Getting your business noticed online is integral for obtaining new clients and generating revenue. And with 71% of businesses having a website and shifting online, it is getting more difficult.
With listings management, businesses can appear in local search results and reach a wider audience.
Accurate and detailed local business listings improve a business’s reputation and visibility in the local market.
In this blog, we will provide a breakdown of the elements you need to add to the business listings and the importance of listings management for your business.
Read More: Local Service Ads Vs. Google Ads: Choosing the Right One
What is Local Listings Management?
A local business listing is an online profile of your company that includes its name, address, phone number, and other details.
Think of local business listings as directories to make your business more visible online.
A report published in 2021 found that 94% of users resorted to an online directory site to find information about a business.
Business listings management involves maintaining and upgrading a company’s online presence across several channels, including search engines, directories, and social media.
To put it simply, listings management guarantees that the data about the company is correct and consistent on each of these channels.
Examples of Local Business Listing
To help you understand listings management, here are some examples of local listings:
Paid & Organic Search Engine Results
Search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, or DuckDuckGo, are the places people go to find a company.
It can happen in one of two ways. With the right SEO practices, when a customer searches for the phrase your business ranks for, you appear in the results.
Through paid campaigns, where you pay to rank for a keyword, your ad is at the top of the search results.
Listing Websites
Yelp and Yellow Pages are examples of directory sites that are used to link local businesses with clients looking to make an immediate purchase.
Profiles on Social Media
You can create a strong online presence on social media. Several business-focused features make social media useful for listings management.
It can help your business grow its following and draw in new clients.
Maps for Navigation
These days, maps play a crucial role in helping people find new businesses. You can use Google Maps SEO to bring people in the same location to your business.
Using the map interface, you can let the audience find addresses and numbers, read reviews, and access the website.
Benefits of Listings Management
Here are the advantages of listings management:
1. Improves Rankings
Listings management can help you rank higher on the search engines.
By monitoring the accuracy of your listings, you may prevent clients from leaving bad reviews for your company. And there are fewer chances of them finding inaccurate information.
The accuracy of the categories you choose and distribute in an orderly manner across various places.
2. Prevents Unwanted Google Edits
Google frequently modifies the company name and phone number on your listings, among other fundamental details.
You can help Google’s bots understand your business accurately through listings management. This prevents them from editing your data by controlling the accuracy of your listings in all of the main directories.
3. Save You the Hassle
Rather than maintaining several dashboards and inputs, you can make one input for multiple outputs.
You’ll save time by only having to locate and manually update the listing set you’ve created for each business location. So, when your business information changes, you don’t have to make changes everywhere.
For listings management, you can use certain tools too. Listings management software distributes your location data throughout the local search ecosystem as its primary function.
For instance, Moz Local helps owners respond quickly to these crucial consumer contacts. This is because they get notified when new reviews.
You can use some effective SEO reputation management strategies from our blog to engage better with the audience.
Important Factors For Listings Management
For effective listings management, you need to include the following in the listings:
1. Name or Title of Business
In this field, always use your actual business name. Make sure your phone answer, print marketing, website logo, and business sign all use the same format for your name. Don’t modify your company name with more keywords, location phrases, or other characters.
Except for Facebook, multi-location firms (such as chains or franchises) should not add city names or modify their business names in Google or any other local business listing.
For multi-practitioner businesses (such as law or real estate firms), follow Google’s recommendation and enter the practitioner’s name alone in the business name field, leaving the practice name out.
2. Address
In the address part of the Google form, enter your street address in line one and any suite or mailbox numbers in line two. This procedure should be adhered to for almost all citations to prevent odd formatting.
You will indicate on Google while generating your listing if your firm is a service-area business (SAB, like a plumber or electrician) that serves clients at their locations rather than your own.
Your street address will thereafter be hidden on your live listing by Google. Even if it’s only your home address, you need to have a physical address to be eligible for a Google Business Profile listing.
3. Contact Number
For small businesses like hotels, where the majority of their clientele are from outside the area, having a toll-free number is very helpful.
