Google has reportedly fixed the Google Maps pin attack exploit that had been lingering since at least June of last year. Spammers were able to manipulate a business’s Google Maps pin placement, moving it to an inaccurate location. With proximity being a major search ranking factor, and the moved pin surrounded by dozens of other maliciously placed listings, this exploit severely impacted the rankings of affected businesses.

The method spammers used to hijack the locations of local businesses involved publicly accessible suggested edits on Google Maps, executed dozens of times through bots or coordinated efforts. This backdoor has now been addressed, but a new pin bug appears to have surfaced.

Service area businesses are strongly encouraged to keep their exact addresses hidden, ensuring their listings don’t display a specific pin placement when they appear in Google results. However, some of these businesses are now experiencing an issue where their addresses are being revealed, and pins are being placed without their consent. While this might seem like a minor issue, Google’s algorithm treats businesses with revealed addresses differently, often penalizing them for not following best practices. This unintended exposure of addresses can result in lower rankings and reduced visibility.

Currently, the only way to resolve this issue is to manually identify affected listings and re-hide the exposed address. However, as this is a bug, some listings have seen the issue resolve itself over time. For now, proactive monitoring and manual adjustments are the best solutions until Google fully resolves this new bug.