Study Finds Nearly Half of Business Listings Have Incorrect Information by @MattGSouthern

A study of online business listings finds that nearly half are missing crucial pieces of information.
Uberall, a leader in location marketing technology, analyzed 73,000 online business location listings across SMB, mid-market, and enterprise.
The study measures voice search readiness. In compiling data about voice search, Uberall's study contains an interesting chapter identifying areas where businesses are failing the most.
Failures identified in the study may either mislead customers as a result of having incorrect information, or they may prevent customers from finding what they're looking for.
So these businesses aren't just failing when it comes to voice search, they're failing when it comes to online search in general.
As Uberall says in the study, customers can lose trust in a business after being misinformed by what they find online:

"When a consumer conducts a search for a business online, they expect and trust that the information listed will be accurate. If the customer then turns up and finds that the business is closed, the immediate result is a loss of trust that will likely discourage them from ever returning to a business location."

With that said, these failures can also be seen as areas of improvement.
The most glaring business listing errors/missing data were as follows:

• Opening Hours: 978,305 errors (almost half of all listings)
• Website: 710,113 errors (almost one third of all listings)
• Location Name: 510,010 errors (almost one quarter of all listings)
• Street: 421,048 errors (almost one fifth of all listings)

People conducting voice search queries for local business information likely intend to visit the store and make a purchase.
So, at the end of the day, incorrect/missing information isn't just impacting consumer trust, it's impacting sales.
For more information, see How to Completely Optimize Your Google My Business Listing.

via Local Search – Search Engine Journal https://www.searchenginejournal.com

April 14, 2019 at 04:39PM