Okay, so I felt this post was very necessary and hopefully I am not the first to write about this. Recently, I was adding Liberty Interactive Marketing to the local business listings on all the major search engines. The process for adding your listing to Google is fairly simple. Although I did make a small user error while inputting my listing due to ambiguity in their process by accidentally associating my company with another local company here in Phoenix I was able to complete the submission successfully. Then, verified my listing quickly with an automated phone call from Google (one type of verification process they offer).
I did the same on MSNLive Local, however, I got a little irritated when they said they would send me a letter to verify my business listing. My irritation was more due to the lack of immediacy that I had experienced on Google.
BUT…Logic prevailed.
ROUND 1 TO MSN: The appropriate way is MSN’s way as they are verifying the location by actually sending a piece of mail to this address in which I gratefully appreciate.
ROUND 2 TO MSN: If Google had done this, I would not still be trying to remedy my mistake upon submission with them as the company I mistakenly associated myself with would not have verified my location. Which by the way, I am receiving terrific organic traffic from, not to mention resumes and my company is completely unrelated. Missed the goal on relevant results for this one Google.
ROUND 3 TO MSN: Google’s inappropriate business listing submission seriously lacks security. Who is to say that one couldn’t just create a local business listing using one of their competitors names and simply create another listing that directed them to their phone number? Since all that Google verifies is the phone number. A simple mistake if phone calls ever came in or is it? A savvy and slightly devious business development professional could easily turn these mistaken phone calls into a leads, thus creating a new lead generation tool for themselves.
And while I realize that this same savvy and devious business professional could also have MSN Local letters sent to their own address, there is a bit more work involved than just merely a 5 second verification phone call from Google.
Am I missing something? I welcome all comments on this topic.
