ONERank Internet Marketing Blog

One of the more prominent Geo-Listing (a.k.a. local business listing) hijackings occurred in New Zealand.  A florist was found guilty for hijacking competitor local business listings at Google Maps.  The business owner was ordered to complete 100 hours of community service after it was discovered she changed the business listings of rival companies in Google Maps to direct traffic to her own business.

This is a real situation that can and does have an impact upon a business that is not paying attention to their local business listings.  If your business relies on the local consumer market for its primary revenue and you are not clear about local business listings, then you need to get caught up real quick.

Hijacking the geo-listing of another company does require the hijacker to be fraudulent and thus this activity falls into criminal court versus a civil court.  This is far from being merely a domain name registration and why the florist in New Zealand was found guilty.

For security purposes we are not going to identify how a criminal or competitor can actually make the changes and redirect phone numbers and web addresses, however, please be certain that it can be done.  Oh, and incidentally, don’t think that we’re talking just about a competitor in your local area. Consider criminals from other countries where we have seen activity from continents like Africa and Asia.

Furthermore, since geo-listings are free to the business from multiple geo-listing websites, you, as the business owner, cannot expect these websites to provide high level of security.  These websites are in the business of providing information, not security.  Since there is a way for you to insure your own security, you will need to become an early adopter and engage!

Local Business Listing Primer

Feel free to read our previous articles on Geo-Marketing that explains the big picture of Local Business Marketing through Geo-Listings, Mobile Marketing and Geo-Social Marketing.  We will stay focused on Geo-Listings for our discussions here.

Local business listings are the demise of the traditional yellow pages.  If the traditional yellow pages have not already seen their coffin and at minimum a door stop, then free local business listings are the nails in the coffin.  Certainly you will find that you can save money in this space.

Local business listings give the local business the ability to not only have their general information available, but photos, videos, coupons, offers, discounts, promotions to name a few item.  Additionally these can be updated 24×7×365 24 hours per day.  Certainly none of these are features of the traditional yellow pages.

The process gets even better.  Not only do these listings show up on the first page of Google for a search result in which a local listing is appropriate, but they show up on mobile devices while local consumers are driving around town.  Studies have shown that there is an increase in local search and local search via mobile applications on mobile devices.  We won’t get into all that detail here, but you can certainly search for the stats yourself.

Just in case you still are not convinced that you need to pay attention to your local business listing, think about the consumers walking through your store and writing reviews about their experience, products or services. If they don’t like something they can twitter or write a review in any local listing website before they even make it back to the car.

These consumer reviews are very important because in part they determine your ranking amongst other local listing websites for a web search (vs. mobile search).  They also have a tremendous value to the search engines, which is one of the reasons Google wanted to acquire Yelp recently.

Local Business Listing Security

So, let’s get back to the issue of local business listing hijackings.  To prevent this process the first action is to claim your business listing at multiple local listing websites.  Certainly Google Local Business Listing will be your first stop, followed by Yahoo, Bing, Local.com, Ask.com and Yelp.  You will find that there are many more locations, this is only a start.  We have indentified 60 websites that provide geo-listing information to the general public in four categories (Search, Social Community, GPS, and 411).  This does not count the countless business directories that have been on the web for years.

Claiming, updating and managing the ongoing updates and reviews to your local business listing can become a time consuming process.  It may at some point require more time than your website.  Certainly the local business listings can become your website too.

Because there are multiple locations that have to be updated you may need to consider a low cost service that will help you maintain and manage your local listing at multiple local listing websites.  When it comes to the web, Google may be the 800lb gorilla, but in the mobile marketing space, the mobile application developer will ultimately decide what database they will use.  Furthermore, the local consumer will be the one to decide which local listing they will use to write their reviews.  Therefore, for both of these reasons, you will want to manage your local listing at multiple local listing websites.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Geo-Listing Hijackings A Real Concern

I recently read an article by Sarah Carling entitled “The Best Job In The World.” and found it so compelling that I wanted to add to what she started.  As Sarah states, there are so many aspects of this job that are exciting and it’s a profession that will require you to always be on the top of your game.  This “game” doesn’t guarantee much but it will always keep you on the tips of your toes.  Now on to why being an SEO is so awesome!

Getting Paid To “Play” On Social Media

More and more companies are blocking their employee’s access to social media these days.  Even if access isn’t revoked getting caught by the boss or by monitoring software isn’t any fun.  As an SEO I get to use social media on a daily basis.  Yup, the boss is fully aware of it and he understands the value it brings to our company AND our clients.  So while other companies punish their employees for participating on Twitter and Facebook I am getting paid!  How cool is that!?

Techniques Vary But Results Rule The SERPS!

