Does Google scrape business filings?

[Marc Simcox]

I have several clients that I believe are not using the business names that they registered with their states. I think that it is resulting in me fighting automatically created listings on maps.

I know one of our customers did not come to us with their actual business name, and we have tried to get them to at least create a DBA but they have not done so yet. but that is not the issue I'm working with at the moment, that client is doing well in a very competitive market so we aren't rocking the boat.

The problem I'm currently wondering about is that I know that I have gone through and spent quite a few hours cleaning up and removing duplicate listings for one client in particular. I had mentioned my issue in another post about this particular client (A chiropractor) having 1 listing for his practice, and 1 listing for himself as a practitioner. The issue is that the practitioner listing had been ranking #1 but has now slipped to #8, so We are doing Linda's method of fixing practitioners listings by changing his url, and categories, etc... but in doing some investigation to make sure I have all the Google+ Local URL, Places CID, and MapMaker CID.

I noticed that there mysteriously appeared a listing for his "old" business name (We ask for old business NAP's so we can hunt down citations that can be changed to reflect the new business), So I do a little digging on his states Secretary of State website and find out that the only listing they have for a registered business is what we have as the "old" business. The "new" business name we have MAY be a dba I cannot look that up(or at least I don't know how to).

TL;DR version
Does anyone know if Google Scrapes the business filing information and uses that to create/verify/legitimize business listings

 

[Linda Buquet]

Sorry I don't know the answer for sure.

I mean she scraps EVERYTHING she can get access to but don't know about business filings per se. Assume so if they are publicly accessible.

One of the most important things I teach in my Advanced Places Training is a variety of ways to do NAP research BEFORE even touching the listing. That includes a series of Qs to ask the client.

It's critical you get NAP right on the Place page before doing anything else otherwise you are building on a broken foundation.