these 7 listing management tools to get found & get leads //

In the past, you would have to sift through a large phone book in order to locate a roofer, a dentist, or a pet groomer.

Internet took business listings from the Yellow Pages and made them digital. They were then put on hyper mode. You may find the same roofer in dozens of directories and search engine results.

These listings bring ready-to-buy clients to your door.

What happens when the information in a map or directory search is incorrect? What if the information is incorrect or missing? These people will go straight to the listing of your competitor.

Local listings management tools can help. Listing management tools are equipped with many features that help you update and monitor your company details in the places where people search. These tools give you information about how users find your listings and interact with them. Some even allow you to track reviews and respond so that your rating goes through the roof.

Try these 7 tools for listing management

All listing management tools differ. Some tools are part of ‘s business listings site, such as Google’s tools to manage how people find your company on search engines. Some tools allow you to manage dozens of listings at the same time.

1. Google Business Profile

Google Business Profile is Google’s native application for managing listings in both Google Search as well as Google Maps. GBP features allow you to improve your search engine results and communicate with those interested in your business.

Google Listing Optimization

GBP helps you optimize your profile to make it more search engine friendly. GBP can help you optimise your profile so that it is more search engine-friendly.

You can, for example, add a description of your business as well as a category to give customers and search engine more information about your business. GBP allows you to add photos in order to enhance text-only profiles.

It’s great that GBP only requires you to update your profile one time. These changes will appear on Google Maps and search results as well as the local 3-pack.

Management of Messages

Google Business Profiles offer a few ways to interact with customers one-on-one.

You can first read and reply to reviews by using GBP. You’ll need to keep track of reviews and ratings since they are prominently displayed in the results.

You can also add direct messages to your GBP profile. This allows you to respond more specifically to follow-up inquiries (and hopefully, gain more customers!) ).

Source

You can also add a FAQ section to your profile.

Answering frequently-asked questions is not only helpful to the person who asks, but also useful for anyone looking at your profile.

2. LocaliQ Listings

LocaliQ’s business listing management allows you to control how your business appears on over 50 directories and websites.

Three ways are offered by the platform to increase sales through local business listings.

Local Listing Management

LocaliQ’s listing management solution has a listings tool that is one of its most useful features. You can update the details of your business in dozens directories with just one click.

How it works. Imagine you want to extend your Saturday hours and add a new product or service. Normaly, you would have to manually edit the citation in Google, Yelp and Bing.

LocaliQ’s listing management tool allows you to make changes directly in your dashboard and then automatically syndicate those updates across all of the websites.

LocaliQ allows you to manage multiple locations listings and search for duplicate listings, which can harm SEO.

Review management

It is important to read and respond to negative reviews. It is important to read the reviews and respond. You’ll waste a lot of time trying to find them in every directory.

LocaliQ allows you to read and respond directly in your dashboard to recent reviews.

You can also view important customer feedback aggregated data like your average rating. You can find out why there was a significant change and take action.

Listings analytics

How do your customers find you? LocaliQ reports will tell you whether they found your listing through search engines, map searches, or any other source.

These easy-to read reports provide data on the actions that people take when they see your ads. Do they call you? Do they call?

3. Yelp

Yelp reports that 80 millions people visit its directory each month to search for a local business. Four out of five Yelp users make a purchase after viewing a company’s profile. Yelp offers some unique tools to help you attract more customers.

Review management

Yelp, yes, is a listing. It’s a review site first and foremost. Users can review reviews, and become elite reviewers. They can also review reviews. It’s not surprising that Yelp offers review management tools.

After you claim the Yelp listing you receive, you can directly respond to any Yelp review that your business receives via your Yelp dashboard.

Source

Customers can send you direct messages, including requests for quotes, calls or consultations.

Business Updates

Listings can get stale over time. Yelp’s listing management tool allows you to add new information to your profile. This will help you get more people interested in what you have to offer.

It is officially called Yelp Connect. You can use it to add images that look similar to Instagram Story highlights. They can hover over the icons to see what you have shared.

4. Bing Places

Bing places is Microsoft’s answer to Google Business Profile. Bing Places may not have the same functionality as GBP but it has a few tools that can help you be found by a lot more people than you think.

