A mountain of online listing sites... how they stack up!

First, let’s talk about why you need accurate listings? Consumers depend on accurate listings when searching for local businesses online. Incorrect business listings can lead to lost sales opportunities, frustrated consumers, and lower search rankings.

The fact is, 73% of consumers lose trust in a brand when an online listing shows incorrect information. Therefore, accurate listings are considered to be an essential component of your marketing efforts. 4/5 consumers use search engines to find local information like business address, hours, directions and more.

But, there are so many listing sites! How do you know which ones deserve your focus? I’ll offer some information how the JGM team addresses how we vet the listing sites and determine our plan of action. Here is an infographic showing how listing sites stack up.

Business Listings Mountain Flyer

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• Choose the big players first and make sure your listings are accurate. For example; if you are in the hospitality industry, you’ll recognize some listing sites that make sense to you like Yelp, TripAdvisor, Expedia, etc. These listing sites cater to your business space so make sure you show up there. If you are in a different industry, perform research to learn what listing sites cater to your market and spend your time there first.

• If you are unsure of what listing sites to target, check your Google Analytics to learn more about what sites are referring traffic to your website. GA will show what sites are referring traffic to your website. This will give you direction for making a plan. For example; for JGM, we get referrals from www.Clutch.com When we noticed this referral showing up on our Google Analytics report, we went straight to the source to claim and verify our information. We know users are finding us on this listing site so it’s a no-brainer to spend some time updating our business profile there.

• The biggest misconception made regarding listing sites is that they only serve the purpose of providing basic information like NAP (name, address and phone number), a location on MAPS and hours of operation. While this is all true, there is also SEO value. For example, when Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. “validate” your business, they will rank you higher in search results based on various factors… one of which is being listed on listing sites like Alignable, City Search, Better Business Bureau, Chamber of Commerce, etc.

• Now, back to the original question… should you be listed on them all? Well, the more the better for SEO value but the most important thing is to make sure you are listed on the most important sites related to your industry. Continue to monitor your listings and update the information as necessary.The JGM team offers synchronization of your business profile information to all listing sites.

Introducing Listing Builder by JGM

This graph shows typical progress when using the JGM team to update your business profile on listing sites.

To learn more about Listing Builder by JGM, contact us today!

james@jamesgarrismarketing.com

www.JamesGarrisMarketing.com

321.405.9851