What to do if there is false (and therefore damaging) contact information about your business online.
The new marketing trend — as stong as a tidal wave — is to converge geographic information about your business with consumer data. To market your businesses, third parties serve your information to anybody in the area who might be interested in what you’re selling. It’s a dream come true for the savvy business who can harness the power of this trend.
These third parties have to find businesses to sell their services to. One ingenious way they get leads is through a slew of online directories. Business owners need contact information correctly cited on these directories, whether or not we plan to utilize the paid marketing options. We willingly submit our info, and thus create sales lead lists, because the quantity and quality of citations directly impacts search engine ranking.
Claiming your listing is free. Just supply the NAP (Name, Address, Phone). Some allow websites too, which provides valuable back-links. Others even let you post pictures and videos at no charge. A number of these directories include customer reviews — another can of worms. They also offer a variety of paid services, but basic listings are free.
Here’s the rub. Since this marketing trend is tied to local geographic information, they want your street address. But suppose you work from home and don’t want your personal residence blasted all over the web? Can you still make sure your business is visible on search engines, directories, mobile apps, and social media sites? The answer is yes, sometimes, but it might be a hassle.
Gooogle+Local, arguably the most important directory for showing up at the top of a Google search, doesn’t accept PO boxes, so you have to work around it. Other sites like Yelp, don’t seem to have a problem with them as of this writing.
As the experience I share below shows, even if you go through the hassle of keeping your work-at-home address out of the limelight, it could be floating around on the web, because directories may have mined it from public information sources and posted it, unbeknownst to you. The only solution is to take charge of a situation you didn’t create (and maybe didn’t even know about).
It Pays to Google Your Business Once in a While
I googled my business in the course of doing research and noticed it listed on the front page of Google (which is a very good thing). It appeared on a directory named PowerProfiles, which I had not previously heard of. When I clicked the link I was shocked to see my physical residential address. I never supplied that data to any online listing service. I consider this data private, and neither my rental agreement nor zoning allows public access for the purpose of conducting business. This is a pretty serious breech and I’m betting other home-based entrepreneurs find themselves in the same boat from time to time.
Saved by the Red Button
Luckily, there is a prominent red button right above my NAP that says Edit this Information. Clicking on the link leads to a page that says PowerProfiles Data Changes (through our data partner Localeze). It says this is the place to make changes to my PowerProfiles data and hundreds of other sites too, all from one account, and to please allow 60-90 days for the new data to propagate.
There is another prominent red button marked Get Started Now and some text that says this is the place to claim, manage add, modify, enhance, close and distribute my listing to the largest, most trusted Local Search network. I guess they’re talking about Localeze? The button leads to a site called PowerProfiles— a place to “Get Started with Business Listing Identity Management.”
I see by the URL that I am now on a Localeze.com website (even though the title prominently says PowerProfiles. Localeze is a major data aggregator that serves business NAPs to more than 150 online directories. That’s why I went to their site 97 days earlier to claim my listing and manage my business information. I figure PowerProfiles and Localeze must be joined at the hip.
There are four choices offered:
- Small and Medium businesses can claim, verify, and manage their Local Search presence.
- Multi-location businesses can manage all listing identities with a program that reaches nearly 150 online local search platforms including mobile, social, online directories and navigational devices.
- A third party can partner with Localeze to help multiple clients.
- Residents whose address or phone number has been associated with a business can have it removed.
I click the last one: How to Remove your Residential Information from a Business Listing in our Directory. This leads to a page with clear instructions on how to remove the unwanted information. I am prompted to click on Search our Directory Now.
This brings up a page with a field where I can search for my listing by phone number, or business name and zip. There is also a panel of some FAQS to help with claiming, modifying, closing listings, and more.
This looks like a promising starting point for anybody experiencing issues with false, and therefore damaging, business information online.
The search reveals a new page with my basic business listing at right. Interestingly, it does not include an address, but it matches the correct data I entered when I had claimed this listing 97 days ago.
I hit the Remove Residential Information link anyway, just for the heck of it. This leads to a page that displays the name and city of my business, and an incorrect phone number. The phone number is from another state, and not one number in it matches mine. There is a drop down box that allows me to request removal of the phone number and/or address, and a field that asks why the listing should be removed. I correct the phone number, explain why the physical address should not appear, and since there is room left, I use the remaining space for my soapbox speech, which always seems to fall on deaf ears: rural and home-based businesses need to be able to use PO boxes in their online business listings.
