Luckily, it’s not quite as resource-draining as link building. In fact, building and managing local citations is easy to get to grips with. Though it’s not complex, the actual time taken to build citations can be a barrier, which is where listing management tools can come in handy. More on that later.

A citation is a mention of your business information shared online. Citation building is simply the process of creating more of these citations across the web.

The best kinds of mentions include your business name, address, and phone number (NAP), along with any supplementary information that may be relevant. This could be your opening hours, web address, or email, depending on where the mention is going to exist online.

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You could have built local citations without even realizing it, such as through:

• Social media profiles 
• Directory listings
• Event listings
• Review profiles 
• Articles 
• Aggregators or booking websites

Each accurate, high-quality citation is a valuable piece of your local SEO strategy.

Because of this, many purposefully set out to grow their current profile by searching for local directories, niche industry sites, social media platforms, and so on, to share their business details. This process, though time-consuming, is well worth it, which is why many businesses choose to utilize citation-building tools in order to create a robust portfolio across the web (without spending hours creating it).

How many should you aim to build?

As with links, there’s no magic number that you should target. It’s more often helpful to focus instead on consistently building as many good quality, accurate citations as possible.

The bigger your pool of high-quality, accurate, and consistent mentions, the better for your search visibility and consumer discovery.

That being said, the more citations you have, the harder they are to keep track of—dozens of citations do nothing if they all contain outdated, mismatched information. Citation tracking methods and tools come in handy for this exact reason.

Another helpful tip is to benchmark your count against your competitors. We know citations are a top local search ranking factor, so you should aim for as many local citations—if not more—as your biggest competitor. 

Overall, building and managing high-quality, accurate citations is a key building block of your local SEO strategy. Luckily, you can find a host of tools to help maximize the benefit of the process.

While some question the role of local citations in the modern search game, recent studies have found that local citations are still seen as a significant trust signal in the eyes of search algorithms. They are a key part of AI search and LLM information sourcing, offering businesses a leg up when climbing the ranks. 

Plus, BrightLocal research showed that business directories make up 37% of organic search results for informational local-intent search terms. 

Considering the role they play in the algorithm, as well as the even more direct ways that they put your business in front of customers, building citations, whether that’s with a local citation building service or by yourself, remains a key part of the local SEO world.

What is a local listing citation? 

Before we jump into how they benefit your SEO, let’s define what a local citation is. A local citation is a mention of your business information on a third-party website. At a minimum, this should include your business name, current address, and phone number.

Additional information, such as your website URL, social media handles, opening hours, service details, and email address, may also appear.

For an even more in-depth breakdown of citations, including a look at the difference between structured and unstructured citations, check out “What Are Local Citations?”.

How do local citations benefit local SEO?

Citations are an essential building block for local SEO success. Research shows that they’re the sixth most significant ranking factor for local pack visibility and tied as the fourth most important signal for local organic search results.

A good spread of NAP data across the web also provides several indirect SEO benefits.

Directory and Review Sites Rank Highly in Google Search

Many of the places where you’d look to build a citation are places like directory listings and review sites. 

These are helpful and popular resources for local consumers and often rank near the top of the search results when a local search is performed. In fact, according to the BrightLocal Business Listing Visibility Study business directories make up almost a third of local-intent organic search results overall (31%).

As a local business owner, you can benefit from this search visibility simply by creating a listing or claiming your profile on popular directory sites and review platforms. Doing so allows you to grow your presence in the search engine results pages (SERPs) without directly competing with powerhouse names such as Yelp or Tripadvisor.

Considering the high volume of traffic that directories like Yelp receive each month, merely ensuring that your business is accurately listed on it could result in a significant uplift in local visibility.

Increase Likelihood of Being Picked Up by AI and LLMs

Recent research has found that directories are key sources of information for AI and LLMs. In particular, Foursquare (which has a deal with ChatGPT) and Yelp seem to be at the forefront of LLM information gathering. In fact, Yelp was found to be used as a source in a third of all searches, and often multiple times in one search.

When the information found on these sites isn’t sufficient, the LLMs move to further directories to crawl for information. Google Business Profile, social media, businesses’ own websites, and even industry niche directories were found to be a regular source of information.

These findings provide an incredibly strong added benefit to local citations: being referenced directly by AI search, one of the fastest-growing search methods.

Become Easier to Find

As a local business, the easier you are to find online, the more likely you are to succeed. Each citation you build provides a direct pathway to your company for anyone interested in connecting with you. 

Assuming that your citations are properly tracked and maintained, they help ensure that the customer has immediate access to vital information such as your opening hours and phone number. After all, 85% of consumers consider the presence of contact information and opening hours an important factor when researching local businesses.

Directory listings also make your business easier to find by those who aren’t searching for a specific company but are looking for a local product or service, such as a plumber or barber. That’s because many consumers naturally turn to directory and review sites to find a local business that can meet their needs. 

Having your information readily available in the right places puts you in front of anyone actively searching for a business like yours. For example, a presence on Angi would be beneficial for service businesses. Yelp is appropriate for a wide variety of local businesses, and Tripadvisor is recommended for travel businesses.

Grow Your Link Profile 

Building links still remains an important factor in SEO success, but it can be difficult and will take time to do well. The good news for local businesses is that many places where you’d naturally look to create a citation also provide the opportunity to link back to your website.

Some sites still allow dofollow links to be created, including Bing and a whole host of industry-specific sites. You can use our complete list of local citation sites offering dofollow and nofollow links to discover new opportunities. 

While local citation building shouldn’t be done purely for links, it’s a great added benefit. There are olenty of other ways to do local link building that can help with your local visibility.

Help to Establish Prominence

Directory sites and other citation sources will often allow users to review local businesses. If you’re keen to improve your local search presence, then this is great news for you. 

This is because it offers you a chance to build a wider pool of positive mentions across the web. The more of these mentions you can obtain, the more prominent and popular your business appears. As ever, reviews are a key part of how consumers view your business.

A secondary advantage is that the reviews themselves are also a ranking factor, giving you double the benefit when it comes to improving your local visibility.

How many citations are good for SEO?

Citations have numerous SEO benefits, so it’s helpful to build as many as possible. Your industry will play a role in how many citations you’ll need to accrue to get an SEO advantage, with some sectors more likely to have a higher number of citations than others. 

Two important things to remember are that not all citations are created equal (so shoot for those on more relevant sites) and that the more popular sites you’re listed on, the more chances you have to get in front of the right eyes…

So when deciding how many citations to aim for, try to balance quality over quantity while still shooting for as many quality opportunities as you can.

Tools like BrightLocal’s Citation Tracker let you see what citations your competitors have. This can help you work out whether it’s a numbers gain in your area, or whether there are any specific sites you need to get listed on.

How do I get my local citations indexed?

It’s not enough to create directory listings and online mentions featuring your NAP data. You also need those pages to be indexed to unlock any SEO benefit.

There are a few ways to encourage indexing, including using a pinging service or creating a page on your site that includes a link to all your citations. You can find more information about how to index citations here.

What does NAP stand for? 

NAP is shorthand for three powerful pieces of local business information commonly found in directory listings, review sites, and other business profiles: 

• Name
• Address
• Phone number 

Each element of the NAP trio conveys a vital chunk of information to a local consumer, making it easier for them to contact or visit you. If any one of the three foundational elements is missing from a business mention, it’s known to be a partial NAP. 

