Beware! It’s probably not Google calling about problems with your Google Maps listing

Once again we’ve been asked by customers about phone calls they are receiving “from Google” that there is a serious problem with their Google My Business Listing (Google Maps) and they need to take action now

It’s probably not Google calling!
Paste the phone number they give you into Google or Bing to search for it. For example, I searched on the phone number that a couple of our customers were given. This phone number belongs to a company called eGumBall, Inc (It’s not Google).

I then searched ““eGumball reviews”. Here you can see their mixed Yelp Reviews 

Be careful who you hire for local listings
First search on their name and add “reviews” to the search to find many of the online reviews about them.

Be aware that many of the local listings services, especially the big regional and nationals, use automated submissions services that often lead to problems such as duplicate listings, listings with wrong categories, etc

Stop using some services and information will be removed from the listings!
Most of the big regional and national companies that work on local listings lock you in to their service. If you stop paying for the service many of the listings sites remove data from your listing!

Ask them “If we stop using your service do you OR any of the listing sites you’ve created or updated remove any information from out listings?”

Note – It’s important to ask “Or any of the listing sites”. The first time we asked one of the large nationals if they remove any information from the listing sites if someone stops using their service the account person said “No”. They didn’t offer to tell us that the while they don’t remove information many of the listing sites will (scumbags!)

Many listing services don’t do some of the most important local listings!
Finally, many of the large regional and national companies don’t do some of the most important local listings because they often require a phone verification. Ask them if they will setup and maintain these important local listings –

  • Google My Business (Google Maps)
  • ExpressUpdate from InfoGroup which is used by many online directories
  • Apple Maps (It’s now the default maps application on iPhones)