Go ahead, ignore case studies regarding various Google map spam vectors. I can tell you it’s devastating to see a friend’s GoogleMaps listing wrong. If the map has not been hijacked, then Google sucks.

In searching for Duluth hotels, in preparation for next week’s business visitors, I noticed that our good friends indexed prominently in Google maps listings. The only problem was that the website had been changed to South Pier Inn!

Click through on a link that reads and the click leads to South Pier Inn. OMGWTF! That’s where I turn things over to our good friend Mike Blumenthal who publishes Understanding Google Maps & Yahoo Local Search.

Mike indicated that, while there have been various vectors available to spam Google maps over time, nearly all are rooted in  spammers, Google’s corrupted data or some combination thereof. Right now the Wiki nature of Map records leaves avenues open to spammers and Google does make mistakes.

We know all about Google’s care of organic consumers, even though there’s no customer support department. Also it’s not a far leap to extrapolate the drastic downturn in traffic and revenue wrong maps can cause. Here’s some resources to start your journey into protecting yourself and we defer to Mr. Blumenthal.

HIJACKED!! Entire Town of York Maine moved 20 miles North!!! Google Maps Help April 10, 2009

Google Maps: Whitehouse Listing most recent Hijack Victim April 1, 2009, blumenthals.com

Reporting hijacking of our google map listing - Maps Help Google Maps Help, February 12, 2009

Google’s Hypocrisy: Search Spam and Map Spam SmallBusinessSEM November 4, 2008

Microsoft’s listing in Google Maps Hijacked (oops by me) October 30th 2008

Problems Continue With Google Local Business Listings SearchEngineLand, October 14, 2008

Don’t let somebody hijack your Google listing Merchant Circle Blog, August 21, 2008

Google Mapspam Brand Hijacking? July 14th, 2008, LocalSEOGuide

Google Maps Hijack Caused By Google Algorithm: Google Adds Report Map Feature SEORoundTable February 13, 2007