Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
How do you go about updating / correcting bad business listings when you cannot contact the website directly?
-
There is a business listing I wish to correct / update on 411dir.biz
There is no way to contact the website online, and in cases like this, I try to do a whois lookup, and reach out via the email / phone number there.
This site seems impossible to connect with, has anybody else come up against situations like this in the past, if so what do you tell your client / what other approaches do people have?
Thanks!
-
Hey Michael!
Very good and creative tips from Moosa and Umar about trying to track this down, so I'll just respond to the part of your question dealing with what to tell clients.
100% consistency may not be a realistic goal for any business, precisely because of a scenario like yours in which old or bad data ends up on a directory you just can get connected up with. In such cases, judging the overall importance of the directory in question becomes key. If the directory is ranking in the top few pages for your client's name, then incorrect NAP there warrants making every possible effort toward resolution. But, if it's an obscure result, make normal efforts and then let it go at that if you can't find any way to correct it. Document your work for clients and pre-set expectations that you are shooting for high consistency, but not perfect consistency. Some of the smartest citation building experts I know have told me that 100% consistency is not only frequently impossible, but not even actually essential.
Hope this helps!
-
WHOIS is a good way to find their contact information and if this is not working find them on social media like facebook or twitter as most websites usually respond to that. If this isn’t working, I don’t think you are left with much option and you probably have to give the bad news to your client.
Another thing you can do is to see where they are fetching their data from if they are fetching data from big data aggregators you can fix the information there and it will get update accordingly.
Hope this helps!
-
Hey Michael,
Usually these kind of sites belong to a network that runs multiple sites.. Whois look up in the best option to track the details but if it's also not workout like your case, I submit another business with all the wrong details, IP address, fake email address and wait for the confirmation email. Once I get that, I contact them from my original address.
The other option that I lookout is to search on social media, though the chances are less to find the real pages or accounts but you can contact the people who shared something about them in past. For this site, I searched on Twitter.
If nothing works out, then you can clearly tell your client about the efforts you did. In most of the cases, they appreciate your efforts and you can move on.
Hope this helps!
Umar
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Where does the small description on a business listing come from in google maps?
Hi All, Simple question, but I'm struggling to find the answer, so I hope someone is able to help. The business I run is Oakdene Forest Park; Google Maps URL: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Oakdene™+Forest+Park/@50.8114372,-1.8598721,18z/data=!4m12!1m6!3m5!1s0x4873980ce90e4ef7:0x755579d631c25b33!2sOakdene™+Forest+Park!8m2!3d50.8114796!4d-1.8582842!3m4!1s0x4873980ce90e4ef7:0x755579d631c25b33!8m2!3d50.8114796!4d-1.8582842?hl=en Under the business name, it has a small description and for the life of me I don't know where Google is getting it from because a part of it is wrong. It looks like this: Oakdene™ Forest Park Rural Resort with Entertainment & a Spa I would like to remove the term 'Rural Resort' but where do I find it?? Thanks in advance for your help.
Local Listings | | Shorefield_Holidays0 -
Google Business - Adding location into business name
Hello, I've a client that has many services in different locations and addresses with the same website and phone number. But the thing is they want me to involve location name to business name. Is there a way to add and verify as bulk ?
Local Listings | | omeryamac0 -
Another Business is Using My Client's Address
This morning my client contacted me that another business is using their address as their own! They received a Google verification postcard with pin number on it, but luckily had the foresight to not give it to the person when they called. After some research, we also found out that they are using our address on Facebook and LinkedIn as well. The kicker is: this business is another SEO firm! You would think they would know that using our address would cause NAP issues for their own business. Has anyone dealt with another business trying to hijack their address for local rankings? Any advice on steps to take to report this abuse would be appreciated. Since this person is obviously unscrupulous, we don't want to provoke them into taking any other negative action online that could affect our business.
Local Listings | | IlluminousGwen0 -
Bing Places Listings for Real Estate Agents in the same office?
We've got a client that has a number of real estate agents that operate out of the same location. There are clear guidelines for how to approach this with Google My Business (https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en) but I'm having no luck finding resources as it relates to Bing Places and individual practitioners. Does anyone have experience with this within Bing? Essentially the client wants to maintain the office itself as a location, and there are agents that want to create/claim pages that would utilize the same address. Thanks
Local Listings | | TopFloor0 -
Local citations from business directories in other countries
Hi all, I normally work for clients in my home county (The Netherlands) and with local citation building I focus on Dutch websites or well know .com websites in the Netherlands. My rule of thumb kinda was, if it’s not known in the Netherlands it isn’t worth getting mentioned there. Since The Netherlands are pretty small and I think Google ain’t perfect I was wondering if it makes sense to list a Dutch business on any .com business listings that are internationally big, but aren’t well known in the Netherlands. Two reasons that got me thinking this direction: A big well known Dutch company offers a service such as Moz local and did integrate their service with several international business listing websites that I never heard off, since these business directories focus themselves on other parts of the world. Google ain’t perfect and I think they got more budget to identify trustworthy business directories with an international focus or a focus on America then with a focus on The Netherlands. So I’m wondering if it makes any sense to list a Dutch business on let’s say the top 20 international business directories (although these directories don’t have any brand recognition in The Netherlands).
Local Listings | | Bob_van_Biezen0 -
2 businesses same phone number
I was wondering how I should approach a scenario where I am optimizing two different companies websites that have the same phone number but different addresses. This sounds like a weird scenario, however it is out of my control. Is treating them as two separate companies fine, or do I have to take special precautions when submitting business directories and what not? Thanks for everyone's help! As a side note, is their a way to use Moz Local with both companies, right now it is getting confused as to what business belongs to what listing.
Local Listings | | brfieger0 -
What would Cause listing to fall off local search map spot?
Any reason a listing that was showing in Google between the 3 and 5 spot on local map search would suddenly disappear all together from the map position for a specific keyword?
Local Listings | | scott3150 -
Craigslist key word spamming/flagging?
I really trust the MOZ communities opinions on this and would appreciate any help. Our company has a competitor that puts our brand name in the majority of their craigslist ads. If you search craigslist for our product name, 80-90% of the results are this one company. Can anyone recommend a REPUTABLE flagging service that can flag their ads that break the craigslist TOS by using keyword spam? I'm open to any and all suggestions.
Local Listings | | seo-hunter0