If your Google Business Profile page has a toll-free number instead of a local one, ensure that this number is regularly used. Moreover, it should be mentioned on your website and in all of your citations.
Additionally, Google requests that you include the phone number that has the closest connection to the topic of the local business listing.
So, you can provide a cell phone number, a toll-free number, and an alternative phone number on a lot of citation forms.
4. Description
This section gives you the chance to showcase the aspects of your company that persuade a potential client to choose you.
For listings management, you will have a few hundred characters to craft a concise pitch for your business.
It is better to write a single description and publish it on all of your citations instead of writing a different one for every platform.
You can add some features to emphasize in the description section. For example, you can include awards, warranties, and close proximity to important sites.
5. URL of the Website
Instead of sending users to a social media profile, a third party, or any other location, add a website URL that points to a page managed by the business.
It is customary for businesses with many locations, departments, and practitioners to have their business listing point to the homepage of their website.
Be sure to link each citation for a specific entity to the appropriate page on the website.
It is preferable if all of a practitioner’s listings point to their landing page rather than the main homepage.
6. Social Media Accounts
Using social media is another important part of listing management. You can link to your profiles on a lot of platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, and more.
When it’s feasible, fill up these areas to point customers toward more user experience and customer support options.
7. High-Quality Pictures
According to Google, click-through rates for local business listings are significantly influenced by pictures. Therefore, it’s a good idea to upload as many high-quality images as you can whenever a platform allows you to.
Every platform has its own policies about the maximum size of photographs and the kinds of content that can be included in them.
Useful Tips for Listings Management
Here are some tips for effective local business listings management:
Optimize for local search engine optimization: As stated above, maintaining local business rankings involves a lot of local SEO. This includes local search engine optimization, local directory optimization, and local keyword and search engine optimization for the local business listing.
Monitor performance: To make sure the local business listing is operating as planned, it is critical to monitor its performance. This involves monitoring the visibility of the local business listing, monitoring customer feedback, and monitoring client queries.
Reply to customer reviews: Keeping track of local company listings requires paying attention to customer feedback. It’s critical to resolve any issues raised by customers and promptly reply to their evaluations.
Make use of local content: Reaching out to the local market can help you become more visible and heard. This entails using local influencers and events, as well as producing material that is exclusive to the area, such as podcasts, videos, and blog articles.
Methods for Improving Local Business Listings
By using these three strategies, you can improve the results of listing management:
1. Keep the Listings In Check
It is crucial to keep an eye on the listing once it has been produced and promoted to make sure it is operating as it should. This includes keeping tabs on the effectiveness of the listing, reading client feedback, and answering queries from users.
2. Make Use of Local Collaborations
Increasing visibility and reach in the local market can be achieved through local partnerships. This entails collaborating with relevant businesses, building a network in the local market, and utilizing influencers in the same region.
3. Advertise Your Business
Local advertising can greatly aid in reaching local clients. This entails using local search engine marketing and social media advertising. Also, you can place advertisements in local print, radio, and electronic media.
FAQs
What is a local directory listing?
A local listing or a business listing, is a brief profile that includes vital details about your company, including your name, address, phone number, website, and other contact details.
What makes listings management significant?
Keeping your business listings current makes it easier for customers to find you and get in touch with you. Precise business listings in numerous directories can enhance your local SEO. This is because it helps Google provide accurate contact details to potential clients.
Is it better to do this yourself or employ a listings management service?
It is dependent on the size and resources of your company. While larger companies or those with several listings on multiple platforms may find value in using a listing management solution, smaller firms with fewer listings may choose to handle them manually.
How do you obtain property listings management?
For property listings management, you need to create detailed listings, including images, descriptions, and key features, use digital marketing strategies, and use listing platforms.
Summary
With listings management, businesses can implement the correct strategies to reach their target audience and optimize their local presence.
It can help the potential customers locate your business without a problem. However, doing it manually can be a time-consuming task.
If you need a quality solution that meets your unique needs and goals, you can hire a company to manage your online presence.
The Dreams Agency can offer you an advantage by using strategies to enhance visibility and customer engagement.