to provide a wonderful argument against any fine as well as an opportunity to use their 'compo-face' in the local newspaper

As I say - they're not daft - cheap hols and maybe a payout for distress

 

 

as I have said before - I seemed to have tended to end up in 'difficult' schools - partly 'cos I like most of those kids

which is weird as I went to a totally different school

 

 

On topic - at my last school I did find some dodgy comment about our school on Google

After discussion and permission from the Head I managed to take ownership of the school on Google and remove them

eventually

 

I wonder who owns it now????

I would guess it is my old work email - which has probably not been accessed since I left

 

I did tell them - but anyway