Another malicious practice that a competitor can engage in, besides prematurely closing your business, is to give your business a negative review on Google Places. Places used to be an excellent consolidator of most other review sites, including urbanspoon.com and traveladvisor.com, until Google announced over a month ago that reviews. This was in response to about their content being used on Google Places.

A non-savvy competitor may create an account just to give your business a bad reputation. If you truly believe a fake review is being placed on your Places entry just you can click on "Flag as Inappropriate" below the review to dispute it. Google will investigate, but whether the review remains up is entirely at their discretion.

A review from a truly disgruntled customer is another matter. You can try flagging it as inappropriate if you believe the customer isn't giving a truthful review, but such a complaint will look self-serving to Google. You should be prepared to back up your position with evidence. Google Places lacks the ability to reply to a review that you may have on other review sites, so recourse is limited.

If you aren't on Google Places yet, don't let the recent negative news deter you. Google has promised to sort out the issue of businesses being reported incorrectly as closed, and they tend to be good about keeping their word once a problem has been revealed with their services. With so many Internet searches being centered around localized results, you can't afford not to be listed on Google Places.

Angela West dreams of opening a Fallout-themed pub featuring wait staff with Pip-Boys. She's written for big insurance companies, small wildlife control businesses, gourmet food chains, and more. Follow her on Twitter at .