We have discussed the security risks of local business listing hijackings in the past. One of the comments made about these security discussions is why do the geo-listing websites like Google, Yahoo, Bing, and up to 60 others insure the security to avoid hijackings? Of course the question to be asked is why should they provide the security service for a free marketing tool that will benefit the business?

Geo-Listing Security
Many of these websites do have some level of security built into the process of claiming an existing listing or adding a new listing. So far, these security processes have included sending a post card to the existing address with a pin code; a computer calling to the business phone number with the pin; or in some cases a manual review by staff working for these geo-listing websites.

On May 27th, Google announced that community edits of local business listings was no longer be allowed to go without staff review. An excerpt of their announcement states:

“We recently made a change to Google Maps to require all community edits to be reviewed before they are shown. In the past, some “pending” edits were shown immediately on Maps and only moderated (and sometimes denied) later on.

We’re taking this step to ensure that changes to Google Maps pass the high quality bar our users expect, while preventing SPAM and other problems from showing up before being reviewed first.”

In summary Google is stating all community edits made to unclaimed local business listings will have to be approved by a Google representative before they are sent live. Supposedly, this means no more worrying about a competitor hijacking your listing and stealing your customers. It definitely means it will take longer for information to reach the local consumers through web searches and mobile searches.

While on the surface this may sound like at least Google is addressing the security issues of local business listings, the announcement did not discuss the security of data coming from third party sources through API’s. Certainly third tier business directories have no security and their data is sold upstream or makes its way to other database across the Internet with wrong information available for the consumers.

Why the high expectations for Free Geo-Marketing services?
I am certainly concerned about the security issues around local business listings, but I cannot expect these geo-listing websites to provide security for my company. The reason I do not expect them to provide this security is because they are providing the marketing service for free. Why should any business assume that a free service should have high level of security? We could certainly say “you get what you pay for”!

The issue for businesses lies in the book titled “Crossing the Chasm”. This book discusses innovators vs. early adopters vs. late adopters. The questions to businesses that have seen the Internet add, mature, and change technologies are:

• How long are you going to continue to wait to adopt Geo-Marketing technologies to help you generate revenue?
• Do you feel like you’re always behind the eight ball with the Internet?

A business cannot possibly understand how to use the various Geo-Marketing technologies well. For this reason you need to consider securing professional help and engage in these marketing technologies sooner rather than later. Plan these technologies progressively over a 3-year period.

Additional incentives for early adoption of Geo-Marketing technologies
There are three critical points that businesses need to consider now and not wait until the 11th hour.
1. The first and foremost we already discussed, which is hijackings.
2. Now let’s add that for your business there may be multiple duplicate listings that need to be cleaned up, merged and/or deleted to not confuse the consumers when there are multiple listings for your business.
3. Lastly, consumer reviews especially negative ones can potentially have an adverse affect on your website’s search engine ranking positions as search engine adopt consumer reviews as an additional data point to decide who is in the top ten for a search.

Certainly your time resources are limited and Geo-Marketing Services are provided by SmartFinds Internet Marketing. You will find this to be of great benefit to your time resources and the low cost service may eliminate your yellow page ad costs. Let the experts of over 16 years Internet marketing experience help you use this local business marketing tool properly and prevent brand security issues from occurring.

Local business listings began with a basic business directory more than a decade ago. Chances are, your business has a local listing wherever you have a physical address location. Check it out — go to Google, type in your company name. You’ll probably see a map locating your business and an address. Of course all you may find other information too. Local business listings are treated passively by many businesses. But that could be a mistake. You’ve probably read that prospects have something specific in mind when they are shopping. So try this test. Go back to Google, type in the name of a product or service your business provides plus your hometown. Did your business show up? If it did: congratulations. If it did not: you’re missing a major marketing opportunity.

Times have changed
From a marketing standpoint, the use of local business listings has exploded with the increase of social media and mobile devices. Consumers not only use these interactive yellow pages to locate a business, product or service in their area; they are also posting reviews of those products and services. Today, there are over 60 local business listing websites on the Internet in five different categories. They include the search engines, social communities, 411 websites (aka yellow page type websites), GPS websites and that age-old business directory.

