Ever hear of Google Local? If not, I am sure you have seen it. Google Local is the local directory (Yellowpage style) that Google is now including in just about every search performed that includes (or doesn’t include as of April 2009) some sort of geographic indicator (city, state, etc). Run a quick test – go to Google and do a search for “Pizza Restaurant, Nashville, TN” (without the quotes). You should receive results similar to the picture below. What you are looking at is Google’s Universal Search project including Google Local’s search results in your regular SERPs (search engine results page). The small map with up to 10 business listing to the right of it is Google Local’s results for pizza restaurants in Nashville, TN. What has happened is Google has noticed that you are looking for businesses in a certain geographic area and has provided you with Yellowpage-style listings for your convenience. Along with each listing more details of the business may be available including phone numbers, address, hours of operation, a description, a website address, an email address and even a coupon. Plus, inside of the business listing a user may find websites that include the business, further detailed information about the business, user reviews, photos, videos and more.

Google started the local directory in March 2004. To start seeding their database, they scanned other databases and websites and pulled business listings from them. Plus, Google wants business owners and managers to assist by adding their own businesses to the database and updating existing business information with current and accurate data. This process has worked well for Google and for businesses alike, but there are some things that even Google can’t anticipate and stop from happening. Businesses that haven’t added their own business listing or “claimed” their business listing inside of Google Local might fall victim to bad or outdated information. Or, in worst-case scenarios, businesses might fall victim to less ethical business persons who have unrightfully claimed a business that they are not owners of, employees of, or otherwise related to other then being – a competitor!

Just recently I have personally seen two instances of business listings in Google Local being unethically hijacked. In the first instance, a tech-savvy manager of a local pizza restaurant found it very easy to claim the business listing of their competitor who was located across the street from them. This manager “claimed” his competitors listing, edited the phone number to ring to his store and edited the website address to click-thru to his store’s website. Obviously, doing this probably made a direct impact to the amount of phone calls he received and website traffic to his website. For his competitor, who was completely unaware of the happenings, was wondering why his take-out and delivery phone calls had been dropping, and why traffic to his website had declined.

In the second instance of a business listing being hijacked, a local real estate brokerage had a tech-savvy employee handle some of their online advertising for them. This employee knew the power of Google Local and rightfully added their business to the database and immediately started receiving the benefits of it. After a year went by, this employee left the company to go out on their own and start their own business. Because it was this employee’s Google account that the was registered to the business listing, it was very easy for this former employee to logon and quickly change the phone number and website address of her former employer’s business listing to her new company’s.

How can this happen, you ask? Well, Google has done everything it can to put a safe-guard in place by enforcing a verification process during the setup process. This verification process has 2 options. The first, Google will call you on the phone number you have placed in the business listing and tell you a “pass code”. This pass code has to be entered into the business listing before it will allow you to move forward with adding/updating the business listing. The second and more time-consuming option is that Google will snail-mail you a postcard to the address listed on your business listing with the pass code. Once you receive the postcard, you have to log back on and enter the code before your listing will be included in the database. So, just as long as you have access to the phone number that you want to be listed on the business listing, you can add or claim the business. The good news is that once a business has been claimed, no one can go in behind your back and claim it for themselves without contacting Google and going through a much lengthier and stringent verification process.

Google is continuing to improve the Google Local product offering and has just released (June 2009) a new dashboard for business owners to review analytical data about their listing. This data gives business owners information, such as what people searched for to see their listing or how many times their listing appeared in search results, about how customers find their businesses in Google Maps and more.

To add your business to the Google Local database visit the Google Local Business Center.

If your business is already in Google Local and you need to claim it, go to Google Maps and search for your business. Once you locate your business the little white bubble that appears on top of the map will include a message for you to “Claim Your Business”. Just click this link and follow the directions.