While most of us don’t need to worry about our ships being hijacked by bands of rogue pirates on the sea, a more subtle form of hijacking has been happening online for some time that should concern you. You see, a different sort of pirate exists out there that has been hijacking companies’ Google Local listings. Getting to the point, here’s a random example I recently found:
A Great Reputation
El Novillero is a nice, family-run restaurant that’s been serving up great Mexican food to those in the Sacramento area for going on 39 years. As you’d expect from a business that’s had success across four decades they have a great reputation in the community and a strong customer base. Here’s where the pirates enter the story: say I’m searching for “mexican restaurant sacramento” one night looking for a new place for some tacos. When I perform this search, the returned results from Google look like this:
At first glance, a great set of options for Mexican food across Sacramento. Upon further examination, however, take a look at entry “C” for our friends at El Novillero. The name looks right, but the link for El Novillero is pointed to www.247locksmithsacramento.com. If you were to look deeper you’ll find that although the name of the restaurant is correct, someone (presumably working on behalf of this locksmith lead generation business) has changed the address for the restaurant in Google and provided further local content that has nothing to do with burritos and sopapillas. In fact, Google is publishing a location that’s over 3 miles from the actual restaurant’s location. Obviously, this is “no bueno” for El Novillero’s prospects of finding new customers via Google.
What’s in it for the Pirates?
So why do these Internet Pirates do this? That’s easy. Local search is emerging as a fantastic way for generating leads for people that provide services within a specific region. In 2008 Google started leading with local search results for industries and key phrases that demonstrated local intent, effectively displacing the natural search order that had been in place for years. Beyond this shift, savvy Internet Marketers know that local search demonstrates intent to purchase like few other mediums available. In a 2008 report done for TMP Directional Marketing comScore found that 71% of people who performed a local search followed up with either a phone call or visiting the business in-person. While it may not seem to make much sense to see a locksmith hijack search results for a Mexican restaurant, this view should make their intent more clear:
The “B” result in this listing looks to be a legitimate locksmith business, it’s actually the hijacked listing for El Novillero. In fact, clicking on the reviews link for this listing takes you to a set of reviews for the fine service and food at El Novillero, not for the locksmith. Safe Auto Car Lockout probably doesn’t really have a physical presence in Sacramento and in hijacking poor El Novillero’s listing they’ve both given themselves a free local listing and they’ve gained 22 reviews, a key factor in how results are ranked in local search results. Score one for the dirty Internet Pirates.
Super. How Does One Reclaim their Local Listing?
So how does El Novillero get out of this bind? The good news is that all is not lost. No need for elaborate negotiations or servicing ransom requests. Google provides businesses a tool for reclaiming their local listing via the Google Local Business Center. In here you can enter your business’s location and go through a simple verification process that ensures you are who you say you are. It will take a bit of time to set the record straight for your local profile within Google, but it will be well worth the wait.