You can no longer be passive
To make your interactive yellow pages listing a stronger marketing tool, you must first “claim” the listing with all the search engines, social communities, websites and organizations that lead people to it. Once you prove the listing is really yours you can update it with your business marketing material. Businesses are realizing the importance of this claiming process. Once you have claimed your local listing you can update information with text, keywords, business descriptions, products, services, photos, videos, coupons, and more. Some websites, such as Google, allow you to use all these options while others charge a fee for enhanced listings making this information present for local consumers through web or mobile searches

So what’s the “security challenge”?
The claiming process is crucial to security because if the wrong person gets access to your business local listing they can direct customers to a different location by phone or website address. Additional damage can include incorrect information on photos, videos, coupons, and more. Because consumers are using local business listings to locate a business, product or service in their immediate area, the security around local business listings must have a high priority for any local listing website.

Remember phishing?
Phishing was described in 1987 before the Internet was a commercial boom. The first recorded use of phishing was in1996. The question is whether the business industry is going to wait for something similar to occur using Local Business Listings. The security holes are quite evident with Local Business Listings and I don’t think it takes a genius see what could happen if businesses do not “claim” their listings – the first step in closing those “holes.”

When hackers capture a Local Listing it’s called “high-jacking”
It is absolutely important that businesses not passively wait for local listing websites to put the appropriate security in place before you claim your listing. Installing security starts with the obvious claiming process, but many sites allow data to be inserted from other databases on the Internet and I am not sure there’s good security around this later process. If someone wanted to hijack a local business listing, they could easily insert the wrong information through a low level business directory that sells its data upstream or inserts its data directly into a higher level local listing website.

While the top search engines like Bing, Google and Yahoo have “some” front-end security; their API’s (Application Programming Interface) makes them vulnerable through the back door. Data is provided to their local listings from 3rd party sources including “get listed” services. Additionally, if someone cannot claim a listing easily, the process within these local listing websites allows for additional listings with the same address to be submitted by anyone.

Certainly your time resources are limited and Geo-Marketing Services are provided by SmartFinds Internet Marketing. You will find this to be of great benefit to your time resources and the low cost service may eliminate your yellow page ad costs. Let the experts of over 16 years Internet marketing experience help you use this local business marketing tool properly and prevent brand security issues from occurring.

Google Places is a free service that offers a wide range of mapping functionalities. While Google is making them available from everywhere, it will take some time before this free service is available around the entire globe.

You can get the additional information from Google at the following link:

http://www.google.com/support/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=168339

As of this writing on June 13, 2010, there are 66 countries listed below in alphabetical order where Google Places is available. Bookmark this page and check back regularly for any changes to this list.

Angola
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Bermuda
Botswana
Brazil
Bulgaria
Canada
Chile
China
Croatia
Czech Republic
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Denmark
Egypt
Finland
France
Gabon
Germany
Greece
Greenland
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Japan
Kenya
Korea Dem. People’s Rep.
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Madagascar
Malaysia
Mauritius
Mexico
Mozambique
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Rwanda
Serbia
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Slovakia
South Africa
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Turkey
Uganda
United Kingdom
United States

Google Places is a free marketing tool for local businesses. The benefits of these listings include showing up in web search results and mobile search results. Updating these listings is free and available to the business 24x7x365. Not something you can easily do with the traditional yellow pages. Definitely something you need to consider beyond Google and tap into multiple local listing websites and search engines.

Here are a few guidelines and information to know about when using Google Places. Many of these guidelines apply to other local listing websites as well. Many of these points are pretty self-explanatory. Violating these guidelines and your listing can be suspended. The basic premise is that you need to present your business in the local listings as you would in the traditional world.

1. Only the business owner(s) or authorized representatives may claim the local listing(s).

2. Don’t pack your listing with keywords like in your business name.

3. Along the same concept, do not include phone numbers or URLs in the business name.

4. You cannot use PO Boxes, it has to be physical address.

5. Do not provide phone numbers or web addresses that redirect consumers to other landing pages or phone numbers other than those of the actual business.