Your Local Citations and NAP Data

As NAP data is commonly shared as part of any online mention of your business, you might find many of these citations you haven’t purposefully created yourself. 

Have you received coverage in a local newspaper article or presented at an industry expo? Have you hosted a local event or sponsored a local community sports team? These are examples of where a NAP citation may have been created without you realizing it.

Having others do some of the heavy lifting by creating NAP listings on your behalf can be both a blessing and a curse. The more of these citations you have, the bigger the SEO benefit you can expect to receive, and the more visible your business becomes to local consumers. 

However, that’s only the case if your business name, address, and phone number are accurate in each of the listings.

It’s quick and easy to create inaccuracies but time-consuming to fix them. For example, a local reporter might get your zip code wrong in their write-up about your latest award. Likewise, that industry seminar you’re speaking at may inadvertently share an outdated phone number or old address. 

Each time one piece of information differs, confusion and uncertainty are created. This can erode trust, leave consumers unable to contact you, and cause Google to place less trust in your business.

How do you make a NAP citation? 

Any time your business name, address, and phone number are mentioned online, a NAP citation is created. This means there are a few different options for building your pool of listings:

• Claiming your business profile on review platforms 
• Adding your business to directory sites
• Creating social media profiles with all profile information filled out
• Creating events listings 
• Local media mentions
• Putting out press releases 
• Through local business organizations, such as Chambers of Commerce
• Exhibition listings 
• Industry award nominations 
• By authoring guest blog posts

Another way to build local citations is via your business website. The content on your site should naturally include your organization’s name, address, and phone number on various pages.

For example, it could appear on your contact page, in the footer on each page of your site, or be covered in a press release you publish on your news page. Whether you present that data together or split it across the page, it still has value for your local SEO efforts.

Consistency and Accuracy

Incorrect information shared online can have negative consequences for your local business. In the case of NAP (name, address, and phone number) citations, any inaccuracy or inconsistency can threaten your local search presence and harm consumer trust in your business.

What is NAP consistency?

NAP consistency refers to your business name, address, and phone number being the same across all of your online citations.

Whether on your Facebook page, a business directory or a review platform, there should be complete uniformity in how your data is shared.

Something as simple as a missing digit from your zip code or phone number can spiral into a bigger problem. This is because these errors create variations of your information, and this erodes consistency.

Why is NAP consistency important for SEO?

NAP data may appear so simple as not to warrant much importance, but when it comes to SEO, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

The Local SEO Ranking Factors Survey confirms citations as a top-five ranking factor for both the Local Pack and organic search results. Consistency and accuracy must be on point for the data to benefit search engines and human readers.

Outdated or Incorrect Citations Can Impact Search Visibility 

To verify that its impression of a local business is correct, Google requires a sufficient pool of data. 

Many citations with identical NAP information can signal to Google that what it knows about a business is correct. This also indicates that it’s safe to provide that information to search users. 

However, warning bells sound if there are differences in NAP data from one citation to the next. To Google, inaccuracies suggest that some of the data is wrong, meaning it can’t trust that search users are being served reliable information. As a result, rankings can suffer.

Inconsistent NAP Harms Voice Search Visibility 

Google needs to be confident that your business information is accurate when populating traditional search results, and it also requires that same trust for other forms of search results, including voice search.

Voice search can represent a significant source of traffic to your local business, so the importance of this should not be underestimated. 

Comscore data confirms that smart speaker ownership is at an all-time high, with almost one in two households having at least one smart speaker device.

SEMRush has revealed that two in five adults use voice search at least once per day and that the results are typically from the first page of the organic SERPs. The data shows that 80% of voice search results are sourced from positions one to three, while 97% of results are drawn from the top ten results.

We know that NAP data is a notable organic search ranking factor and having consistent information means you’re also much more likely to be ranked well in voice search.

Local citations can be the starting point for the consumer journey – but only if they’re accurate

Any discovery of your business name, address and contact information can be the starting point for the consumer journey. 

For many consumers, especially those using mobile devices, that journey will begin with a search engine. 

However, that doesn’t always mean that a consumer will click on your website. for example, we know that 31% of search users will select an organic search result because it offers them a list of businesses, which will likely be a review site or directory listing. However, they could also click through to an informative article, a social media post, or a Google Business Profile.

Whatever the point of call, you need your information to be accurate if you’re to have any hope that they’ll continue on that path to purchase. If your phone number is incorrect and they can’t get in touch to see if you stock a particular brand, for example, they’ll abandon that path and turn to one of your competitors.

Inaccurate Citations Spell Disaster for Consumer Trust

First impressions matter. If the first impression a consumer has of your brand is that the street address they found leads them to the wrong location, you can guarantee you’ll get off on the wrong foot. 

In addition to the inconvenience that incorrect data causes, research shows that consumers hold the business responsible for that error. 93% of consumers are frustrated by incorrect information on online directories, and 80% say they will lose trust due to inconsistent contact details. 

Consistent NAP Leads to More Referral Traffic 

Consistent business information is the backbone of higher local search and voice search rankings and funnels consumers along the path to purchase. Therefore, it’s a significant factor in the volume of referral traffic your business receives.

The higher the level of consistency you can achieve across your local citation profile, the greater the level of trust search engines and consumers can build. This makes your website more discoverable, sets the right tone for the consumer relationship, and encourages searchers to call, click, or visit.

How do you measure NAP consistency?

You can manually gauge your NAP consistency or use an automated tool. If you opt to check manually, you’ll need to hunt down all your citations and study each in turn. Pay particular attention to review sites, directory listings, your social media profiles, and your Google Business Profile. 

How consistent should your NAP citations be?

Today’s search engine algorithms are very smart, so you don’t need to worry about minor details, such as using slightly different abbreviations in your listings. For example, Google will understand that ‘No.’ and ‘#’ are the same thing. Ditto for ‘Street’ and ‘St’. 

Rather than focusing on these formatting matters, concentrate instead on the essential details such as always using your correct business address and phone number. 

To automate the process, use a tool like Citation Tracker, and use other tools to manage your listings.

The free profile makes it easy for businesses to connect with customers across Google Search and Maps, and is pretty much essential if you’re hoping to source new customers online.

Gaining visibility among a local audience is important for any type of business, but especially so for a service-area business (SAB). A business of this nature may see its reach cover a very specific geographical radius, as well as offering targeted expertise or solutions to local consumers at a distance from its own home base.

What is a service-area business?

The term ‘service-area business’ (also known as an SAB) sounds like it refers to any business that, well, ‘serves an area’, right? But no, as far as local SEO needs are concerned, a grocery store that pulls in customers from the local ‘area’ does not count as a service-area business.

So, to further refine the definition, we turn to Bing, which prefers to use the term ‘businesses without a physical store’. But hang on… that could mean e-commerce, right?

Confusingly, ‘service-area business’ and ‘business without a physical store’ both refer to the same type of operation. A service area business (SAB) is a business that:

• Provides a service at the customer’s location (they come to you)
• Serves a wide area beyond the service provider’s immediate location
• Has no physical location which customers can visit*
• Needs to ‘hide’ (i.e. not display its address in business listings)

* Having a physical location with ‘office hours’ was actually a requirement for Google Business Profiles, but these examples are why Google had to start to change its guidelines to suit these kinds of businesses.

