Posted by: scentandviolet October 27th, 2025

As a small business owner, whether you run a flower shop, bakery, bookshop, or local service company you fight every day to earn customer trust, preserve reputation, and reserve few square inches of local digital real estate.

But what happens when an unseen enemy: a network of fake coupon and directory sites steals your traffic, and uses Google’s own technology to spread misinformation about your brand?

This isn’t a minor annoyance; it’s a systemic problem that costs small, local businesses reputation, revenue, and time. And unfortunately, the very AI designed to make search results more helpful is now amplifying the noise.

The Scam: Redirect Sites and Stolen Authority

The coupon and directory sites we’re talking about aren’t legitimate aggregators like RetailMeNot or Yelp. These are low-quality, often spammy websites built to trick both search engines and customers.

Here’s how they operate:

Keyword Stuffing: They create hundreds of pages using your business name and valuable phrases like “[Your Business Name] discount code” or “[Your Business Name] hours.”

Zero Value & Malicious Redirects: When a customer clicks on the spam link, they find zero actual coupons or useful information. Instead, they are met with one of two frustrating outcomes:

• They are dumped onto a page of expired or broken links (a "dead end").
• They are forcibly redirected to a major retailer like Amazon, Walmart, or a large department store through a hidden affiliate link (mostly major big retailers that pay for Google Ads, and are not aware that these spammers are using deceptive practices to send fake traffic their way)

Traffic Theft: When someone searches for a deal or information about your business, these spam sites often outrank your real website. The customer clicks the fake link, gets frustrated, and may abandon the purchase altogether.

Example: A customer Googles “Scent & Violet” and ends up on a fake site promising 70% off coupon (if it sounds too good to be truth...) They never find a code. Scam site redirects them to another website, eg flowers shipped in the box, or large retail store that sells meet, furniture, sometimes flowers, too. Persistent few (and only few) will call us and ask for those big coupons. When we try to explain that we do not have them, that those “coupon sites” are scam, we end up looking like a bad guy. 

This network of junk websites acts like digital kudzu, choking out legitimate information about small local business.

The AI Problem: How Google's Feature Becomes a Flaw that is affecting small local business 

While you diligently manage your official Google Business Profile (GBP), the introduction of Generative AI summaries has created a new challenge.

The AI feature, which provides a quick "Business Summary" near the top of your Google Knowledge Panel, is designed to scrape and synthesize information from across the web. The problem is, it can't always tell a legitimate, owner-provided description from a spam site making false claims.

The cycle of misinformation works like this:

• A spam coupon site creates a page claiming, "[Your Business Name] offers 50% off all bouquets."
• Google's AI scrapes this line because it's a direct, declarative statement and it's being echoed by many sources (the entire spam network).
• The AI summary on your official Google Business Profile then displays a misleading sentence, such as, "This local Houston florist is known for its seasonal deals and offers on bouquet delivery."
• A customer, reading this official-looking description, visits your store expecting a non-existent deal. When they find no 50% off coupon, they feel misled, and your business takes the reputation hit.

Google's AI has unintentionally taken fake information from low-authority, profit-driven sources and stamped it with the legitimacy of the official Google Business Profile.

Fighting Back: What Small Businesses Can Do

You shouldn't have to fight spam sites and Google at the same time, but until the algorithms are fixed, here is the most effective two-part strategy to reclaim your brand narrative:

1. Drown the Misinformation in Authority

Since the AI pulls from the most authoritative sources, you need to create better, cleaner, and more complete content to push the spam down.

• Audit Your Website: Ensure your main website's homepage and About Us page have a crystal-clear, keyword-rich, and detailed description of your services. Use language the AI can easily understand and trust, and never mention coupon-related terms you don't use.
• Perfect Your Google Business Profile (GBP) Description: Go into your GBP dashboard and write a compelling, honest description of your company. This is the primary source of truth you control, and its content must be consistent with your brand.
• Prioritize High-Authority Directories: Make sure your descriptions on trusted sites like Yelp, the Better Business Bureau (BBB), and your Chamber of Commerce website are also accurate and optimized.

2. Escalate the Spam Report to a Human

When the automatic reporting options fail, you must seek human intervention to report the underlying policy violation.

• Contact GBP Support Directly: This is the most effective path for profile issues. Clearly state that the AI-generated "Business Summary" for your profile is factually incorrect because it is pulling from low-quality, third-party coupon sites and misrepresenting your business.
• Post on the Google Business Profile Help Community: This community is monitored by Product Experts who can escalate difficult, spam-related issues directly to Google staff. Create a detailed post that includes:
• The URL of your business profile.
• The specific, incorrect AI-generated description.
• The links to the spammy coupon sites containing that false information.

3. Use Local Knowledge and Networking

As a small business, we rely on word of mouth advertising. Why not use that same network to expand the reach. As a local business you can guest post on local sites. We love hosting articles written by local businesses. Drop your cards and flyers with other local businesses; Post on social media; Ask your customers to spread the word…

This fight is exhausting, but necessary. By being proactive, flooding the internet with your own truthful narrative, and escalating policy violations, you stand a chance of not only removing the spam but also teaching the AI the difference between legitimate business information and low-quality digital noise.