Beyond business listings containing a consistent NAP (name, address, phone number), complete business listings must contain many other important pieces of information such as business category, business description, website link, products, services, images, and more. Not all business listings will allow for this information, but the most important component is that they are completed fully.
I regularly tell my team at Advice Local to make sure they do everything they can to help our partners and clients verify, complete and optimize their Google My Business, Bing and Yelp listings. Just adding a business name, address and phone number is not enough.
Instead of sharing how to optimize a listing in today’s rant — I mean article — I will try and convince you with little known facts (secrets) why complete verified business listings are so important. So here it goes…
Facts About 100% Complete Verified Listings – For the Consumer
1. It saves the consumer money.
Consumers can find the information they need faster. The fact is, they would save 0.74 minutes per search if they saw a verified listing. It is estimated that this could be worth around $9 to a consumer over a year for each type of business they find. Cha Ching!
2. It saves the consumer time.
It reduces the time spent searching for information on a business in an environment where time is increasingly valuable.
3. It gives the consumer confidence.
Consumers have greater confidence in a business they see when the listing is verified. Businesses whose listings are verified are twice as likely to be considered “reputable.” By also supplying them with more information, a verified listing thereby increases confidence that a business is legitimate or still exists.
4. It helps the consumer find what they want.
79% of users report they can find a product or service that better matches what they are looking for if it shows up on the search engine results page. It also gives them the opportunity to compare offerings or discover new businesses offering a service they are looking for.
Facts About Complete Verified Listings – For the Business
1. It increase site traffic for the business.
Analysis shows that complete listings are associated with at least a 30% increase in homepage click through.
2. The business saves on customer acquisition.
Complete listings with enhanced data are associated with additional online activity. If the cost of a click is worth $0.62, this could be worth around $250 a year per business. In small communities, the additional traffic could be worth between $140,000 and $315,000 a year, while in large cities it could be between $850,000 and $7M a year. Again, Cha Ching!
3. It helps the business stand out.
Optimized business listings (especially those including images) help the business to better differentiate itself from its competitors, increasing revenues and profits. This will help the business acquire new customers at a lower cost than before, making the business more efficient and productive.
Beyond the Optimized Listing – Time Savings is a Big Winner for Everyone Involved
I don’t know about you, but for me, any opportunity for me to save time is a blessing, especially as we become busier as a society. The more information on a listing, like “Hours of Operations,” the more time that could be spent on other leisure activities or working harder to make more money. I’m not the only one who feels that way. Look at the chart below…
As you know, user reviews, which provide third-party credibility and additional information about a retailer or service, are associated with large increases in online activity. But, did you know that having a link to a website is also associated with large differences in online activity, and businesses that include a URL have 60% more direction requests than those that do not? So do you want more business?
Make Sure All Optimized Business Listings Include the Following
Are You Ready to Start Creating Optimized Business Listings?
I know there are a lot of numbers in this article, but after reading this, you should be convinced that there are many benefits for both businesses and consumers if we would all just take the time to completely fill out, optimize and verify business listings in the Google My Business directory and any other important directories or profiles that are available online.
We would improve the financial and non-financial outcomes for every community, just by adding all the information we can to our business listings. Chew on that!
Any stats in this article pop out for you? What steps are you going to do differently starting today?