Local search services are reticent to do this for several reasons. Unscrupulous businesses from just about anywhere can get a PO box and advertise “locally” where they don’t actually have a presence. Also, the trend is to pinpoint everybody geographically in order to serve them ads about stuff they want to buy RIGHT NOW. Wonderful as this is for people trying to make money, strictures against PO boxes unfairly penalize rural and home-based businesses who have special needs. The powers-that-be seem completely blind to this, or they simply don’t care.
To make matters worse, there is a notice on the removal page that says:
“Help us update this business listing by confirming the residential information you want removed. We will review your request to remove information from this listing and if it is added to our suppression list, we will no longer distribute your information to the Internet search engines and directories that receive their data from us. Your information will be removed from those websites as they update their files from us.”
Yikes! What information? All my information? I’ve invested many hours building citations. Localeze serves search engines, directories, portals, mobile apps, navigational devices, and social media sites reached by 90% of the U.S. consumer local search market. Will it all be wiped out in one click? It’s not clear. I definitely need my information distributed through them, but only the information I want plastered all over the Net!
How Often Are Listings Updated?
Localeze says it makes updates available to partners on a weekly basis. Each one has their own timetable for implementation, so it’s impossible for Localeze to guarantee when changes will show up. They do say, however, that sites generally incorporate changes within 60 to 90 days. One piece of information that would be very handy to have is not available on the first level of their info pages: who exactly are they sharing my information with?
Will I Get a Phone Call?
I wonder if I will get a phone call to verify my request to edit information in the Localeze database. The next day my inbox includes an email from Localeze. It matches the data I supplied 97 days hence — the NAP how I want it. The NAP that should have percolated to all the other directories by now. I don’t know if the email is automated or if there is a live person on the other end. I include a note just in case.
“I see now the site w/incorrect info is powerprofiles.com. The edit button leads to Localeze. Apparently, information I provided to Localeze has not filtered through yet, even though it’s been 97 days. Is it possible to get a list of all the sites Localeze provides my information to? Thank-you.”
Meanwhile, I browse the PowerProfile/Localeze site. I see that if you create an account there is an option to Add your Listing. There is also a link to Manage Listings. It says: “Easily verify and manage your Local Search presence across the Web.” I decide to click on that, and lo and behold! there is an alert (in red) that says I need to re-verify my listing, which I do with a click. Does this start the 90-day countdown all over again, I wonder? Do you think there should have been a note in the email stating the fact that I needed to navigate to that alert?
Is there a Live Person Behind the Localeze Email?
Happily, there is a live and helpful person on the other end of Support@localeze.com. Here is what they have to say:
“We do not show a listing in our database for the information you inquired about. It is likely that Powerprofiles.com is receiving that listing from another source. We recommend you contact them directly at (877) 249-0777 or email helpdesk@powerprofiles.com and have them manually remove your information from their website.
This is surprising, since the two companies seem so closely connected. It’s confusing because PowerProfiles is prominent on the web pages I am being linked to, yet the URL says Localeze. But, this is pretty typical of the kind of stuff that goes on when diligently tending to citation-building duties.
I forward the email from Localeze to PowerProfiles and receive an auto-responder. So, we’ll see what happens next. Just another day in the murky world of the virtual marketing universe.
Take-away: The importance of correct listings in online directories is paramount to business success in this age of virtual marketing. If you own a business, and especially a work-at-home one, you will have to focus time and/or money toward managing an online presence that you may only vaguely understand.
CONTINUING SAGA:
On Fri, Feb 8, 2013 at 7:03 AM, LR, customer service via RT wrote:
Your name nor your phone number has a listing with PowerProfiles. You may have
requested its removal and was done.
If you think that there is still a listing with your information, go back to
Powerprofiles.com, find the listing, copy the URL. Paste the URL into a return
email and I will investigate the listing and remove if still in our system.
thank you.
Lois.Rothchild@powerprofiles.com.
Hello Lois,
This feels a bit like the Twilight Zone. I don’t think there is a listing, I know it.
(PHOTOS AND URLs ATTACHED)
helpwithpromo 