Let’s say you’re in the market for new tires for your pickup truck. You remember your dad always used to get his tires at Floyd’s Tire Center, so you type that into Google to find the address. Wait a sec- there seem to be three different Floyd’s Tire Center websites. How do you know which one is the right Floyd?
This consumer dilemma may very well have been created by old Floyd himself, by accidentally listing his business three times, with three slightly separate sets of information. Not only does this cause confusion for his prospective clients, but it also dilutes his search rankings since he is effectively competing against himself for the top spot in search results! As if that wasn’t problematic enough, the slightly different name, address and location information may mislead clients and cause them to think that Floyd has either moved or gone out of business, which may cause them to look to a different tire shop altogether. Let’s examine a few of the most common problems involving duplicate local listings and find out how to eliminate issues that could be hurting your local SEO efforts and reducing your page views, not to mention your bottom line.
Power NAP
When you are creating a local listing for Google or another search engine, it’s best to remember to NAP- that is, include Name, Address and Phone information. This seems like a no-brainer, but many companies’ local listings include a misspelled company name, an incomplete address or a phone number that is no longer in service. Errors like this can lead to accidental duplicate local listings. If you’ve got one listing for Floyd’s Tires on 8th Street, a second one for Floyd’s Tire Center on 8th Street with a different unit number, and a third for Floyds Tire on 18th Street, you can see how confusing that can be to a prospective client. Duplicate listings can become even more problematic if they contain conflicting phone number information. Be sure to deal with duplicate listings in a timely manner, as well as review the information on your primary listing to verify its accuracy.
Can the Spam
If you are intentionally creating duplicate listings in a misguided attempt to increase local SERP visibility, you are part of the problem. Don’t be that company- consumers don’t appreciate being bombarded with advertising, and they are less likely to purchase a product or sign up for a service from a business that practices these shady advertising tactics. Not only are you turning off your target audience, but you are also in violation of Google Business guidelines, which is not a good thing. So please, do us all a favor and delete those duplicate listings so we can take you seriously.
Time to Change
If your company has moved to a new location, or if it has a new name due to a merger or acquisition, you may think you need to create a new local Google listing to reflect these changes. Actually, what need to do is update your existing listing with the new info rather than create a new one. If two listings exist with the exact same information except for the company name or address, this can be quite confusing for your prospects, not to mention take focus away from your business. If Floyd has retired from the tire game and sold his business to the Tire World chain, this change needs to be updated in the original search listing in order to avoid frustration for the client base. By deleting any duplicate listings that may have materialized when the information change took place, you can let your customers know without a doubt that they’re calling the right place.
Contact a Local SEO Expert Today
Keeping your local search listings in check by deleting duplicates is one easy way to help boost your organic web traffic, enhance your local SEO, attract customers and boost your conversion rate. Once you make sure you have only one listing on Google and any other search engines, you will be able to maximize control of your company’s visibility to your target audience, which will ultimately help you grow your business. If you’re not sure where to start or which listings you should delete and which you should keep, contact Echero today to speak with one of our Local SEO experts!
Leave a Reply