If you think you are good at what you do and people would come to you no matter, unfortunately, you are digging your own pit. Because more than 50 percent of people search for a business online. On a side note, more than 75 percent of them are from Google. Thus, if you haven’t listed your business, chances are that you are not showing up when customers are searching for a service you provide. to know the Benefits of Local Listing for Small Business
So, exactly,
What is a Business Listing?
Once upon a time, we used to receive two to four different directories in front of our porch. Few organizations even dropped a bundle of them in our mailbox which later were used to make paper boats. That’s a story for another time though. But I wonder how times have changed. Now I just need to unlock my phone and search for the service I am looking for. No fishing through information and no page flipping. Everything within a matter of clicks. And this is what business listing means.
NAP
In layman terms, it is your space or section where all your basic information about a business is listed for your searchers. This is widely known as NAP Data. Name, Address(s), and Phone number. Along with these, you must include reviews, pictures, and a short description of what you do to make it comfortable for your customers. The importance of business listing in SEO is, often, search engines fetch data from local listing and making it available directly in the search.
Say, for instance, my brother’s birthday is today and I forgot about it(like every year:P). But I decided to send a cake right away. Let us imagine this same situation happening a few years ago. I had to go through my phonebook and examine by any chance I have any bakery contact number. Imagine the same situation happening now. I just have to pull out my mobile and search for ‘bakery near housing board colony.’ BTW, this is called explicit query. Now, for the search I have performed, the search engine will make use of my device, time, and location. This is called implicit query and it would provide me the results like below:
Local Listings
Now, upon the reviews, ratings, and distance I pick up the bakery and talk to them right away. See, that simple.
If you are not convinced yet, let me brief out the perks of listing your business online:
#1. Brand awareness:
One of the major benefits of local listing for small businesses is the fact that, whenever a user performs a search, the search engine’s responsibility is to display the accurate and relevant results along with a brief snapshot. This way, even if the end user doesn’t show interest on your listing (read: business), they have at least stared at your name. They figured out that you exist. This ultimately increases your brand awareness and familiarity.
#2. Serves as Word Of Mouth:
Let us take the above birthday cake example. Let us assume that there were four bakeries in and around my locality. But, how do I decide which one bakes the best? It was my brother’s birthday and I cannot disappoint him, right? Whom shall I contact and ask for a review then? That’s the catch here.
By listing your business online, your customers can drop their review and rating. And an end user like me can just look at those components and decide on the store. They did the same homework for me. However, I did not have to contact anyone for the response. The reviews there has served as word of mouth. It is a trusted source for customers. It is also known that 85% of the customers believe in the reviews just as the recommendations obtained from family and friends. So, get listed in strong online business directories and raise bars for your target audience to reach you out.
#3. Boosts your SEO:
The importance of local listing in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the manner of providing your services in such a way that the search engines prefer you and rank higher in case of relevant searches. I suggest you provide honest and consistent information since a search engine takes recent activity and trust in the consideration of ranking.
Conclusion
Hold on! Listing your business is not done. You must have to handle the negative reviews positively, build local listings and improve them at the same. How do you do that? Leave it to us. We are well experienced in delivering local SEO services to the businesses of all sizes and types. And, we promise you all the benefits of local listing for small business we have mentioned earlier.
