Best Local Listing Management Software
Featured Local Listing Management Software At A Glance
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Learn More About Local Listing Management Software
What is Local Listing Management Software?
Businesses with brick-and-mortar locations use local listing management software to update and maintain store information online. Consumers can find information about a store, such as addresses, store hours, and phone numbers, across a wide variety of websites, mobile apps, social networks, and GPS systems. Local listing management tools help businesses get their information listed on as many directories as possible and ensure that the information consumers find online is always accurate and up to date.
While some local listing management solutions primarily focus on listings management, other products provide additional features that support businesses with hyperlocal marketing strategies or online reputation management. Additional tools that are often bundled with local listing management software include local SEO, online review management, store locators, and social media management. When evaluating local listing management software, buyers should consider what features will be most valuable to their business.
Key Benefits of Local Listing Management Software
- Control business information such as name, address, phone number, and store hours from one central hub
- Ensure business information is accurate and consistent across digital listings
- Improve website rankings in local search results
- Optimize online business listings with photos, menus, and other rich media
Why Use Local Listing Management Software?
Modern technology has revolutionized the way consumers find and connect with local businesses. Consumers have seemingly endless options when it comes to searching for brick-and-mortar businesses in their geographic area, from navigation systems to customer review sites to voice assistants. Maintaining consistent and accurate information across digital listings is key to creating positive customer experiences and driving sales. As a result, businesses implement local listing management solutions to more efficiently control their local business listings on customer-facing platforms.
Brand visibility — By providing a central source of truth for businesses, local listing management software empowers brick-and-mortar businesses to control the information customers can find about their brand across dozens or even hundreds of online directories, social networks, and mobile apps. Businesses list their information in a variety of sources to boost brand awareness and increase the likelihood of customers finding them in local search results.
Save time — Keeping track of a business’ information across a plethora of digital listings, social networks, and apps can be a difficult and tedious task. If information needs to be updated or corrected, a business would typically need to submit changes through each directory individually. Local listing management solutions help businesses get listed in the directories that are most relevant to their market and then oversee those listings from one central hub. If any information needs to be updated or corrected, businesses can do so through the local listing management platform rather than updating each individual listing. This can help businesses save a considerable amount of time and effort.
Drive traffic — Without local listing management, a business may not know that a listing has inaccurate information until it’s too late. If a customer finds a local business listing with the wrong hours or address, for example, they may arrive when the store is closed or be unable to find the location at all, leading to a negative experience—and the loss of a customer. Maintaining accurate brand data helps ensure customers can find the information they need wherever they look, driving more foot traffic to brick-and-mortar locations.
Local listing management is also a useful tool for local search engine optimization (SEO). By making sure that their information is listed accurately in online directories, businesses can improve their search rankings and ensure they’re reaching potential customers through the right search results.
Analytics — Local listing management software often provides analytics and insight into location and listing performance. Businesses can find out how consumers are engaging with their listing by tracking metrics such as search frequency and clicks. Reporting tools can also help businesses make connections between online searches and sales conversions, enabling them to develop new marketing strategies based on their most successful methods.
Who Uses Local Listing Management Software?
Brick-and-mortar businesses — Any business with a physical location where they interact with customers face to face can use local listing management tools. Retail shops, restaurants, grocery stores, and banks are all examples of brick-and-mortar businesses that list their information online to reach new customers and drive revenue.
Multilocation businesses — Larger companies with multiple locations, like retail chains, franchises, and medical clinics, use local listing management software to correct and maintain online listings for their businesses. Some enterprises can have hundreds or even thousands of locations listed online. Local listing management tools help these businesses streamline their listing management process.
Local Listing Management Software Features
While there are many products available that offer local listing management, no two solutions are exactly alike. All local listing management tools enable businesses to control their information across multiple listing sites and apps, but each product also includes additional features that may be suitable for some businesses and impractical for others. Before purchasing a local listing management solution, businesses should consider which product will provide the most value for them based on a few factors, such as the number of locations a business has and the level of support they need to manage their listings.
Listings management — Listings management features within a local listing management product enable businesses to find, claim, and update their online listings across multiple customer-facing platforms. Updates are often made in real time, but some products offer capabilities for scheduling updates to deploy at a later time.
Network directory — There are hundreds of online directories, review sites, mobile apps, voice assistants, and navigation systems that consumers can use to find local businesses. Local listing management solutions offer varying levels of integration with these platforms based on the size of their network.
Reporting — Reporting and analytics features provide businesses with insights into the performance of their listings. These tools can track and report on data such as how often a business’ listing appears in search results, how many clicks the listing receives, and the search terms for which the business appears to consumers.
Duplicate removal — Some local listing management solutions provide a duplicate removal service, which involves monitoring a business’ online listings and removing any duplicates. Duplicate listings cause confusion and distrust among consumers and has a negative impact on SEO.
Listing enhancements — Listing enhancements, sometimes referred to as listing optimization, allows businesses to add rich media content to their businesses listings. This is an important feature for restaurants or service providers that may wish to upload menus to certain listing sites.
Other Features of Local Listing Management Software: Analytics Capabilities, Duplicate Monitoring Capabilities, Optimization Capabilities
Potential Issues with Local Listing Management Software
Setting and forgetting — After a business claims their listings and ensures the information is correct, they may decide to stop monitoring their listings. However, some search engines and directories allow users to upload photos or suggest changes to business listings. Most local listing management products will monitor a business’ listings for duplicates, errors, and missing information, but users should remain attentive to their listings to ensure their information and content is both accurate and high quality.
Bad SEO practices — When providing a business title for their online listings, a business owner might feel compelled to use an invalid name in an attempt to improve their search rankings. For example, a cafe in Chicago may call itself “Best Chicago Coffee Shop" in its listings. This practice, known as keyword stuffing, is actually bad for SEO and violates Google’s business listing guidelines.
