Service area businesses have often had a problem with verifying their businesses on Google. As typical verification methods require pictures of signage and other aspects of a physical location, those that travel to their clients do not readily possess the tools to verify who they are. This has also resulted in a lot of industries dealing with rampant spam, fake service providers that steal leads and then sell them back to legitimate operators. Google is taking a new step to combat these issues though by providing a photo verification method that does not require a physical retail space.

Instead of asking for images of signage and other aspect of a physical business, Google can now ask for images of tools, vehicles, bills, and work done on-site. These images should be simple to gather for a legitimate service area business and add extra difficulty for the spammers who coasted on once being unfalsifiable. Google’s made a good step here but hopefully even more will be taken to combat the persistent problem of listing spam.