Soon, your news feed is going to be flooded with thousands of blog posts about businesses bouncing back after Lockdown 3.0, with the emphasis that the product they sell is the key to your business bouncing back.
Well, guess what? That is exactly what this blog is. But, at least we’re honest about it and hopeful that this blog will make you trust the following information more than ever. Allow me to give you three reasons why Web Listings is the service that you should be utilising to bounce back in 2021:
Reason 1:
We know in the last year, businesses have adapted in the ways they work. But do all companies know the way that consumers buy have changed?
We’re no longer likely to drive past a local business, and we’re no longer likely to be having a conversation with our friends to recommend a local service.
The internet is a massive online directory where we can use many platforms to find your business and research new services – and is the central tool to find local businesses. Among the internet are leading sites to utilise a search: the most popular, of course, is Google with over a billion users, but Apple Maps has over 55M users, Facebook has 2.2B users, and Bing has over 150m users. The list goes on, but now more than ever, it is key that your business information is up to date with the latest contact information, opening hours and location on a map.
Using our Web Listings service, you can ensure all your business information is up to date on the following 50+ platforms.
Reason 2: ‘Well, I only care about Google’
That is the most common response I get when talking about Web Listings. If that is true and you do only care about Google, that’s even more of a reason to use Web Listings.
Let me tell you this true story:
Before Christmas, I moved into a new house in a completely new town with my girlfriend. Two months later, my car starts marking a weird knocking noise. The local garage that I have always taken my car to since passing my driving test (not the same car, may I add!), is no longer my local garage, now located over an hour away. So, what do I do? I turn to my life’s most trusted advisor – Google! I don’t even ask the search a question. I simply type in one word, ‘mechanic’, and Google finds all the local mechanics for me in this big, scary, new town. I don’t need to browse the mechanic’s website to see what previous work they have carried out because all the information I need is presented to me by Google. Fast forward a few days and a few hundred pounds later, my car is fixed, and the mechanic is extremely happy. Plus, since they have done a fantastic job, I’ll continue to use that garage for as long as I live in the local area!
Now, what is the most important part of this story? Not that the phone number was correct, not that the location on the map was in the right place and not that the opening hours were accurate, but the fact that this mechanic was that the TOP of Google.
How was he at the top of my Google search even though he probably hadn’t spent thousands on SEO optimisation or PPC or Adwords?
It was because the data was the most recent and complete, which is exactly how Google’s algorithms work! It searches for the most recent and complete data to my search because it deems that to be the ‘most’ correct.
How does Web Listings help in this situation? The data you have uploaded to the dashboard is refreshed every day, so it’s always the most recent and populated across 50 other platforms – as well as making it the most trusted data. It means that your data will always be the most recent and completed. Simple, right?
Reason 3:
And the final reason! Surely this to be the best, right? That is a matter of opinion, but it surely is the most obvious. Within the last 12 months, businesses have changed, and before we do anything with a local business, we face the following questions:
· When I get there, will they accept cash?
· Are they still open at 5pm?
· Maybe they no longer do that anymore, so I’ll just search for that service and see who offers it near me
All these what-ifs and maybes can be solved by using Web Listings.
Simply log in to the dashboard and update your opening hours and payment types. If you’re offering a new service since you’ve been closed, make sure it is in your service or brand section so that you become the local choice if a potential customer searches for similar services.
Bonus Reason:
Still looking for another reason to use Web Listings? Then do this exercise:
Search ‘Your Business Name’ on Google search and maps
Search ‘Your Business Name’ on Apple Maps
Search ‘Your Business Name’ Bing
Search ‘The Service You Offer and the Town/City/County you are located in’
Is all the information the same? Are you happy with what you have found? Did your business even appear?
Marketing automation giant Hubspot, recently published a statistic that zero-click searches were in a 65% rise in 2020. But what does that mean?
Well, it means people got what they needed from the search results alone and didn’t click into any site.
Still unsure?
Let us explain a little further.
The buying experience has changed! For once, it’s not due to the pandemic. When we’re searching for a business or a service on Google, the result that we would click is the one with the correct contact number, a professional-looking cover photo and a good review, right?
From user experience, we no longer go crawling through a company’s website to find out further information. Why would you? All the information you need is there right in front of you. Why waste your time?
So, let’s dig a little deeper. We automatically trust Google that we are happy that after providing a phrase into their search engine, we’ll trust them to be our advisor and tell us the business we should choose.
How does Google decide on who they trust?
First are ads – those companies that pay money to appear on top of the list for the searched keywords. However, small/medium businesses may not have the money to throw at advertising like some of their bigger competitors.
What can you do as a small/medium business to get to the top?
You need to ensure your information is consistent, complete, recent and verified – and that’s precisely what our Web Listings tool will do for you! For the price of £8.99 per month, Web Listings will do the following for you:
Make your data recent: Web Listings continuously loads the same data so that platforms see your data as most recent, therefore ranking you higher.
Verify: Web Listings has direct access to all platforms. The data is seen as verified, and suggestions from users are not considered.
Consistent: The dashboard will highlight where the data is not the same and encourage you to update it.
Complete: Every search engine has different fields; ensure that all the photos, products you sell and opening hours are populated.
Take the SEO test: Open Google, Bing or Apple Maps and do the following:
· Search your business name
· Search for the top product your offer
· Search for the services that you offer
· Do the same again but do it in the town/area you serve
Is all the information listed correctly? Is the information consistent? Do you even appear?
Get in touch today if you would like to find out more about our product Web Listings and how it can benefit your business.
Book a meeting here with our BDM Tom Chedham, to find out how you can partner with Candio and offer all of your customers a 60-day free trial of Web Listings.
Follow us on social media: LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube