Insights

Google Places and Fraud Prevention

What do you do online to make sure your
companys identity has a good reputation? Google Alerts? Google your company
name? Social media monitoring? These are all great identity verification tools
to use to make sure the information is accurate and to know what is being said
about your company. But do you monitor your Google Places?

If you dont, you need to. Its childish, but
anybody can report your business as closed. Google hasnt released their
algorithms or process as to how many times a business has to be reported as
closed to be marked as permanently closed, but the New
York Times
reported that search consultant and blogger Mike Blumenthal
and a friend closed Googles offices in Mountain View, California with only a
couple of clicks.

Since this happened, Google has said they are
working on providing better tools and fraud prevention solutions
like an email alert. However, it has not been executed. So this is why its
important to keep an eye on your companys Google Places page.

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