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You are here: Home / Archives for directory listings

What You Need to Know About Changing Your Business Address

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

When you change your business address in real life, what do you do? You probably start by submitting an address change to the post office. Then, you update any accounts you have with banks, credit card companies, insurance agencies, and so on. You also have to go down the list and notify all of your vendors, marketers, and important contacts. In a nutshell, it’s a big pain.
Unfortunately, that’s not all. It’s crucial that you also remember to update all of your business’s online listings. And we’re not just talking about on Google. Every reference to your business’s address on the web (commonly called a “citation”) must be updated—otherwise, your search rankings could take a serious hit.
We’re not being melodramatic. In this post, we’ll discuss:

  • Why it’s so critical to update all of your listings with your new address.
  • What goes into the process of changing an address online.
  • How a marketing specialist can come in the clutch to help.

Let’s jump in!

An Accurate Business Address Is Vital 

Did you know one of the biggest influences on your rankings comes from the accuracy of your online information? Here’s how we explained it in a previous post about controlling your online presence:

Google and other search engines want to present the best possible information to their users, so they gather data from around the web to verify what’s on your company’s listing. And when Google sees conflicting details about your company coming from different sources, it flags your listing for having the wrong information: Google won’t want to display your business as a search result if there’s a chance it’s not a legitimate company. This results in poor rankings and, sometimes, suspended listings.

So if you update your business address on your Google listing while leaving up the old address on other listings, your local search rankings will suffer tremendously. When your business address changes, it needs to change identically across the board.

How to Update Your Business Address Online

Here’s where things get tricky.
You may have no problem thinking of places where your business is listed online. Google Maps, Bing Local, Yelp, Facebook, Manta, Better Business Bureau (BBB), and Angie’s List probably come to mind right away. However, these directories are only the tip of the iceberg.
You see, some online directories in the darkest corners of the Internet populate their listings by crawling the web for business information. You won’t be aware of them because you never created a listing there yourself, but they exist all the same. And they need to be updated, too.
What does this mean? Essentially, you have to spend hours searching the web for your business name and contact information in order to find every last place that mentions you. Then, you have to figure out how to update those listings, since you never created them in the first place. Sometimes, it’s as simple as claiming them on the spot. Other times, though, the process can present multiple hoops to jump through.
For instance, the BBB is notoriously difficult to work with in this context. It can take three to four weeks to update your information on their site because they want to get you to pay for accreditation (which comes with expedited processing, of course). Updating a Yelp listing may also be complicated if you don’t own your listing. At the end of the day, a lot of variables affect how smoothly and efficiently the update process goes.

Updating Your Business Address May Require a Specialist

If that all sounds like a lot of work… it is. We won’t sugarcoat it.
However, that doesn’t mean you have to spend all of your time and energy doing it. Internet marketing specialists like the ones at Prospect Genius are a great resource to lean on for these types of projects.
Our specialists do this every day. It’s their job. That means they know the most efficient, streamlined process for finding and updating every last one of your listings. Moreover, they’re familiar with the best ways to deal with the BBB, Yelp, and other difficult directories so they can update those listings as quickly as possible. They even know the most important listings for your industry that need to be double- and triple-checked before moving on.
Check out our WebFax® and CleanSlate™ programs for more details on how we can help keep your web presence neat, tidy, and working for you!

Consistency Is Key

When your business address changes, you need to update the entirety of your online presence. It’s not an easy job by any means, but it’s absolutely necessary if you want to maintain your local search rankings. Now that you have a better idea of how to handle your new business address, you can move forward without hurting your web presence!

Are You in Good Shape for Online Marketing in 2017?

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

Start 2017 off the right way! 
One easy way to set yourself up for a great year of online marketing in 2017 is to make sure all your online info is up to date. We’re talking directory listings, Google Maps, Angie’s List… Basically, wherever your business is listed on the Internet. Having consistent, accurate information about your business across the web is a fundamental component of your overall web presence. Double-checking that all your details are correct is worth the effort if it means you have a solid foundation for the rest of the year. So get to it!
And if you need more convincing, keep reading.

What Happens If Your Info Isn’t Updated?

Keeping outdated information online is terrible for your business on two fronts.

1. Customers Get Confused:

If prospective customers don’t have the right details about your business, they’re likely to get confused and move on to another company for their needs. For example, if you recently changed your phone number and didn’t update it on all of your listings, a prospective customer might come across the wrong one and be unable to contact you. That’s money down the drain.

2. Search Engines Penalize You: 

Search engines like Google want to present the most accurate, up-to-date information to their users. That’s how they keep users coming back, after all. To this end, they continuously cross-check information from different sources across the web to verify everything is correct. If they detect a discrepancy in your online data, they’ll flag your listing for potentially incorrect information. And if there are enough discrepancies, your listing may be suspended, which means you won’t appear in search results. If this happens, your business’s web presence will plummet.

As you can see, neglecting to update your information is a surefire way to run your efforts into the ground. If you want to establish a solid foundation for your online marketing in 2017, you need to start with up-to-date information.

