Local business listings (also known as local citations) are an integral part of building your local SEO. You may have heard of business directories such as Yelp,Google, Bing and others, but what are they? How do they impact your business? How can I use them to target ‘near me’ searches?In this article, we’re going to discuss exactly what business listings are and how you can utilise these platforms to help drive traffic to your local store.
What are Local Business Listings?
They are simply online data collections that have information about various businesses- usually NAP (name, address phone number)- as well as hours, and other data. Many of these business listing platforms are free. However, they usually require the business owner to manually add information into the database or to claim their business afterward.
What do Local Business Listings do?
The primary goal of local citations is basically to make your business more accurate and searchable online. These local citations work to create better search engine optimisation through information and photos listed in their database. This is because local citations are usually credible and authoritative sources of information.Additionally, many local citations also share information with other listing sites via indexes. This means that ensuring that your information is correct and updates are essential.
Do they Impact my Local Marketing?
Yes, they do!Local business listings are a brilliant way of increasing your search reach on search engines. This makes it easier for your clients- and potential clients- to find you by simply searching in their favourite search engine. By doing the above and having detailed, accurate and updated information on your business listings online, you can increase your SEO. However, by doing this you can also show your website’s authority as well as increase the credibility of your business too!
What Categories do I need to use in my Local Business Listings?
Although each local business listing has different categories, there are a few pieces of primary information that you should keep in mind for all your business listings.
These include:
NAP+W data (name, address, phone number + website URL)
High-quality and relevant photos
Reviews and ratings (and your responses to them)
Related business categories
These will differ depending on which local business listing you are using, however many ask for the list above.
Do I need to clean up my previous Local Business Listings?
You should make sure that there are no duplicates of your business online. Many times, this typoe of information is created and forgotten about, however it can impact the way your potential customers perceive your business. Make sure that these duplicate or incomplete listings are either deleted or completed fully.
How do I find duplicate Local Listings online?
This is where Vicinus has the answer for you.With the ‘duplicate finder’, you can suppress and remove duplicate business listings to avoid customer confusion. This means that Vicnus can help remove these pesky duplicate or incomplete listings and even features a bulk editor to complete all these actions in one go.For more information about this, please check out our website.