If your business satisfies the above conditions, then it’s a service-area business, and that means there are plenty of online marketing tools, specifics, and processes that apply to you.

Examples of these kinds of businesses include:

• Garage door contractors
• Window cleaning companies
• Locksmiths
• Pest control professionals
• Cleaning companies
• House painting businesses
• HVAC providers

N.b. It’s worth noting that the definition is still subject to change, with some using ‘service-area business’ to also include businesses that have a physical location and the ability to deliver a service at your home or office. For the purposes of this piece, I’ll be talking about service-area businesses with no physical location, or what Google refers to as ‘pure service-area businesses’.

How Do Local Search Services and Products Differ for Service-Area Businesses?

No Address, No Listings?

The lack of publishable address is the key thing differentiating service-area businesses from other local businesses. In local SEO, we often point out that having accurate and consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone number) data displayed across multiple relevant business listings is very much ‘table stakes’ for online visibility.

Although there are some key business listing sites (or ‘citation sites’) that don’t allow you to hide your address, the good news is that there are plenty of citation sites out there that are a perfect fit for service-area businesses.

Google Business Profile makes it easy to set up a profile without an address. Simply toggle ‘Show business address to customers’ on setup:

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Ranking Outside Your Area

By and large, businesses in the same vertical and location compete for the same audience. Two hotels nearby each other, two Italian restaurants in the same neighborhood, two beauty salons on the same road, they’ll each be targeting the same people, be they visitors to the area or residents.

They’ll also be targeting the same localized keywords in their online marketing: phrases like ‘hotels near me’, ‘Italian restaurant Baltimore’, and, if the search engine knows the searcher’s location, simply ‘beauty salon’.

Things are slightly different for service-area businesses. Their customers don’t have to travel anywhere to provide their custom, and so they’re a lot less likely to base their search requirements on business location. This leads to the proximity of searcher to business being much less critical a factor in local search rankings.

So more weight gets put on the other key pillars of local search rankings: prominence and relevance. While Google has some information on the area the business serves (see below), it’ll be much more inclined to rank service-area businesses with a good reputation and great reviews.

After all, if I’m booking a home visit from a pest control company, I’m far less interested in how far they’ve had to drive to get to my house and much more concerned with how many satisfied customers they’ve served.

There are other tips and tricks to help you rank outside your local area, but starting with fantastic reputation management (and leaving a trail of happy customers in your wake) is a good move.

The Truth: How to Rank Outside Your Area

Learn How

Define a Service Area in Google Business Profile

Google Business Profile is still trying to figure out the best way to let service-area businesses set up their business profiles in a way that allows them to best highlight the accurate area of work.

Until 2019, businesses could define a service radius around their hidden address in Google Business Profile, enabling Google to better serve local searchers. However, in its updated guidelines on adding or editing your service area (which you can while you’re setting up your GMB listing or afterwards), it states that “you can set your service area based on the cities, postcodes or other areas you serve”.

If you define the service area and you have no physical location, Google encourages you to leave the ‘business location’ field completely blank in your Google Business Profile, and you should not enter an address under the ‘Info’ tab in the Google Business Profile dashboard. Google’s verification process for these businesses is also slightly different, as they’re unable to send a physical postcard to the address.

Local Services Ads

Because service-area businesses don’t have the capability of showing up with a map pin in Google Maps, they can sometimes lose out to searchers who prefer to browse the local map when looking for a business.

This is one of the reasons that Google launched Local Services Ads, a feature of Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) specific to searches that return service-area businesses as results.

Local Services Ads is a listing type that sits atop SERPs and provides reputation and service information prominently for the searcher. It’s a changing product, with some elements coming with a charge from Google (such as the ‘Google Guaranteed’ badge), but it’s worth reading this guide by service-area businesses specialist Tom Waddington for a good overview of the opportunities presented by Local Services Ads.

If you’re interested in how the presence of Local Services Ads in SERPs affects click-throughs, and what consumers think of the features in this search results type, take a look at our comprehensive Local Services Ads study, which looked at the behaviour of over 5,000 searchers.

Local SEO for Service-area Businesses

As a SAB, you’ll naturally have a geographical area where you can deliver your services. 

It’s up to you to determine what that range is, but whether you serve clients within a 30-mile or 100-mile radius, your business will nonetheless operate within a particular zone and not beyond it.

Because you perform your service at your customer’s location, they don’t have to travel. That means they simply need to find a garage door installer who covers their zip code. 

This means the customer is therefore less likely to perform a local business search for a garage door installer within a specific distance of their location—as would be the case if they had to travel to a physical store to obtain their new garage door. 

While there are a number of things you can do in Google Business Profile, you may also want to look at creating service area pages to customers (and Google) understand the areas you serve.

Boosting Visibility on Google Maps

SABs, like other local businesses, can appear in Google Maps and in the Local Pack. How they are set up, though, is a little different as you’ll need to specify the zip codes and cities that fall under your service-area boundaries. 

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This may mean an extra step is required in the traditional process of setting up and optimizing a Google Business Profile, but it will benefit you in the long run. 

Why doesn’t my business show up on Google Maps?

With a standard GBP listing, your profile is built around your physical location, which may not accurately reflect the wider geographical area you serve.

Being able to specify those areas makes your GBP listing more accurate and more likely to rank for prospective clients further away from a physical store address, while still being covered by your service business zone in Maps and local search. 

Let’s say your garage door business is based in Rochester, New York. A traditional Google Business Profile listing could mean that you don’t show up in local search for a homeowner looking for an installer in Buffalo, 66 miles away, even if it’s company policy to travel up to 100 miles to offer your service.

So in that case, you’d potentially miss out on winning a customer.

A service-area Google Business Profile places less emphasis on proximity and allows you to tell Google that you do service Buffalo and should be visible in local search for that customer.

How to Set Up a Google Business Profile For Your Service-area Business

Go to google.com/business. You’ll be presented with a screen that invites you to sign in or manage your business. To create a new listing, you’ll first need to verify that an existing profile isn’t in place. Click ‘manage’ and then, when prompted, add your business name to the search box. A drop-down list will appear, showing any businesses with that name with an existing Google Business Profile. For a new business, there shouldn’t be a listing in existence.

You’ll now be prompted to choose a business category. Enter just your main category for the moment as you can add additional ones later if appropriate.

Now, select specific services relevant to your offering. Google will provide a few suggestions to add to your profile, or you can input your own. 

The next screen will ask you if you wish to add an address to your business listing.

This is an important step for your SAB profile creation – select ‘no’ if you are a pure service area business with no physical location (e.g. a showroom that customers would visit).

By opting out of providing a business address, your final listing on Maps and search will also be address-free. Instead, you’ll be asked to confirm the areas that your business services.

If you do have a showroom of some kind, you’ll need to add your address to your business listing.

Google will now ask you to define your service area. You can enter up to 20 locations here, using a mix of city names, zip codes, counties, and countries. 

To ensure that your full service area is covered, choose a zip code that sits at the outer limit of that area. 

You now need to provide your contact information – these details will be displayed on your public listing so ensure you’re inputting your business number rather than your own private cell phone.