While we recommend reading Google Places quality guidelines here , we do recommend reading about local listing security issues which are related to the above no-no’s.

The Internet has become a good marketing tool for the local business dependent upon the local consumer for their revenue through web searches and mobile searches. Tap into the power of geo-listings as you engage in geo-marketing!

Local Business Listing Management Services are provided by SmartFinds Internet Marketing. You will find SmartFinds Internet Marketing to be of great benefit to your time resources and the low cost service may eliminate your yellow page ad costs. Let the experts of over 15 years Internet marketing experience help you use this local business marketing tool properly.

Your local business listing at Google and certainly with other geo-listing websites allows you to promote your events, new products, specials and more. You can take advantage of this very easily, once you have claimed your listing, by following the following five steps. We will use Google as our example.

1. Log into your Google account and go to Google Places through your account or by going directly to http://www.google.com/lbc

2. If you have multiple local business listings, choose the listing you want to update and click View Report.

3. Once you are in your Dashboard you will notice a box in the top right that looks like the following:

4. Click in the box and write a 160 character description of your business update.

5. Click Post and you’re done.

Your information will appear to the public in your local business listing on Google Maps. As of this writing you can only have one post and we’re sure this will change in time.

The Internet has become a good local business marketing source for the local business dependent upon the local consumer for their revenue through web searches and mobile searches. Tap into the power of geo-listings as you engage in geo-marketing!

Local Business Listing Management Services are provided by SmartFinds Internet Marketing. You will find SmartFinds Internet Marketing to be of great benefit to your time resources and the low cost service may eliminate your yellow page ad costs. Let the experts of over 15 years Internet marketing experience help you use this local business marketing tool properly.

Upcoming webinar will introduce businesses to the benefits and components of Geo-Marketing, including Geo-Listings, Mobile Marketing and Geo-Social Marketing

SAN FRANCISCO & DETROIT – June 8, 2010 (ELYMEDIA | SMARTFINDS INTERNET MARKETING) – A FREE webinar (http://www.elymedia.com/blog/?p=1252) entitled, An Introduction to the Benefits of Geo-Marketing for Businesses, is scheduled for Tuesday, June 22nd at 1:00 p.m. PST / 4:00 p.m. EST. The free Webinar will provide businesses with an opportunity to learn the many ways that Geo-Marketing can positively impact their bottom line.

Webinar topics will include the benefits and components of Geo-Marketing, including Geo-Listings, Mobile Marketing and Geo-Social Marketing. Webinar attendees will learn how to use these marketing tools for consumers to find their business, products or services through web searches or mobile searches. Discussions on Geo-Listing Security, Consumer Reviews, and Reputation Management are also included.

The Webinar is a joint venture between Elymedia (http://www.elymedia.com/), a San Francisco-based media strategy and buying agency, and SmartFinds Internet Marketing, a metropolitan Detroit-based firm which provides businesses with Internet marketing services and solutions.

Elyse Tager is founder and principal of Elymedia, which provides services in traditional, online and social media marketing and has worked with many of the world’s most recognizable brands from Microsoft to PowerBar. Tager is the SVAMA Morning Forum Manager for Social Media Marketing, is a frequent speaker on all things Web 2.0, is a past columnist for ClickZ, a contributor to NetworkWorld’s marketing e-newsletter, a blogger at Elymediafrenzy (http://www.elymedia.com/blog), twitter fanatic, and Social media evangelist. Her twitter handle is @ElyseTager.

SmartFinds Internet Marketing CEO, Melih Oztalay, stated “We are excited to partner with Elyse Tager and Elymedia in our effort to share the benefits of Geo-Marketing. During the upcoming Webinar, we will discuss how Geo-Listings, Mobile Marketing and Geo-Social Marketing affect local businesses dependent upon local consumers for their revenue.”

Melih Oztalay has over fifteen years experience with Internet and digital services in developing strategies that utilize all facets of the World Wide Web. As a digital marketing agency, SmartFinds Internet Marketing’s major focus is to develop multi-directional marketing campaigns to drive traffic to client web sites from more than just search engines.

