Do You Need to Optimize Your Listings for Local Search?

If you oversee digital marketing for a brand that has online listings, you're likely aware of just how important local listings are to your geomarketing strategies. Your listings contain key facts about each of your locations — including store hours, holiday schedules, product descriptions and services offered, contact information, and more. These facts are necessary to help search engines to determine your ranking, and to help customers discover you.

How necessary? Well, on average, business listings receive 2.7x more views than a brand's owned website* (including local store pages and directories). So even if the information on your website is perfect, if the same business facts are not up to date and consistent across third-party services and directories, there's a good chance customers won't find the information they're seeking.

Of course, just as the quantity and specificity of the facts about your business increase, so too does the number of places you need to manage that information. And though the effort to keep your business information up to date across diverse apps, maps, search engines, directories, and voice assistants can eat up valuable time (at least, without the right listings management tool to help you), it's necessary work that helps you deliver better customer experiences and drive more conversions.

Consumers today expect the answers they see in search to be contextually relevant to them. This trend started back with the initial rise of mobile devices, and the subsequent popularity of "near me" searches in the mid-2010s. Now, search engines like Google prioritize customized local search results as the default for many queries, like "women's shoe store" or "best Chinese restaurant," on both mobile and desktop — no "near me" modifier required.

Knowing that up-to-date, detailed local listings are prioritized by search engines in search results, good local listings are good for SEO. By contrast, inaccuracies (or inconsistencies) in your information across channels can hurt your local listings, which in turn can damage your rankings and overall discoverability — and your brand as a whole.

When searching for a local business on a mobile device, 88% of consumers will either call or visit within 24 hours. Local searches are high-intent — meaning they're more likely to lead to a customer taking an action.

An easy way to get started with listings management is by completing listings like your Google Business Profile and Apple Business Connect. According to Yext's Data Insights team, businesses that filled out more than 86% of relevant core fields received 43% more impressions on search engines. Additionally, these businesses saw 62% more clicks to their business listings.

But inconsistent local listings can erode brand trust and cost you customers. (Missing and duplicate listings can also hurt your brand's discoverability.) When you appear incorrectly in Google's search results — or fail to appear at all — this creates a roadblock that prevents potential customers from successfully visiting your store or purchasing your product. That's why it's important to make sure your listings are up-to-date and accurate, and that you suppress any duplicate listings that may hurt your traffic.

Out-of-date listings can also cause customers to lose trust in your brand. Google Maps will push warnings to users who are en route to locations that it believes to be closed, potentially driving them through a competitor's doors instead of your own.

To succeed in local search, you'll need fully optimized listings and landing pages.

It's time to take control of your listings and deliver better information wherever your customers search. Learn how Yext can help you manage your listings today.

*Yext Proprietary Study