Have you or your business been Google jacked?  Have you protected your name and reputation online?  Is someone else stealing your business and customers?

Did you know that it is possible for you or your business to have a listing in Google’s local business search even if you haven’t submitted it yourself?

Also, that if you DO have a listing, until your listing is claimed, it’s possible that someone else could claim it, edit your business information and be stealing your customers?

It’s far fetched, but entirely possible that some unscrupulous business owner or company could claim your listing, change the phone number and or address to another address, and effectively be stealing YOUR customers or leads.

Google’s Local Search Listings are the listings that are at the top of the search engine results pages when you type in a local search.  For example, if you type in “dallas home inspector” or “dallas movers” you will see a map at the top of the results that says:  local business results for movers near Dallas, Tx.  It then has them listed with a map, and markers on the map for their location.  The Google Local Search Listings also include the business name, address, contact information, and various other information about the business.

As of the time of this writing, if you search Google for  search engine optimization arlington tx  you can see my company as an example as well, we’re ranked number one (as of today).

You can see this here:  http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=search+engine+optimization+arlington+tx&aq=f&oq=&aqi=&fp=JJ2lHziMUzc

Google Local Search listings are pulled and ranked from a very wide variety of sources using a variety of different factors.  InfoUSA, the online yellow pages, physical phone books, local review sites, and many other places.

The Google Local Business Center has been created for you to add, edit, and otherwise your business listings.  You can access the Google Local Business Center here.

I would go ahead and see if you have a Google Local Search Listing right now here and then claim it if you do.

Googles process for claiming it is really simple and quick.  They either call you at a phone number with a PIN, or send you a post card with a PIN that you verify on their site.

Coming up soon, how to CORRECTLY go about listing and editing your business and simple steps you can take to increase your Google local search listings rankings and increase your search engine optimization efforts involving local search.