Anyone interested in learning more about the ways in which businesses can use Geo-Marketing to be more easily located by local consumers may register to attend the upcoming webinar by following this link (http://www.elymedia.com/blog/?p=1252) to the event registration form. Attendees will leave this event with a solid understanding of:

• What is Geo-Marketing?
• What types of Geo-Marketing components can our business benefit from?
• How will our business benefit from Geo-Marketing?
• What is involved with getting our business involved with Geo-Marketing?

Questions should be directed to melih@smartfindsmarketing.com.

About Elymedia

Founded by Elyse Tager, Elymedia is an independent marketing agency devoted to media planning, media strategy, and media buying. With their focus on customer acquisition and lead generation, Elymedia delivers proven value to their clients. Beyond their creativity in online and social-media marketing, Elymedia offers expertise gained from decades of traditional direct-marketing campaigns. Whether marketing tactics include email, postal mail, or finding your prospects online, Elymedia can help. For more information, please visit the company website can be viewed at http://www.elymedia.com/.

About SmartFinds Internet Marketing

The most critical element of SmartFinds Internet Marketing services is the creativity and imagination to apply the technological aspects of the digital marketplace to the marketing objectives of a particular business. Initial research provides SmartFinds the ability to develop a digital strategy that can be measured every step of the way to insure business growth and revenue generation. Some of SmartFinds’ clients have included Delphi, Flagstar Bank, Guardian Industries, Soave Enterprises, Detroit Convention and Visitors Bureau, McCann Erickson, Wendy’s and others. You can learn more about SmartFinds at http://www.smartfindsmarketing.com and their Geo-Marketing services at http://www.smartfindslocallisting.com.

Contact: Esther Lastacy, 330 E. Maple Road, Suite 503, Birmingham MI 48009, 866.501.5758, esther@smartfindsmarketing.com.

If you have looked up your business address or company name on Google maps you may want to check if the map marker is in the right location. There are errors on maps occasionally based on oddities that may show your physical address on a map in the wrong location.

Aside from claiming your business listing at Google and other geo-listing websites, Google does allow for community edits to modify the map marker to make it more accurate for everyone. If you find the map marker in the wrong physical location on the Google map, you can move it to the right location with the following steps.

1. After you search for an address or business, click the map marker and you will see the info window appear.

2. If the marker is in the wrong location, in the info window, click on “more” and then click on “move marker”

3. Now you can drag the marker to the correct location. You can use the “X: to help you place the marker. Proper protocol is to place the map marker at the entrance of the location.

4. Click Save.

Here are a few notes you will need to be aware of before proceeding with the above steps.

1. You will need to be logged into Google with a Google account

2. Google will need to review a change if the marker is moved more than 200 meters.

3. A marker cannot be moved if the local business listing has already been verified and verified listings can only be edited by the account owner of that local business listing.

If all else fails if you have problems with Google maps, click on the “Report A Problem” link and report the issue to Google.

The Internet has become a good marketing source for the local business dependent upon the local consumer for their revenue through web searches and mobile searches. Tap into the power of geo-listings as you engage in geo-marketing!

Local Business Listing Management Services are provided by SmartFinds Internet Marketing. You will find SmartFinds Internet Marketing to be of great benefit to your time resources and the low cost service may eliminate your yellow page ad costs. Let the experts of over 15 years Internet marketing experience help you use this local business marketing tool properly.

Reputation management is becoming a much bigger concern through local business listing (or geo-listings) than in the past. While consumers were open to use blogs, forums and other social community tools to post their experiences with a business, product or service, now consumers have the ability to post these reviews directly into a geo-listing.

Not only does this allow other consumers to read the reviews in a web search or a mobile search, but these reviews will impact your website’s search engine ranking position in the future. For example, if your search engine optimization is 100% perfect and you’re in the top 10, but you have a large percentage of negative reviews in your geo-listing, then not only could you no longer we in the top 10, but you may not show up in search results on any page.

Managing these consumer reviews is important to start now. Become an early adopter and embrace the process. Fighting the inevitable will only cause your business more problems. Here are some options with your Google Local Business Listing.

1. Keep in mind that the consumer reviews in Google come from consumers, third party providers and other reviews collected by Google around the web regarding your business.

