A program that guarantees top listings for local searches on Google, Yahoo!, and Bing sounds like a great idea. In fact, the search engine optimization company Bruce Clay Inc. pitched in a message about “Local Paid Inclusion”:
Local Paid Inclusion is a Google, Yahoo! and Bing contracted service and is offered as an approved official program in cooperation with those search engines.
Local Paid Inclusion promotes a local business’ profile page, like those found in Google Places, Yahoo! Local and Bing Local, into a top position on the search result page for up to 30 keywords per profile page.
This is a NEW program offered by Google, Yahoo!, Bing and 18 more major directories and indexes that places a business profile into a premium area above all other local profiles. Combine this with all of your other optimization programs to maximize your traffic.
What this means is local businesses that participate can essentially pay for the top local ranking position.
Although it looks like spam, the fact that it’s backed by Bruce Clay Inc. will make SEO practitioners think twice. However, both Bing and Google pointed out that they’re neither involved nor interested with Local Paid Inclusion. For clarification, Clay took the site down while he investigated the situation with Universal Business Listing.
The Vague Connection between Bruce Clay Inc. and UBL
It seems that UBL, a local search industry service provider, will endorse data into local listing of major search engines. However, it’s doesn’t guarantee high ranking. Furthermore, it doesn’t make sense for a company to guarantee an organic result, especially in the local listing. It’s tricky and local search results change significantly based on the user’s location. That’s why it’s impossible to guarantee any ranking in a local search listing. Bottom line: Bruce Clay Inc. partnered with UBL without knowing what they can really provide.
Although there’s no existing connection between them, Bruce Clay Inc. is a reseller of UBL’s existing business listing syndication service. As the local search provider posted on its news blog:
Universal Business Listing denies any association with articles and news reports about a “paid inclusion” business listing service. The company has made no such announcements or claims, particularly in regards to Google. It has no product announcements pending.
Bruce Clay Inc. is a reseller of UBL’s existing listing syndication service and is not currently testing any new service from our company.
Up to this moment, it remains unclear how Bruce Clay Inc. believed that Local Paid Inclusion existed. Nevertheless, the truth about the existence of such a program is now all ironed out.
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