You can also add your web address, opt out of having a local business website URL listed, or alternatively, ask Google to provide you with a free website. This is automatically built using the info you input when creating your Google Business Profile listing.

Your service area business profile is now set up, simply click “finish” to end the process.

Image Source: Moz

To see how the areas covered look to a local search user, navigate to the “info” section from your GBP dashboard. Here, you can click to “View on Search” or “View on Maps”. 

How to Avoid the Spam Trap

There are often misconceptions about service-area businesses because results for them tend to include more spam than other industries.

Across all verticals, spam is on the rise, but it’s an issue that can particularly affect SABs. In fact, research we carried out last year revealed that spam in listings had increased by 59% between 2018 and 2019. 

This doesn’t mean that your profile will be classed as spam by default, but it’s good to take measures to ensure you’re not falling into spammy tactics yourself — and that customers will view your business as trustworthy and authentic. 

You can avoid falling into the spam trap by following a few best practice tips to showcase listing legitimacy and encourage search users to trust your business. 

One easy way to begin building trust in your GBP listing is to be proactive about encouraging your customers to review you on Google. Reviews are trusted by the majority of local consumers and demonstrate that you are a real business, delivering real services. 

You can then build on this trust by replying to reviews in a timely manner.

If you didn’t already know, responding to reviews matters; our latest Local Consumer Review Survey revealed that 97% of consumers that read reviews, read the business’s responses, too so this is an easy way to build credibility.

Answering any questions that are asked about your business in Google’s Q&A section can also show that your listing is non-spammy. 

Additionally, regularly sharing Google Business Profile posts with your audience will help cement yourself as an active and authentic business, as well as helping to boost rankings and visibility.

Adding new images and uploading video at regular intervals can also help to set your business apart from spam SAB profiles. 

How to Optimize Your Service-area Business Listing

Once you have claimed your listing and set up the basics of your Google Business Profile, you can proceed to the optimization stage. 

Luckily, optimization tactics for a SAB don’t differ too much from regular listing optimization. 

Choose the Right Primary and Secondary Categories

Choosing the correct category and subcategory for your SAB is one of the most important optimization tasks you can complete – category selection accounts for two of the top 10 local pack ranking factors, according to the Moz Local Search Ranking Factors Survey. 

As BrightLocal contributor and local SEO pro Carrie Hill points out:

 Getting the right primary and secondary categories in place for your […] Google Business Profiles can really help local rankings.

Upload Images

We’ve already mentioned that images can help your SAB listing look less spammy, but they are important for optimization, too. 

Results with images are more eye-catching and appealing to the search user, so they can help your Google Business Profile become more engaging and encourage clicks. 

Google recommends several different types of images be uploaded, including shots of your most popular services, managers, and team members. 

While the official Google guidelines state that a minimum of three interior and exterior shots be added to your profile, this likely won’t be possible if you’re a pure service-area business. 

This doesn’t mean you can’t get creative with GBP photos, though – include an image of your work van with company branding, for example, or a shot of your factory where the garage doors are made. Images of installed doors on site at a client location could also be used (with customer authorization).

Why not read our complete guide to Google Business Profile photos and looking good online for more detailed guidance?

Make Use of Google Q&A

Introduced back in 2017, Google Q&A sits within the local Knowledge Panel. 

Here, search users can ask questions about a business and its services, giving enhanced information about a local business directly within the search results. 

You can also post your own questions and responses, but bear in mind they should be informational and helpful, not promotional or laden with keywords.

Engage Customers with Posts

GBP posts provide another engaging and creative way to enrich your local search results. 

Posts can almost be thought of in the same way as a social media post, but published on Google Business Profile rather than Facebook or LinkedIn. 

Each post can contain up to 300 words (though just 80 or so are displayed in the Knowledge Panel), along with images, a CTA button, and a link. You can use this space to share company updates, tell search users what’s new, or publish offers. 

Regularly using this feature enriches your SAB’s GBP listing and can help you win new business, along with sending optimization signals to Google. 

Encourage Reviews (and Respond to Them)

It’s well established that reviews are an important part of the consumer decision-making process and help nurture trust, but they also play an important role in local search optimization. 

The addition of fresh new reviews (along with a response on your part) ticks a number of Google boxes, feeding it both fresh content and crowdsourced opinion on the trustworthiness, prominence, and credibility of your business. 

When you’re done with optimizing your GBP listing, why not explore how to grow your review presence? 

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That’s it, Folks!

Setting up a GBP listing for your SAB and conducting ongoing optimization tasks and audits are essential for local search and Maps visibility, but this process shouldn’t be complicated or overwhelming. 

The process of claiming your listing and providing required information is straightforward, though you do need to give careful thought to choosing a business category and defining service areas to ensure your whole zone is adequately represented. 

Simply inputting cities or zip codes covered doesn’t guarantee local search or Maps visibility but, if you follow our optimization tips, you’ll soon be well on your way to improved SAB visibility.

What is a duplicate business listing?

A duplicate business listing occurs when a business has more than one listing on an industry directory site, general directory site, or similar platforms, such as Google Business Profile. 

Even if the finer details are different for each listing, if the listing itself relates to the same business, then it counts as a duplicate listing.

Let’s say, for example, that you run a restaurant and also have a takeout service. If you created a business listing on Yelp for your restaurant and then created a second listing for your takeout service, you’d essentially be creating duplicate business listings.

In cases like this, it may be a genuine mistake caused by simply wanting to get as much online visibility as possible; however, it’s an action that can penalize you in the eyes of the search engine and have serious consequences for your overall local search visibility.

Why are duplicate business listings a problem?

You may have created a duplicate listing innocently enough, and you’d be forgiven for thinking that duplicate business listings are no big deal; after all, you’re simply making it easier for a potential customer to find you, right?

Unfortunately, while it may seem inconsequential on the surface, duplicate business listings can seriously harm your local SEO efforts. Google Business Profile, for instance, actively has policies against duplicate listings and penalizes businesses if they find one, which is a big indication that you’ll need to be especially vigilant about maintaining just one profile on each industry directory.

Duplicate Listings Negatively Affect Your Local SEO

One of the biggest issues associated with having a duplicate business listing is that it can harm your local search visibility. Having repeated information—whether that’s in the form of multiple social media profiles or multiple directory listings—can create NAP inconsistencies, which, as well as being problematic for Google, can cause issues for your customers. 

In addition to the impact of NAP inconsistencies, Google actively states that, “If a profile is considered a duplicate, it won’t show on Google Search or Maps.” In some extreme cases, duplicate listings on Google Business Profile can even lead to severe penalties at the hands of Google.

Duplicate Listings Could Lead to Your Account Being Suspended

Incorrect or inconsistent information is incredibly frustrating for consumers. If that frustration turns to action in the form of complaints, it could lead to the business directory suspending your account or even removing all listings related to your business.

If this happens—and you’re prevented from having a business listing on a key business listing site such as Yelp or Tripadvisor—you could be giving a serious amount of ground away to your competitors.

Not only would you be losing prime real estate online, but being suspended could cost time and money to rectify. The loss of a live link and profile on a major directory site could also result in a loss of rankings, which leads to fewer site visitors and potential damage to your revenue.

Duplicate Listings Cause Consumer Confusion and Negatively Impact Trust

Google finds duplicate listings suspicious, and so do consumers. Duplicate listings not only confuse consumers and erode trust, but they can also lead to a loss of revenue and store visits.