How Can You Tell If Your Info Is Up to Date?

If you’ve been good about keeping track of all the places your business is listed, then you may be able to double-check your online information yourself. These are some sites to start with, but this is by no means an exhaustive list:

  • Google Maps
  • Bing Local
  • Yelp
  • Manta
  • Better Business Bureau
  • Angie’s List
  • Citysearch

You can also do a Google search for your business name and location and dig through the search results. This will help you track down any other listings you might have forgotten or weren’t aware of. The whole process of finding your listings and verifying the information could take less than an hour or up to several hours—it all depends on how quickly you can find your directory listings.
However, there’s another option: Let Prospect Genius run a WebFax® report for you. We’ll conduct a comprehensive audit of all your online listings and find any errors that exist. Then, with our CleanSlate™ program, we can make the necessary corrections so you can spend your time and energy elsewhere.

What Kind of Information Needs to Be Updated?

Customers and search engines alike are looking for generally the same information. If any of these details have changed, update your listings accordingly:

  • Phone number
  • Street address
  • Company name
  • E-mail address
  • Website URL
  • Business category
  • Service offerings

Alternatively, if you’re a Prospect Genius client, let us know about your real-life changes and we’ll make the corrections online for you. It’s better if all of the updates come from one place. Not only does that ensure consistency, but it also satisfies Google’s preference for listing management to come from a single IP address.
Now that you know what’s at stake and what you need to do, updating your online information should be a no-brainer. So kick off your online marketing in 2017 the right way by making sure your web presence is in good shape for the year to come!

Don't Believe Us About the Importance of Accurate Listings?

Last Updated: June 23, 2016

We tell our clients over and over again that the accuracy of their online listings can make or break their advertising efforts. If your listings don’t have accurate, consistent information across the board, then you’re fighting a losing battle.
Our lectures are often met with skepticism. How important could all these little listings really be? 
In Moz’s latest “Whiteboard Friday” video, George Freitag explains why listing accuracy is vital. Here’s an industry leader repeating exactly what we’ve been saying for years:

Google takes trust very seriously. So how does Google determine trust? That is where listing accuracy comes into play. Listing accuracy is Google’s method for determining whether or not it can trust a local business search result.

How Does Google Use Listings?

When we talk about “listings,” we’re referring to any webpages mentioning your business name, address, and/or phone number. These could include review sites like Yelp, directories like Whitepages.com, and even local news sites. Google uses these to figure out how credible your business’s information is. If the information in these listings all match what’s in your Google My Business profile, then Google will be more inclined to present your business as a local search result because the information seems trustworthy. However, on the flip side, if there are several online listings with information that clashes with your Google profile, then Google will be less likely to display your business. It won’t feel confident it can trust your information.
At the end of the day, it comes down to the reliability of information. Google wants to keep its users happy. The only way to do that is to provide them with information that’s consistently correct.
Therefore, keeping accurate listings across the web is a vital element of local search optimization. You have to keep your existing listings updated with all the right information. You also have to fix any other incorrect data floating around on the web. You may not know about this incorrect data, but Google will.

What If I Can’t Find Every One of My Listings?

Because it’s so difficult to find incorrect data in obscure places on the Internet, many small business owners have trouble asserting their presence in local searches. But this is how you can benefit from working with a local SEO company like Prospect Genius. An SEO specialist can do a deep audit of your existing web presence, find the errors you can’t, and fix them. This will give you the highest level of accuracy possible and boost your presence in local searches.
For all the details about listing accuracy, we strongly recommend you watch the full video over on Moz.
And, of course, reach out to us if you have any questions!

Have You Been Duped by Yext's PowerListings Scan?

Last Updated: February 15, 2024

Has Yext recently told you there’s incorrect or missing information about your business online?
Yext has been sending reports to small business owners claiming that they aren’t listed on certain sites. These reports contain the alleged “results” of a scan of your business’s directory listings. They are completely inaccurate. Their sole function, at best, is to be a misleading sales tactic.
Yext’s PowerListings scan tells you your business is not listed on major sites like Google, Bing, Yelp, and Yahoo (among many others). However, if you take just one or two minutes to search for your business on these sites, you’ll see that you are, in fact, listed. It’s insanely easy to debunk these reports.
Yext is hoping an official-looking “report”—peppered with big, red letters and intimidating alerts—will scare you into signing up for its services. Don’t fall for it.

What’s a PowerListings Scan, Anyway?

As part of its services for small businesses, Yext submits its clients’ information to a network of online directories. The vast majority of local SEO companies do this, as well, because directories are integral to local search optimization. However, Yext calls its own brand of directory listings PowerListings.
To get you to sign up for PowerListings, Yext will conduct a “PowerListings Scan” for your business. The results appear in a grid so you can see which sites you’re listed on and which sites have accurate information about your business. Unsurprisingly, these results typically claim less than half of your listings are “optimized.”
Here’s an example that came directly from one of our clients*:

yext listings scan

*Business name redacted for privacy.

