Inaccurate listings can be a costly mistake in today’s digital-driven retail landscape. With e-commerce becoming a global retail powerhouse—expected to surpass $4.1 trillion in sales in 2024—businesses need every advantage to capture online customers, especially as over five billion people now shop online. Effective local SEO optimization is crucial here; it ensures your business stands out in local searches, connecting your brand with nearby shoppers actively looking to buy.
This article reveals how maintaining accurate listings boosts visibility and trust, guiding you in aligning your listings to attract local buyers where every search matters.
What is Local SEO Optimisation?
Local search engine optimization or SEO refers to search engine optimization techniques that target customers searching within a specific geographical area or location. By understanding how to optimize SEO, businesses can increase their chances of appearing in relevant local searches. Local SEO helps businesses rank higher in local search results and maps so they appear prominently to customers searching for their products or services nearby.
Accurate business listings are crucial for local SEO and visibility. When customers search for businesses in their area, search engines and maps display results based on listings from sources like Google My Business, Bing Places, and Yelp. These listings provide key information like business name, address, phone number and services offered.
Consistent and complete listings across platforms help search engines determine relevance and show the business to nearby searchers. Having inaccurate or missing listings can prevent potential customers from finding your business and negatively impact local SEO.
The Consequences of Inaccurate Listings
When you don’t execute proper local SEO practices, your business risks missing out on local customers searching online. Some of the consequences include:
Loss of Trust and Credibility
Loss of trust and credibility can negatively impact customer perception of a business’s reliability and brand reputation. Customers rely on accurate listings to verify the legitimacy and credibility of a business before purchasing goods or services. Inconsistent or incorrect information in business listings sows seeds of doubt and mistrust in customers’ minds regarding how reliable the business actually is.
This loss of trust and credibility can seriously damage a business’s reputation as customers may perceive the errors as a sign of the business being disorganized and unprofessional. An inaccurate listing may also give customers the impression that the business does not value them enough to get the basic details correct, further eroding the brand’s reputation.
Decreased Visibility in Search Results
Search engines prefer accurate and complete business listing information when determining local relevance and ranking businesses in local search results, which is a critical aspect of Google SEO. Inaccurate or incomplete listings can negatively impact how search algorithms evaluate businesses and their eligibility for prominent local placements.
In addition, inaccurate business listings can prevent businesses from appearing in local packs and map listings. Local packs are groups of 3-5 businesses that appear in local search results for a specific location or query. Map listings show businesses directly on maps for local searches. Both local packs and map listings prioritize businesses with accurate and verified listing information. Businesses with incorrect details in their listings risk being excluded from these prominent local placements that drive the majority of local traffic.
Missed Opportunities for Engagement
Inaccurate business listings can result in missed opportunities for customer engagement. With incorrect contact details like phone numbers and addresses, customers are unable to reach businesses and make inquiries or purchase products. This leads to lost sales opportunities.
Therefore, accurate business SEO with proper contact details is vital for businesses to capitalize on opportunities for customer engagement, and drive interactions and conversions.
Increased Customer Frustration
It’s easy for potential customers to become frustrated when they can’t find a business easily or contact them using incorrect details. Customers may see the errors as carelessness or indifference on the business’s part, leading to negative customer experiences and dissatisfaction.
As a result, businesses with inaccurate listings risk losing customers and potential sales. Improving listing accuracy should therefore be a key priority for any local business that wants to improve search visibility, maximize customer engagement and protect its online reputation.
Common Types of Inaccurate Listings
To avoid the negative consequences of inaccurate listings, businesses must first identify common types of listing errors that occur. Here are some of the most prevalent:
Incorrect Contact Information
Incorrect or outdated contact information like phone numbers, email addresses, and physical addresses is one of the most common listing errors. This includes listing landline numbers instead of mobile numbers that customers use to reach businesses.
How to avoid:
Regularly audit and update your online contact information across listings and profiles to ensure they match your current details. Consider assigning a staff member to be responsible for listing management and accuracy. Update your information promptly whenever there are changes to your contact details.
Mismatched Business Name
Listing the business name differently across directories causes inconsistencies that confuse customers. Sadly, when potential customers search for your business, they may find multiple listings that do not match. This can make it difficult for them to identify your business as the one they seek.
How to avoid:
Ensure that your business name is consistent across all online listings and profiles. Use your legal business name and avoid abbreviations that may cause confusion. When updating listing information, check that your business name matches exactly on each profile.
Incomplete Information
Omitting important details like business hours, payment methods accepted, and services offered results in incomplete listings. This can even cost you potential customers who cannot determine whether your business meets their needs.
How to avoid:
Periodically audit your online listings to ensure they contain complete information about your business. Include key details like:
- Business hours
- Accepted payment methods
- Range of products/services offered
- Special offers or promotions
- Photos of your business and products
Providing comprehensive information helps convince potential customers that you offer what they seek.
Inaccurate Categorisation
Being listed under the wrong business category can misrepresent your business and complicate efforts to enhance your Google Business listing effectively. Did you know that being placed under the wrong category can reduce your chance of appearing in relevant local search results by up to 50%?
How to avoid:
Check your business listing categories across directories to ensure they accurately reflect your industry and offerings. Common categories include:
- Retail
- Services
- Food
- Automotive
- Health
- Beauty
If listed in the wrong category, request to have your listing updated or make the change yourself if possible. Using specific subcategories within your industry can also help target the customers most likely to be searching for your business.
Outdated Information
Over time, business details like contact information, business hours, and service offerings change. Failure to update listings regularly results in outdated and inaccurate information.
How to avoid:
Have a process in place to review all your online business listings at least once per quarter. During your audit:
- Check that all details like address, phone number and email are up to date
- Update your business hours to reflect any changes
- Add or remove services and products no longer offered
- Remove out-of-date promotions, offers or discounts
- Replace old photos with high-resolution images showing your business today
Making these regular tweaks ensures that your listings accurately reflect your current business, instilling confidence in potential customers and giving you the best chance to attract local interest.
How The Outsourcer Can Help
At The Outsourcer, we offer comprehensive local SEO optimisation services designed to boost search engine rankings and connect you with nearby customers actively looking to engage. We start with extensive keyword research, targeting the most relevant and achievable phrases to make sure your business appears prominently in search results. From here, we optimize your website with rigorous on-page tests—checking for broken links, enhancing speed, and refining content quality.
Local citations play a key role in our strategy; we create and optimize listings that strengthen your map presence, helping nearby customers find you with ease. We focus on publishing high-impact links that are meticulously checked for relevance, ensuring your website is as powerful and trustworthy as possible.
Alongside these core services, we enhance your social presence by boosting signals on platforms like Google, Facebook, and Instagram, expanding your engagement with local audiences. Our team also creates engaging content—videos, tutorials, and stories—posted across multiple platforms to keep your audience captivated.
The Bottomline
How customers perceive and understand your online presence directly impacts their interest in your business. Regularly checking and updating your listings is essential to ensure the information potential customers see is accurate and up-to-date. Without consistent oversight, small errors can accumulate over time and create doubt in customers’ minds about your reliability and professionalism. So spend at least 15 minutes every quarter reviewing your key listings and local SEO optimisation techniques to identify and correct any inaccuracies.
Now’s the time to audit your listings and take steps to improve your local SEO optimization practices. If you’re looking for help, contact The Outsourcer—we’re here to support you in enhancing your online presence. Let us shine a light on your local SEO issues and guide you towards a smarter strategy for 2024.