In today's digital age, consumers often voice their questions directly to their smart device through a voice assistant like Alexa or Siri or apps like Google Maps and Yelp. In fact, about 73% of high-intent traffic happens in these spaces, rather than on a business’s website.
If you add a new location or change your business hours, you likely update your website and social media pages, and that’s it.
While web crawlers are constantly on your website, they’re not updating information across the web automatically for you. It’s up to business owners and marketing managers to make sure that information is accurate whenever and wherever consumers are finding it.
There are more than 100 online directories that collect and share business information, and many simply aggregate publicly available information rather than rely on submissions. It’s no wonder that 43% of businesses in the US have an incorrect or missing address across major online directories, and 37% have an incorrect name.
When someone searches for a business online and they find conflicting or incorrect information, they are unlikely to take the time to find out the correct information. It’s much faster for the consumer to connect with another business that offers the products or services they need and has the correct information listed.
The business with the incorrect business information online loses out on that customer and their network of friends who they may refer to a business they have a good experience with.
Now, imagine if that consumer is looking for information about a local business and they drive to the address listed online to find either that the store hours were incorrect or the address was wrong. Frustrated consumers are more likely to leave bad reviews and tell their friends and family about their bad experience — which hurts that business’s credibility.
The Solution
It’s critical to ensure that your business’s information is accurate everywhere consumers are finding it — and that means going beyond your website and social media pages. Here are some steps you can take to stay up-to-date and current with your online presence.
- Spend time searching for your business, products, or services to see where your business is listed. Most businesses are also on Google, Bing, Yelp, and Facebook, but there are more than 100 platforms your business could be listed on. Make sure to update these to match your website when information changes. Keep a list with links to make it easy.
- If you can, add rich content like photos, videos, and more detailed descriptions to your website and to online directories. Listings with more rich content can receive up to 61% more views than listings without it.
- Find all sources of business reviews. Make sure you are addressing people's concerns and thanking others for their positive reviews. This goes for social media platforms, search engines, and more.
It’s imperative to ensure that consumers are finding your business when they need your products or services because 55% of conversions happen within the first hour of a consumer searching on their mobile device. You don’t want to miss out on gaining that business.
If you need help or aren’t sure how your business is represented across search engines and data warehouses, you may benefit from FDS Local. We use the power of artificial intelligence to find, correct, and update this information for you, saving you time and helping grow your revenue.
Read more about how AI can help your business connect with consumers from our digital marketing agency, Federated Digital Solutions.