A representative from Yelp may contact you with this report. A portion of the e-mail might look something like this:

“As you saw, [insert your business name] has a variety of incorrect and missing information on our partner sites. I can fix this for you and offer you some discounts on our services!”

It has the potential to be an effective sales pitch—but only if you fall for it.

Debunking Yext’s PowerListings Scan

Again, it’s simple to prove Yext’s scan report wrong. To show you how easy it is to do for your own business, we submitted a scan of Prospect Genius via our Yahoo listing (Yext and Yahoo are partners).
In the very brief video below, you’ll see our scan results and—gasp!—a few listings Yext claims don’t exist.

In the video, you see us:

  • Highlight where the report says our Google listing does not exist.
  • Navigate straight to our Google listing, which obviously does exist.
  • Do the same thing again with our Whitepages listing.

(We could’ve easily gone into every single listing, but we wanted to keep this video short and sweet.)
To run this check for your own business:

  • Choose any of the websites where Yext claims you aren’t listed.
  • Go directly to these websites.
  • Search for your business name or phone number.

If you’re a Prospect Genius Core or Premium client, or you’ve signed up for Directory Dominator, then your listings should appear with no problem.
Having trouble finding your listings? Don’t hesitate to call us for help.

What You Don't Know About Directory Listings Can Hurt You

Last Updated: April 13, 2016

How much do you know about your small business’s directory listings?
Our guess: Not nearly as much as you should.
They may seem negligible compared to the overwhelming, day-to-day demands of running a business; however, if you don’t stay on top of them, your directory listings could wind up being populated with incorrect information about your company. In turn, this will have far-reaching, negative effects on your web presence.
Whether you’ve worked with an SEO provider in the past or your web presence is more of a DIY effort, it’s up to you, the business owner, to have at least a general idea of where and how you’re listed online.
In this post, you’ll discover:

  • Popular directories where your business might be listed
  • What to look for when you check your listings
  • Why it’s critical for you to keep your listings accurate

Let’s dive in, shall we?

Know Where Your Business Is Listed

To get started, search for your company on some of the more popular business directories. These include Google Maps, Bing Local, Yelp, Manta, the Better Business Bureau (BBB), and Angie’s List. Start with these and, if you’re feeling motivated, you can move on to a more thorough Google (or Bing) search for the rest of your listings.
However, bear in mind that tracking down every site where your company is listed can be a tedious, time-consuming project. It requires several hours of sifting through page after page of search engine results. Unfortunately, most small business owners simply don’t have the time or energy to do this themselves.
So if you currently work with an SEO provider, reach out to them and ask if they offer any tools or resources to uncover all of the directories that list your business. If you aren’t currently working with an SEO provider or your provider doesn’t offer this type of service, call Prospect Genius! We can conduct a WebFax® report that will tell you everything you need to know.

Know How Your Business Is Listed

Knowing where you’re listed is the first step. Next comes evaluating the accuracy of those listings.
Remember, it may not be your fault if some of the information is wrong. Incorrect listings can result from a number of different variables. But regardless of whether errors were caused by a careless marketer you worked with in the past or a directory bot that pulled only partial information from another listing, it’s your responsibility to be aware of them.
If you discover any errors, fix them right away (or contact whoever controls your listings so they can fix the errors for you). Here’s what you should be looking for.

Is Your Contact Info Correct?

First, verify that all of the following information is filled out. Then, check it for typos and other errors:

  • Phone number
  • Street address
  • Company name
  • E-mail address
  • Website URL

Prospective customers won’t be able to contact you if your information is wrong, so it’s vital you fix these errors ASAP.
Understand the dangers of conflicting information by reading our blog post, “One Simple Way to Take Control of Your Online Presence.”

Are You Listed in the Correct Categories?

Next, take a look at the category (or categories) your business is listed under. These categories should accurately describe the selection of products and/or services your business offers.
Even if you think your categories are probably correct because an SEO professional handled your directory listings for you, check anyway. We see a lot of cases where a business’s web presence is floundering, only to discover that a previous SEO provider had listed them in the wrong categories. Sometimes, they left out a category due to human error; other times, the provider got overzealous and named too many categories that were mostly irrelevant.
No matter what caused the initial problem, you need to make sure you’re ultimately listed under the correct categories. This is a crucial aspect of your web presence, as it may determine who actually sees your listings. If you’re not listed under the right categories, you could be missing out on people who are searching for your services.

Is Your Service Info Up to Date?

Finally, for the same reasons explained above, it’s imperative that you keep your business’s service information up to date on all of your listings. It’s not uncommon for businesses to grow, change, and expand over the years. If your services and/or products have changed recently, make sure your web presence reflects that.

Ignorance Is Not Bliss

When it comes to your business’s directory listings, there’s no such thing as remaining “blissfully” unaware.
Like everything else in business—and in life—you can’t help yourself by keeping your hands over your eyes. If there are problems with your listings, they exist whether you’re aware of them or not. It’s better to be aware. When you’re aware of problems, you can fix them. Otherwise, they’ll just quietly wreak havoc on your web presence.
Armed with the information in this post, you can now go forth and make sure your business’s directory listings are working with you, not against you.

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