Google Using Surrogate Web Sites?
By Matt McGee on Apr 2, 2008 in Local Search
When you do a business name/city name search on Google, there’s a good chance you’re going to get a Local Onebox result returned with the business name, a link to its web site, and a map showing its location. But what about when the business has no web site? And also hasn’t claimed a listing in Google’s Local Business Center?
SBS reader Eric M. pointed me toward something I’ve not noticed before: Google is grabbing the business listing from Yelp or Citysearch, and quite likely from other sites when necessary. Here’s an example:
I think I’ve seen this before, although judging from the number of examples Eric shows on his blog, this may be happening more often as Google attempts to show local/map results more frequently on Google.com.
Any other readers have more to add?
1 Comment(s)
By Nick Berliner on Apr 3, 2008 | Reply
Yes, I’ve noticed this and thought it interesting. It’s a good reminder for local businesses to continually check not only their search results in all the engines, but also their online profiles at citysearch, yelp, openlist, etc. Most sites allow you to respond to and mitigate a negative review which is much better than users just seeing “Service Sucks” about your business.