Local listing management, or the practice of listing and updating business information on different online platforms, has traditionally played a central role in local SEO.
But, as you may know, the field of local search engine optimization is constantly evolving, and so too is the importance of local business listing management.
Understanding just how important it is to manage local business listings, and how to do it effectively, can help businesses and SEO professionals prioritize this practice within their broader local SEO strategies.
What Is Local Listing Management?
Local listing management starts with the process of adding a local business, either a brick-and-mortar or service-area business, to relevant online business directories and other listing platforms, such as review sites.
After adding the business to such platforms, local listing management also involves making sure the business information remains up-to-date, accurate, and consistent across all of them.
Examples of local business listing sites and platforms include:
- Google Business Profile
- Yelp
- Bing Places for Business
- Facebook Business Pages
- Apple Maps
- TripAdvisor
- Yellow Pages
- Foursquare
- Angie's List
- Better Business Bureau (BBB)
- MapQuest
- LinkedIn Business Directory
- Manta
- Hotfrog
- Citysearch
- Superpages
- Chamber of Commerce Directories
- Local.com
These platforms are commonly used for local business listings across different industries and are essential for maintaining accurate and consistent business information across the web.
Local SEO and Listing Management: What's the Impact?
Local listing management plays a crucial role in local SEO by helping businesses build and maintain something called local citations.
Local citations are mentions of your business's information, including name, address, and phone number (NAP), on various online platforms and directories. These citations help search engines verify the existence and trustworthiness of your business, aiding them in determining its relevance to searches with local intent.
While the significance of local citations has changed over time, they still contribute to local SEO efforts, making building citations through local listing management something that businesses shouldn't overlook.
Since maintaining accurate and consistent citations across different local listing sites helps search engines confirm your business's legitimacy and relevance, it can positively impact your local search rankings. However, it's important to note that some types of local citations, like those on sites and platforms with low authority or relevance, are not as impactful as they once were.
The focus of local search ranking algorithms has shifted, and factors like Google Business Profile optimization and reviews now play a more dominant role than ever in determining local search rankings. Gone are the days when tactics like spamming citations across numerous, often low-quality sites were effective.
Despite their decreased significance, carefully curating local citations from reputable, relevant sites and listing platforms can still enhance your overall visibility and credibility, making local business listing management a valuable aspect of a comprehensive local SEO strategy.
Certain popular listing sites, like Google Maps, Apple Maps, Yelp, and Tripadvisor, for example, can also drive significant traffic depending on user preferences. For instance, users searching for directions to nearby businesses on their mobile devices are likely to use Google Maps or Apple Maps, while those seeking reviews of restaurants or hospitality businesses might turn to Yelp or Tripadvisor.
When you manage local business listings across all relevant directories effectively, you ensure that your business reaches potential customers on their preferred platforms, thereby maximizing your visibility and potential traffic.
How Important Is Local Listing Management in the Big Picture of Local Search?
When it comes to local listing management's impact on your overall local SEO efforts, how you manage and optimize your Google Business Profile is the single most important factor. This is because Google dominates local search traffic, with most local searches occurring via Google Search or Google Maps.
Because of Google Business Profile's dominance in local search results, an optimized and well-managed GBP listing can significantly influence both foot and web traffic, generate leads, and drive online engagement, making it THE most critical asset to any local SEO strategy.
That being said, local listing management across other reputable sites (especially Apple Maps, now that it has launched on the web) can still contribute to your overall local SEO success, and shouldn't be left out of your strategy. Just remember that the impact of managing business listings on these lower-trafficked sites pales in comparison to that of managing your Google Business Profile listing effectively.
Is Reputation Management Part of Local Listing Management?
Because many listing sites have a built-in review system, online reputation management can also be considered to be part of local listing management.
Beyond influencing customer purchase decisions, reviews, especially Google Reviews, have a direct impact on local search rankings, making managing reviews on listing sites an essential part of your local SEO listing management strategy.
Collecting positive reviews, responding to reviews, and monitoring overall review sentiment, or conducting sentiment analysis, can all help you boost your business's visibility in local search results.
For example, conducting review analysis for Google Reviews can provide valuable insights that you can use to make positive business changes that lead to better reviews and, ultimately, better local search performance.
Wrapping Up
In 2024, local listing management remains a vital aspect of local SEO, though its significance has changed. Maintaining accurate and consistent business information across key directories helps build local citations, which can still influence local search rankings, but it's important to target the most relevant listings.
Not only that, but it's important to remember that not everyone relies on Google to find local businesses, so having your business listed across different platforms relevant to your industry allows you to reach as many potential customers as possible.
In order to boost rankings and outperform competitors in the local search results that drive the most traffic, make sure to focus on making improvements in the most impactful areas, such as Google Business Profile optimization and review management, both of which are intertwined with broader local listing management.