I've always believed that a local business should pay attention to how their company appears online. There are hundreds, maybe even thousands of random business directories where public business and store information can be found.

These business directories often get their start by purchasing lists of business names to populate into their sites. Databases of company names, addresses, owners, phone numbers, and business types are all available for purchase thr...
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Yesterday, we gave you our three month research study results to illustrate how online user generated content is out there, and potentially damaging until you lock it down.

InsiderPages, Yahoo Local, and CitySearch are the top 3 review sites you should worry about. Let's look at a case study to show exactly what you need to pay attention to.

We randomly searched InsiderPages.com for all jewelry stores within 20 miles of our office to find a good example.

We found:
188 jewelers with 5 star reviews from 1 or more reviewers.
178 jewelers with 4 star reviews, mostly from a single reviewer.
52 with 3 star reviews, many from 2 or more reviewers.
13 with 2 star reviews from 1 or more reviewers.
20 with 1 start reviews from 1 or more reviewers.

These review systems are always wrought with spam. Some b...
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