The findings from our Local Business Discovery & Trust Report confirm this impact, with 62% of consumers saying that they would avoid using a business if they found incorrect information online. 

With many customers searching for the address of a business online before their first visit, no organization can afford to generate confusion via duplicate listings. If a potential customer is confused by a duplicate business listing, you may inadvertently encourage those visitors to spend their money with one of your competitors—one they can easily find online with no conflicting information.

How can duplicate business listings occur?

Even if you haven’t intentionally set out to create a duplicate business listing, you may well find that several have sprung up over time anyway. There are lots of reasons why this may be the case. 

Accidental Addition

You, a co-worker, or an agency working on your behalf may inadvertently create a citation on a site where you already have a listing. This can happen very easily if you have been building citations for a while and have lost track of sites where a business listing already exists, or if you bring someone new on board who doesn’t have a complete list of current business listings.

To avoid the curse of accidental addition, make sure you keep track of all existing listings in a location that every team member has access to.

Aggregation

Some listing sites aggregate data from multiple sources. If you have inconsistent NAP, it may be that these sites find several different listings, each with slightly different data, all of which are then imported separately, compounding your duplicate business listing problem.

Loss of Login Details

Business information naturally changes over time. Your business phone number may change, for example, or you could move to a new address. If you no longer have access to an original listing, perhaps because it was set up by an old agency or owned by a former employee, you may just go ahead and create a new one instead.

To avoid this common faux pas, it is advisable to securely store your login information for all directories where your business is present.

Attempting to Boost SEO

SEO is in a constant state of evolution, so it’s possible that an agency you worked with in the past created multiple business listings on the same directories because they believed it was a way to gain better search engine rankings.

This definitely isn’t the case today. So if you think an agency you worked with may have created duplicate listings on your behalf, be sure to monitor where your business is present online and remove any copies.

How to Find Duplicate Business Listings

Now you know the consequences of duplicate business listings, let’s explore how to find them. 

Whether you’ve been building a business listing profile for a few months or several years, regularly checking for duplicate listings is essential to keep your local SEO and consumer trust in good standing. 

Manual Search Engine Check

A manual check is just as it sounds. You’ll methodically and manually work your way through the web to find and flag up duplicate listings. Of course, this is a pretty daunting task and an unenviable job to have on your to-do list.

What’s more, in addition to being time-consuming, it’s very difficult to manually find all of your business listings, and even harder to keep track of each one. If you’re set on doing things the old-fashioned way, make sure you set up a tracker (a Google or Excel Spreadsheet will do) to monitor your progress.

Manual Listings Site Check

Similarly to a manual search, you can use a Google search operator such as “site:listingssite.com yourbusinessname” to track down all mentions of your business on each individual listing site. Again, you’ll need to comb through the results and check each site in turn to perform an effective check.

Business Listings Site Check

Another option is to manually search every business listing site you know you have a listing on, and search for multiple variations of your business name on each.

The main problem with these manual methods is that many listings sites get their information from third parties, so there could well be plenty of duplicate listings on sites you’re not aware of.

Invest in a Tool

Using a specialist local SEO tool is a less time-consuming and more thorough solution. It can be used to perform a full web scan of hundreds of listings sites so you can easily find each duplicate business listing and take appropriate remedial action. Tools like Citation Tracker can help you spot your duplicate listings.

How to Remove Duplicate Business Listings

Once you have identified a duplicate business listing, you need to remove that duplicate so that a single, correct, and complete listing remains. The exact process you’ll need to undertake will depend on the directory or platform hosting the duplicate.

For example, GBP has a specific process to follow, but this process will differ from the steps required by a directory such as Yell. 

Wherever you encounter a duplicate listing, you’ll need to log in, claim it, and then edit it. If you have pinpointed dozens of duplicates, this is a long and arduous process that requires a lot of manual effort, but the results are worthwhile.

Some services allow you to suppress duplicate listings, while others merge or remove them. Again, the exact process will depend on the site or service itself.

If you’re manually tracking your citations, it’s a good idea to log any duplicates you find and how you remedied them so that you have a record of the areas you’ve checked and how recently you’ve checked them. 

Protecting Your Online Reputation

Duplicate business listings can eat away at your Local Pack rankings and consumer trust. Incomplete and conflicting information frustrates both search engines and consumers and can seriously undermine SEO efforts elsewhere.

While there are several reasons duplicate listings may appear, it’s important to develop a process for monitoring them and taking appropriate action if you find them. 

How do you build local citations to boost local SEO? 

There are three core ways to build local citations to boost your local SEO results: 

1. By making manual submissions to directory and niche industry sites
2. Via a data aggregator
3. Using an API

Many local businesses will begin with manual submissions as it’s easy to do, requires no special tools to get started, and can be more accurate than automating the process, providing the person creating the listings has an eye for detail.

What to Do Before Making Manual Submissions 

Before you can start to create listings, you’ll first need to perform an audit to identify and record existing citations for your business. Doing this beforehand means you won’t waste time accidentally creating duplicate listings. It also allows you to identify outdated or incorrect citations and perform vital remedial work before new listings are added to the mix.

Any incorrect information, including inconsistencies in your business name, address, and phone number (NAP), should be updated as a priority. This is an essential task because incorrect information is a known source of irritation for local consumers.

A factually incorrect citation could see you miss out on more than half of available sales opportunities. 68% of consumers say they would stop using a local business if they came across an incorrect directory listing. Additionally, almost a quarter report of consumers that an incorrect address found online led them to visit the wrong business location within the last 12 months. 

No small business can afford to have inaccurate information online, confusing consumers and causing them to distrust your business. Inconsistent NAP data can also lead Google to question what it knows about your business and lower your search visibility. So don’t be tempted to skip this step when manually building local listings. 

If you’re struggling to find your NAP mentions using Google, try a tool such as Citation Tracker or the Local Listings Health Scanner. 

Build a List of Target Sites  

A key stage in the manual submission process is identifying the directory sites and other platforms where you’d like your business information to appear. 

Research shows that domain authority, industry relevance and local relevance are the top three most important factors when choosing which citation sites to submit to. Whether or not a site displays user reviews and audience size are also vital considerations. 

Performing quality control to weed out inferior or irrelevant sites that won’t enhance your local search visibility or drive traffic to your site can save you time in the long run. Doing so also ensures that the time you invest creating listings is focused entirely on the areas that provide the best return for your efforts. 

Assess Competitor NAP Profiles

You can turn to your competitors to discover good-quality citation targets. The advantage of this method is that you can piggyback off the work your rivals have already done by comparing their citation profile with yours. Begin by looking for sites they’ve identified that you don’t have a presence on. Focus on pinpointing niche and local outlets, as these listings are likely giving your competitors an advantage over you in the local search results.

Assessing a rival’s local business listing profile can be automated if you’re using a tool such as Citation Tracker. If you don’t have access to a tool, you can do this manually with Google research. Record your findings on a spreadsheet to keep track of the information.

Use Google to Identify Good Quality, Niche Sites

You can also Google to identify gaps in your current citation profile and further build out your list of targets for manual citation building. For example, searching your business type and industry niche should bring up several directory sites. If there are any major platforms — such as Yelp or the Better Business Bureau — that you haven’t already ticked off, they’ll need to be added to your list. 