List information management

You’ll have to check Bing periodically to ensure that your listings are correct if you don’t use a listing management tool such as LocaliQ.

You must claim the listing you want on Bing before anything else. Bing allows you to fill in the details, such as hours of operation. You can import this data directly from your Google Business Profile to save you time.

You’ll then be able to place your business on Bing Maps and Search.

Bonus: you may be the first result of a voice search in the future, since Bing powers Microsoft’s Cortana as well as Amazon’s Alexa.

5. Facebook Business Page

This social media site functions as a local directory, because Business Pages are often found in search engine results. Facebook has some tools to help you manage your Facebook page like a local listing.

Location Management

Local search results are all about location. Your Facebook page must be linked to a geographical location in order to appear in “… near me searches.

Facebook’s Business Page Tools let you do this in several ways. You can first and foremost add your address to the Page.

Facebook allows you to tag images and posts with a location, on both desktop and mobile. You can then change your category to something local, such as a hairdresser or plumber, to make your business appear when people search for places instead of people or posts.

6. Yellow Pages The Real Deal

They’re still here. The YP site reports that 4 billion local business searches are conducted on its website and mobile app every year. There are also some tools that help businesses manage their listings in the OG Directory.

Listing in multiple directories

YellowPages is actually a network of three directories, including The Yellow pages, superpages and dexknows.

This means that any work you do to create your business listing will automatically be applied to all three locations, giving it a much wider reach.

You can customize citations in the listings themselves.

Along with the usual business information, you can also add images, branding, action links and special offers. You can also include a complete business description as well as customer reviews.

7. Foursquare

Foursquare may not be what you thought it was. Foursquare, which was once used to tell your friends where you were located in a boba-tea joint, is now the source of location data for some of the most popular geo-dependent apps (think Uber and Nextdoor). When you claim your Foursquare business listing, you give your business more chances to appear in the apps you care about.

Listings that are socially networked

Foursquare still has a network-effect, even though it’s not a social platform. This is largely due to the “tips’ feature of the app.

Customers can share their insider tips to help new tourists make the most of their vacation.

It is possible that your local business already has a mention on Foursquare. You only need to claim the listing, and then fill in all of the details. Foursquare’s listing management tool makes this task easy.

Individualized Analytics

Foursquare, like some of the tools in this list also allows you to track the analytics gathered through each citation. Foursquare has many data points about users, since they still leave reviews and tips when checking in. You can see how many people have viewed and clicked your Foursquare listing. But you can also tell how frequently or recently they walked into your home.

Why Local Listing Management Tools are Important

Listing management tools are a great way to see, manage and track your presence in directories. Listing management tools are important for a number of reasons.

Online presence

You can gain more customers by being listed in online directories. It also boosts your SEO and allows you to collect more reviews. This is important because 72% consumers believe that positive reviews increase their trust in a company.

Online directories are used by millions of people to locate local businesses. Your business will be found more easily by customers if you have your listing in as many directories as possible.

Search engines reward businesses with more, fully optimised citations and review on trusted directories.

Local listing management software helps you to get listed on more map apps and directory websites.

Keep correct listing information

You may not even know that your business is listed in many directories. This means that the information displayed could be inaccurate, outdated, or even unflattering.

This bad information will only frustrate your customers and tell search engines your business is not as trustworthy as your competitors. (Which we know to be false!). 63% consumers said that incorrect information would prevent them from using a business.

You can use listing management software to ensure that your details are correct, and you can even add some spice to your listings in order for them attract more customers.

Understanding the trends

Most of the listing tools that we have reviewed offer analytics. This peek behind the directory’s curtain will give you a better idea of who is visiting your site and from where.

These insights will help you decide which directories are worth your time and which ones need updating and optimizing. If you see that one directory generates a lot of reviews, this may encourage you to invest in paid advertisements.

Listing management tools help you to be cited, reviewed, and found.

Millions of people have been able to connect with local businesses such as yours through online directories. You have to figure out how you can keep up with the many places where your business is listed.

Consider using these tools to manage local listings:

• LocaliQ
• Google Business Profile
• Yelp
• Bing Places
• Facebook Business
• Yellow Pages The Real Deal
• Foursquare

The post Use these 7 listing management tools to get found & get leads first appeared on WordStream.