This just in from Thomas Ballantyne, king of Pest Control SEO from Bulwark Pest Control. Let’s listen in. Love the Radioheadish ringtone btw:
Apple Maps Phone Verification Audio File
I should note that this very well might be a scammer faking they are from Apple, but according to Thomas the caller ID said “Apple, Inc.” so it seems like it could be legit.
This is very interesting! Do you know if anyone at Bulwark had reported any problem with their listing on Apple Maps prior to that call?
Trying to get more detail from Thomas. Will post if/when I hear.
Damn. If they are scammers they sure got their act down.
What would be interesting is for Thomas to provide wrong info and see what happens. Does the listing update to having the wrong info – and if so, when? Does the correct info from all the data-providers take precedence? Or does the lady on the phone just ask a bunch of follow-up questions and then make a judgment call?
Thomas, if you’re reading this, I am NOT suggesting you try it at home. Not so good for the local SEO.
Very interesting, thanks for the heads up, Thomas & Andrew.
From all my previous understanding, Apple has been using API calls to get business information. Has anyone heard that Apple is generating a data base of businesses themselves? This seems a bit outside their current methodology.
This activity may be the result of Apple’s acquisition of Locationary last year. Locationary was supposed to be able to normalize listings data from multiple sources. Phone confirmation is another methodology to cleanse this data.