When it comes to businesses with physical addresses, it is important that customers can search, and actually find, reliable information about your business quickly and easily. Local listings provide a way to stay consistent and be found in a reliable place.
Yes, local listings can be very overwhelming especially when it comes to tackling multi-location businesses, but having the right information easily found on the internet is an important aspect of any online marketing strategy. Without reliable information to be found readily online, customers will choose to go to the competition, especially if they have a bad experience looking for a closed or incorrectly listed location.
If you want rank well in location listings, and provide useful information for your customers, you should never, ever, Ever, EVER do any of the following:
1. Be Inconsistent
Providing incorrect URL, name, address, or phone number (UNAP) information just confuses everyone involved, human and otherwise. The search engine may end up displaying the wrong information, or just drop your listings rankings. The customer may not be able to contact you or find your physical location. You may be confused yourself if you don’t notice the error and you find that your not getting the phone calls or website visits you think you should be.
2. Leave Your Profile Unclaimed
If you don’t claim it, then its not your fault if it’s inconsistent, right? Wrong.
Claiming your profile gives your listing credibility. If its out in the online world unclaimed and unwanted, then customers are more likely to wonder if its a legitimate listing, and less likely to actually try and find out, because they can find another business much easier. In this day and age of fast information, you shouldn’t be making your customers work to find you. All the information they need should be at their fingertips with one simple search.
Besides, you should be proud of your business, and own it! Claim your listing and take care of it, its an important part of what brings you customers.
3. Write a Dishonest Review
I don’t know that I can stress this one enough.
This is SO important! Never under any circumstances should you lie to your customers, and writing a dishonest review about your company is a lie. It effects your credibility as a business, and can even effect your search rankings if Google or another search engine finds out, which they can do fairly easily.
If your providing stellar customer service and making customers feel like your business is the hole they’ve been missing all their life, than they will write reviews about you. Let it happen organically and naturally, otherwise you are not going to like the results.
Conclusion:
While following these steps may be a lot more work than you bargained for, it is very important when it comes to marketing your company successfully online. Providing accurate and quality information not only brings the right customers to your location, but also is a step in building trust with potential customers. This ultimately leads to more sales and better relationships with the right people.
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