Look for directories that are specific to your local area, along with platforms focused on your industry. This may include trade bodies, industry organizations, local networking associations, and nearby Chambers of Commerce. The best quality sites will be found within the first few pages of the search results. 

There may also be other opportunities to build unstructured citations, such as by connecting with local news outlets, government databases and blogs. 

Measure Domain Authority with the Moz Toolbar 

The Moz toolbar is helpful for anyone learning to build manual citations. Free to download, it shows the page authority, domain authority, and spam score for any page open in your browser. This makes it easier to identify whether your target directories and industry sites meet the quality threshold necessary to create a beneficial citation. 

Use Online Resources

Online resources that compile lists of directory sites relevant to your area or niche can be invaluable when building local citations. This is because much of the research has already been done for you.  

This resource lists the best places for business listings for more than 40 industries. It also shares the domain authority of each and indicates whether the listing is free or not. 

If you’re based in the USA, Canada, UK, or Australia, this compilation of the top 50 sites for each country also logs domain authority and provides a direct link to each site. 

Make Manual Submissions 

With your list of target sites in hand, you can now start the process of making manual submissions. 

Working your way through your list from top to bottom, go to each site and enter your business name in the search bar to verify if there’s already an entry.

If a listing is already present, review each piece of information, including your business NAP, opening hours, URL, and email information to verify accuracy. If they’re correct, go ahead and claim the listing.

If the information isn’t accurate, you’ll need to claim the listing to correct any issues. The process of claiming the listing will vary from platform to platform but will generally require you to prove your connection to the business. This could be by entering a code sent via postcard to your brick-and-mortar location, or via a telephone call or email. In the case of email, your email address will need to match the business’ domain name for a verification link to be provided.

If there’s no current listing, you can go ahead and start to build your manual citations. You’ll often see an ”add business” option on the directory site, which will present you with a form to complete. Ensure that you enter your NAP in the same format each time.

Remember that you may need to go back and update your business information in the future. Maintain a spreadsheet of manual submissions with a link to each directory site and the usernames and passwords for each. You’ll need these to log in and update your citations when any information changes.

Alternatively, you can go ahead and lean on a listings management tool for any updates you may need to make. 

Behind the scenes, the API standardizes the transfer of information and acts as the messenger between point A and point B. As they are so efficient, APIs are used to complete a wide range of tasks — from data sharing to integrations — often without the end user being aware of their existence.

Numerous APIs are available to submit citations, with each providing business information to its own network of sites. Some sites may accept data from one specific API only, while others may get data fed into them from several different sources. 

Why use an API to build citations? 

The main advantage of this method of citation building is speed. The automatic nature of the process allows for listings to be built quicker than is possible with a manual approach alone.

An API versus human-led input can also improve accuracy and NAP consistency. The fact that a large number of listings can be built in a short time frame also provides a visibility boost. 

Is there more than one type of API? 

When it comes to local citation building, there are two types of APIs available to you. 

The first type submits your business information directly into the database of the listing site. It will continually push that data through so the recipient site knows the information is correct. This doesn’t necessarily mean that your listing will be permanent, however. If you stop using the API, your listing may be removed. 

The second type works as a data layer, with the business paying the API to have its data placed on an existing web page. If you use this solution, your listing will remain active as long as you’re paying for it.

Is this option right for you? 

Not every method of building citations will be suitable for all business types. An API is often better suited to large and multi-location businesses that can’t realistically keep their business information up to date manually.

Other methods may be more suitable for smaller organizations that don’t expect to make changes continually. 

Why should you optimize local business citations? 

Optimizing citations can help you to enhance your online presence by providing Google with more information about your business. Actions such as adding keywords to your business description, or choosing the right category, help Google better determine when your business should be displayed to local search users. 

Greater online visibility for relevant searches can also result in more traffic to your site, more conversions, and increased footfall to your brick-and-mortar location.

What does citation optimization entail? 

Citation optimization considers each element of your business listing. This includes which directory and listing sites you pursue when building citations, the accuracy and consistency of information, and the amount of helpful detail shared. 

How to Optimize Your SEO citations 

Whether you’re going back through existing listings to identify opportunities for optimization or creating a new listing, optimization efforts should be systematic and include each citation element. 

Maintain Name, Address and Phone Number (NAP) Consistency 

NAP consistency is a local search ranking factor. To reap the most benefit from this, you’ll need to check each listing and verify that they all use the same NAP data.

Check Your Business Description 

Optimizing your business descriptions is another way to be confident that your citations are working as hard as possible for your business. 

In addition, a clear, concise description is a valuable data source for Google and other search engines. It can help search engines better understand which local searches your business should rank for. 

For popular sites that receive a large volume of consumer traffic, such as Tripadvisor, Facebook, or Google Business Profile (GBP), there’s the added benefit of being able to provide potential customers with useful information.

Choose the Correct URL 

For small local businesses with a single location, choosing the correct URL to attach to your business listing is straightforward. 

For larger, multi-location businesses, it can be more complex. You should link to the location page specific to the citation. If your citation relates to your outlet in Denver but you also have outlets in Miami Beach and Atlanta, your citation should link to the Denver-specific page on your site.  

A benefit of taking this approach is that consumers looking at the Denver business listing can click straight through to the relevant webpage without needing to hunt around on your site.

Select the Most Appropriate Business Category

Selecting the most appropriate business category for your website provides additional insight to Google. It helps it understand what your business does and which search queries you’re most relevant to. 

In the case of citations from GBP, your primary category is the number one local search ranking factor for Local Pack visibility.

Add Engaging Imagery

If the citation site permits image uploads, selecting high-quality, attractive photos can help your listing stand out. Images also clearly show consumers what they can expect from you.

A range of photo types is most useful for consumers. Google suggests adding a mix of pictures showing your business’s approach from several directions, as well as the interior and exterior of the building. Google also recommends sharing photos of key staff members, customer areas, and shots of individual products or services.

For example, a hotel may want to upload images of the rooms, while a bar may wish to share pictures of cocktails and other popular drinks.

Grow Your Review Profile 

Many sites where you’ll optimize your business information will allow consumer reviews. Where this is the case (and it isn’t against the review platform’s policy to solicit consumer reviews), you should have an ongoing review generation strategy in place. 

Specifically for GBP, review signals — such as the recency of reviews and percentage of positive reviews — are known to be local search ranking factors. 

So far in 2021, we’ve seen big changes to Google Posts, updates to review summaries in Google My Business (GMB), high scores from Local RankFlux, and 2-Packs showing on Google mobile results.

But, in the past couple of months alone even more tests and updates have been impacting GMB.

In this GMB news roundup, we take a look at the biggest headlines affecting local SEOs recently.

Think we’ve left something out? Put it in the comments section down below!

Competitor quotes in GMB Messaging

It’s often recommended that businesses make use of GMB’s Messaging feature to better communicate with customers. But you might want to hold your horses.

LocalU shared that when searchers reached out via GMB Messaging, quotes from competitors were being shared.

So, if you’ve got messaging switched on in your profile, you could be unwittingly sharing competitor information with your potential customers…

Source: LocalU

As you can see from the screenshot above, Google now offers searchers the chance to send their same quote request to a business’s competitors directly after messaging. This could definitely deter merchants from turning the messaging feature on, as it could drive potential customers to look elsewhere.

