Is a Competitor Claiming My Clients Yahoo Local Profiles?

[MainelySEO]

I am working with an Insurance agent and he has Google Alerts setup on his company name. He has received two alerts where his name only appears in the URL. If you click the links they bring you to a competitor's Yahoo Local profile page with their name and info. If you look at the URL it has his company's name and city in the URL.

Could a competitor be claiming his listings and then changing the business name, phone, address and URL to their own? Does the URL on Yahoo Local listings stay the same after a business changes their name?

This has happened with two of his listings in two different cities, he has two offices in one state. But not with the same competitor, it has happened with two different companies.

Any idea what could be happening? I would be happy to PM the URLS, I just don't want to post them publicly here.

Thanks!

[WilliamKammer]

Are you in control of the Yahoo listings? If so, you would've been notified when such drastic changes took places on them. If you didn't claim them, then it is possible someone else did and changed the information. The listings places are getting better about verification methods, but it's still possible for competitors to claim unverified listings.

I would suggest creating a Yahoo Small Business account, and then contacting Yahoo about the situation. They should either give you ownership, change the URL, or delete the listing and have you create a new one.  If Yahoo is being too slow, create a new listing in the meantime, and once you get in contact with Yahoo they should be able to merge the two listings.

Yahoo is the slowest of the three in getting back to you (in my experience), so don't be afraid to get a little aggressive if it starts taking a while. Contact them through multiple channels, flag the listing, etc.

I have seen competitors take over listings in the real estate market before, and the insurance industry would seem like another clear target, since the business/agent structure can be similar.

[MiriamEllis]

Hi Nathan,

Can I ask for a bit of pronoun clarification in this:

"I am working with an Insurance agent and he has Google Alerts setup on his company name. He has received two alerts where his name only appears in the URL. If you click the links they bring you to a competitor's Yahoo Local profile page with their name and info. If you look at the URL it has his company's name and city in the URL."

Is 'his' referring to your client's company name and city or the competitor's name and city?