This is a regular occurrence for our business, and I’m sure it is for yours as well. You’re in the middle of something, whether it’s speaking with a customer, or trying to get some work done, when all of a sudden you hear the phone ring. When you answer it, you hear a robocall voice telling you there is a problem with your Google listing… Sounds familiar, right? That’s because you’re not alone, your one of the millions of businesses getting spammed by certain companies on a regular basis.

Now, to give you more details about where this comes from, and who is calling you, I’ll start off with who is not calling you… Google is not calling you. Instead, this is one of two types of companies. Either it’s a lead generation company doing a campaign for a digital marketing company.... or it’s a lead generation company creating a list of leads and building revenue from unsuspecting business owners in order to broadly sell those leads to digital marketing companies. Most of the time these same companies put respondents on even more lists in which they will continue getting similar calls. I know this because we regularly get contacted by these companies asking to buy these leads.

These companies press us to buy their lists. They try to create a need by telling us our competitors are buying them, and we could also benefit from having the same list they do. Afterall, they are considered “qualified leads,” because they were called, and at some point someone agreed to pay a fee or requested more info. Unfortunately for them, we are not, nor will we ever be, interested in such lists. We do well enough on our own without searching for new customers by using such means, thank you.

Unfortunately, this erodes trust business owners have in digital marketing and SEO Companies. This also creates some confusion about some of Google’s services. For example, your Google listing is on Google, but you can have full control over it for free, and there is no need to pay to make a change. In fact, Google would rather business owners have direct access to control their own listing. It’s called Google My Business, and there you can control everything from your contact information, to the pictures and videos that show up on your listing. You can even hire a photographer to add a 360° virtual tour of your business!

Sure, most clients want what’s best for their business, and will often hire a third party digital marketing company like ours to manage their listing, as part of other services. However, there is no reason you should feel you have to go through someone else to add or make changes to your listing. In fact, I have heard from many companies that they have been charged every time they make a change on their listing and that the company won’t give up the rights to their own business listing on Google.

Whenever you work with any third party marketing agency, you should always retain ownership and add them as a manager of your listing. This way, no matter what happens, you retain control and can remove them at any time. Don’t worry if you have been told in the past that you had to use another company. All you need to do is regain control over your listing very simply by requesting access to the listing. Google also gives you the option to contact them if someone refuses to give you access. You could be up and running in a couple of weeks.

So, next time you get a robocall, or any business telling you that there is a problem with your google listing, simply hang up, and focus on getting whatever you were already doing completed. The more we do this, the more these businesses will disappear, and their tactics will be a thing of the past… Well, I hope so, I’m getting another one of those calls now...