New review removal management tool from Google

Fake reviews have long been plaguing Google My Business listings, and at last, it seems Google is doing something to help local businesses proactively tackle the issue.

Mid-March, Google released its review takedown request tool to help merchants handle the removal of wrong or fake reviews.

With this tool, businesses can flag reviews for removal and, importantly, track the progress of their reported reviews.

New AI-powered features come to Google Maps

This year we’ve seen lots of improvements made to Google Maps, as Google and Apple continue to vie for the top navigational app.

At the end of March, more AI-powered features were introduced, including indoor live view and an updated directions interface.

Source: Google

Plus, new Google My Business attributes like curbside pickup and delivery were introduced to help restaurants and food stores meet the demands of consumers in a Covid-19 world.

2-Packs appeared in Google mobile SERPs

Arguably, this was the biggest Google local news of the year: who would have thought the iconic 3-Pack would change?

Well, in March, it did.

LocalU spotted mobile SERPs with no 3-Packs. We then did our own tests and lo and behold, 2-Packs were being found for multiple local searches performed on mobile.

Since the initial news broke, there’s been little buzz, but we have noticed that 2-Packs are still present for some queries.

GMB gets a new ‘new’ label for recent reviews

At the beginning of April, Google put even more importance on GMB reviews and their recency by introducing a ‘new’ label. This update means that searchers are alerted to new reviews, which are given more prominence.

Source: Search Engine Roundtable

Google says phone numbers aren’t allowed in Google Posts

One to pay attention to for Google Posts fans; back in April, Google clarified that businesses should not include phone numbers in Post updates.

LocalU reported on this at the time, after noticing that GMB had clarified its Posts guidelines to account for “phone stuffing”. 

Google states that it’s put this rule in place to avoid “risk of abuse”. 

Google reviews went missing

In April we saw many Google reviews go missing. This isn’t the first time something like this has happened, but there didn’t seem to be a clear reason or resolution to the issue.

Just this week, however, LocalU faculty member Jason Brown shared a workaround he’d found to make seemingly “missing” reviews reappear. 

According to Google My Business, the review filter is working as intended.

Are you seeing an uptick in reviews not being published?

LocalU faculty member, @keyserholiday figured out a way to work around this filtering issue, which @GoogleMyBiz describes as “working as intended”

?https://t.co/Mq3JCScfI9

— Local University (@localuniv) May 11, 2021

If you’ve experienced this issue, you can join in the conversation at Local Search Forum.

Businesses that have used Posts recently get rewarded

Always keeping her eye on the ball, Joy Hawkins spotted a Google Maps test whereby businesses that had recently shared a Google Post were being highlighted.

Source: LocalU

Bookings data available in GMB Insights

A recent update to GMB Insights sees data about bookings become available. Colan Nielsen first spotted this and shared his findings on Twitter:

Look like the “Bookings” tab is starting to show up in the new GMB Insights section. pic.twitter.com/wEbj4rDIvS

— Colan Nielsen (@ColanNielsen) May 7, 2021

According to another user, the bookings info is showing up for hotels as well (an industry that often goes at a very different pace to others).

Interestingly, in the BrightLocal Google My Business Insights dashboard, it’s also showing the option to see ‘bookings’, even though we don’t have the option to ‘Book an Appointment‘ enabled right now.

This is a relatively new development so we’ll keep tabs on this story and update you as needed.

Wix integrates with GMB

In an effort to become even more of a one-stop-shop for SMBs, Wix announced its latest integration with Google. The new GMB/Wix partnership means website managers can handle their GMB tasks directly from their Wix account. 

Tasks such as updating hours, uploading photos, and responding to reviews can now be done directly from the Wix dashboard.

For agencies, this new update is definitely something to be aware of, but it looks unlikely that the integration will pose any threat to experienced local SEOs.

GMB Call History feature showing live data

Most recently, Google’s long-awaited Call History feature (that was in Beta until just this week) has begun showing live data. 

You’ll now be able to see a history of who called your business and when. Plus, you’ll have the option to view the individual caller’s history and call them back directly.

We’re not yet seeing this option in our own Google My Business profile, but it looks like this update is gradually rolling out, so keep an eye out for it in your GMB dashboard.

What Google My Business news has captured your attention? Will you be taking action based on any of these news stories? Share your thoughts in the comments section to let us know! 

UPDATE AUGUST 2021: The update has now fully rolled out in the USA.

UPDATE APRIL 2021: The Apple Maps Ratings update was launched in the USA as part of iOS 14.5 on April 26th, 2021 (some territories had access to it earlier). The update functions exactly as described below, back in October 2020. Sometimes it’s nice when there are no surprises, huh?

Originally Published October, 2020

At the end of August 2020, Apple revealed it would be launching its very own ratings solutions within Apple Maps. Talk of “Apple reviews” flew around the Twitterverse and, as usual, there was a lot of conjecture about what this new feature might mean.

Apple Maps ratings (yep, that’s right—ratings not reviews, though they may be on the way) has been in beta testing in iOS 14 and will soon roll out globally. The update was first spotted by Twitter user, Beau Giles.

Source: 9to5mac

Currently, Apple Maps relies on review data from third-party solutions such as Yelp, Foursquare, and Tripadvisor. 

The news of Apple ratings comes after Apple Maps introduced a host of new features back in February, including favorite locations and indoor maps.

With so much noise surrounding the announcement, we wanted to clear up what’s new, pose some potential questions and outcomes, and explore what this new feature might mean for local SEOs.

What’s New?

Instead of relying on the likes of third-party review sites, Apple Maps will soon house its own native ratings. 

Removing the use of third-party review sites should give both Apple and searchers more control. As it stands, if users want to explore more business reviews through Apple Maps, they’ll be directed to download the Yelp, Foursquare, or Tripadvisor app, which doesn’t make for the best user experience.

From what we can see, Apple Maps’ new ratings system will operate much like Facebook recommendations, with users being allowed to leave a thumbs up or a thumbs down for the business. This differs from Google Maps, where users are able, and encouraged, to leave detailed reviews.

So, although both Apple and its users will benefit from more autonomy, it could be argued that searchers will be left with less data to make an informed decision—they’ll be missing out on all the great content reviews provide, such as “huge beer garden!” or “make sure to order the vegetable dumplings”.

That said, Apple Maps will be making use of different ratings categories. So instead of giving a business one thumbs up or thumbs down for all its offerings, users can rate products and services separately.

In addition to the introduction of Apple Maps ratings, Apple will also be giving users the opportunity to upload their own photos. Similarly to with reviews, photos on the app are currently pulled from Yelp and other third-party review sites. According to Apple, all photos uploaded will be checked manually by a team (more on this later).

Question Time!

The news of Apple ratings has definitely left me with some questions, such as “What could Apple ratings mean for the future of the review economy?” and “Could this help tackle map spam?” 

Read on to indulge in a little self-Q&A and get our thoughts on what Apple Maps ratings could mean for the future of local SEO!

What do Apple Maps ratings mean for Yelp and other review sites?

Previously, Yelp held relevance in the local SEO sphere in no small part thanks to its relationship with Apple Maps. After all, without Yelp reviews, you’d be limiting how much information potential customers could get from you through Apple Maps. 