2. If you’re concerned about a review that was submitted, click the Flag as inappropriate link found under the review, and submit a report. If the review is in violation of Google’s policies, they will remove it.

3. If the reviews are coming from third-party source, you will have to contact the third-party source to have the information changed. Once the information has been changed at the third-party source, it will be updated on Google soon after the change has been made.

4. Once you have your Google Local Business Listing displayed on your screen, under the “more” down arrow is a link to “Report A Problem”. You can use this option to submit inaccuracies or concerns about your listing to Google.

The Internet has become a good marketing source for the local business dependent upon the local consumer for their revenue through web searches and mobile searches. Tap into the power of geo-listings as you engage in geo-marketing!

Local Business Listing Management Services are provided by SmartFinds Internet Marketing. You will find SmartFinds Internet Marketing to be of great benefit to your time resources and the low cost service may eliminate your yellow page ad costs. Let the experts of over 15 years Internet marketing experience help you use this local business marketing tool properly.

Local listing coupons help to promote your special discounts to local consumers that reach your local business listing through web searches and mobile searches. These local listing coupons can be used by printing them out or presenting them on a mobile device when a local consumer visits your store.

Here are the steps to create your coupon in your local listing at Google. The steps below assume you have already created a Google account, that you have claimed and updated your local business listings. If you need help for steps prior to proceeding with the below please visit our quick steps to get you started in our previous post of the Three Most Important Tips for Local Business Marketing

1. Log in to the Local Business Center.

2. Click on the Coupons tab in the top left corner of your screen

3. Click Add new coupon

4. You’ll be taken to a page where you can fill out different fields of information that you want to appear on your coupon. Including a graphic image!

a. Headline 25 Characters

b. Sub-Heading 35 Characters

c. Details 200 Characters

d. Image 150×150 pixels

e. Offer Code: 15 Characters

On the right of the page, a preview of your coupon will update itself as you enter new information.

5. Click Continue at the bottom of the page.

Your coupon will appear in your local business listing within 24 hours. You can find the coupon in Google Maps by clicking more info in your listing’s info bubble, and clicking the ‘Coupons’ tab.

The internet has become a good marketing source for the local business dependent upon the local consumer for their revenue through web searches and mobile searches. Tap into the power of Local Business Listing as you engage in geo-marketing!

Local Business Listing Management Services are provided by SmartFinds Internet Marketing. You will find SmartFinds Internet Marketing to be of great benefit to your time resources and the low cost service may eliminate your yellow page ad costs. Let the experts of over 15 years Internet marketing experience help you use this local business marketing tool properly.

If you are a business dependent upon the local consumer for your revenue, then local business listings at multiple local listing websites is an important local business marketing tool for you. A few important tips.

1. Claim Your Local Listing
By claiming your listing you are effectively protecting your listing from hijackings and also allow you to use your local business listing as a marketing tool. Don’t wait to do this….run!

2. Update Your Local Listing
Not only insure that all your basic business information is accurate, but add photos, videos, coupons, and events to your local business listing. The added information helps your ranking position amongst local listings and the consumers have more information to entice them to your business.

3. Monitor Your Local Listing
Consumers have been posting their experience about a business, products and services into local listings for the past three years. Sadly, business owners have been less than aware of this practice and finding themselves in a public relations problem. These reviews show up in web searches and mobile searches. Monitoring and managing these reviews will insure that you are up to date on any problems and also encourage customers to post positive reviews too.

With each marketing tool comes the management and the time it takes to insure the marketing tool is effective. We have to keep in mind that this work has to be performed at multiple local listing websites. If you are constrained with your time resources, there are Local Business Listing Management Services that can help you.

The internet has become a good marketing source for the local business dependent upon the local consumer for their revenue through web searches and mobile searches. Tap into the power of Local Business Listing!

Local Business Listing Management Services are provided by SmartFinds Internet Marketing. You will find SmartFinds Internet Marketing to be of great benefit to your time resources and the low cost service may eliminate your yellow page ad costs. Let the experts of over 15 years Internet marketing experience help you use this local business marketing tool properly.