An Ultimate Guide To The Anatomy Of Local Business Listing

‘Optimize your business with local SEO’ is a trending word today. If you don’t use local SEO to drive online traffic and earn visitors to your physical location, customers will struggle to find your business irrespective of its size.

A whopping 85% of customers who look for local goods and services can find your business online via local SEO in a local business directory. Furthermore, about 76% of those will visit your business within 24 hours. Therefore, your listing accuracy and presence are very vital for the success of your business.

As we proceed further into this blog, you’ll get to know about the complete anatomy of a local business listing site. Have an informational read ahead.

• Who Is Local SEO For?

For local customers to find your business, taking the help of local SEO is a must. Local SEO belongs to everybody. Your business can belong to any field like a plumbing company, dentist, local restaurant, etc. If you have a physical address and want people to visit there, local SEO will act as a transport that will drop people at your particular location.

Local SEO equals a successful business. Therefore, one of the important subsets of local SEO is local business listing sites. These act as a glue that holds them together. Moreover, a customer comes closer to your brand via local SEO.

• What Is A Local Business Listing?

Local business listing is listing your business in multiple free business directories in India that contain each relevant information about your business. As the consumer searches for locally available products and services, if the search engine finds your listing appropriate, SERP will display your business by showing a physical location on a map and other necessary information to help the customer contact your business. These include website URLs, product or service information, phone number, etc.

Search engines ensure that the results are relevant and satisfy users who wish to find and compare local businesses and servings from standard SERPs. Your business data that includes its offerings and location reveals whether it matches a user’s search query. If it matches, then your business will be displayed on SERP. The quality and quantity of your business listing determine its ranking on search results.

• Benefits Of Local Business Listings

• It’s affordable to add a business listing. Most online business directories allow free listing. With this, SEO service cost decreases. You are only paying for that talent and the time of SEO.

• It protects your business. Someone over the internet can claim your business easily. A customer might think he’s contacting your business but might come in touch with someone else. By claiming your business, you can take control over your business address, content, products, services, and much more.

• The more information you add to business listing portals, the more it boosts your reputation. Uploading quality photos and videos in your business earns good credibility. Conversely, by listing your business inaccurately, you can lose trust.

• Business listings are entirely mobile-friendly. Most customers use their mobile phones 24*7 for any type of work. Therefore, a mobile interface what you need.

• Most people search for business reviews online before actually purchasing the product. So it’s obvious that you would want your business to turn up in search results.

• Your business gets exposed to people who are in need of your product or service via local SEO. This urgency leads to better conversions, sales, and profits.

If you want your business to experience such benefits, start listing your business on free listing sites in India and enjoy the advantages.

Things To Include In Your Local Business Listings

• Include The Relevant Details

Check out the following points to know what to include in your business listing under relevant details.

• Your Business Name: As you input your business name, it should be consistent with your signage.
• Physical Address: Input your correct physical address for consumers to find you easily. You can set up a geographical area or zip codes that you work on for any service area business.
• Phone Number: Put in your local store phone number and not your personal contact number.
• Business Website: If you have any local pages, ensure that the links you provide will let your customer reach your home page.
• Category: Choose a specific category. It should be the most common keyword people use to search for your business.
• Hours: Inaccuracy is mainly found in business working hours. Make sure your one is accurate, including holidays.
• Proper Description: Let people know about your business through your description. Include keywords to optimize your listing for local search.

Listing inaccurate information can cause consumers to lose trust in your business, making them feel less connected to your brand. A whopping $10.3 billion worth of sales are lost each year due to wrong, missing, and inaccurate business listings.

• Include Quality Photos

Choose the right photos that speak about your business. Customers reach you via good-quality photos. Keep the photos natural and not highly professional. Go on to upload an image of the outside of your physical store, an image of your main lobby or dining room, and photos that show your products or services. To push down user-generated photos and protect your own brand, upload your own photos often.

• Give Attributes

Include attributes. It’s a better way to let your customers know what they can expect when visiting your business. For example, does your store offer free wifi, delivery, or reservations? You will have to include all of this information in your business listing.

• Booking An Appointment Or Reservation

If your business offers to book an appointment or reservation, you would want to enable a call to action for customers to book directly via your listing. Remember that your response rate and time are publicly visible. See whether you can handle such requests before turning them on. But if you stop suddenly from the booking process by enabling these tools, consumers might take action. However, you need to be very responsive.

• Digital Menu And Services

If you run a local restaurant or any business that has a menu or list of services, ensure to include that in your listing. About 90% of consumers who wish to eat out or order from restaurants conduct local searches to find the destination. In such cases, your digital menu can guide them in a better way. Along with this, if your business offers multiple services, be sure to mention them in your listing.

• Include Delivery Services

Whether your business is doing a first-party or third-party delivery service, you must include this information in your listing. In the case of first-party delivery, you can easily add your link for delivery. However, it entirely depends on supported partners of each directory for 3rd party delivery service.

• Response To Reviews

Almost all major listing sites consist of customer reviews. Therefore, for a successful listing strategy, you must be responsive to consumer reviews. In addition, responding to reviews welcomes positive effects. As you respond to reviews, you can also include keywords to optimize your listings. On the other hand, responding to reviews also show that you care. A whopping 78% of customers believe that it makes them trust the business easily if the management is responsive to online reviews.

• Update Information Regularly

Adding relevant information in your listing is great, but forgetting to update it will not earn you customers anymore. Listings can change every 5 to 6 days on average. This happens due to user-suggested edits and user-generated content, including photo uploads. Therefore, monitor and update your listing regularly across each directory to protect your business. What if you change your business location or contact information? You must update it on your listing as soon as possible for customers to reach you immediately without any hassle.

Final Thought

Finally, we end with this blog, and I hope you understood the complete anatomy of the local business listing. Follow this guide to construct a strong and effective business listing. First, make sure you choose some of the best local citation sites for your business that earns you good traffic. Next, focus on the local SEO that will help your business listing to a greater extent.

So, don’t wait anymore. Instead, list your business right away in any of the free listing sites in India right away. These listing portals bridge the gap between service experts and potential buyers. They will connect you with prospective customers and help you earn steady revenue. All you have to do is list your business for free.