In fact, local SEO experts such as Cori Graft would remind people of the relevance of Yelp because of its integration with Apple Maps. (And yes, although Apple Maps may still be less popular than Google Maps, it’s worth remembering that Apple has made countless improvements to the software over the years, and that many iPhone users will never switch from their default phone app, which, naturally, is Apple).

Don’t ignore Yelp!! Yelp reviews power the star ratings on Apple Maps. #MozCon

— Cori Graft ?? (@corigraft) February 28, 2017

Plus, according to Statista, Apple Maps receives 23.3 million unique users per month. So, if Yelp were to disappear from the app, that’s a huge amount of reach it’s missing out on.

So does this mean we will see fewer local SEOs focusing on Yelp when it becomes irrelevant to Apple Maps users?

Certainly, some people were pleased to see the back of it…

Great. Yelp is terrible

— Genaro Garcia (@GGarcia411) August 26, 2020

When will Apple Maps say goodbye to Yelp for good?

Although it’s likely that Apple Maps ratings system will replace Yelp’s position in the app, we don’t yet know when the transition will occur.

It’s unlikely that Yelp reviews will disappear from the app overnight, given that Apple Maps currently relies on the review site to provide content to its users. So, Apple Maps ratings will need time to populate before it says goodbye to Yelp for good.

Here’s what a local business search currently looks like on Apple Maps. You can see that there’s plenty of data being pulled from Yelp, including photos:

To avoid sacrificing the amount of data that Maps currently relies on, I’d expect to see the gradual fade-out of Yelp from Apple Maps over the coming year, but your guess may be as good as mine. (And if you have got a guess, feel free to share it with us in the comments of this blog!) 

How will Apple Maps encourage ratings?

The topic of when we’ll see the back of Yelp for good in Apple Maps also begs the question, will Apple incentivize its Maps users to leave ratings? If Apple needs to populate its ratings content before saying “see ya later” to Yelp, then they may well need to encourage users to leave ratings of their own accord.

Although we wouldn’t expect any form of monetary or prize-like incentive, it could be the case that Apple Maps launches something akin to Google’s Local Guides program, which sees loyal users rewarded with badges and native perks.

Will Apple ratings become Apple reviews?

It’s still early doors, but this announcement got me wondering, is Apple ratings just the beginning? Will Apple Maps venture into fully-fledged reviews like Google Maps? 

In this iteration of Apple ratings, it seems that users will be able to leave a thumbs up or thumbs down across multiple categories, such as product and customer service. 

But surely searchers want to see more detail than a mere thumbs up or thumbs down reaction—especially in light of recent Covid-19 restrictions. Searchers want to know how well restaurants, bars, and shops, etc., are adhering to guidelines, and reviews provide a great platform to discuss those more nuanced topics.

Again, we’re still pre-launch right now, but it may be the case that Apple Maps launches its ratings system with just a handful of select categories, with plans to expand on them to provide searchers with more detailed answers in the future.

Is a picture really worth a thousand words?

Although users won’t be able to leave written feedback along with their ratings, Apple Maps has introduced the option to upload photos. So, this begs the question, is a picture really worth a thousand words?

It could be argued that written reviews aren’t actually necessary if you can share a photo of the location, products, and safety measures being taken.

Really, only time will tell if users find the combo of thumbs up/thumbs down and photos to be sufficient to make purchasing decisions. 

It’s also worth noting that Apple has said it will be checking any photo uploads manually. This differs greatly from Google Maps, which auto-approves all photos (photos can then be flagged for removal, but if left alone they’ll stay put as intended, much to the chagrin of many business owners). Although this approach may help to reduce map spam and irrelevant images, it’s hard to see how scaleable it may be.

Could Apple ratings reduce fake reviews?

One thing that has stood out as a key differentiator between Apple Maps’ and Google Maps’ approach to reviews is who is eligible to leave a review or rating.

While Google Maps allows anyone to leave a review, Apple Maps will only allow ratings to be left by users that Apple can verify have visited the establishment in question.

In the next version of iOS, Apple Maps is introducing its own rating system while dropping TripAdvisor/Yelp. Ratings are linked to your individual device so it will be very difficult to game unlike Google Maps reviews. pic.twitter.com/Z214H9zPP3

— A n d r e w (@andrewwhiteau) September 6, 2020

This could certainly go some way to reduce map spam in Apple Maps, specifically fake reviews, as users wouldn’t be able to recommend businesses they hadn’t actually visited.

As of yet, however, it’s not clear what “checks” Apple will perform to ensure the ratings left are authentic.

Hot Takes?

As always, when something like this hits the local SEO community, we take to Twitter to explore how local search marketers have responded. 

Some seemed to think the change came late in the game…

Seems like Apple is slowly discovering that you can actually leverage 1 billion iPhone users to improve your services. Better late than never, but boy is it late.

— Daan Odinot (@daanodinot) August 26, 2020

…while others were simply grateful for the improved user experienced provided by this solution:

Finally no need to Download yelp to look at photos or reviews

— Andrew Manh Nguyen (@memeroll2005) August 26, 2020

And although Apple Maps has generally been considered to be trailing behind Google, the introduction of ratings has some people considering trading allegiances:

Ooh. I like the sound of that. Might be enough to get me to use Apple Maps as default again.

— Jason – BLM – acab (@tassiedad) August 26, 2020

Next Steps

Until Apple Maps ratings officially launch, there isn’t a huge amount to do. That said, you’ll need to be prepared for when they do arrive.

It goes without saying, but when Apple Maps ratings do launch, you’re going to want to make sure you use them. That means getting access to an iPhone, updating to the latest iOS, and simply having a play around with the new Maps features. Ask yourself: How quick is the process? How easy is it? What kinds of questions are being asked of users? 

As ever with reviews, it’s vital to ensure you understand what the searcher will be going through. That way, when the time comes to ask your customers to leave a rating on Maps, you’ll know exactly what you’re asking of them.

With that in mind, you’ll also want to prepare any signage (online or offline) to also encourage customers to leave a rating on Apple Maps. Simply adding a line like “Leave us a thumbs up on Apple Maps!” should do the trick. 

We’ve obviously discussed that Apple Maps ratings won’t allow for written feedback at this time, so make sure any signage or copy you do adapt doesn’t ask customers to mention specific services or products, as you would with Google reviews.

What do Apple Maps ratings mean for BrightLocal customers?

Currently, we’re looking into if and how we can incorporate Apple Maps ratings into our existing Reputation Manager offering. As of yet, there’s no information as to whether this feature will be accessible to non-Apple users or via API.

With Google Reviews, business owners can share a Google My Business review link with customers to direct them to leave feedback. However, no such thing has been announced for Apple Maps yet. 

As always, we’ll be keeping a keen eye on the situation and will update our customers when we can.

Final Thoughts

Though this change to Apple Maps is largely unlikely to threaten Google, which boasts the most users in the navigation apps space, it is certainly worthwhile for businesses to consider how this change may affect them, and to prepare to adapt accordingly.

Shifting focus from the likes of Yelp to Apple Maps, at least while we see how ratings play out, would be the sensible course of action here.

What do you think of the introduction of photos and ratings to Apple Maps? Will it change how you approach online reviews? Share your thoughts in the comments below!