One of my favorite parts of Search Engine Optimization is that you could have five different SEO’s that all use unique techniques and all of them can still be successful!  SEO isn’t cookie cutter, we all more or less follow the same rules but we have our own successful twists.  These “twists” are what makes each SEO professional unique.

Discussions, Rants, and Debates.

As Sarah mentions, the discussions, rants and debates are top notch.  I mentioned earlier that every SEO has their own “twists” to their craft and most of them swear by these techniques.  Ask a group of SEO’s about the value of a forum link or a “No Follow” link (especially from a top authority domain such as Wikipedia).  This and many more debates have been circulating for quite a while. They often get pretty heated as well.

Many fantastic discussions are brought up on a daily basis too.  Due to SEO being applicable to almost every niche and website ever made we don’t always have to worry about hiding our techniques from each other.  In fact the SEO community is very generous and is always willing to help if you are willing to listen.  With that said if your going to walk in as the “new guy” and tell everyone how it’s done (incorrectly that is) you better watch out the SEO crowd sure can tear you a new one.

Only Google Knows Best!

Ok, Bing and Yahoo too… There isn’t an SEO alive that knows the exact algorithm that the search engines use to rank sites in the search results.  It’s been estimated that over 200 factors contribute to this algorithm. With this said, nobody can master the craft of SEO.  Hard work, testing and experience play a large role in the success someone achieves.

No Barrier To Entry Here.

To become a Doctor or Lawyer you need countless years of schooling and in addition you need to pass brutal state examinations.  SEO on the other hand requires no formal training.  Some SEO professionals have four year college degrees; some have high school diplomas and many with much more or less.  SEO is a battle of will, do you want to succeed? Do you have what it takes to keep up in this game? SEO is constantly changing and if you’re willing to work hard you too can succeed in this niche. A basic knowledge of html will do you wonders too but isn’t necessary to start learning.

The Never Ending Competition and Results!

Every SEO needs to be competitive.  I have yet to talk to an SEO that is ok with a second place ranking let alone a second page listing.  Very frequently SEO’s can see the results of their hard work.  Write some new content, build a couple links and see the results in your traffic and or conversions.  The more creative you are the quicker you can see the results.  If you get lazy or do something “illegal” you will see the consequences in your results.  Everything you do has an effect.  This is why it’s exciting to wake up every morning; you just don’t know what that day of work will net you.

Don’t let me fool you; SEO isn’t all fun and games.  It’s hard work!  Take a wrong step and your website can get banned from the search engines.  Not too many people get second chances either.  SEO’s always need to be on their toes; we’re always researching the newest techniques, talking to one another and testing our new theories.  Search Engine Optimization is a job that gets a bad wrap, there is no formal education and at any moment the search engines can flip your site upside down.  Even with all that said being an SEO is awesome and I continue to welcome all future challenges.

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Why Being an SEO Is So Awesome!

Because Facebook privacy is such a hot topic lately, I thought I might write something so you know where you can check your privacy settings, or at least get a laugh out of what other people aren’t making private. With the amazing (that’s right, I said A-M-A-Z-I-N-G) capabilities of open graph and all the changes that came with it, we all want to make sure we are keeping our personal lives under wraps. After all, no one REALLY wants to know your bathroom habits via status message unless they’re purposely friends with you. And even at that… really?

Open Book- remember the aforementioned website where you can laugh at other people’s expenses due to what they are displaying publicly? Yep. This is it. This uses the Facebook API available to developers. All you have to do is type in something to search, and it will bring you random updates with that word. I won’t even get into what you COULD look up but…go try it out. It might make you double check your settings.

Facebook on Zesty.ca- This is pretty simple. You need to know your user ID…and if you don’t know it, there’s a little search box on the right where you can find it. Once you find your ID you can see what is visible from your events, posts, groups, pages etc. It’s simple and straight to the point.

ReclaimPrivacy- This is a pretty awesome service. Go to the homepage and follow the instructions. Drag the little button into your toolbar and click it when you get into Facebook. It will show you what’s connected, what’s not connected, and give you the option to fix it. I had instant personalization turned on and it gave me the ability to turn it off right from the results, but I think there must be an error because it didn’t fully deactivate. I bet Facebook is blocking it. ReclaimPrivacy is quick to fix errors so full functionality for that one option will most likely return ASAP. There is also a small disclaimers saying that ReclaimPrivacy is not held accountable for any troubles we might run into with Facebook due to use of this. Hmmmmm.

I hope these few sites will give you some confidence (and laughs) about privacy settings. After all, Open Graph is our future; we should embrace it. What you choose to share, and not share, can be controlled by you. Even though Facebook is shady-like and automatically opts you in to their changes (ask me how I feel about that. I dare you), you do have the option to opt-out.

Move over Nike. New public saying of 2010- “Just opt-out!”

Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.

Get your Facebook Privacy Under Control