4 Different Addresses for 1 Business!
When it comes to local search results, the devil is in the details – details that are haunting all 3 of my new clients from last week – a church, a service business and a small retailer.
Looked like a snap, initially, to help my new clients reach their goals for local search.
After getting unexpectedly bad results on relevant local searches, I sensed some wicked problems lurking in their business records. Their directory and search engine listings confirmed the worst – deviant business details – inaccurate, conflicting and downright confusing data.
Data conflicts can haunt local search results for years. The trouble often lies dormant in business listings, virtually invisible until revealed in local search results.
3 Colossal Search Engine Listing Mistakes to Avoid:
1. Inconsistent (conflicting) Listings, from the start:
Write a standard address file and use that file everywhere – for your Who-is record, your filing records, your phone company records, your business permit records, your website contact info, your search engine listings, your directory listings, your facebook listings and your review site listings – Everywhere. Your business listing slogan must be: “Everywhere the same!” Make it so!
2. Address change conflicts:
When you change the address on an existing business record, the old address will still exist on some databases that aren’t updated. To the search engines, it looks like you’re in 2 places at once, causing penalties in local search results. For fewer problems, be comprehensive in changing every record you know of – all at once. If you also change your business name, you have the opportunity to close the old listing (delete if possible) and add a brand new business name at a brand new address. This fresh record will have no history, and that’s easier to overcome than address conflicts. As another example, a business may be in the city limits of one town, but, to get mail delivery, may be required to maintain an address in a different town. That means filing records have different addresses than phone database listings. These address errors can be nightmarish. Consider working with a professional – and bring your patience for the long ride. No easy fix.
3. Toll-free and Local Phone number conflicts:
If a toll-free number is indispensable to your business growth, then by all means get the number and use it! But be careful how you publish that number in your listings. Consider leaving off the 800 number on all local listings. Why? If you’re set up in the phone records with a local number, but you only publish a toll-free in your search engine listing record, the search engines may penalize for the conflict or delist as a spammer. The toll free number impedes your improvement of local search results. If you must list toll free numbers, make them up in a graphical format rather than text. The graphics won’t be picked up by the search engines.
I’m happily working with my 3 new clients to help them get more customers, but getting results “like a snap” no longer applies. Now, we must begin the painstaking process of scrubbing the devil out of the details. There’s no glory and little excitement. “Tedious” is the word.
The good news: You’ll think you’ve died and gone to heaven when you see how much better local search results you’ll achieve with clean, consistent records. You’ll be adding more new prospects and, hopefully, lots of new customers, too. Don’t delay. If you have the time and patience, clean up your records today or pay a small fee to a professional for help.
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