Navigating Your Online Identity
Here at Prospect Genius, we know how important it is for our clients to be able to track the return on their investment with our SEO program. That’s why we create a metered number and trackable microsite (with a URL that follows the format “some-service-city.state-biz.com”) so you know which leads are coming in from your Prospect Genius campaign. We spend a great deal of time promoting these numbers and microsites all across the Internet and on many different sites. Sometimes, Google and Bing reps will personally call these phone numbers to confirm that they are active and live, as well as that they actually communicate with the correct business. So here’s the important part: If Google calls you and asks if your website is: “http ://some-service-city.state-biz.com” …say YES! While your personal website might be “bobsappliancerepair.com,” for example, if you tell Google that the microsite we created for you isn’t affiliated with your business, you are effectively killing your PG campaign. Why? Because Google will then assume that your listing with the URL “http ://some-service-city-state.biz.com” is spam and your information will be blacklisted. Basically, that means we will have to create a new URL for you and begin your campaign all over again. This will, of course, result in fewer phone calls for your business during the initial three-month period—not to mention a whole lot of unwanted frustration.
Just Say Yes to the Address!
If you’re ever in doubt when receiving a call from Google about whether a phone number, URL, or web address DOES in fact belong to you, it’s always better to say yes than to say no. After you’ve confirmed ownership with Google, you can simply call your sales or customer service rep here at Prospect Genius to ask if the phone number or URL does belong to us. If it doesn’t, we can then contact Google to correct the mistake. However, if you tell Google right off the bat that the URL is not yours, Google will instantly blacklist it. There is no way to go back and correct this and there will be no way to get the URL back on Google. Speaking of Google…
What You Should Know About Google’s Latest Update
As of Friday, October 14, Google has implemented new strategies that it hopes will keep owner-verified business listings as up to date and accurate as possible. Effective immediately, Google will grab data from all over the web to automatically update your Google Places listing as a “time-saver” for you. If you’ve received an e-mail from Google saying as much, it’s very important that you contact us immediately. We’re unsure about what these automatic updates and revisions may mean in the future for your Places listing and campaign performance—especially given the shady tactics that some competitors are already using—so we want to be able to keep your listing 100% correct at all times. Please contact us as soon as possible if you’ve recently received an e-mail from Google about your Places listing.
Introducing: Google Maps Monitoring Service
Google doesn’t have a stellar record when it comes to letting business owners know about changes to their listings, and even though Google’s announcement claims they will notify business owners via e-mail as soon as something is changed using this new automatic update system, it’s unwise to depend solely on their promptness or discretion. It’s essential that you monitor your Places listing on your own and check your e-mail regularly since contact from Google can be unreliable. The good news is that you can hire Prospect Genius to handle monitoring your Places listing if you don’t have the time to check on it every few days. In light of this new update from Google, we are rolling out a brand-new Google Maps monitoring service. It will alert you immediately if your information is changed or if a third party reports your business as “permanently closed.” Right now, this is the most effective way to combat Google’s questionable strategy and keep your Places listing as accurate and optimized as possible. For additional information about our Google Maps Monitoring Service or to learn more about how PG can help, feel free to contact your sales or customer service rep today.