One last little tip I want to give you on this local SEO section
is making sure that you do verify your GMB listing.
There's a lot of unscrupulous people out there who are quite happy to take your GMB,
and well, basically verify it through themselves,
and take your phone calls, your leads and any traffic that comes through that GMB,
and put it in their pocket, which is outrageous.
But believe it or not, this happens quite a lot.
Now with Google,
they support you in being able to claim an unverified listing through Google maps.
Now, Google is always looking for ways to improve their user experience, so they say,
"Now, we're working on shortening the process to claim an unverified listing through Google maps,
to go straight to the verification process,
and make this whole thing work really easy."
So, when something like this become really easy
it also becomes really easy to be able to claim a listing that's not actually yours.
And, basically what you can do is go in, and follow all of these steps.
Now, for an unverified business listing, if you lay a claim on it,
it would normally ping that person and say,
"Someone's making a claim on this listing."
If they don't respond within seven days,
it's free for you to take.
Now with GMBs, with that email coming through from Google
with the amount of spam that everyone gets everyday,
these things can often go unnoticed.
And that allows someone, the opportunity to run off into the darkness with your GMB,
and all the traffic, and all the phone calls that, that particular GMB listing gets.
So I can't emphasize enough.
Make sure you do verify your listing,
because if you don't,
Google have made it easy to obviously help the process and the system
for other people to verify it for you.
Now, I'm not suggesting that Google is doing that deliberately,
of course they're not.
They work to help quicken the process.
However, that does mean that those unscrupulous people
will have the opportunity to claim your unverified GMB.
And as I say, point it to their website,
forward that number onto another number of theirs,
and basically sell those leads on to someone else,
who's basically going to be taking dinner off of your table and put it onto someone else's.
So, make sure that you do avoid that because you're doing all of this stuff,
it takes a bit of time and a bit of effort when it comes to local SEO.
And there is actually a fair amount of traffic that comes through your GMB listings.
So don't fall at the final hurdle.
Make sure it is verified, make sure it's under your ownership,
make sure that you are in full charge of what's going on.
Countless times I've had other people come to me in the past and said,
"A guy set up my GMB three or four years ago, he's disappeared off the face of the earth.
What can I do?"
You can request access,
you can verify that is request ownership.
You have to be in charge of that stuff.
Because, it's your business, it's an asset for your business.
So, make sure it remains in your business
and not left with some schmuck who can run away with your leads.