Did you know there are dozens of platforms hosting business listings online? These platforms power everything from voice search to online maps and more. We all think of the “big” business listing platforms – Google, Bing, Yelp, etc. You may even have an account with each of these top platforms, managing them manually when anything changes (which is a task in itself!)
But did you know there are actually more than 70 online platforms listing your business information? From your phone number and address to your website and hours of operation, your business information is on more business listing sites than you realize.
And unfortunately, most of these listings are probably inaccurate or missing key information about your business. So today, I’m going to walk you through some of the top business listing sites you probably don’t think about, how to check your online business listings, and a client example of why business listing management is so important.
Why Business Listings Are Crucial for Small Businesses
Establishing your online presence and boosting your SEO is extra work for entrepreneurs. You’re competing with these giant businesses with whole marketing teams behind their goals while you have yourself and maybe a few contractors. You don’t see growth quite as fast, but that doesn’t mean you can’t earn significant visibility through search engines.
Business listing sites help you grow your business online. They give you backlinks by linking your website in your profile. Search engines see this as a positive sign – someone else trusts you and refers you to their audience! Backlinks improve your domain authority, which signals to search engines that you’re a credible source to send traffic.
Business Listing Sites You Didn’t Know About
There are almost a hundred different business listing sites on the internet. Sometimes, you create a profile and are fully aware of how it can drive leads for your business. However, some sites will just grab your information wherever they can find it and list your business on their website. That’s when you can get into trouble because who knows where they find your business information or how often they update it!
Maybe they found something from a few years ago when you had a different website. The information could be outdated, and when someone tries to click on your old website, they get sent to a 404 page. The person gets frustrated and looks for someone else. The wrong information just cost you a new lead!
Here are a few examples of platforms most businesses are not actively managing:
- Apple
- Amazon Alexa
- Siri
- Waze
- Yellow Pages (and YP.com)
- 70 other platforms like the ones listed above…
You never know where new customers will find your business. It’s so important to make sure that no matter where they discover you, they have access to your current business information. No 404 pages, disconnected phone lines, or wrong physical addresses for them!
A Note about AI Search
There is a lot of buzz about AI search these days, and click stream data shows the clear impact that AI has on our day-to-day search behaviors. Nearly 60% of searches in 2024 did not result in a click on a business listing or website. As we see this shift, I’m starting to hear people say they just want to focus on AI search and not worry about some of these other platforms.
BUT! Before putting all your eggs in the AI basket, let’s think about where Chat GPT/Google AI/[insert favorite AI search tool here] are getting all that juicy search result information.
AI sources their search result data from content (and business listings!) found in reputable sources across the internet.
So, making sure your businesses are listed accurately and consistently on all listing platforms is a key step toward ensuring your content is accurately and consistently represented in AI search results.
Check Your Online Business Listings
If you don’t know which businesses are grabbing your information, how do you know you need to fix it? This quick, free scan will give you a report on the health of your business listings. You’ll get a list of each platform and any errors that exist. Here are some examples of errors you might see after scanning:
- Profile not found
- Wrong physical address, phone number, website, or email
- Duplicate listings found
- Misspellings of your business name
This is important information to fix, don’t you think?! The good news is that you don’t have to create 70+ business listing accounts and manage them directly. Utilize my Local SEO Service to quickly claim, manage, and optimize your business listings online. Even better, I’ll regularly monitor your listings to suppress duplicates, remove conflicting listings, and make regular updates – such as adding holiday hours or closures.
Client Case Study: Business Listing Management
Dean Hayes Team at Bay Equity Home Loans has moved office buildings twice since establishing his business over 20 years ago. His somewhat complicated business name could easily be misspelled or misrepresented, and the scan demonstrated that it often was! With our Business Listing tool, we found instances of his name being listed as Dean Hayes at Bay Equity, Dean Hayes, or Bay Equity and Dean Hayes when his actual business name is Dean Hayes Team atBay Equity Home Loans.
It was important to Dean that his business information, especially his name and contact information, be accurate and consistent no matter where the information was listed.. Using my Local SEO Service, we ensured every business listing online was current and even corrected some old listings from 10 years ago!
This is what Dean had to say about his experience:
“Working with Woods MarCom has been an absolute game-changer for my business. I utilized their Local SEO and Business Listings service, and I was blown away by the results. I had no idea there were so many business listing platforms out there—dozens, in fact! There’s no way anyone could keep them all updated on their own.
The process with Rachael was quick and easy, which I greatly appreciated. Not only did we get everything accurately and consistently updated across the internet, but Rachael and her team also found and corrected outdated listings from an office we moved out of almost 10 years ago! I had no idea those were still floating around in the corners of the internet.”
How Many Business Profiles Do You Have?
Run the scan and find out! And if you find a lot of errors, don’t panic. Managing and optimizing your business listings should be a key component of your marketing strategy. Showing up accurately when someone searches for your product or service is crucial!
But it doesn’t have to be challenging. I’ve got the easy button! Contact me to learn how we can streamline the information on your profiles across all the business listing sites! Don’t let this little thing stop you from getting a new client or customer.
