Not that anyone should be surprised but it looks like Google Local is being overrun by spam. I’ve come across many regional verticals loaded up with spam to the point of exclusion of legitimate businesses. The decision to use a place on a map as a point of interest instead of tying it to a third party URL may appear to be an error in hindsight. With Google cracking down on paid links you would think there would be an easy way to submit bogus local business listings but apparently Google hasn’t thought that far ahead.
I’ve now come across more than one local business vertical with 8 & 9 bogus listings all with the same phone number even. Why bother with SEO if Google will provide you with an easy shortcut to the top? Simply list all of your business lines as separate corporate locations and you can easily capture a lion’s share of the keyword’s search engine traffic. In theory it will probably also get you penalized, but how are they going to catch you if you don’t even have a website?
