In October 2011 Google launched a strategy that would make use of various sources scrapped from the web as well as actual user submissions to update the listings on Google Places. The nature of the strategy would be for Google to be able to have a digital representation of the real world on its Google Maps platform, which would feed through to individual Google Places listings.
The logic behind the strategy is sound as it relies on the submissions of your loyal customers to correct an error (if there is one) on your Place listing. As the verified owner of a Google Places listing you will be notified if there are any changes proposed for your listing. The option to accept these changes will be put to you and the process is said to be totally automated. The information that is said to be effected would range from the business name, location and trading hours.
Would these changes affect my Adwords campaign?
The current answer to this question is a resounding no. The actual ads won’t see any changes but the other aspects of the Google Places listing would be affected.
How could this negatively impact my business?
Businesses could now face shutdown campaigns that could be led by competitors or simply by a dissatisfied customer. Google’s crawlers make use of information obtained from trusted sources, a list of these sources has yet to be released and, if the data on any of these sources could be manipulated, then your Places listing could be automatically altered.
The best way to guard against this type of possible sabotage would be to ensure that you have an email account linked to your Google Places listing that you check often.
It would seem that this automated system could still have a few teething problems but once all of these have been worked through, the accuracy of the data on the Google Places listings would be more trustworthy as well as current. The other spinoff would also be that more users would be visiting your Google places page.
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