A few days ago, a client found out that one of his competitors declared his business location “Closed” on Google. I found out that he didn’t have a website and since he didn’t have a website to indicate that he was still in business and had moved to a new location, Google went with the “report” of his business being “permanently” closed rather than find out if his business relocated.
I told him, we could fix this problem. We proceeded to build him a website, submit his site to Google, and then claimed his “closed” business location. In a couple of days, Google reported his business opened and had linked his location to his new website. His business now shows as open when you do a search for his site.
Even though he had gotten business from web searches in the past, why would someone call a business that is declared “closed” by Google? He lost out on business because he had no website to show the contrary was true.
Moral of the story – If you are one of the few holdouts who have resisted putting up a site for your business for whatever reason, please don’t shoot yourself in the proverbial foot and get yourself a website, otherwise a competitor MAY do this to you and “kill” your business.