There are approximately 30 billion local search queries each month in the United States and 86% of consumers say they have used a search engine in the last month to find local business information.
93% of consumers are frustrated by incorrect information in online directories.
41% of consumers will stop searching for a business or look to a competitor if the location of a local business was incorrect.
What do customers see when they are looking for your business?
What Are Local Business Listings?
Local business listings (sometimes referred to as citations) is an online profile for a business. Some business listings sites or directories are free, while others charge a small monthly or annual fee.
The goal of your local business listings is informational — to drive traffic and revenue by displaying the most important features of your business that are of primary interest to someone looking for your business or the products and services you offer. Some of the most important information required to claim your local listings are included in the list below:
- URL
- Email Address
- Company Name
- Address
- Suite or Floor #
- City
- State
- Zip
- Business Description
- Facebook URL
- Instagram URL
- Twitter URL
- Google My Business URL
- Logo Image or Image URL
- LinkedIn URL
- Local Phone Number / Toll-Free Phone Number
When it comes to local listings, details matter.
Why Do Local Business Listings Matter?
More and more people are searching with local intent – -especially with voice search and mobile search on the rise. Examples of local searches include: “eye doctor in chicago” or “brooklyn wine store” or “best pizza in miami“.
Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines have a complex algorithm for delivering local search results.
Relevance, Distance / Location, and Prominence are factors Google uses when ranking a local business.
Google’s algorithm and the local search ecosystem rely on several key data points, including the Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP) of a business. Google and the other search engines also look to dozens of local business listing sites to verify and confirm the information is accurate.
If some of the business data is incorrect, Google won’t call you to confirm the information. Google will simply move on and rank another local company, that has consistent and accurate business information across the web, higher in its search results.
Experts believe that business listings make up 10.82% of the overall ranking factors for Google’s local pack results and 8.41% of overall signals for Google’s local organic results.
Google wants to deliver the most useful search results. Inaccurate, incomplete, and incorrect results are not useful to anyone.
Consumers are usually looking for the following information when searching for a local business online:
- Business Address / Business Location
- Directions
- Hours of Operation
- Business Reviews
- Contact Information (phone number, email)
- Cost/Pricing Information
- Coupons and Promotions
- Payment Information
The Local 3-Pack
In addition to organic search results, Google also highlights three (or more) local businesses when displaying its Google Maps results. This local 3-pack drives a very high percentage of search traffic to very few lucky businesses.
According to Advanced Web Ranking, the first, second and third results on Google receive 32.37%, 16.4% and 10.36% of clicks for a combined total of over 59% of clicks.
What is Business Listings Management?
Business Listings Management involves actively maintaining and updating the local local listings for your business so the most accurate and current local business listing data is published across the web.
60% of local business information is out of date within 24 months, and one in five business records changes annually.
If you want your website to rank higher in local search results, you need Business Listings Management.
What are the Best Local Business Listings for SEO?
Infogroup, Neustar / Localeze, Factual and Foursquare are the four main data aggregators used to populate navigation systems, voice-activated search, mobile apps (including Apple, Uber), and more.
In addition to data aggregators, you should claim business listings on websites that have the best impact on Local SEO. We have compiled a list of the top 30 local business listings sites to help prioritize your citation building.
- Google My Business
- Apple Maps
- TripAdvisor
- Foursquare
- Bing Places
- Yelp
- TomTom
- Yellowpages
- Dun & Bradstreet
- CityGrid
- Superpages
- MapQuest
- Manta
- Local.com
- Yellowbook
- Merchantcircle
- BOTW
- Opendi
- HotFrog
- Brownbook
- Cylex
- InsiderPages
- EZLocal
- Tupalo
- CitySquares
- 2FindLocal
- Chamber of Commerce
- DexKnows
- Yahoo! Local
- Better Business Bureau
Building citations is time-consuming work and requires a careful attention to detail.
Reputation Rhino can help you:
FAQs for Business Listings Management
Why are business listings important?
According to Chatmeter, 76% of consumers who search for a business online, and find it, visit that business within the next 24 hours. For this reason and others, it’s crucial that your business listing is created, updated, and maintained. For many consumers, if a business does not have a business listing, it essentially does not exist. They will search no further. And for those same people, if a business listing is incorrect (address, phone number, etc.), they will search for another alternative or never find you in the first place, since business listings have a direct impact on local SEO.
What is local SEO?
Local SEO is the operation of optimizing your online pages for local searches. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) helps your online pages to be ranked higher in search engine results. Your local business might not appear on the first page of Google; however, it should appear at the top (or near the top) when a local search is conducted. This is especially important when your primary competitors, and your potential customers, are local to you.
How do business listings impact SEO?
Your business listing, when updated and correct, will contain your business name, address, and phone number. This will boost your search engine ranking when someone from your city conducts a search for something you provide, especially if you have positive business reviews. This is essential because 46% of all searches on Google are for local businesses. When you claim your business listing on websites that have the most impact on local SEO, like Google My Business, Yelp. Foursquare, BBB, Superpages, and dozens more, you’re more likely to be found.
How do I update local business listings?
Business listings should be claimed on the four main data aggregators, Factual, Infogroup, Foursquare, and Localeze/Factual. You also need to claim your business listing on local business listing sites, like Yelp, Google My Business, TripAdvisor, and dozens more. This is no small undertaking. In fact, many businesses turn to a business listing management company like Reputation Rhino to conduct an audit of their online presence, update existing business listings, remove duplicates, create listings on the most important websites, and improve their local SEO.
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