Business Listing H[ij]acking: Education from Find8 Digital

Since time immemorial, people have had to deal with scams. Throughout the 1900's, we had to worry about fake investment opportunities, products that were junk, and deals involving forged documents. Now, on top of these worries, we have digital scams. We've all seen our spam email folder and even our inbox fill up with offers to make us rich in weeks, items for sale at unbelievable prices, and convoluted stories from foreign princes wishing to use our bank account to transfer money to America.

Hacking Google Places: A New Scam for the Digital Age

While these scams have become so prevalent that they are easy to recognize, there is one that business owners and individuals alike can be caught by: Hacking or modifying your business's Internet listing on business directories, and most importantly, on Google Places. We say “most importantly” because Google is by far the most used search engine online.

When you Google your business type and the town you do business in (for us it would be digital marketing, Lafayette Indiana), what comes up? A list of search results and usually a map on the right with a bunch of pinpoints. If you click this map, it expands and is populated with businesses fitting the business type that you entered. On the left are the businesses' names, addresses, phone numbers, and sometimes websites. If no website is listed, that doesn't mean they don't have one. It just means that Google couldn't find it.

When is Google Places Hacking a Problem?

If your company's website isn't listed, or if you see a listing that you didn’t create yourself, your business is extremely vulnerable to hacking. This isn't to say that other listings aren't vulnerable, but your listing is in a high risk category. Since your listing is "unclaimed," anyone could try to register as the owner of your business or to edit your listing on Google's database. Since you've never created or claimed your business profile, a number of things could happen.

1. A competitor could change your phone number to theirs

2. A competitor could change your website address

3. A competitor could delete your listing

4. A hacker could change your listing to display an incorrect phone number

5. A hacker could change your website address and redirect it to an online scam site

6. A hacker or competitor could do all of these things and take control of your listing so that you would NEVER be able to correct the damage.

What do these local search hacker tactics do?

Decrease your value in Google's search result algorithm, lose business for you, and perhaps most importantly, destroy your reputation as soon as a local customer is scammed or duped.

As discussed in our previous blog, Find8's Findability service can ensure your company's online integrity by registering you and actively managing your listings on over 100 business listing websites. Your customers and reputation will be safe from the threats of online hacking, phishing, and hijacking which are every day becoming more prevalent.

Contact Find8 today to learn more about claiming your Google Places business listing.

For more information on Google Places hijacking, check out this SearchEngineWatch article.