I often see ads and articles for local SEO that concentrate on getting into the Google Local results that appear for geographically-related searches – usually after the third organic result. While it’s a useful area to cover I do tend to take it with a little pinch of salt because I’ve seen some odd results from it and there’s no clear relationship between the strength of a site and whether you can get one of the coveted 10 places. But I always thought there was at least some degree of checking of who registers a business at an address – clunky though the send-a-postcard system is. But what are we to make of the result below for the search term “bank of scotland”? Note item H.

A curious Google local result

Whatever you think of the banks and the current financial crisis it seems a bit strange that a site that appears to be about exposing banking fraud should appear as a local business, and when you follow the “more” link, with the address of the Bank of Scotland in St Andrew Square. You’d think there’d be enough screening to avoid such entries.