What is a business listing in SEO? This is like the age-old concept of advertising in the local newspaper but online and most sites are free. There are 4 top places you need a local business listing with your business name, address, phone number, and website.
4 Business Listings To Help Your Local SEO
- Google My Business
- Yelp
- Apple Maps
Business listings are easy to setup. Instead of showing you a step-by-step tutorial I want you to understand why it’s so important that you don’t neglect your business listings.
Local SEO Definitions
Have you got off the phone with SEOs feeling confused because of all the jargon they used? Let’s clear some of that up before I go onto the explanation about business listings.
SEO
Search Engine Optimization is the process of enhancing (or optimizing) your content in order to rank well for search engines. The better you rank, the easier it will be for customers and clients to find you which will translate to higher sales. Keywords and keyphrases are researched and used within your online content in order to accomplish this.
Local SEO
In short, Local SEO refers to strategy. A strategy with a goal to get a local business ranked as highly as possible when consumers search the business on a search engine.
According to stats by Hubspot 72% of consumers that did a local search visited a store within five miles. This is what makes Local SEO so important. You want potential customers to come to YOU, not your competitor. Research shows people want to stay close to home.
Digitalmarketinginc says Local SEO will involve keyword research, content, backend optimization on your website, and link building in the form of local business listings. A true local SEO strategy incorporates research and optimizing every part of your website to include your geographic (local) target.
NAP
Are you suddenly feeling sleepy? I am too. But, this NAP refers to Name, Address, and Phone Number. It’s just that straight forward. You need to make sure your contact information is correct and consistent across every online platform.
Another golden nugget from Digitalmarketinginc to improve your quality score is to make sure everywhere your business is mentioned is correct. Even things like adding a comma in the wrong spot or missing a suite number can knock your quality score down in Google’s eyes.
Also, having your business listed on these hundreds of authority online directories is considered a part of link building. SEO link building can be very tricky to please the Google algorithm, but one surefire way to build links is adding your business to online directories.
SERP – Search Engine Results Page
Search engine results pages are web pages that show up for users when they search for something online using a search engine (Google or other). The ‘searcher’ types in their search query in the form of specific words and/or phrases referred to as keywords. The search engine responds by providing them with a SERP (results pages).
How Local Business Listings Help SERP
Google looks for quality. The better your business listing (and optimization), the better your score. Feel like you’re back in school now? I know, it’s brutal. But, it is a good thing and it’s not as though you’re not already in competition with your competitors. So, properly formatting and optimizing your business listing will give you a leg up.
Google has a tricky algorithm and it likes to be made happy. Yes, it’s high maintenance! At, RebelFishLocal we make it our mission to do the best quality optimization in order to create the best online presence possible for your business.
On-Page SEO
Moz defines on-page SEO as the practice of optimizing individual web pages in order to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines. On-page refers to both the content and HTML source code of a page that can be optimized.
Off-Page SEO
According to a 2021 article by Moz, “Off-page SEO” (also called “off-site SEO”) refers to actions taken outside of your own website to impact your rankings within search engine results pages (SERPs).
It goes on to say that optimizing for off-site ranking factors involves improving search engine and user perception of a site’s popularity, relevance, trustworthiness, and authority.
This is accomplished by other reputable places on the Internet (pages, sites, people, etc.) linking to or promoting your website, and effectively “vouching” for the quality of your content.
What Is A Business Listing In SEO:
What is the business listing in SEO? The business listing is an online version of the Yellow Pages. Each business listing contains an index of companies listed alphabetically by industry. Individual entries are often linked to the corresponding company website. Source: licreativetechnologies.com
Why Are These 4 Business Listing Sites So Important?
Google My Business
Android users make up 38.76% of American smartphone users (Statcounter).
Google says of itself that Google My Business is a free and easy-to-use tool for businesses and organizations to manage their online presence across Google, including Search and Maps. To help customers find your business, and to tell them your story, you can verify your business and edit your business information.
Approximately 53% of consumers visit a business within 48 hours of carrying out a local search on Google (source: Reviewtrackers)
Yelp
iPhone users (iOS) make up 61.07% of users in the United States (Statcounter).
Yelp touts that over 90 million people visit their site each month to find restaurants, home services, and more. I can say that I’m on Yelp at least a handful of times every single week. It’s typically where I go first now when I’m in the mood for a specific kind of food or when I want to find out information about a particular business.
I’ve personally been frustrated over this past year with the lack of correct information about businesses on Yelp. In particular, hours have not been updated the way they should have been. This is in part due to the pandemic. I can’t reasonably blame business owner’s who already have an impossible number of tasks to accomplish, for having not updated their information repeatedly.
I’ll just end this by mentioning the importance of having consistently correct information. It helps if your customers don’t start out being frustrated by something that could have easily been controlled.
When crafting an online marketing strategy, it’s incredibly important to know and understand the statistics surrounding the demographics and use. Different ‘people groups’ use each platform differently and understanding this will make it easier to market to that particular demographic.
According to Sproutsocial, in 2019, the most significant change in Facebook user demographics was among users born in 1945 or earlier, aka the “Silent” generation. This age group had grown on the platform from 26% in 2018 to nearly 40% in 2019. Interestingly, Millennials and Boomers only increased by a maximum of 2% and Gen Xers even reduced their Facebook use.
Apple Maps
You want to be sure you’re setting up your Map Pin properly. When someone clicks “get directions” it opens Apple Maps, Waze, and any other app for directions that they may have on their phone.
So, if your map pin isn’t set up correctly your customer will be frustrated trying to find your store if you are in a shopping center. Nobody wants an already angry customer coming into their business, so be sure to double and triple check this across platforms.
TIPS for each Business Listing:
- Input your business information correctly and make sure it’s correct and consistent on each and every platform. As mentioned above, this includes commas. The smallest details will affect your score.
- Update your business info whenever anything changes.
- Respond to reviews and messages within a reasonable time frame (no longer than 24 hours).
- Set up your ‘Map Pin’ correctly. Make sure you ‘pin’ your business exactly where it is located.
- Add photos. Both people and Google love looking at images!
How To Check Your Local Business Listings?
Google your business name, city, and reviews. This will bring up your SERP for reviews. Once you see your search engine results page, you can check to verify that your information is correct and updated properly.
Learn more about our local SEO 5-step process HERE. Then schedule a call for a mini SEO audit so you can start getting more local traffic to your website and increase revenue!
