Long time ago, when Google displayed organic results, all that mattered was how your website ranked in comparison with others. Back then, local businesses had two options – to rank well with their own websites or get a good listing to ensure the business beat the competition. But, with the rise in number of mobile users and evolution of search algorithms, Google and other search engines want to display the most relevant information to the customers.
Like many jigsaw pieces complete a puzzle, places that have information about a business’s location completes its online presence. This information is made up of metadata like –
- Business Hours
- Phone Number
- Social Media Pages
- Photos
- Store Websites
With so much information scattered around, it becomes important for you to manage these details. If a store’s location details are wrong, or inconsistent, it’s possible that the business could lose out a potential customer. That’s where location management comes into play.
What is Location Management?
Location management helps ensure that customers find the business information they need. It then means that businesses like yours get the customers that help you to run. Not long ago, businesses relied on store front or the information that they could put into the Yellow Pages of the phone book. Businesses could do little to spread information out to a broad range of people outside of their local area. Today businesses like yours can post an address and phone number online for everyone who searches to find. Location management can help those on vacation, for example, find your business when they visit your area.
Your Business may be listed online or in phone books, but that does little good if the information presented is incorrect. You want people to visit you in person, so sending them to the wrong address wouldn’t help. Location management ensures that the information listed online is correct and complete. The more information that is available the better the chances your business will have for increasing traffic.
Location management has evolved with the internet. In fact, solid (and accurate) citations from prominent local directories are very important when it comes to local SEO, because it is taken as a trust factor by Google. The more your business focuses on location management, the greater your chance of surfacing in the first few pages of an online search. The higher your business ranks in a search, the more likely customers will be visiting your business. This makes an especially large impact on small businesses located in very large cities such as Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, and Miami.
What Are the Advantages of Location Management?
There are many advantages your business may have over the competition when you utilize location management services. Let us explore a few of these advantages below
Correct Business Information Translates to Increased Sales
50 Percent of Customers That Conducted a Search Visited That Business Within 24 Hours (Google)
Many times customers will be looking for something specific. For example, a young couple may be looking for a business to photograph their engagement, wedding, or family photos. This couple pulls out their phone, do a search for photography businesses, and make a decision from the list that they are given. If you specialize in photography and make your information available to the public, your business may just be the business they choose to call or visit.
Location Management Services Were Designed With Your Phone In Mind
Location management services are for those who rely on a traveling device to find a business or specific location. You have probably used your phone to find restaurants, stores, and other businesses when out traveling. Almost everyone has. You have probably asked for an address for a specific business, or ask for a list of businesses that satisfy your requests. While it is possible to use laptops, iPods, iPads, and tablets to search for a business, it is much more likely that you or another person would use a phone. You know your phone will not lose internet connection while traveling. With location management, your business’s information is constantly updating to keep up with potential customer’s locations at the time of their search.
You Can Incorporate Keywords Or Phrases
If you are using location management services to its full potential, you can add keywords and phrases that help your businesses survive filters. You may be a restaurant that specializes in Italian foods, for example. These foods include pasta, pizzas, and breadsticks. You will be able to attach these keywords to your business in a local search. The next customer searching for “pizza” in your area will then see your business in their search even if they did not specifically search for restaurants or your restaurant’s name.
Real Life Examples
Reading about location management may mean nothing to you until you see that it is actually being used by real businesses just like yours. Below we will explore 2 real life examples of successes businesses that have used location management.
The Landmark Cafe
Have you found yourself in Sierra Vista, Arizona? Pull out your phone, search for “American Restaurants” and you will find The Landmark Cafe. This cute little restaurant has it’s phone number, business hours, address, photos, and even reviews for you to see. You may never have noticed this restaurant just driving through unless you searched for it. This cozy cafe makes use of location services to ensure that potential customers know that they are there to serve you.
BirchBox SoHo
You know that New York City is well known for its high fashion and beautiful makeup. If you’re looking to pick up a new dazzling eye shadow for your next business meeting you may consider searching “cosmetics” on your phone and BirchBox SoHo will be one of the first stores to pop up. You may never have heard of this store, but you will find that it has excellent reviews and is located just a few blocks from where you are currently standing. This store shares its address, phone number, store hours, reviews, pictures, and a website for your viewing pleasure.
Why Is Location Management So Crucial?
Billions of people have access to the internet and utilize this source at any given opportunity. You can see that more people are relying on their phone and mobile searches to find restaurants, businesses, and services today than in any year of the past. The phone and its ability to search is a large part of a person’s lifestyle.
Mobile-savvy customers are not going to notice your business if it is not accurately listed on a wide variety of online locations. In this fast-moving business world, small and local businesses must hustle to reach out to a potential customer first. As the number of “near me” searches continue to grow, location management has become a discipline of its own.
So, How do I Manage my Business Locations?
Location management is all about making consistent, actionable and accurate data available across all customer entry points and removing hiccups along the customers’ transition from online search to purchase.
Location management can be relatively easy for local businesses with one location. They just have to make sure that the website information, social pages and listings are consistently updated. Sigh, but it is easier said than done! Posting simple, accurate data and maintaining its consistency is going to eat up a lot of time.
For larger businesses with multi-locations, this can become a challenge. Managing consistent data for multiple locations across states and cities is a tough task. At this point, it is a wiser option to choose a solution that manages location data across platforms and streamlines the data. For example, Synup lets you manage business listings across all directories from a centralized dashboard and also allows you to fix data inconsistencies from within the dashboard.
We’ve crossed the point of argument if location management is important. Start fixing those data inconsistencies NOW!
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