Whitepages.com

[sarmcl]

Hey everyone

We have a client who has some listings where an 800 number is appearing on Whitepages.com and we have zero idea where the info is coming from. This client has Moz and Yext. I have been doing some digging and noticed it looks like Yext dropped them as a partner and Whitepages.com used to get their info from Infogroup. I checked Express Update and the info is right there. So I am not sure if Infogroup dropped them as well

Does anyone have any info on what the heck is going on with WP.com?

 

[keyserholiday]

Email support with the link to the listing and the what information is incorrect and what it needs to be updated with:
here is their email: support@whitepages.com

 

[whitespark]

If you search Google for the 800 number in quotes, do you find it on any other sites? That could help you identify the source, or at least find other listings that also have the 800 number.

 

[sarmcl]

Hi Darren! Tried that. Not at all for that location. I spoke to Infogroup and they saw the 800 number tied to one location so he removed that but not for the other. For the life of me--no idea how that even happened in the first place. The 800 number belongs to a another vendor of the client. I have searched high and low and can not find that 800 number anywhere else other than WP.com.

 

[Cherie Dickey]

InfoGorup is one of the major aggrigators, so I'd say they are the ones feeding data to WP, and not the other way around. Is your client willing to call InfoGroup to have this corrected? I used to have trouble with them working with me as a 3rd party, but they were willing to work with people at the business location. They also seemed to take it a bit personally at times when their data was incorrect, so there's that to consider as well... but this should be easily proven - especially if the business owner forces the issue.

 

[Phil Rozek]

@sarmcl, is it possible your client ever advertised on Whitepages? If the business has been around for a while, and especially if the business has had a few marketing/SEO companies, often yesteryear's spray-n'-pray advertising is responsible for mysterious phone numbers.

Also did you ask the client specifically about the story behind that 800 number?

In any case, if you've done what @whitespark recommended, then the next step is what @keyserholiday said.

 

[Stefan Somborac]

@Phil Rozek's comment mirrors my experience.

I had a client with a strange phone number showing up in just one or two places. It turned out to be an old call tracking number from several years back that everyone had forgotten about.

Asking the client for the origin helped me solve the mystery.

 

[JoshuaMackens]

Whitepages and their partner directories may not be updating at all anymore. I have a client whose info hasn't changed in a long, long time.

Surprised to hear Yext dropped them.

InfoGorup is one of the major aggrigators, so I'd say they are the ones feeding data to WP, and not the other way around. Is your client willing to call InfoGroup to have this corrected? I used to have trouble with them working with me as a 3rd party, but they were willing to work with people at the business location. They also seemed to take it a bit personally at times when their data was incorrect, so there's that to consider as well... but this should be easily proven - especially if the business owner forces the issue.

Weird, right? I had the same experience with InfoGroup. They take things really personal it seems like and have a bit of an attitude issue. It's super weird on the rare occasions I have to deal with their phone support.

 

[Cherie Dickey]

Weird, right? I had the same experience with InfoGroup. They take things really personal it seems like and have a bit of an attitude issue. It's super weird on the rare occasions I have to deal with their phone support.

Yea, I thought it was super unprofessional. I got the impression that it's a pretty small crew actually running things there - otherwise why be so defensive? I also think they are small enough that after a while they learned my voice. I used to email them from domain based emails, and say I'm a representative of the business when I needed to call, which was pretty frequently. They eventually cold called the business I was working with (that time) on the business line and asked to speak to me. Of course as luck would have it the receptionist didn't know who I was and told them I didn't work there. They then called me on the number I gave them, refused to update their data, and sternly told me they don't work with third parties. That's about when we started looking into Moz for directory updates.