By Adam Steele, owner of Loganix.
When was the last time you thought about the dozens (or hundreds, or thousands) of business listings that you have online? If you’re like most of my clients, it’s been a long time since you’ve looked at any of them. Perhaps this is because you doubt that they’re making much of a difference anymore — but you’d be surprised. Your business listing isn’t the only exposure to your business millions of searchers are going to get; it’s also a factor in how well your website performs in most search engines. Good listings matter. But yours are probably fine, right? Once again, you might be surprised.
The problems I find on my clients’ listings range from frustrating to hilarious. They’re all an easy fix if you can find the listing and edit it yourself, so start an immediate search for problems like these.
1. Your information isn’t accurate.
Nothing makes potential customers angrier than calling a number that doesn’t connect, or visiting hours advertised as “open” to find out that your business is closed. These kinds of experiences effortlessly turn into bad word-of-mouth and bad reviews that get posted and then cause you trouble for years.
Fixing false information is usually as easy as taking control of the account. Plenty of directories fill in this information automatically from others, so you may have never seen these listings before in the first place. That’s OK. The site administrators will almost always give you control of the account or update the information if you can prove that you’re the owner of the business. You can also usually get this information updated by sending a friendly, specific email.
2. Your photos aren’t enticing.
I’m sure all of us have had the experience of looking up a restaurant only to find that the only photos appearing on its listing are blurry cellphone photos from the parking lot. Not exactly giving you an appetite, right? Surely your business can do better.
Take some great photos of your store and of your products. Have them professionally touched up, and then make sure they’re always available whenever you need to update your listing. You only need one set of photos for all the listings you maintain.
3. You’ve done nothing for your profile.
Some of the larger directories will allow you to add some zest to your profile — custom colors, background images and other style elements. I definitely don’t recommend that you do this for every directory, but for the biggest ones or the specialized ones, you should at least take a look at what the competition is doing. If your competition is putting in the time, you should be doing the same.
4. Your listing is a duplicate and visitors can’t find the real one.
Duplicate listings are a common problem that can be a huge headache to track down, but it’s worth it to take the time to get rid of them. Duplicates are created when an error in the name or other details convinces a directory that it’s working with two different companies, so it creates a listing for both of them.
This is confusing for your customers and bad for any ranking benefits your website may be enjoying from a healthy listing. These just need to be destroyed, and you can do that by contacting the directory or taking control of the account and deleting the bad listing.
5. You’ve lost control of your listing.
It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes competitors will take over a listing and deliberately hijack it with bad information. This may include dirty tricks like reporting the location as “out of business” or directing the phone numbers to the competing business.
If you spot a listing of your business run by someone else, you should take control immediately. Once again, you need to contact the directory where the listing is hosted directly.
You may be able to press charges in some jurisdictions. Consider whether your online profiles fall victim to any of these errors and rectify them as soon as possible — you’ll be able to boost your brand’s reputation and in turn make sure you don’t lose any of your customers to the competition.
Adam Steele is the owner of link-building agency Loganix.
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.