SMEs warned to watch their listings on Google Maps to prevent hijacking

Businesses should be aware of a disturbing trend online, whereby competitors steal a Google Maps listing of another company and direct traffic to their own websites, a social media marketing expert has warned.

Adam Lyttle, founder of marketing firm SiteClick, says “Google Maps hijacking” is becoming more popular as more companies develop ruthless ways of stealing sales from other businesses.

“Google allows businesses to take ownership of the listings on Google Maps, and this allows a business to show up in Google results with a little map next to it,” he says. “The idea is that they’ve taken all the results from Yellow Pages and whatever else to make their results better and up-to-date.”

Lyttle explains that any business can log in and change the details about their business at a particular site, but Google also allows those details to be changed by another account.

“The only thing is that a competitor, or even someone with malicious intent, can claim the listing as their own, update the contact details to their own business and take traffic to a competitor’s website.”

Unfortunately, Lyttle says businesses won’t recognise their business listing as been hijacked until a customer notifies them of the attack, or if an employee happens across the listing by mistake.

As a result, he says businesses must keep checking listings on the web regarding their business and make sure they are up-to-date. If not, he says, vital traffic and sales could be lost.

“There’s no real way of it being stopped, it’s just a feature that Google offers and once your listing has been hijacked it’s very difficult to get it back. The easiest way to prevent it and stop it is going in early and claiming the listing for yourself.”

“Just keep an eye on your listings, click on the links and make sure they go to your website. If you have been hijacked, you can also contact Google and request the listing be reverted back.”